Eight (or is it nine) Oscar Wildes

http://browse.deviantart.com/?qh=&section=&q=oscar#/dupbcn

Oscar Wilde (1854-1900), Irish dramatist, poet, and author had a whole bunch of quotable moments. Here are a few of my favorites ...

"Always forgive your enemies, nothing annoys them so much."

"Every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not of the sitter."

"Genius is born--not paid."

“I am so clever that sometimes I don't understand a single word of what I am saying.”

“To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.”

“We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.”

"If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh, otherwise they'll kill you."

And this famous one ...

“Women are made to be loved not understood.”

Mennonites With an Attitude???

I just found this graphic, on the web site of a self-described Mennonite artist. I really don't know what to say other than, "You go, girl."

Road Trip: Portland, Oregon

We just got back from our vacation! We had a great time, relaxing, checking out the zoo (The zoo has over a thousand specimens representing two hundred species, 21 of which are endangered) and Portland Art Museum to check out the fantastic works of M.C. Escher! The Portland Art Museum is the oldest museum of its kind in the region founded in 1892.

And of course there was ... Munching out ... watching TV ... You could say I was "happily slacking" on lots of stuff while we were away.

I'll be back to what passes for regular posting soon ...

Vacation!

Melissa, the kids and I are packed and ready to go on a mini vacation to Portland, Oregon! We've been looking forward to this for a few weeks! We will be checking out the Escher exhibit at the Portland Art Museum and also the Zoo on Monday. (Hannah is head over heels about the latter!) We'll be back late Tuesday evening. I said mini vacation after all. See you then!

Tim

Off The Rails

Kind of a downer subject..."The sadness will never go away."-Van Gogh suicide note

I would think that life without God would be kinda lonely, incomplete... Yet Van Gogh did know God... I have to wonder why some push the self destruct button, while others carry on? God made everyone in His image, but do some have more God than others? Is suicide EVER an option?

Depression on this level is something I really don't understand. Rather its only actually feeling it that I don't understand. I know enough to know that it isn't just having a "blue" day or something a person can just get over. God may just chose to heal someone of it, but to just dismiss it, as some do, as something that can just be cured or lost if someone seeks God enough doesn't seem realistic. Nor does it show compassion, which is something we, as a Christian, should have... The reason I bring this up as I've been thinking of a friend at work who committed suicide a couple of years ago. I wonder...where is he now?

I am comforted by Romans 9:39. "For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus, our Lord."

I think that as a Christian, we may step out of Gods will, but not out of His care. You know, I praise God I have not suffered serious depression, or feelings of suicide, but if I ever should, I know these will not separate me from the love of God. The victory and the glory of Christ cannot be snatched from Him because I go off the rails, in a matter of speaking.

Just some thoughts ... have a blessed day everyone!

Artists Ramble

Have you ever studied the lives of any of the great artists in history? I don't mean just the artist that painted or did art, I mean artist in the terms of creative people...writers, singers, and so forth...

I majored in art in college, (not that I ever finished and got a degree or anything but I did take every art class they offered...lol) and in studying the ones admired the most, they all seem to have suffered either from deep depression or went through some terrible times in their lives.

Beethoven wrote the Moonlight Sonata (spelling?) but its one of the most beautiful but also mournful pieces of music ever written. The story behind it was that he was in love with this young lady but her family rejected him and he could not marry her. He was utterly heart broken and it came out in this music. Later on some of his most wonderful music came after he had gone deaf!!! Could you image writing music and not being able to hear it?

I image somewhere he told someone he could hear the music in his head, he didn't need to hear it with his ears.

Wolfgang Mozart was considered insane I think...or seemed to be, but actually it was due to the terrible treatment he got by others in most of his life. There is a movie that was done on him a number of years ago...you ought to check it out and watch it.

Edgar Allan Poe, was an extremely depressed person, in fact I heard he had bipolar, but not real sure on that. Just reading his stuff, while so well written and required reading in many schools (or used to be), you can image how the depression affected his writings.

Van Gogh...he cut his ear off....I think it was over a woman too....grief and despair can do funny things to ones mind.

Michelangelo was also a nut case...lol....He had a learning disability, depression and a recent news article said he may have had Aspergers ... what that is....well we call it being a geek....awkard, no social skills and gets super focused on ONE thing. His one thing was art...

I think all these people obsessed to some degree or another with their work to the point they neglect family, friends and other normal day activities. Which caused people to think they were nutty...I don't think they were really nutty, they were gifted...

But also in all their lives some kind of grief and heartache and depression affected them and because of it, it actually enriched their art, be it painting or writing or acting...whatever and it made them outstanding in what they did.

They have all left us with their 'gifts' and something to learn by and appreciate and make kids have to learn in school....

When I was younger and wanted to 'create' something, whatever...I wrote and did "art" well kinda ....I was told SO many times that to be a good artist I had to SUFFER! Had to go through hardships and all kinds of bad stuff in order to add that richest to my art....sounded real appealing ... Right!

I find it amazing that our most talented people throughout history really had such rough lives! And there seems to be a correlation to great Christians ...I also think it helps the rest of us too ...

Tim

The Floating World

The Floating World- by Daniel Goodman

You see the artist in me

So I turn towards

LightWords form something to give

I love with love given me

I give you gift that's in me

I know I'm in between now

This floating world, the fragments I know

Of your life and all that it means I wait for your light to come down

I wait like I always will wait, for you

Here now, all that you are

I'm sure, I know I can come

My life, held in your hand

I love with love given meI give you the gift that's in me

I wait for your Light to come down

I wait like I always will wait, for you

These lyrics are playing on my computer right now... and I am enjoying them so I thought I'd share them with you. Have a blessed evening everyone!

Holy Sonnet 10

This may be a little different to leave you all on this evening but I wanted to share this with you. Every now and again I need to post something of "culture" right? Any way ... Most of us has read at least a part of this before and many have read the whole thing. But as the last lines state, death is just a passage, a doorway if you will to our next life, a glorious life with God! Something to remind myself when the day to day seems unending as it were. Have a blessed evening everyone!


Holy Sonnet: 10


By John Donne


Death, be not proud, though some have called thee

Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so;

For those whom thou think'st thou dost overthrow

Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me.

From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be,

Much pleasure; then from thee much more must flow,

And soonest our best men with thee do go,

Rest of their bones, and soul's delivery.

Thou art slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men,

And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell;

And poppy or charms can make us sleep as well

And better than thy stroke; why swell'st thou then?

One short sleep past, we wake eternally,

And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die.

Be willing to go naked!

I'm so moved by this quote.

“My own belief is that one regards oneself, if one is a serious writer, as an instrument for experiencing. Life – all of it – flows through this instrument and is distilled through it into works of art. How one lives as a private person is intimately bound into the work. And at some point I believe one has to stop holding back for fear of alienating some imaginary reader or real relative or friend, and come out with personal truth. If we are to understand the human condition, and if we are to accept ourselves in all the complexity, self-doubt, extravagance of feeling, guilt, joy, the slow freeing of the self to its full capacity for action and creation, both as human being and as artist, we have to know all we can about each other, and we have to be willing to go naked.” -

May Sarton, Journal of a Solitude

I mean wow! My life longing has been held in this quote all my life. "how one lives as a private person is intimately bound into the work." And I feel more and more as time passes I am more and more naked to myself. I see more, reveal more, and allow for more of of my inner being out into the light of day. The art that wants to come through, the words that have been waiting for me are getting closer to the surface... getting ready to make their leap into the world of Being.

Reading this quote was such an affirmation in my day. Can I hear an amen?

I thank you May!

Immortal Beloved

I just finished watching the 1994 movie "Immortal Beloved" and it has to be one of the best movies I've seen for awhile! It pretty much is a biographical puzzle. Beethoven after his death left a letter addressed to his "immortal beloved," with no hint as to who that person was. As a last testament this document may have been faulty, but as a biographical puzzle it was great, inspiring two centuries of fevered speculations, of which this film is the latest and most romantic and oh so sad.

I don't know if the movie has solved the puzzle of the unnamed beloved, but I care not, because it has done something more valuable: He has created a fantasy about Beethoven that evokes the same disturbing, ecstatic passion we hear in his music.

Beethoven is played in the film surprisingly by Gary Oldman, who at first seems an unlikely choice.Then we see that he is the right choice. He plays perfectly a man on the edge of madness, obsessed with women, even more obsessed with Karl (Marco Hofschneider), the young nephew he hopes to turn into a prodigy. He wages a lifelong campaign of hate against Karl's mother, Johanna (Johanna Ter Steege), telling his brother Caspar (Christopher Fulford) she is a foul slut. The movie proposes an interesting explanation of Beethoven's hatred of her and love for her son, one which sensible biographers will question, but that fits perfectly with the terms of the story.

Beethoven's deafness is a subject through much of the film, including a precious scene where the Rossellini character leads him from the stage after he grows confused during a public performance, and another in which he touches the wood of a pianoforte to hear the music through his fingers. He tried desperately to conceal his deafness, fearing it would destroy his livelihood, and in the movie they sometimes reproduces what he can hear: Low rumbles sounding something like the music of the whales.

Beethoven writes to Schindler (the one trying to find the "Immortal Beloved", at one point, arguing: "It is the power of music to carry one directly into the mental state of the composer. The listener has no choice. It is like hypnotism." I rarely do anything close to movie reviews, the quote pretty much sums it up! I now have to find the soundtrack!!

"The vibrations on the air

are the breath

of God speaking to man's soul.

Music is the language of God.

We musicians are as closeto God as man can be.

We hear his voice.

We read his lips.

We give birth to the children

of God who sing his praise.

That's what musicians are.

And if we're not that, we're nothing."

Ludwig Van Beethoven

Those who dance ...

A really cool quote and so true!


"Those who dance were thought to be quite insane by those who could not hear the music"

~Angeia Monet

... And it was a good excuse to get another Monet, Claude this time, on this blog as well!

Ironic Artist

When thinking of God's style of doin' biz, the word that seems to come to mind is 'ironic.' I mean really ... Only every so often does a nice and tidy straight forward approach to a problem is ever used. Oh ... Occasionally ... A woman gets sick, Jesus heals her that kind of thing. Even in my own life I've seem similar. But for the most part, God seems to let the plot continue off in a bunch of seemingly perilous ways. Then somehow upon looking back on things, weaves all these threads into the answer .... The route home ... Only from the top of the mountain does the landscape really make sense.

I guess that this should be no surprise really. Paul had his thorn in the flesh ... Which he gave thanks for! In the Old Testament we have Joseph saying to his brothers, "What you have intended for harm, God intended for good." (Genesis 50:20) God the Father did not save Jesus from the cross, but in what has to be considered ironic, saved others through His death. The bottom line is, a sovereign God uses 'bad' things as material for good.

My own life story has things in it I resent, many things to repent, pain from various things, times of poverty, wrong choices of course, broken relationships, broken dreams. disappointments ... But I think God is like an artist ... Able to take various imperfections and fashion them into something even more exquisite. I have growing confidence, as my faith grows, that even my individual life is in some small ways contributing to a bigger story. OK, maybe a bit part in the overall play, but a part nonetheless that touches others. We all do. God has given us a good world and wants us to enjoy it. Yet we also live in a fallen world full of injustice and evil, something's even of our own hand. Even these are redeemed by God, who makes all things new! Not everything is good to those who seek Him, but everything is capable of becoming transformed!

Just some thoughts on a Wednesday morning ...

Some Susanna and Vincent on a Sunday

A great quote and a good excuse to put some Van Gogh on this blog ....

John Wesley asked his mother, Susanna Wesley, "How do you define sin?" Her reply was perhaps more penetrating that many formal theologians could develop: "If anything weakens your reasoning, impairs the tenderness of your conscience, obscures your sense of God or takes away your relish for spiritual things; in short if anything increases the power or authority of the flesh over the Spirit that for you becomes sin however good it is in itself."

Horse to exhibit canvas art in Venice

This was so unusual and off the wall I had to share it ….


Horse to exhibit canvas art in Venice

Cholla, a horse from Reno, Nevada, paints canvases holding a brush between his teeth. The mustang’s work has been so acclaimed that an exclusive art exhibition is being held in Venice in the Spring. Some of Cholla’s paintings have sold for over £2000 and are coveted by celebrity collectors including Martha Stewart.

The horse’s owner, Renne Chambers, passes Cholla a paintbrush which he takes between his teeth and daubs onto a canvas mounted on an easel in his paddock. She admits she squeezes out the paint onto the brush, but says that he does all the rest. She never moves the easel or canvas while he is painting.

She first noticed his interest in art when she noticed him watching intently and following her as she painted her fence.Said 51 year-old Renne: “[Cholla] seemed really interested in what I was doing, then one day my husband Robert joked to me that I should give him a brush. … he hasn’t looked back since. “

“Art is an expression of intelligence and animals are capable of thought and creative intention, so why should God give the gift of creation to humans only? God loves us all, great and small.”

http://www.yourimage2canvas.co.uk/news/article/horse-to-exhibit-canvas-art-in-venice--159509.html

And celluloid heroes never really die

Yesterday I heard on the radio what has to be my favorite Kinks song and it brought back a flood of memories of my days growing up in Venice Beach, California. When I was young I used to listen to that song and dream one day I would live in Hollywood, where all my heroes and villains lived ... It just brought me back to a place I cherish !! Anyways ... Allow me to share the lyrics with you ...

Celluloid Heroes

Everybody's a dreamer and everybody's a star,
And everybody's in movies, it doesn't matter who you are.
There are stars in every city,
In every house and on every street,
And if you walk down Hollywood boulevard
Their names are written in concrete!

Don't step on great Garbo as you walk down the boulevard,
She looks so weak and fragile that's why she tried to be so hard
But they turned her into a princess
And they sat her on a throne,
But she turned her back on stardom,
Because she wanted to be alone.

You can see all the stars as you walk down Hollywood boulevard,
Some that you recognize, some that you've hardly even heard of,
People who worked and suffered and struggled for fame,
Some who succeeded and some who suffered in vain.
Rudolph Valentino, looks very much alive,
And he looks up ladies' dresses as they sadly pass him by.
Avoid stepping on Bela Lugosi
'cos he's liable to turn and bite,
But stand close by Bette Davis
Because hers was such a lonely life.
If you covered him with garbage,
George sanders would still have style,
And if you stamped on Mickey Rooney
He would still turn round and smile,
But please don't tread on dearest Marilyn
'cos she's not very tough,
She should have been made of iron or steel,
But she was only made of flesh and blood.

You can see all the stars as you walk down Hollywood boulevard,
Some that you recognize, some that you've hardly even heard of.
People who worked and suffered and struggled for fame,
Some who succeeded and some who suffered in vain.

Everybody's a dreamer and everybody's a star
And everybody's in show biz, it doesn't matter who you are.

And those who are successful,
Be always on your guard,
Success walks hand in hand with failure
Along Hollywood boulevard.

I wish my life was a non-stop Hollywood movie show,
A fantasy world of celluloid villains and heroes,
Because celluloid heroes never feel any pain
And celluloid heroes never really die.

You can see all the stars as you walk along Hollywood boulevard,
Some that you recognize, some that you've hardly even heard of,
People who worked and suffered and struggled for fame,
Some who succeeded and some who suffered in vain.

Oh celluloid heroes never feel any pain
Oh celluloid heroes never really die.

I wish my life was a non-stop Hollywood movie show,
A fantasy world of celluloid villains and heroes,
Because celluloid heroes never feel any pain
And celluloid heroes never really die.

The video here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oh23A2GptAQ&feature=related

Artsy Ramble

Have you ever studied the lives of any of the great artists in history? I don't mean just the artist that painted or did art, I mean artist in the terms of creative people...writers, singers, and so forth...

I majored in art in college, (not that I ever finished and got a degree or anything but I did take every art class they offered...lol) and in studying the ones admired the most, they all seem to have suffered either from deep depression or went through some terrible times in their lives.

Beethoven wrote the Moonlight Sonata (spelling?) but its one of the most beautiful but also mournful pieces of music ever written. The story behind it was that he was in love with this young lady but her family rejected him and he could not marry her. He was utterly heart broken and it came out in this music. Later on some of his most wonderful music came after he had gone deaf!!! Could you image writing music and not being able to hear it?

I image somewhere he told someone he could hear the music in his head, he didn't need to hear it with his ears.

Wolfgang Mozart was considered insane I think...or seemed to be, but actually it was due to the terrible treatment he got by others in most of his life. There is a movie that was done on him a number of years ago...you ought to check it out and watch it.

Edgar Allan Poe, was an extremely depressed person, in fact I heard he had bipolar, but not real sure on that. Just reading his stuff, while so well written and required reading in many schools (or used to be), you can image how the depression affected his writings.

Van Gogh...he cut his ear off....I think it was over a woman too....grief and despair can do funny things to ones mind.

Michelangelo was also a nut case...lol....He had a learning disability, depression and a recent news article said he may have had Aspergers ... what that is....well we call it being a geek....awkward, no social skills and gets super focused on ONE thing. His one thing was art...

I think all these people obsessed to some degree or another with their work to the point they neglect family, friends and other normal day activities. Which caused people to think they were nutty...I don't think they were really nutty, they were gifted...

But also in all their lives some kind of grief and heartache and depression affected them and because of it, it actually enriched their art, be it painting or writing or acting...whatever and it made them outstanding in what they did.

They have all left us with their 'gifts' and something to learn by and appreciate and make kids have to learn in school....

When I was younger and wanted to 'create' something, whatever...I wrote and did "art" well kinda ....I was told SO many times that to be a good artist I had to SUFFER! Had to go through hardships and all kinds of bad stuff in order to add that richest to my art....sounded real appealing ... Right!

I find it amazing that our most talented people throughout history really had such rough lives! And there seems to be a correlation to great Christians ...

I also think it helps the rest of us too ...