Sauli

Last month I had the great honour of being able to join an elite group of artists - just 500 worldwide - in order to further my progress in Photoshop Artistry.

I have been busy creating various pieces for various projects ongoing within the group, but most are not on a religious or faith theme.

This piece however, touched somehing quite deep and seemed to coincide with events concerning the Roman Catholic Church this week. So I decided to post it here.

I appreciate this blog has been rather neglected of late - my 93 year old dad's illness, near death and hospitalistion has affected life to a great entent.

However, I shall do what I can when I can.

Anyway, back to this piece! This is the background to it...

Sauli -This piece is named for Saint Alexander Sauli who became a bishop in a diocese where faith had died. He inspired the people to new faith, corrected abuses, rebuilt broken down churches, and founded colleges and seminaries.

As the word fractal originates in the Latin verb frangere - to break, shatter, I wanted a title encompassing that. With the women speaking out this week against the damage males are creating within the RCC, this Saint's name appealed! I discovered the name Sauli is actually a female name in some countries and liked everything that encompasses!

TFL!

January 2018 - New Year!

Well, a lot has happened since 15th December 2017 - the last day I managed to post any art! I came down with a chest infection, head cold on 18th December that still hasn't left me. It really knocked me sideways and affected everything. Can't actually remember the last time I've felt so ill. My youngest daughter also came down with it and was affected just as badly. Now my 93 year old Dad has it and with his already weak health, it's causing some worry. None of which is conducive to feeling creative and motivated!

A few days ago I managed to sit up at my PC and created some art - and caught up on thousands of emails! It's a start. I may go back and try to create the pieces I missed out on through Advent and Christmas; I hope to. First, though, I need to feel better!


New Year's Eve saw me with sme free time and so I created a piece that came together in a very different way than is usual for me. I decided to post it here as a good start to 2018. It was created in a different way to my usual, it seems to speak straight from my heart, and really represent some important truth for me that I need to accept and embrace in order to move forward.

This new year will be a year of more change and achievement for our family. Mum and I are working together on a new book. It will take some time to produce as there is just so much information to sift through and organise. There is a story to tell and it will be told!


There are other goals to be met as well - weight loss for hubby and me, and (hopefully) some conclusion to our PI Claim against the local horse riding establishment where my eldest daughter was so badly injured and so badly treated.


When you come through experiences such as my family has, I feel it is important to learn from them; glean what we can from tragedy and sadness, hurt and anger. Nothing in this life should be wasted. I also feel that it is now, as it ever was, so important to speak up about wrong. Draw attention to it and try to change what we can. Where change is refused, then that also needs to be spoken of. Everybody needs to be aware. Silence helps nobody other than those doing wrong.


So that will be our year! Speaking up, speaking out, pushing for improvement wherever we see failures, wrong doing or ignorance. Moving forward creatively and achieving new successes. Continuing to learn new things and above all keeping the wonder at the magnificent Universe we have been given, and all with which we are provided. I've been reading some very basic Quantum Physics (I'm definitely an artist, not a scientist!) and the truths within the Bible become very clear when you learn even a little about how our world, our Universe actually functions. My youngest daughter and I spent 2017 as vegetarians and we are, this year, going to move ever closer towards being vegan. Writing these things here makes life feel very much a journey and much more positive! Long may it continue!



So here is my piece created on New Year's Eve - Waiting

I think quite possibly this is an expression of the true me...standing alone in so many ways (caring for family members, standing up against wrong in certain areas...) but not disconnected from the rest of the world (the birds) and definitely affected by whatever is around me (the light, the clouds, the path, the fencing...)...and always present is the feeling of, in the end, 'all will be well'. Our God. All-embracing.

However, I can't claim that as any conscious inspiration behind this piece! It does make for an image that I love and which makes me feel comforted and secure. I may often stand alone (in human terms) but I stand strong and upright for all to see. Nowhere to hide in a landscape like that lol, and no desire to hide either!

I'd like to wish everybody a Happy New Year, with much health, wealth, peace and joy.

TFL!
Bernie x

 

 

Journal Your Christmas 2017

Again, keeping up - just - with entries, but not with daily posting!
So here are my pieces for 9th-15th December!
TFL!
Bernie x

Advent 2017

17th December

Matthew 1:20-23

But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet:

“Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us).


"The angel says: 'The child conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.' The Spirit of God that brooded over the first creation is again at work, causing something as original as that; introducing into the world the Word by which the world was first created! This is grace beyond all righteousness, the gift of Christmas."
W. Wangerin Jnr, Preparing for Jesus

TFL!

Bernie x

With grateful thanks to Gabriel Olude, International Photographer, for the Muse.

Advent 2017

16th December

Luke 1:56

Mary stayed with Elizabeth about three months and then went back to her own home.

Matthew 1:18-19

Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly.

"Joseph the carpenter.

Joseph, a common man caught up in cosmic affairs;

Joseph, known to his neighbours, yet so unassuming that he sinks swiftly from Biblical sight;

Joseph, more mute in the Gospels than Zechariah, since the words of the latter are recorded in talk and in song, but of the former there are no words remembered, none;

Joseph, husband of Mary, adoptive father of Jesus - Joseph is just a man.

Because the Evangelists say so little about him, each word must bear enormous importance: Joseph is an 'upright' man. For raising his child, Papa Joseph shall be the very model of a righteous man - not so much in what he says as in what he does.

'He resolved to divorce her quietly.' He will make no accusation at all, although he has every right to do so. Joseph resolves to keep the Law, yes, but with such lenience that Mary's life will not be destroyed in the process.

What then is righteousness? These two things: the obedience we owe to God and the mercy God grants us to grant to others. It looks first to god, second to the other, never to the self - yet the self experiences a most holy peace in these relationships.

Come Lord Jesus: Come, live in my heart as you lived in the house of Joseph. I yearn to be as righteous as he. O Lord, become the source of righteousness in me. Amen."

W. Wangerin Jnr,  Preparing for Jesus

With grateful thanks to Gabriel Olude, International Photographer, for the Muses.

TFL!

Bernie x

Advent 2017

15th December

Luke 1:63-66, 80

He motioned for a writing tablet, and to everyone’s surprise he wrote, “His name is John.” Instantly Zechariah could speak again, and he began praising God.

Awe fell upon the whole neighborhood, and the news of what had happened spread throughout the Judean hills. Everyone who heard about it reflected on these events and asked, “What will this child turn out to be?” For the hand of the Lord was surely upon him in a special way.

John grew up and became strong in spirit. And he lived in the wilderness until he began his public ministry to Israel.

"By this question, and by that concluding reference to the child's life in the wilderness until the day of his public appearance, Luke's story forces us to contemplate what the child, in fact, became: John the Baptist, "The voice of one crying in the wilderness, 'Prepare the way for the Lord!'"

As John, who cried 'Prepare' to Israel, was the messenger of that first appearing, so john is the messenger now of the reappearing, the Second coming of Christ!

Still, still he cries: 'Prepare!'

Are we listening?

 W. Wangerin Jnr,  Preparing for Jesus

Although similar to an earlier piece, I wanted to bring the empty manger into a more modern setting, inspired by the final question from the author of the Devotional.

TFL!

Bernie x

Advent 2017

14th December

Luke 1:57-63

The Birth of John the Baptist

Now the time came for Elizabeth to give birth, and she bore a son. And her neighbours and relatives heard that the Lord had shown great mercy to her, and they rejoiced with her. And on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child. And they would have called him Zechariah after his father, but his mother answered, “No; he shall be called John.” And they said to her, “None of your relatives is called by this name.” And they made signs to his father, inquiring what he wanted him to be called. And he asked for a writing tablet and wrote, “His name is John.” And they all wondered.

"The Lord has shown great mercy to you! Literally, the word is: 'The Lord MAGNIFIED his mercy with you.' It's the same word Mary used in her hymn of praise.

And this great mercy shown to you, Elizabeth, is exactly what Mary meant when she sang: 'His mercy is on those who fear him.'   You fear him. You are one of low degree whom God your Saviour has exalted. You are the hungry whom he will fill with good things.

And this is how "mercy" always comes to us, isn't it? - like a baby delivered in old age: the miracle we thought we had outlived, the gift we thought impossible to receive. It always astonishes us.

And this is how "mercy" comes - like a baby: something which, through us, God gives to us; something completely new and whole on its own; the gift we ourselves must serve and nourish; the gift, nevertheless, that grows up and loves us and finally carries us when we tremble in our dotage.

And this is what "mercy" is: that which fulfils our heart's desire, that gives purpose to our lives, that which also allows us not only to be loved, but also to love completely.

So God grants you this child, and that is his mercy.

Then let no one call the gift by some earthly name. Though it is now I who much nourish the gift...let no worldly voice argue that I am the source, that I earned or deserved it.

The gift that developed within me was not passed down from my parentage to me, not from my race, my culture, my education, prestige or position. Nor could it arise from my own self, my nature or my doing.

This great mercy must receive the name God gives to it: John. Johanan: The Lord has been gracious.

Elizabeth, you bore the son

Who went before the holy one;

But it was you who went before the mother of our Lord.

'Twas you your cousin watched to see

How she might bear her own baby;

So I watch you, the one who bore

The mercy of the Lord.

Amen."

W. Wangerin Jnr,  Preparing for Jesus

TFL!

Bernie x