Day 15 of Lent, and I Am Up To Something
Beauty is a weapon, for sure. It refreshes us, it raises our conscious levels of thought. This is why original art can deeply affect your life. Think of it: you bring an image into your space, and it lives with you, daily giving you whole minutes of something different and elevated to think about. Over the weeks, months, and years, those minutes add up.
Not only that, but original art makes the spaces where we live out our stories come alive. Literally adding color and texture to our ordinary days.
The making of a piece of art is an act of deliberate generosity.
Here’s how I’ve been spending my “Middle Day”, this week:
This is just the block-in. Just a quick iPhone video - because I want to show you. And a little bit of something shared is better than a whole lot of nothing shared at all.
What you see here is something like the 3rd iteration on this canvas. I have big feelings about it - finally, I am resonating with what on it. I look forward to (hopefully) finishing it this week.
2021 and beyond belongs to (all the various and sundry) makers. I just know it!
“All art is an act of faith — a faith that life itself, with all its tragedies and flaws, can be improved by creating something new and putting it out into the world. I’m not sure we’ll ever go back to what life was just a few months ago, but I do have faith that artists will remain a crucial part of whatever new one we come up with.” (MH Miller)
Day 1 of Lent {...it's not about what you do not do - it's about what you DO...}
This past Sunday, The Preacher taught on 2 Peter 1:5, “Add to your faith, virtue.”
And, though this year I’m “giving up” certain things, choosing to pray at certain times, and finding new ways to give to others as a Lenten practice, I thought his message was actually far-and-away the clearest “Lent message” I had ever heard.
(Caveat: my preacher is an out-of-the-box charismatic, interdenominational, reformed, somewhat evangelical protestant who has never preached an “official” Lent message in his life. He is a new covenant Pauline gospel guy, with an apostolic heart and a deep understanding of Hebrew roots (thank you to his many Jewish best friends) - a hybrid mutt - and he refuses to be ashamed of it.)
(I’m humming me some Tammy Wynette: “…stand by your man…”)
The definition of that Greek work “virtue” can easily be defined as “courageous initiative”. It most decisively involves action.
I am not what I know. I am not a list of moral codes that define what I “do not do”. I am definitely not what I talk about. I am not what I profess. I am what I have already done.
No one can reverse-engineer that. I cannot suddenly call myself an artist or an author. (Well, I could, but that is a potential problem that goes beyond the scope of this short blog post!). I have to have written. I have to have made art that others would want to buy.
If I could rewind the movie of my life, say, ten years, I could show you all the seemingly one thousand ordinary Monday mornings where I “added to my faith, virtue”. I picked up the paintbrush and I painted (crap).
I sat down at the computer and I wrote (garbage).
And I worked. And I did. And I acted. And I took initiative after initiative after initiative.
This is something that, though you cannot reverse engineer it, I hope you can identify areas in your life where you have already taken decisive, courageous action. Daily, decisive action. Consistent initiative.
This is also the virtue spoken of in Proverbs 31.
For me, this morning, a lenten practice looks like a fresh, new morning prayer practice. It also looks like “adding to my faith, virtue”. And virtue looks like finishing a painting and having the courage to offer it when (oh, for sure) not everyone will love it. It may not sell. But I love it. It came from a place of passion, deep in my spirit.
This morning, this is a practice of Lent. This morning, virtue be like….
….this.
(post edit: this painting sold in less than five minutes after posting this! Thank you! For future reference, if you see a piece of art shared in a blog post, check my shop for availability -OR- tap the “contact” button at the top of each blog post, and inquire!)