I haven’t blogged for a long time. Almost 4 years. This blog was originally created for my art. I used it to develop ideas taking them from concept to finish. Concept art is something I studied at UTD. In fact every studio class I took at UTD I printed out this blog and put it in my notebook.

The process I learned is helpful to me as an artist of faith. Right now I am in the beginning stages of developing an idea for an art show at Park Cities Presbyterian Church this fall. I have until August to develop a piece based on the scripture Micah 6:8.

He has shown you, O man, what is good;
And what does the Lord require of you
But to do justly,
To love mercy,
And to walk humbly with your God?              (NKJV)

I started this morning by reading the verse in context of the whole book of Micah. I am insistent that scripture always be placed in context when studying a verse. That means actual context and historical context. More on that later. I have immediately found that the verse has a different meaning than I first thought because it was written to a king, not an ordinary individual, but someone who has the power to change things. I have in my mind a general idea that the verse is a call to radical obedience to God.

I have some images in my mind, but that may change as I study.

My latest works have been watercolors. I am currently trying to put together a watercolor class. This painting seems to be an oil painting. But maybe a drawing or another mixed media piece.

What's Goin' On

Gray sky morning
Frozen fingers
Crossing

I wanted to talk a bit about Greg’s gallery class.

For those of you who don’t know the Art Barn as we call it in the Arts and Humanities, Arts and Performance side of the campus at UTD, has a large space at its center which is the gallery. When Greg Metz my instructor came to UTD about 14 years ago, it became his charge. At that time very little was done with it. Greg has created an interesting history of shows. They are always contemporary and always different. The calendar includes several student shows and shows that the full time instructors curate.

The Gallery class started off based on a class at UTA where a group of students help run the gallery there. The class at UTD has evolved from that to one that includes speakers, museum trips, gallery hops and lots of volunteer hours in the arts community. Bottom line we get to meet a lot of interesting people that make art happen in Dallas. We will be hanging shows and helping at art auctions. This is a very welcome change of pace for me.

On the personal art front I am trying to arrange a photo shoot for my submission to the PCPC Art Show. The two parables I have chosen are the Prodigal Son and the Good Samaritan. Hopefully this weekend I will be meditating on the text and writing about it. I have some idea in my mind about the Prodgial Son and what I want to do in that art.

That is where it starts. There is a picture in my head that I will aim at, but it never happens, something else does, always an adventure.

I have been going over in my mind the possibility of teaching art in my home. I would love that. Not sure if it is the time, I really don’t have a lot of time. But it is there in my mind.

I teach at the shelter tomorrow. I have to get down what I am doing. Tara and I talked about painting with oil pastels. I got the oderless mineral spirits today at Home Depot and I need to get some new reference stuff together. I need something for the other class to do. I may actually give in and do how to draw. For some reason when people sign up that is what they expect. I am so grateful to have Tara as a student because she loves to experiment and would never ask to do how to draw.