Category Archives: Paintings

April 21, 2012 · 2:46 am

The color red.

Think of the color red. What comes to mind? I see a bright red, almost like a Delicious apple. I see lipstick. I see STOP signs. These are the first things I think of when I say the word, “red.” Isn’t it interesting to think that we all see different shades of colors? My shade of red is not the same of your shade of red. Not sure where I heard that, but I did once…maybe in a science class. Just another example of how unique each person is. 🙂 (Don’t believe me? Look it up. I just did and found many sites to confirm.) 🙂

Red. Seems to be the infamous color of most major sports teams here in this side of the country. I see red every day at work…I even wear a red shirt. (Of course some have seen their better days. I have a red shirt with pink polka dots on the bottom. I was helping a lady get things out of her cart and did not realize that her Clorox was leaking…or had been leaking her whole shopping trip. The grand finale was all over my red shirt and hands. I was very clean, but the smell gave me a headache. To reduce the white spots, we colored it in with a red magic marker. Genius, but it is now fading with every wash.)

There are different tones of red. Have you ever stopped to see around you the different tones of colors? Red. It can have several different meanings.

Beauty: Male birds such as Cardinals–very bold red! There are also Robins…their chest is a shade of red/orange. The only other red bird that I can pick out in the crowd is named…are you ready for this? It’s named “Purple Finch.” What on earth?!? It is red! I don’t understand that one! But hey, we all see different shades of colors. 😉 I found a website where it names all the birds (primarily the North American birds) that have shades of red. Very interesting. http://www.whatbird.com/browse/objs/all/birds_na_147/110/color/2066/red

Old barns. (Why do farmers paint them red anyway? Is it for a specific purpose or just the classic farm look? Either way, I think they are beautiful to see among the farm-house and equipment.) There are also a lot of red fruits (which happen to be my favorite!) Strawberries, cherries, tomatoes, watermelons, raspberries, cranberries, grapes and apples–each designed in a different shade of red and also flavor.

There is beauty in red when I think of love. There are red hearts and red roses. Just thinking of love made me think of passion. Passion reminded me of lust. Did you know that “lust” is an actual shade of red? I just learned this! Of course in context and definition, love and lust have different connotations. Love, so much more than just Valentine’s Day. C.S. Lewis said,

To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket-safe, dark, motionless, airless–it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable.

There is a beauty in symbolism, such as the USA flag. As Secretary of the Continental Congress, Charles Thompson said, “Red, [signifies] hardiness and valour,” (Duane Streufert. 2005.) There is a red ring within the Olympics five rings (representing the five continents). And of course Christmas. Red and green. There are obvious ones that I am not sure of the meaning. Why is Rudolf’s nose red? Or why does Santa wear a red suit? There are red berries on mistletoe, red strips on candy canes and the wise men gave three gifts to Jesus: Gold, frankincense and myrrh. I thought maybe myrrh was red based, but was not certain until I looked it up. It is. 🙂 I found this site so interesting! http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/life/botany/question2831.htm. And last, when I think of myrrh, I also think of red rocks. I lived near Denver’s Red Rocks amphitheater. Beautiful! There is also the Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs and my personal favorite that I hope to see someday: Petra (Mount Hor, Jordan). Truly beautiful!

From: http://www.oddee.com/item_89087.aspx (If you love history and architecture, then read this site. It is about the 10 lost cities.)

Practical uses: STOP signs, which were not always red. In fact there were no such things as stop signs at the beginning of the 20th century. You think seeing a person run a stop sign or run through a red light today is maddening, listen to this:

At a time when there were no driver’s licenses, speed limits or clear lane demarcations, the notion of a stop sign was revolutionary. In fact, aside from the occasional road markers letting riders on horseback know how far they were from the next city, there was no road or street signage at all. (Greenbaum and Rubinstein, December 2011.)

Sounds pretty chaotic! Even when they were put into place they were “a 2-by-2-feet sheet of metal with black lettering on a white background” (Greenbaum and Rubinstein). It wasn’t until 1954 that they turned red. There are other warning signs. I took this picture at an old mill. I thought it was hilarious considering my history of falling and weak ankles:

Fire extinguishers, EXIT signs in buildings, rear lights on automobiles, and flashing lights of police, fire and ambulance vehicles all contain red. People who take pictures like to take out red: reduce red-eye functions. Growing up, we graded papers at school with a red pen. Red helped you see your mistakes. Have you ever read the classic book, The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne? The scarlet letter is an uppercase A attached to Hester’s dress, representing the shame and punishment of adultry. Although I was not a big fan of the book in high school, I would like to read it again realizing that there is so much imagery and symbolism that I might not have understood before. My Bible uses red print in the four Gospels and Acts to show when Jesus speaks. When I paint, I have to be careful; red takes over the other colors. Sometimes the blendings make a deep blend of purple, which helped on my mountain portrait…but other times if I use too much red then it ruins the painting. Likewise in opposite cases, I add red to bring out some flavor of an otherwise dull piece of art. Red is so practical.

What do you see in red? I started out with a short hand written list. The more I thought of the color, the more came to my mind. Take time this weekend to enjoy your favorite colors, whether it is red or another. Red is not necessarily my favorite color, but it was a great place to start (it is the first color of the rainbow you know–at least from top to bottom. I learned it as ROY G BIV. Others learned it the opposite way with violet starting, VIB G YOR. Makes more sense to me the first way.) 😀 More to come…

References:

C.S. Lewis. http://thinkexist.com/quotes/c.s._lewis/

Duane Streufert. 2005, February 10. What Do the Colors of the Flag Mean? The Flag of the United States of Amercia. Retrieved April 20, 2012 from http://www.usflag.org/colors.html

Hilary Greenbaum and Dana Rubinstein. 2011, December 9. The Stop Sign Wasn’t Always Red. The New York Times. Retrieved April 20, 2012 from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/11/magazine/stop-sign.html

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April 16, 2012 · 12:43 am

Cursive handwriting.

It is a dying art. At least that is my opinion. Not too many people I know write in cursive. A few I can confirm: my mom, my grandmas, one grandpa, and just a few older lady friends who write me cards. I really can’t say that I know anyone my age that writes pure cursive at all times. Think of how many generations wrote in cursive! It is almost like a language: when you stop using it or practicing, you forget it. I realized this during yesterday’s spontaneous lesson.

I just finished a book called, Signing Their Lives Away: The Fame and Misfortune of the Men Who Signed The Declaration of Independence, by Denise Kiernan and Joseph D’Agnese. It is a really interesting book! So often we only hear about the famous men such as John Adams, Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin. There are 56 signers and for most I had never heard of their names before, which means that I had a great history lesson reading this book! Fascinating to read about their upbringings/occupations, impact of the revolution, their duties during and after the war in public service, and how their lives ended.

Now, obviously, these men did a lot of writing. They corresponded to each other in letters, wrote documents and edited them using paper and a feather tipped in ink before the documents ever reached the printing press. And people think typewriters were a pain. 😉 Now, the signers names caught my attention: Some of their names are shortened, such as only writing the first two or three letters of their first name before they affix their last names; some signatures are big–such as John Hancock, who also had excellent penmanship; some are small, and others are a bit sloppy–such as Stephen Hopskins (Kiernan and D’Agnese. p. 38, 50).  Fifty-six signatures and they all had one thing in common (as far as writing style goes): they are all in cursive. Let me say that again. These famous signatures are written in cursive!!!

I thought to myself, “When was the last time I wrote in cursive?” The answer: probably 5th grade. We were required to write in cursive in elementary school, then had a choice in junior high of what our preference was in writing. I liked to write fast (still do), because I think fast. Cursive took me so long to write, so I opted for a sloppy something in between cursive and print. I sometimes use an uppercase cursive “L” for paintings, but that is about it. This was a wedding present for my best friend back home:

Thus, my thoughts all came to one conclusion: I must write in cursive! I borrowed Mom’s “feathered” pen–she had attached two fake daisies and leaves to the top of a pen, seemed feathery enough!–and off I started with vicarious intents! I got my “T” down, but my hand could not follow the motions that my brain was trying to remember. I ended up just sitting there at the table staring at a blank piece of paper. It was then I decided that if signer John Penn could teach himself how to read and write at the age of eighteen (p. 202), then I could relearn cursive handwriting! I googled “How to write in cursive” and found myself with oodles of practice printouts from www.abcteach.com. I found the experience enlightening. My dad noticed and said it was actually good Occupational Therapy. Genius! 😀 If I graded my practice sheets, I would probably given myself a B-. HAHA!!! Serious though, the “Q’s” and “Z’s” are somewhat ridiculous.

After a quick practice, I wrote a short paragraph. What do you know?!? My handwriting is actually legible!!! 😀

I enjoyed a short “back to school moment.” The hardest issue for me was not lifting my pen. A website called “wiseGEEK” says,

When writing cursive, never remove your pencil from the paper in the middle of the word. All the letters are connected together through a series of loops. This gives the letters an appearance of flowing together                                       (Conjecture Corporation, 2003-2012).

I am not sure if I will write all the time in cursive. Maybe here and there now that it is fresh in my memory and good therapy for my hands. Regardless, I think it is beautiful art within the written language (when written smooth and in the author’s own signature style). It is something that I hope we never lose completely. If you have not written in cursive for a while, try it! I think you will find that your hand remembers the motions of the letters quickly once you get started. Have fun and more to come…

References:

Kiernan and D’Agnese. (2009). Signing Their Lives Away: The Fame and Misfortune of the Men Who Signed The Declaration of    Independence. Philadelphia: Quirk Books.

“What Should I Know about Writing Cursive?” wiseGEEK: clear answers for common questions. Conjecture Corporation, 2003-2012. http://www.wisegeek.com/what-should-i-know-about-writing-cursive.htm.

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April 13, 2012 · 12:20 pm

Friday, the 13th.

I must be brief: 1 pm approaches!! Good thing I am not superstitious. I am not awaiting doom. I have already crossed paths with a black cat. Muffy is not bad luck…except for when he shows off his dinner on the back patio or the time he pranced in the house with a mouse head and dropped it on the kitchen floor. My parents were gone on a date and I knew Dad would be so upset if he found out. I put Muffy outside and cleaned the floor, topping it off with Lysol–much like a child putting on their own Reddi Wip on angel food cake. 🙂 Mom came home and asked if I had been cleaning…well, yes!–the kitchen floor at least. 🙂

Back to 1 pm. Momentous. My artwork goes up for display/sale at a coffee shop in town! 🙂 There are two coffee shops in town: one is real art focused with live music on the weekends and some tables are made of checker boards. The other one is their neighbor, but it is more a style where I would go to discuss philosophy or study history. It is very patriotic themed with old American paintings and documents aligned on the walls. It has a historic feeling to it. The outside patio is right on the river. A wonderful place to contemplate or enjoy a fresh breeze and shade in the heat of summer. My paintings are going in the first coffee shop.

I am both nervous and excited. All this week–after returning from my grandparents house over the Easter weekend, getting back to work, and last week of physical therapy–the focus has been painting and getting ready for today. Lesson learned: painters do not procrastinate. Not that I painted in a hurry–I am proud of my work and this has been a good experience. Usually my paintings are painted with a specific person in mind–a friend or a family member. Now I am painting for a broad/unknown audience. I used most of the same styles of brushstrokes, but really saw an expansion of something new…presenting a display that covers a variety of themes and colors. Some are a serious tone (an 18×24 mountain scene titled, Summit Venture) and some are an upbeat tone (an 8×10 bright-colored, five poppy flower scene titled, Polka dot Poppies).

My uncle is here helping my dad fix the back patio. Aside being an excellent carpenter, he is also excellent with art and music. He has given me great ideas and tips to make my paintings better. Biggest tip: bigger is better. 🙂 I look forward to painting bigger pieces this summer! Last night he was viewing my canvases and asked what my 11×14 was supposed to represent. I had aimed with fireworks in mind (but they are pastel colors…almost like the fading of the fireworks). I had glued three buttons on the bottom to match the colors and give it a bit more spark. The conversation:

Me: “This is fireworks.”

Uncle: “What is this?” (pointing to the buttons)

Me: “Um, people watching the fireworks??” 🙂

The fireworks painting also gave my mom and I a great laugh. She was helping me finalize the titles. We set up the study room like an art gallery then sat down and experimented with different words and titles. We were a bit stuck on the fireworks painting. It could almost be a touch of patriotic theme: The 4th of July. But again, too pastel. I finally blurted out, “Evening Fireworks.” I turned to my mom and she had that look: fireworks ARE in the evening! We laughed so hard I was crying!!! Truly a classic Mel moment! 🙂 We finally took my dad’s advice and named it, Celebration.

I must be off! Time is approaching quickly! More to come…

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March 29, 2012 · 1:45 am

Mercy.

Yesterday was hard. Not physically hard, but emotional. I turned in the keys to my apartment. I loved that place. It was hard to let it go. It was the first time that I have ever had a place on my own. It was in a quiet neighborhood; my patio faced the pond, bonus that it was on the first floor so I did not have to worry about stairs. I even had a garage so I did not have to scrap my car in the mornings and it was only ten minutes from work. I moved in the second week of November 2011, but between chemo every other week plus a family reunion at Thanksgiving, Christmas season work bliss and my sister’s wedding the first weekend of January, I had just officially settled in a few short weeks before the blood clot hit. I spent one night there two weeks ago. That was my last.

The time spent in my apartment, although short, has fun memories. I had enjoyed decorating, especially my 2-foot tree at Christmas. I hung my paintings and had a Greece/Rome corner in my living room which held my books, papers and photos from college days of study and travel. I hosted my little sister and some of her college friends right before finals in December for an evening of Elf (the movie) and snacks. I even gave a speech. 😀 (from Fozziwhig’s Christmas party speech on Muppet’s Christmas Carol!)

Of course, there were other aspects that were not so fun such as killing spiders. One night, I was preparing for the next day. I think it was a chemo weekend, because I was headed over to my parents that night. Anyway, since I don’t own a dresser, I keep my “unspeakables” in a little basket near my shoes. I was just about to grab some socks and the biggest wolf spider crawled out, and fast! I screamed so loud and jumped back as far as I could. It moved and I screamed again. It crawled behind the main bedroom door, so it was either try to run past it and get out in the living room or close the door and be stuck in the same room. I did not want it to go under my bed and it was far too big to kill with my shoe. I knew my Swifter stick was in the hall closet, so I started to move towards the door. Normally I would not do this, but because Dad would not believe me of how big the spider actually was, I took a picture of it. Yes. And it was so disgusting.

After I took my far off picture of the spider behind my door, I think my moving caused it to go out in the hallway. I was shaking and grabbed my Swifter as fast as I could from the closet, because the spider was now in the bathroom. I started hitting the floor with my stick, but kept missing. I have a purple city bathroom theme, so my bathroom mat is a nice dark purple; I am missing the spider every time I hit the floor because I cannot see it. Finally, it crawled off the mat and I hit it. I think I killed it the first time, but just to be sure I hit it a few more times. I have some sort of arachnophobia or something, because I was shaking so bad. I even took a picture of the dead spider just to make myself feel better. Of course I deleted them after I showed my dad. 🙂 I did not want to pick it up with just a kleenex. I got a trash bag to cover my hand and then grabbed several napkins. I threw everything in the trash–spider, napkins and bag. Then washed my hands. 🙂 I tell you–I have a serious spider problem! I packed so fast after that and put all my “unspeakables” in the wash. Such a funny story now, but at the time… I was traumatized. Lesson learned: never keep anything but your shoes on the floor.

I am thankful for the time spent in my apartment. It is a place I know God provided and even if it was only for a short time, I still enjoyed every part of it. It still does not make moving easy. To be honest, I am so confused. In Denver, I seemed to have it all put together. Here it seems like my life is falling apart. I don’t blame God or even ask “Why?” I think God is bringing me to a place in my heart where I can’t control my physical outcomes anymore, so I just have to trust Him to know that His plan is best. Maybe I took too much control in Denver. Even here, I thought I was fine doing things on my own. I am independent, yet my body is slowly becoming dependent. It makes a hard struggle between mind and body.

Most of my struggle the night before was guilt. I have been shown extreme mercy from my apartment complex who said if I turned in my keys by March 31st, then that would be it. No extra fees, nothing. Only God can ordain a situation such as this. I also have merciful parents who let me move back in with them for the time being. The mercy given has made me feel like I need to pay penance or something–prove myself worthy. Dad told me that I put the guilt on myself, because that was not their intentions nor the apartments intentions. I think it is part of my troubled spirit finding peace in the situation. I was still struggling with guilt when I got out of bed in morning. While at work, the song “In Christ Alone” (Townsend and Getty, 2002.) came to mind, especially the last chorus:

No guilt of life, no fear in death–this is the power of Christ in me. From life’s first cry to final breath, Jesus commands my destiny. No power of hell, no scheme of man can ever pluck me from His hand. ‘Til He returns or calls me home, here in the power of Christ I’ll stand.

No guilt in life. God is still working with me in this area. I did not paint this out of guilt, but I did want to show the apartment how grateful I am for their mercy. I could not think of a title. I sat in the car before I went into the office and just stared at the painting. My mom finally suggested Matthew 5:7, “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall be shown mercy.” And that is what I put.

So where do I go from here? Not sure. Just praying for direction. My mom gave me these verses today: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight.” ~Proverbs 3:5-6. Seems like the best way to restart the journey.

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March 17, 2012 · 12:45 am

Trees, trees, trees.

I just love trees!! The spring weather is in the air which means the tree buds and leaves are starting to peek out with new color. I took some pictures the other day of the pretty blossoms on these certain trees. I am not sure what kind of tree…our best idea was some sort of crabapple? None the less, they are beautiful!

Can you see the little hairs coming off the blossom? Almost reminds me of raspberries on a tree. 🙂 Have you ever read Shel Silverstein’s book, The Giving Tree? I think it is a neat story about giving of yourself to show love to others. I remember first reading that book in elementary school and crying at the end. (If you have not noticed by now–I am a very emotional person. 🙂 )

Silverstein’s book made me think…what do I like most about trees or need most from trees? To answer the first part of the question, I like the shade trees give on a sunny day; watching birds; standing near the trunk of the tree and looking upwards into the sky–the tree branches mingled with each other creating an artistic abstract of dark solid features against the sky; and their radiance when the sun shines on the leaves or seeing the treetops sway from the wind, yet their base is standing still. I think the obvious needs are oxygen and products I use every day, such as paper or sitting on wooden chairs at my wooden table. My need for the trees is small compared to animals like birds, squirrels, and bears to name a few (or in other places: monkeys, snakes, and jaguars 🙂 ) Interesting to think about from a different perspective.

I also like C.S. Lewis’ and J.R.R Tolkien’s view of trees. In both Narnia and the Lord of the Rings, trees are used as a living expression. In Narnia, the trees dance, send messages to each other and some spy for the White Witch. In Lord of the Rings, the “Ents” help destroy Isengard. I often wonder if these two scholars had any verses from the Bible in mind when they were creating the trees for their novels. Isaiah 55:12 says, “…all the trees of the field will clap their hands.” Neat! 🙂

I am still uncertain of how this verse came to my attention, but it is what I based this painting upon:

But blessed are those who trust in the LORD and have made the LORD their hope and confidence. They are like trees planted along a riverbank, with roots that reach deep into the water. Such trees are not bothered by the heat or worried by long months of drought. Their leaves stay green, and they never stop producing fruit. ~Jeremiah 17:7-8

Trees are beautiful anywhere you travel! Here are a 2 favorite pictures of trees from different places:

Washington D.C.–Cherry Blossoms. The trees literally made a little “cove” feeling that was shaded from the sun.

Book fair in Athens, Greece! Can you see the trees? The leaves are purple! They were lovely!

And now my embarrassing pictures. I love Fall–when the leaves are on the ground. Time for jumping in the leaves!

Sadness, I cannot jump and thus, pictures end up like this:

HA, HA, HA 😀 There you have it!

More to come…

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