Wow... it's been a lonnngg time. Too much of nothing going on.

Been getting into discussions about "Christian" art and movies. So much is formulaic... and preachy. Lisa Sampson is one of the few who writes so well and and so realistically that you don't mind some prayers and Bible verses, 'cause she also shows the "clay feet" of her characters. They aren't one dimensional!

One friend says there seems to be a "cheese factor" in a lot of Christian arts. A place in the movie where you just cringe and say "Why did they put THAT in?" Or "Why is the dialogue so fake and stilted?" Or in a book, "Does that author even know the meaning of that word?" Where are the editors?

I think it occurs mostly when you can sense a deliberate manipulation... an all out play on your sense of outrage or nostalgia. Thomas Kincade comes to mind. The guy is probably not a bad painter (perspective, brush control, technique) but talk about showing the world thru rose colored glassses! Talk about formulas!!! Talk about walking the safe line!!! Talk about pulling your last nerve yearning for "ye good olde days"!

Maxfield Parrish was close to being the Thomas Kincade of his day, in terms of popularity and sales (commercial and fine), but compare the art! Parrish painted many "pretty" scenes, but there is strength, there is reality, there is humor. His art doesn't leave you feeling like you are in a vat of molasses with maple syrup oozing over your head.

Is it only color choice? True, Parrish doesn't flood his art with pastels, but I think it's more than that. Kincade is busy... for "peaceful" scenes there is usually a lot going on... mountains, gardens, streams, cottages, lampposts, roads, more flowers, sunsets, etc. Parrish might have some of them same elements, but they don't "riot" all over the painting. He knew how to tone down some things so that your eye focuses on the important. His art has "resting places" so you're not inundated with information and bombarded with busyness.

Parrish's farmhouses and villas have character, they vary, they looked lived in and REAL. Maybe because he would build sets in his studio... actually make mountains on a mirror so he could capture reflections. All his characters he drew and painted from models, including himself.

From the way he lived his life I doubt Parrish would have called himself a Christian (but I'm not sure). However his art seems truer and more reflective of God's reality and joy in creation than many a Christian artist. He certainly went about it in a much more dedicated and determined way than I do! (Maybe that's why his marriage failed?)

I know people have their own likes and dislikes and I'm not saying Nude Descending a Staircase is "better" than Kincade's stuff. Picasso knew how to milk the public and artworld with his totally different genre. I wouldn't hang most of it if it was given to me.

But why do we settle for such low standards and let ourselves be led by a great marketing campaign? If we "do all to the glory of God" doesn't that mean putting thought and effort into our art, instead of just doing what comes easily, or makes money. A work of art (music, visual, film, etc.) might present the gospel, but if it's poorly written/painted what kind of testimony does the artist have?

Wow, what a week!

Went to do a job in Florida, New York. It was fun to be back east again. I love the oldness of the buildings and the way everything is built so close to the street... a very European feel.

The job itself was grueling. Lots of painting, no plumbing, freezing cold basement. Getting up the hill to the houses was like offroading... part of the drive was unpaved, very rutted and muddy.

We hotel hopped: Holiday Inn the first night, and B & B the next night, Comfort Inn for 3 nights, the model home for a night, Hershey relatives for a night. It was good to get back to my own bed and snuggle bunny.



The night I stayed in the model the generator went out at 2 in the morning. I almost freaked myself out imagining Freddy or some pyscho turning the generator off and breaking in to find me. I finally remembered that I had a very bright LED light on my keychain and used it to find a flashlight in my backpack. When it started to get cold because the furnace was off, I went upstairs to the Master bedroom and crawled under a duvet that musta weighed 50 pounds. Soon I was too hot. It was a miserable night. I finished the basement in semi darkness the next day. Got real fast at doing mountains with a roller!

Am realizing that I can get faster and looser with a lot of my mural stuff... at least for clients that don't want to pay much. And that I have to have a contract before I go on site. Otherwise they keep adding things to do, but don't pay anymore.

Hopefully there will be more jobs closer to home, in the near future.



Things I learned:

1. Always have a roll of TP on hand.
2. Never look into the depths of a portapotty.
3. Wastecans with a trashbag make good toilets.
4. If you don't have water- melt snow.
5. Always have a couple gallons of water on hand.
6. Keep a flashlight nearby.
7. Have lots of business cards with you.

Questions

All joking aside...

Why do we think that we are even speaking the same language as secular liberalism? We can shout ourselves blue in the face and make not one dent in their armor of idealism. Sure, at least for now, we have the freedom and right to be heard... but isn't a lot of our energy going toward shoving that barn door shut while we watch the tail end of the horses gallop into the sunset?

In the AFA Journal March 2007, Ed Vitagliano writes:

...(Jim) Wallis, an earnest opponent of the religious right, said in a column on www.washingtonpost.com that “religious people must win the debate, just like everybody else, about what is best … for the common good.”

This misses the point completely. Christians currently cannot “win the debate” on any number of critical issues because the culture has rejected the underpinnings of the Judeo-Christian worldview. As a result, our society will continue to reject the propositions that flow out of that worldview. It is difficult, for example, to win an argument about abortion when a culture does not recognize the sanctity of innocent human life in the womb.

http://www.afajournal.org/0307_blurringgospel.asp

Are we trying to change things in our own power?

In the same article Vitagliano says:

Of course, the great power given to the church by the Lord Jesus Christ is the Gospel. It is through the preaching of the cross that the church must engage our secular culture and its problems.

...Certainly believers have a responsibility to be respectful of others and their opinions. Christians should avoid being arrogant and loutish. They should season their speech with grace and humility. And there is nothing wrong with Christians attempting to persuade unbelievers that the truth of God would make for a better life individually and, corporately, a better country.

And Chuck Colson says in The Body p33:

Too often Christians want to rush off and organize anti-pornography or anti-abortion campaigns, work for criminal justice reform, clean up inner-city neighborhoods, and defend religious liberty. All noble and worthy good works, but all doomed to failure unless they proceed out of who we are as God's people.

(Italics mine)
If we believe God is supreme and in control, why do we get so worked up and worried? We do need to defend what we believe, while we can, but when judges' rulings make a mockery of the legal system, and when media reporting twists shards of scorn into our sensitive skin, we don't have to despair!

Colson in The Body, again:

Also we must be willing to be uncomfortable. Living in a post-Christian culture means that our Christian faith will be ridiculed and that we will be regarded as strange. That can be costly. But obedience often is...

We must learn how to support and encourage one another. If we are to be the agents behind enemy lines, then it is critical that we establish a network whereby Christians can pass information back and forth to one another. We can learn a lot about the world from Time and Newsweek, but we must also equip one another with Christian perspectives on critical issues.


We know that someday every knee will bow and everyone will aknowledge Jesus as Lord. If we focus on that, and remaind each other of that, and do what we can to make a difference in big or little ways where we can...then all the "setbacks" in the world won't shake our inner peace and faith.

More Hillertiti

Here's a statue of Nefertiti when she was older. Notice the body shape… small chest, largish hips (music from Twilight Zone plays here)...

Akhenaten was known to have several other wives, probably Tut's mother... and possibly one or two of his own daughters, which was bizarre even for Egyptians. (Drat those younger women!)

And notice Akhenaten's shape.
















The similarities pile up higher than the step Pyramid.

Hillertiti

After reading "Akhenaten" by Nicholas Reeves and seeing the statues and artwork of the royal family, I was struck by how Hillary resembles Nefertiti. Now you might say, "No way, Nefertiti was beautiful. And Hillary... well..." But you have to remember that the famous bust of Nefertiti was done when she was in her 20s, probably. And I have seen shots of Hillary where she didn't look too bad.

All that aside tho, I think it is the look of determination and power that is so similar.

And get this. It has long been known that Pharaoh Akhenaten had a co-regent and successor named Smenkhkare. Akhenaten is shown in some fairly intimate and affectionate poses with this co-regent, leading to questions about his sexual leanings. In the 1970s however, Egyptologists started noticing cartouches that indicated this co-ruler, Smenkhkare, is none other than Nefertiti herself.

Sound familiar?

But wait... the plot thickens. After Akhenaten's death, a letter was received by Suppiluliuma, the Hittite king, from a "Queen of Egypt", saying, "My husband died. A son I have not. But to you, they say, the sons are many. If you were to give me a son of yours, he would become my husband..." and in another letter "... To me he will be husband, but in Egypt he will be king!" (from Akhenaten p175)

Suppiluliuma was amazed. Never had an Egyptian ruler offered a daughter to a foreign king in marriage, let alone an oportunity for a foreigner to rule in Egypt. Through much research John R. Harris has come to the conclusion that this "Egyptian Queen" is Nefertiti.

So again we have similarities. A wife who becomes almost an equal in power with her husband, and when he is no longer in power she will do almost anything to keep her hold on the throne... even to the point of weakening, some would say betraying, her country.

There is nothing new under the sun, as the wise king once said.