"Lying in bed would be an altogether perfect and supreme experience if one only had a coloured pencil long enough to draw on the ceiling." -G.K. Chesterton
I am alive and painting. I just couldn't show you this painting until just now because it was a commission/surprise graduation gift for My Lovely Friend (click on the link!). Now she has it, so now you can see it:
Little Christ in a Garden
Detail Image
I love this painting. As you can see, I managed to do a ginger-headed, freckled-faced, little Jesus with a mouse and toadstools. I had fun painting this. I was hoping for a fairy tale feel- I don't see why the Christ child wouldn't have loved fairy tales.
And I think I should let you know that for some reason my carpal tunnel is better lately. I am not sure why, and I don't know how long this good spell will last, but I will take what I can get.
I just got back from Franciscan University where they sent off the newly graduated class of 2012. If I had stayed at Franciscan longer than 2 years, this would have been my class. I love them so. It was a great blessing to be there with them, through the good and the bad.
"WHAT was wonderful about childhood is that anything in it was a wonder. It was not merely a world full of miracles; it was a miraculous world." ~GKC: 'Autobiography.'
“My imagination is a monastery, and I am its monk” -John Keats
When you are describing,
A shape, or sound, or tint;
Don't state the matter plainly,
But put it in a hint;
And learn to look at all things,
With a sort of mental squint.
~Lewis Carroll
I am alive. But not so well. Thus so much.... inactivity. I have my own health difficulties, someone else in the family is sick, I am still wrestling with school issues, etc- so, not much priority has been given to blogging, unfortunately. Or drawing, which I hate like I hate very few things. I am actually having difficulty with my hands, which is NOT ideal for an artist. So, if you could say a little prayer for that, that would be amazing. So far it's mostly my left hand, which is good for a right-hander like me, but if the right hand gets bad, well, I suppose I'll deal with that if and when it comes.
I hope you are having a good Lent. I think I have. I never really know for sure, for better or worse.
God bless!
'When it is all over you will not regret having suffered; rather you will regret having suffered so little, and suffered that little so badly.'
-St. Sebastian Valfre
"The awful thing is that beauty is mysterious as well as terrible. God and the devil are fighting there and the battlefield is the heart of man." -Fyodor Dostoevsky
Men say the sun was darkened: yet I had
Thought it beat brightly, even on—Calvary:
And He that hung upon the Torturing Tree
Heard all the crickets singing, and was glad.
-GK Chesterton
Today is Mr. Dickens 200th birthday! I do so love him! If only I had been aware of this coming.... I could have drawn a bit of something for him. As it is, I only found out about it through Facebook, as I do so many things these days.
Young Charles Dickens
I absolutely love him! I haven't actually finished THAT many of his rather long novels. But none the less, I find his writing to be almost soothing. He creates such characters! Such touching situations.
Who better to discuss Charles Dickens than Chesterton? I happen to have the book Chesterton wrote about Dickens (it was being discarded at the local library. What!? Oh well. At least I have it now), however, I regret to say I have not read it yet. But, I will fix that soon.
"The full value of this life can only be got by fighting; the violent take it by storm. And if we have accepted everything we have missed something -- war. This life of ours is a very enjoyable fight, but a very miserable truce." ~GKC: 'Charles Dickens'
I also recommend this link. I am especially fond of that last longer quote in the article,
it is one of my favorite quotes of all time.
Here are some quotes by Mr. Dickens himself:
“There is nothing better than a friend, unless it is a friend with chocolate.”
“Have a heart that never hardens, and a temper that never tires, and a touch that never hurts.”
“Never close your lips to those whom you have already opened your heart.”
“No one is useless in this world who lightens the burdens of another.”
“Heaven knows we need never be ashamed of our tears, for they are rain upon the blinding dust of earth, overlying our hard hearts. I was better after I had cried, than before--more sorry, more aware of my own ingratitude, more gentle.”
“Suffering has been stronger than all other teaching, and has taught me to understand what your heart used to be. I have been bent and broken, but - I hope - into a better shape.”
“Every traveler has a home of his own, and he learns to appreciate it the more from his wandering.”
“Family not only need to consist of merely those whom we share blood, but also for those whom we'd give blood.”
..... I could go on. And on. And on. But, maybe instead of that, you should just read him.
As I mentioned before, a loooong time ago when I did regular posts (who am I kidding- I've always been ify on that particular subject) I told you about the Arthouse Sketchbook Project that I started. Below are a few excerpts from what I have done so far:
When signing up for a sketchbook, you have to chose a topic. Their list of rather vague topics leave lots of wiggle room. I chose, "the secret and how to tell it," for mine, and the title is Childish Things. Yeah, that's going to allow me to draw pretty much whatever I want. Just what the secret is, I don't really know yet, and it so far it hasn't really mattered. I figure it has something to do with imagination, common sense, childhood, etc. Just think, of course, what Chesterton would say on the matter.
I am also TRYING to start painting digitally with my new bamboo tablet and Painter X. It's rather very very difficult, but, I am doing my best to teach myself.
Now some quotes on the before mentioned theme:
“Critics who treat 'adult' as a term of approval, instead of as a merely descriptive term, cannot be adult themselves. To be concerned about being grown up, to admire the grown up because it is grown up, to blush at the suspicion of being childish; these things are the marks of childhood and adolescence. And in childhood and adolescence they are, in moderation, healthy symptoms. Young things ought to want to grow. But to carry on into middle life or even into early manhood this concern about being adult is a mark of really arrested development. When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty I read them openly. When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up.” -C.S. Lewis
“Grown up, and that is a terribly hard thing to do. It is much easier to skip it and go from one childhood to another.”-F. Scott Fitzgerald
“Well, one can't get over the habit of being a little girl all at once.”
I found this recently while reading G.K. Chesterton's Everlasting Man. Here is your dose of Chesterton for the day:
"In order to strike, in the only sane or possible sense, the note of impartiality, it is necessary to touch the nerve of novelty. I mean that in one sense we see things fairly when we see them first. That, I may remark in passing, is why children generally have very little difficulty about the dogmas of the Church. But the Church, being a highly practical thing for working and fighting, is necessarily a thing for men and not merely for children. There must be in it for working purposes a great deal of tradition, of familiarity, and even of routine. So long as its fundamentals are sincerely felt, this may even be the saner condition. But when its fundamentals are doubted, as at present, we must try to recover the candour and wonder of the child; the unspoilt realism and objectivity of innocence. Or if we cannot do that, we must try at least to shake off the cloud of mere custom and see the thing as new, if only by seeing it as unnatural. Things that may well be familiar so long as familiarity breeds affection had much better become unfamiliar when familiarity breeds contempt. For in connection with things so great as are here considered, whatever our view of them, contempt must be an illusion. We must invoke the most wild and soaring sort of imagination; the imagination that can see what is there."
"...the first fact is that the most simple people have the most subtle ideas. Everybody ought to know that, for everybody has been a child. Ignorant as a child is, he knows more than he can say and feels not only atmospheres but fine shades. And in this matter there are several fine shades. Nobody understands it who has not had what can only be called the ache of the artist to find some sense and some story in the beautiful things he sees; his hunger for secrets and his anger at any tower or tree escaping with its tale untold. He feels that nothing is perfect unless it is personal. Without that the blind unconscious beauty of the world stands in its garden like a headless statue. One need only be a very minor poet to have wrestled with the tower or the tree until it spoke like a titan or a dryad. It is often said that pagan mythology was a personification of the powers of nature. The phrase is true in a sense, but it is very unsatisfactory; because it implies that the forces are abstractions and the personification is artificial. Myths are not allegories. Natural powers are not in this case abstractions. It is not as if there were a God of Gravitation. There may be a genius of the waterfall; but not of mere falling, even less than of mere water. The impersonation is not of something impersonal. The point is that the personality perfects the water with significance. Father Christmas is not an allegory of snow and holly; he is not merely the stuff called snow afterwards artificially given a human form, like a snow man. He is something that gives a new meaning to the white world and the evergreens, so that snow itself seems to be warm rather than cold. The test therefore is purely imaginative. But imaginative does not mean imaginary. It does not follow that it is all what the moderns call subjective, when they mean false. Every true artist does feel, consciously or unconsciously, that he is touching transcendental truths; that his images are shadows of things seen through the veil. In other words, the natural mystic does know that there is something there; something behind the clouds or within the trees; but he believes that the pursuit of beauty is the way to find it; that imagination is a sort of incantation that can call it up." - G.K. Chesterton, Everlasting Man
Yes, I am still alive. Have some health issues that seem to like tmaking sure I am working hard, but, somehow things always work out.
.... Hopefully. My commissions and things ain't gettin themselves done. Sigh. What I wouldn't do for a bit of health. Maybe it's best this way. Keeps me from being a Drawing Terror of some sort.
Back to the drawing. This is a quick sketch I did inspired by the book Wildwood by Colin Meloy. It's been rather charming.
I thought a little quick sketch of someone's little brother being hauled off by birds was more engaging than more anatomy lessons.....
Latest GK quotes via my Dad:
"A man cannot be wise enough to be a great artist without being wise enough to wish to be a philosopher. A man cannot have the energy to produce good art without having the energy to wish to pass beyond it. A small artist is content with art; a great artist is content with nothing except everything." -GKC, "Heretics"
I will not be posting artwork this time- I am still working on my painting, and I thought about showing you the progress I've made, but I think I want to wait until it is finished. It is turning out well so far, and I am happy with it, and that is not a common occurrence.
I have also thought about doing non look-at-my-artwork posts, and using my blog to share things I find, and to maybe share a thought or two here and there. I live a rather solitary life at the moment, which I like in some ways, but I must confess the idea of broadening my blogging horizons sounds attractive. That said, I want to share a new friend with you.
I am a new Harry Potter fan. And I mean fan! (Yes, I do realize that I am about one million years late, but that's a long story- I was once a "Harry Potter has real curses and will have your kids killing kitties" misled little Catholic)I have been thinking about why this is. I've had my crosses, as we all do, and the topics of courage, love, and fighting have become both dreaded and loved by me over the past few years. They have become friends that are so close now, that the lovely sensitivity they cause is painfully and perpetually fresh. All the best friends wound you in some way or another.
And so I love Harry Potter. It is a story of love and sacrifice and heroic suffering. Even if fate has dealt you a nasty blow, you don't have to become bitter or complacent- or seek out the One Ring, the best crystals for a super lightsaber, and the Deathly Hallows to undermine death, and take over the universe as the One All Powerful Overlord who spends her days planning out monologues to bellow to minions or enemies with her nails painted blood-red with the coolest black gothic outfit ever and stripes in her hair..... Ah hem, no, because suffering is not bad. (*gasp*) Yes, it is because of evil we suffer, but inn some ways, you could say we were born to live and suffer, and that is a gift, if we use it well. I am reminded of a F.J. Sheed quote I saw recently, "If Christ came to save us, then it must be noted that He did not come to save us trouble." Not that Harry was a saint to came to see all suffering as a gift to offer up- rather he is, as many other characters of the series are, struggling human beings who do what they can with themselves and their circumstances, and I think that is part of the luster of J.K. Rowling's series. They give and give and give- even if they are scared out of their wits, even until death. (I am not a completely brain-washed starry eyed fan-girl, I know the story has it's faults- but not all books that are good are written by saintly Catholic theologians, but they are written by people who have human hearts and are made in God's image... but that's about a dozen other topics in itself that I hardly feel qualified to discuss, at least at the moment)
I think another reason I love the series is that while romance is not a prominent theme, it is still about the Great Romance- and I have found very few stories, at least in fantasy today (especially YA fantasy), that capture that Romance as well as J.K. Rowling did in her story. I will admit to not being nearly 1/gazillionth as literarily savvy as I'd like, but I have done a fair amount of reading in my life, fantasy being one of my favorite things in the world, and I have found few books that I love as much as these for that very reason. I think most if not all the books in my favorites list touch on it in some way, but these definitely make it to the top 5.
Now, I could probably stay up all night giving you St. Therese quotes about suffering and digging up evidence in the Harry Potter books, but I think I will, of course, use Mr. Chesterton:
G.K. Chesterton on Romance
All romances consist of three characters… For the sake of argument they may be called St. George and the Dragon and the Princess. In every romance there must be the twin elements of loving and fighting. In every romance there must be the three characters: there must be the Princess, who is a thing to be loved; there must be the Dragon, who is a thing to be fought; and there must be St. George, who is a thing that both loves and fights. There have been many symptoms of cynicism and decay in our modern civilization. But of all the signs of modern feebleness, of lack of grasp on morals as they actually must be, there has been none quite so silly or so dangerous as this: that the philosophers of today have started to divide loving from fighting and to put them into opposite camps. [But] the two things imply each other; they implied each other in the old romance and in the old religion, which were the two permanent things of humanity. You cannot love a thing without wanting to fight for it. You cannot fight without something to fight for. To love a thing without wishing to fight for it is not love at all; it is lust. It may be an airy, philosophical, and disinterested lust… but it is lust, because it is wholly self-indulgent and invites no attack. On the other hand, fighting for a thing without loving it is not even fighting; it can only be called a kind of horse-play that is occasionally fatal. Wherever human nature is human and unspoilt by any special sophistry, there exists this natural kinship between war and wooing, and that natural kinship is called romance. It comes upon a man especially in the great hour of youth; and every man who has ever been young at all has felt, if only for a moment, this ultimate and poetic paradox. He knows that loving the world is the same thing as fighting the world.
I have been thinking on who Harry's "Princess" is that he was fighting for could be. You could say it was his love interest, Ginny, who fit this description, but I think it was more than that- much more. He was willing to leave Ginny for life for what he thought was right if he had to. No, he had his parents memory and their sacrifice, his friends and their sacrifices, and, encompassing all, love to fight for. He gave his life for Romance (How could a book embracing such Christian principles be satanic? Yes I know, that's another topic... ).
You may think I am stretching things: saying such things about Harry Potter (a tale with joke shops, the Chuddley Cannons, Hippogriffs, flying cars, remembrals, owl mail services, petrified kitties, etc) and connecting it to the Chesterton Quote, and all this talk of love, etc. But I tend to find connections everywhere for better or worse, and I am grateful for the comfort and even strength I find in little things such as stories. I find many things that connect back to the Chesterton quote, if not all things. Maybe I am overly simplistic, I am not sure. But while it is not advisable to underestimate evil, I think it is just as if not more tragic to underestimate the power of good. I know for my part I will take what I can, when I can- and I found much in Harry Potter.
Excuse me... This muggle must go check her e-owls. (Couldn't resist) In the mean time, enjoy this fan video- I thought it was quite good. But be warned, it contains spoilers.
What you guys don't know about Harry Potter is that he stole Hedwig from me.... when I was living in Ireland..... on the coast with my wild ponies and painting studio. But I still drew him out of the goodness of my heart.
One of my favorite activities for a Sunday afternoon these days seems to be taking a movie I have seen, and drawing from it- especially if it has cute little kids in it. Yesterday I watched Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. I tried drawing Ron- but it wasn't ideal, and I cropped him out of the picture to the left. I will have to draw him some other time. Besides, I got distracted drawing the picture below. Once I can across that scene, I had to stop all I was doing and draw it! It's such a pretty movie! I love the snow parts! I love snow! (just shows how, again, Hedwig is my owl, and should be returned to me)
I am trying to fill up space so I can get to the next picture.
It's not working.
Oh look at that- how did that extra space get there?
By the way, I have started the fourth Harry Potter book, and it's only been about two weeks. I will have this done and the last movie watched before you know it! But then I will be sad.... oh well, just can't win.
Yay! Now we can get to the next picture!
Aren't they cute? Isn't the lighting lovely! I enjoyed myself with this one- and I put in a bit more time on it than I usually do while watching a movie/drawing.
Quote time.
"God made us for joy. God is joy, and the joy of living reflects the original joy that God felt in creating us." -Pope John Paul II
"Literature and fiction are two entirely different things. Literature is a luxury; fiction is a necessity."- G.K. Chesterton
I found that last quote on facebook of all places. I would like to read the rest of what he had to say on the subject someday, but for now the quote will do.
Oh, ran across Brenna the kitty yesterday, doing her usual thing: sleeping anywhere that most people (or kitties) would not. She always does this! This is actually a rather comfortable place to find her sleeping.
So, last night I decided to watch a bit of Finding Neverland to pause it here and there to draw. I love drawing little kids apparently, and Freddie Highmore is one of the cutest! (at least, when he was little, I don't know what he's looking like nowa days) While it is rather depressing, I do like that movie quite a bit. For one thing, it has the BEST soundtrack EVER! And it's cute and quirky and ridiculous.... I seem to e attracted to that more and more. Anyways, I love action movies and such as much as anybody, but, I don't know, I find the whole children's book industry (illustration, etc) a welcome retreat from, well, the world, and things that are just too complicated.
I thought about drawing Johnny Depp, but, it was late, and I rather chickened out of drawing someone so well known for the public to see: at least while I was tired and wanting to read my book a bit before bed. Speaking of cute kids, I am reading/watching Harry Potter! Yes, the bug bit me. I always thought "how on earth could something that popular be that good?" and surprise! It is that good. At least to me. Harry and Ron are so cute in the first two movies so far! Especially Ron! (I LOVE red hair- I WANT red hair) Hermione is cute, but a liiitttle bit annoying- at least this far. But somehow I think that is the point sometimes. I was hoping to read all the books on time to watch the last movie in theaters- and so far I have read 3 books in a week and a half ( That Is Alot for me, seeing as I am a slow reader)(click on the link! I was proud of that!). I have a feeling this will just get more challenging though, seeing as the books just get longer and longer.
After I mention this fact, I will stop talking about Harry Potter: I WANT a snow owl to give me letters! I WANT Hedwig! Red hair, a snow owl, and Ireland- oh, and a baby grand piano- then my life will be complete. Ok, I'm done. For now. I'm afraid you will hear more about Potter later on.
I need a quote for the week..... hmm... (going to look at my quote collection and my goodreads quotes)..... CHESTERTON!
“Impartiality is a pompous name for indifference, which is an elegant name for ignorance.” – The Speaker (oops, I am rather impartial most of the time... )
“What embitters the world is not excess of criticism, but an absence of self-criticism.” – Sidelights on New London and Newer New York
Now, just how I went from Finding Neverland, to Harry Potter, to G.K. Chesterton I am not sure- but somehow I think it fits: all roads lead to Chesterton. I think it makes sense, because he was so very common, normal, and charitable.
So I went to TN to visit my lovely friend from waay back during my model horse playing days. :) I had a blast as I always do- complete with anime, Opry Mills, an introduction to Firefly and Dr. Who and Dance Dance Revolution, and lots of shopping and coffee and talking in between.
We went to McDonald's one day for lunch, and we drew each other while I drank coffee. It was really fun actually.
Here's is Monica's drawing of myself:
And here is my drawing of Monica:
I think it is interesting how the two contrast. I am definitely the more quick and rough sketcher here, and she is more deliberate and refined and just more patient, as I should learn to be. Ugh, I had her mouth almost perfect... and then I went and messed it up when I realized I had to erase and shift her whole face. Anyway, we will have to do this again!
I also sketched the mouse after I finished Monica, and she wanted me to sit still so she could draw my profile.
Oh and please say a quick prayer for me: I just found a scholarship due on the 31st, and I have to write the essay for it TOMORROW, and I have no idea what I am going to write about. It is for the American Chesterton Society... and so it has to be Chestertonish. Sigh, I am having difficulty finding a way to go to art school this Fall, and this scholarship could really make all the difference- I just wish I had found it sooner! I write about something that has to do with art, only I have no idea just what exactly. Oh well. Maybe my angel will do it for me!
"Idealism is only considering everything in its practical essence." -G.K. Chesterton
Hehe, I almost feel like saying "St. GKC, pray for me." I mean, he's pretty much the pope after Tolkien isn't he? Totally kidding of course. Or am I? Hmm....
