JoDee Luna's Blog, page 28

Abide

Can you collect it, manna from heaven, and then nibble on nurture during those lean days of soul when life forces a rush through every moment?

Camels have humps to store water for long walks through deserts, and we finger fullness of soul when we mull over photos of days gone by. So why can’t we store up grace from those serendipitous moments, and then roll it around on our tongues during those parched times?

Yet grace doesn’t always operate this way. Grace is often given moment by moment. Bread from heaven arrives in an instant, not in truck beds delivered for nine months of needs. And when we nibble a prompted scripture or savor an eternity-filled awareness that awakens us in the night, some crumbs of grace mysteriously find their way into our hearts and then through the ink of our pens and the paintbrushes in our hands.

Abide. We create with grace and manna from heaven forms in the art form we hold in our hands. Grace materializes for other hungry souls, those waiting for a touch from the divine.

What a mystery true fellowship with God and with others is. We receive abundant manna and the supply tumbles above and beyond what our hearts can contain. We receive far more than what we need and our excess forms a part of our writing or art intended for others. Someone sups on something God has given to us: a prompting or promise, sparkle of hope, or strength to go on.

And the food from heaven’s table swells in our spirits, and others enjoy our art or writing or music or sculpture or photo or dance…all because we received, one moment at a time, and then shared our creativity with others.

When we choose to abide, that makes all of the difference in how we, and others, live.

 

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“Believe in your Becoming,” the Key to Creative Management

Perhaps the greatest challenge we creative eclectics face is to believe in our becoming. Sure there are messy workspaces to attend to, jam-packed lives that threaten to squelch our desires, and challenging skills to learn; however, the issue isn’t primarily a directional one but an internal one.

I’m always wondering where my talents are meant to take me instead of trusting in the process of becoming the artist I’m meant to be.

And how ridiculous it is to think that we can always control our creativity. How do you harness a wild steed that sniffs at the wind and wants to roam freely? Creativity is our stallion of soul, resisting the reigns of direction, born to evade the bridle and saddle of our responsible selves.

So believe in your becoming, give yourself permission to create, and to create without restraint. You don’t need to know where your creativity is going to go to make that new art form that is calling to you. You don’t need to have a purpose for creating in order to carve out a few hours to explore those new acrylic paints you purchased or to try an impromptu photo shoot.

So jump on the back of that darting horse of desire, grab a handful of mane, and let creativity take you where it wants to go. I promise you that one-day you will look back over all you’ve accomplished and smile.

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“My Heart Song” Mixed Media

Here is a DIY lesson for creating a mixed media piece I titled “My Heart Song.” The piece was inspired by the wonderful women in my family and among my friend’s who nestle next to my heart. Their friendships bring an ending stream of comfort, wisdom, and encouragement.

Begin by painting a 8″ by 10″ wrapped canvas with unbleached Titanium White. Let this dry, and then apply diluted yellow ochre and light portrait pink-colored acrylic paint to the opposite edges. Next use Tim Holtz’s Distress Ink, Fired Brick and Walnut Stain, and let dry (all acrylics are the “Basics” brand).

Cut two hearts out of old quilts. Apply a mixture of gesso and Golden Gel Medium to the back to puff them up. Put them onto the canvas and then apply a layer of Golden Gel Medium over them.

Next, add embellishments: pressed leaves from your garden, collage heart and banners with words. Dab a bit of gesso over a few areas of the heart.

I created the banners by applying a diluted mixture of yellow ochre and rose acrylic paint. Then I stamped the lettering and finished with an overlay of a stamp with lettering. Finally, ink the edges with Vintage Photo and Walnut Stain. For a fabulous DIY lesson on how to make a vintage tag, visit this post by Paulien Van Den Bosch.

Here’s a close up of a pressed heart leaf, pressed flower, and quilt heart. You can press your own leaves and flowers by placing them between either wax paper or paper towels. Then stack books on top and allow about a week’s drying time. The different papers create different effects so experiment. Ink areas with distress inks to create an aged effect.

Here’s another photo of the finished project with an amber lighting effect. Most importantly, HAVE FUN!

This piece is for sale on my Etsy store.

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Destiny

Sometimes life’s circumstances whisk us away, up and into the air like leaves floating, always floating, directionless, lost, tumbling leaves of living carried by winds of change.

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At other times, the backdraft of someone’s choices sucks us into circumstances that bat us around until we bruise in heart and mind.

Even when winds of healthy change bluster, we often find ourselves clutching the tendrils of crabgrass we call comfort. In those moments, greener pastures pale in comparison to the security of the strangling familiar.

Yet even though we are beset by our humanness, rest assured there is One whose breath is far greater than all of the other blizzards of life. And when He breathes His will, we find ourselves carried to where we need to go, in spirit, in soul, and in body.

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Three things will last forever…

Yesterday, I attended a memorial for my uncle Theo. Theo’s life inspired so many of his family and friends, and so one by one people shared delightful stories about this amazing man. Then in the middle of the message, the pastor read these words, “Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love,” and I fell in love with the Lord once again. So here are some mixed media pieces I present as my tribute to this precious man, and the amazing God Theo chose to call his friend.

I’m fascinated with the concept that faith begins as a tiny seed inside one’s heart.

Hope is the soul’s anchor.

The greatest of these three…

*Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Follow, Create, Love Completely

God’s Spirit cannot be controlled nor marketed, like so much of life is these days. Like a wild, snapping wind, this unseen power defies human will, sliding through grasping fingers and roaming freely. The best we, who profess to believe, can do is to try to follow…to create, and to love completely.

We attempt to follow the promptings of the heart, over and above Twitter feeds filled with flurry from the fan fare of celebrities, rock stars, or Olympian athletes.

We create, first and fore mostly, for God’s eyes only, and if others admire the works of our hands, we blush.

Not only do we attempt to follow and to create, but we also love because to do any differently would not be authentic faith.

And in doing so, we give, and live.

This post is linked to the “True Vine Challenge.”

 

 

 

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Mixed Media Love Heart DIY Project

Here’s a fun DIY lesson for creating a mixed media Love Heart piece. Begin with painting a canvas with an off white background using acrylic paints. Then dab gesso in the shape of a heart.

While the gesso is still wet, crumple up some pieces of tissue paper (the regular kind you buy for gift wrapping). Stick the tissue paper onto the gesso.

Cover the tissue paper with more gesso to create a 3-d effect.

While the gesso is still wet, dab some acrylic paint onto the gesso. You can use your fingers or a sponge.

Next, press a piece of lace over the heart and stamp the canvas with a bubble wrap stamp.

Add a watery layer of yellow ochre paint on some areas of the canvas.

Add corner stamping using Tim Holtz’s Fired Brick Distress Ink.

 

Use a letter stamp to create the postage look and then ink the heart and edges of the canvas with Tim Holtz’s Vintage Photo Distress Ink and Walnut Stain Distress Ink.

Add embellishments of feathers, lace, metal heart, and love word. I created the love word with a piece of tan paper inked with Tim Holtz’s Fired Brick Distress Ink and then antiqued with the Vintage Photo Distress Ink and edged with Walnut Stain Distress Ink. I used Golden Gel Medium to glue the paper embellishment and E 6000 glue for all of the other embellishments.

 

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Full Wings for Full Flight

I wonder whether bouts of depression occur when an artist’s soul goes into creativity’s womb to conceive an artistic expression. Dark, damp places of soul wrap around huddled form, smothering mind with doubts, obstructing hope from filtering through a mood so somber that it makes her flinch. Then in the chrysalis of creativity, she comes to the end of her human wrestling and cries out to her Creator, “Help me.”

While flailing limbs fold to cradle her form, something mystical manifests. Alone, silent, and open to change, ideas and images transform into artistic expressions in ways no words can explain.

Then the artist picks up her paintbrush and strokes honey-soaked magic across canvases dabbled with gloom. She creates the rays of sunlight she envisions bursting through stormy clouds. Fluorescent greens and aqua blues light the morning sky as the inside of her cocoon now splashes upon her new creation.

And unbeknownst to her, a world exists that her eyes can only see through the ideas forming in her brain and the emotions rumbling in her soul. She creates with the Divine while so certain that her dark, dank womb will smother her if she doesn’t.

Whether man, woman, teenager or child, who among us artistic types feels the wings form on hunched over backs? And after they form, does the act of embracing the darkness dip them into surrender’s sweet nectar? Does heaven coat them with belief when we trust during our despair?

We humans function from the perspective of two feet positioned upon solid ground. Yet our spirits can soar in spiritual winds. So I wonder whether wombs of creativity form wings suited for this spiritual realm. Wings, when flapping in flight, are unseen by the naked eye and unheard by the well-tuned ear, wings that form on the backs of those who trust while they cradle pretzel-wrapped bodies.

These wings will take us to other places, not of this world, places where ideas form artistic expressions. Places where God dwells, patiently waiting for us, ready to transfer thoughts from His mind to ours without an audible word spoken.

In time, we will burst through creativity’s womb and fly, and I highly suspect heaven’s nectar will drip from artistic wings onto busy human beings bustling about below. Droplets of hope will fall upon unsuspecting people, and they will marvel, “I was pondering my purpose when all of a sudden passion to create graced me.

 

 

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Purse Strings of Trust

What if trust was like purse strings one could loosen until the leathery pouch of belief lay open to receive divine-gold coins?

What if those gold coins clinked as they landed on the inside, the velvety vulnerability we humans call the heart?

And in the clinking, we could absorb confidence in a Creator who cares far more for us than we could ever imagine.

Every morning, when I rise early to write, I try to listen. Sometimes a dream from the night before wafts through my mind, and I scribble the images and words onto notebook pages.

Sometimes the daily devotional I read wraps around my purse strings, gently loosens the opening, and tosses in a few more coins of faith. Sometimes an impression, ever so slight, draws me to read a particular passage of scripture or page from one of the many books resting on the end table.

And the purse strings unloose a little more, relaxing their taut, taffy-like pull, untangling my doubts. A pocket of promise deep in my soul surrenders to receive the heavenly currency called hope.

In those moments, I feel like the richest woman alive. Nothing else matters except for the jingle of heavenly change, unseen by another’s eyes, yet existing inside of me just the same. A wealth so real that I’m just certain I can finger the coins and feel the velvety lining they rest against.

Then the demands of the day force me to pull purse strings, slip my treasure around a wrist ready for work, and go about the day.

What if trust were like purse strings one could loosen until the pouch of belief lay open, and we could give divine-gold coins away others in need?

Select the photo link below to receive some more gold coins of encouragement:

 

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New Painting: Caged Bird, Sing Me a Song

Caged bird, sing me a song
Of a world you once knew

Over faces shades of brown
Glancing up from each new town
Grass so green and gravel black
Streets of stone with a thousand cracks

Water bluer than the sky
Sand so white it burns the eye
Mountain ranges rising high
Trumped by towers that kiss the sky

READ THE ENTIRE POST…

 

 

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