Tag Archives: preparation

February 12, 2013 · 11:42

Ya Wanna Help Me Get Ready For A Partay?

What do you think about when it is time to prepare for a party?  Lists. Lists. And more lists, where I am concerned.  The bigger the party, the more daunting.  Don’t you wish we could enjoy that process as much as we are supposed to enjoy the actual “partay”?  It is just plain hard work.    We have to take time out of our already busy schedules to get ‘er done.  It ain’t easy.  But what is?

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The day that  I was born, I don’t remember hearing, or any other day for that matter,  that life is easy.  Have you?  Has there ever been a time when your parents, teachers, siblings, etc said to you, “Sit back and relax, Sugar, for you are on a journey of  cinch. ” Piece of cake.  A breeze.

Why, then, is it so punishing for us to get our arms wrapped around life when it gets difficult? Which,  for me,  is every day.

I’m guessing 99 percent of our resentments stem from life not throwing us the easy life line that we desperately deserve.  (I just looked up “easy” in the thesaurus and it gave me “sluttish”   Oh my goodness.  Is that a word in our Webster?)

Could this life be a preparation for something else to come?  Really.  When you think about it, what are we doing all this for?  Look at the steps we take in planning a party.  It’s like a miniature look at our bigger picture life.  Getting supplies.  Making lists.  Working with others to get ‘er done.  Cleaning.   Communicating.   Teaching each other what we know so that we can be on the same page.  Ultimately,  it is an effort to get to a place where we can enjoy each other’s company.  Like when we get home from work at the end of a long day.

Tomorrow, Lent begins.  Lent is a time for the preparation of  what?  For Christians, it is a time to walk through 40 days with Christ as He prepares to die for our sins three days before Easter.   It is a time for us to see that life IS NOT easy,  as He so plainly shows us and that sacrifices are made.     So how do we move through that walk with Him?  We are asked to give up something that we enjoy so that we may feel, somehow, empathy for what He did.   Not sure if by me not eating candy, I will get a sense of His torture on the cross.   But, in our own little way, we want to suffer with Him.   I am here to tell you, it is HARD to give up something you love.

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Also, we are encouraged to pray with Him.  That is a sacrifice of time.  It is HARD to give that time.  We are also encouraged to give to charity.  It is HARD to give up that money that could otherwise be spent on moi.  It’s not easy.

Oh, but who told me it was easy?  I keep trying to track that source down.   I want want want easy.  The only thing that is really easy in my life is when I get to take a nap.   I asked Pops last year, what would he do on a Saturday afternoon if he could do whatever he wanted.  He said play golf.   My response was, “Have fun.  Cause I’m taking a nap.”  Number 1 thing on my easy list.

Lent is  like a preparation for a party.  The party being the risen Christ who died for our sins.  Thank God.  I would hate to have to account for all of my ghastly sins.  ugh.

Life is like a preparation for a party.  The party being the day that I get to go live with my Savior who partied with me every Easter of my life.   Every day of my life for that matter.

I would hate to spend my life preparing for a party that never happens.  Let me get the hard stuff done so I can get on with it.

God bless,

Karen

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August 8, 2012 · 10:57

Unlearn and Learn

Have you ever wanted something but weren’t willing or wanting to do what it takes to get it?  I find myself in that place now.  I actually wasn’t willing but now I am.   I only became willing when I realized it wasn’t going to just come to me in a dream in the night.   I just don’t want to be patient while I wait.  Or rather work for it.

I have painted in acrylics for 15 years.  I have painted pretty contemporary for 15 years.  When you paint contemporary, to an extent,  you can make up rules.  Maybe not even,”to an extent”.  You CAN forget all the fundamental rules that we learn when we begin to paint.  Values.  Perspective.  Drawing.    I still paid attention to those elements.  Somewhat.  But there was clearly a contemporary bent to them.

“Honor”

“River of Hope”

So, since  I haven’t picked up a paint brush for two years, I thought it would be a good opportunity to try out the good ol’ oils again and paint using a more representational approach.  HOLY COW.     I have forgotten how to paint.   I have adopted so many  bad painting habits in the past 15 years.  Especially paint mixing.  I basically did not mix paint.  I’m not sure what I did but it is not translating well in oils.  AT ALL.

But I want it to.

But I don’t want to take the time to do it right.

The past few months I have tried to just FORCE the old habits into my painting.  One disappointment after another.  Well,  maybe if I paint another subject matter it will improve.    It’s like skiing.  I kept thinking that the reason I did not like skiing was the venue was not good.  Like Jackson,  Wyoming??  Colorado?   Come on.   I didn’t want to admit it was that I don’t know what the heck I’m doing.  That is why I don’t like skiing.  That is why I am AFRAID of skiing.    That is why I am afraid of walking into my studio these days or those days for that matter.  I was wingin’ it.    I don’t want to wing it anymore.  I look at  phenomenal  artist’s work all the time.  I want to paint like them.

So, I begin with a color chart.  Of 4 colors.  White.  Black.  Red and Yellow Ochre.  Mixing 120 colors that those 4 colors can make.

Color chart using white, black, red and yellow ochre

Pretty amazing you can get that many colors, huh?  Great exercise.  And I will only use those four colors ’til I get a good grasp.  Only then will I add more colors to my palette.  But still SOOOO much work to be done to GET WHAT I WANT.

I read that it is much better to paint from real life than from photographs.   I have painted from my maniac imagination for the past 15 years.  So, I not only have to mix paint colors accurately but I also at the same time have to look at a real object and interpret the shape, colors, values,  and perspective.  Sounds like chewing gum, walking, milking goats and eating pizza at the same time.  That is how foreign this is to me right now.   I used to know how to do it.  But I forgot.  It is not like riding a bicycle.

BUT…I want to do this right and I will go to any length it will take to get it right.  The easiest thing for me to do would be to walk away from it.  Go milk a goat that I cannot drink from.   Or paint the way I was.  But I feel a strong call from God to do this.  The last thing He wants from me is to “wing” a gift He has given me.   So  I WILL learn it.  Because He wants me to.   And like everything He wants for or from me, the end result is great satisfaction.   It is hugely rewarding and ultimately brings me and others joy.

I’ll let you know how its going.   I hope it doesn’t take the rest of my life to learn how to paint one painting.  But I guess that would be ok too.

The following painter, Anders Zorn,  is the “author” of the 4 color palette.  He has painted many beautiful pieces with just those four colors.

Anders Zorn    ( 1860-1920)

God bless,

Karen

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