From my reading . . .
A lot of our art making is instinctive. What compels us to create is something inside that needs to get out. That is why the quality of our interior life is so important. If we are living righteously and God’s laws are constantly before us, then the imaginations of our heart will reflect that. If we are constantly learning from Scripture, even our unconscious will is being purified, and our dreams will be different from the dreams of the unregenerate person.
From Imagine: A Vision for Christians in the Arts
Peter Paul Rubens’ Birthday
Self Portrait
Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640)
Learn more about Rubens:
Art Renewal Center
Wikipedia
The word Rubenesque came from Peter Paul Rubens.
Rubenesque
of a woman’s body, “rounded and plump,” 1913, of the type characteristic of the paintings of Flem. painter Sir Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640).(Online Etymology Dictionary. Retrieved June 22, 2007, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/rubenesque)
From my reading . . .
Artists have no special protection [from evil]. In fact, because of their tendency to be curious about all forms of experience and their need to avoid rigid forms of thinking, they are probably more vulnerable to temptation. The standard protection kit offered to all Christians is the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shoes of readiness, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, the sword of the Spirit and prayer (Ephesians 6). We can’t survive with the T-shirt of Sunday school memories and the baseball cap of personal vision.
(Italics mine)
From Imagine: A Vision for Christians in the Arts
George Orwell’s Birthday
“Men can only be happy when they do not assume that the object of life is happiness.”
George Orwell was the pseudonym of Eric Arthur Blair (1903-1950). His books include Animal Farm and 1984.
Related products:
Books by and about George Orwell
Put Down the Duckie
Related product(s):
Put Down the Duckie
Henry Ossawa Tanner’s Birthday
The Annunciation, one of my favorite “annunciations” and one of my favorite paintings by this artist.
From my reading . . .
Artists, even those who are Christian, are fallen people observing a fallen world. Because the world is fallen we have to take notice of its brokenness and acknowledge it in our work. Because we ourselves are fallen we have to monitor our perceptions, because we know that they can be distorted by sin. We should hesitate before calling anything we do Christian art because we don’t know how much of our own pride, selfishness or ignorance has polluted our vision.
From Imagine: A Vision for Christians in the Arts
Sonnet Central
Sonnet Central has a large collection of sonnets which can be browed by author or nationality and date. The site is hard to navigate, so here are some more specific links:
Alphabetical listing of poets.
The Listening Room.
A search page that works better than the search box on the home page.
Here’s an old favorite of mine that I found there:
Ozymandias
I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert . . . Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed:
And on the pedestal these words appear:
“My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!”
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
— Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822)
A “field trip” with my father and grandfather.
Since I didn’t write about it when it happened, this seems appropriate to write about on Father’s Day. About a month ago, I was in California to celebrate Dad’s 70th birthday with him.
While I was there, I had the opportunity to go with my father, grandfather, and step grandmother (Ed, Angelo “Kelly”, and Inez Micheli) to visit the spot where my father was born. I had been there before, but I don’t know the site well, and, possibly because all of my recent visits were on wine-tasting trips (not a good time for family stories, or at least not a good time to retain them), I really didn’t know much about the place.
However, on this occasion, we were there because the vineyard manager for Bella Vineyards and Wine Caves, John Clendenen of Clendenen Vineyard Management, had some questions about a vineyard, and Gramps, together with his father (Adamo Micheli), had cleared that land and planted those 85-year-old vines! (Gramps is 95; here’s a video.) I had no idea! I didn’t know grape vines lived that long!
Adamo and Angelo Micheli cleared and planted the lower vineyard on this hill. The grapes are zinfandel. The caves are a recent addition.
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From my reading . . .
Yet it’s not because we can prove that art has benefits that we feel able to incorporate it into our lives. It should be part of the warp and woof of our existence, a part of our enjoyment of God. It is not something separate from life, but something at the heart of life which celebrates the fact that we are creator children of a creator Father.
From Imagine: A Vision for Christians in the Arts
