January 31, 2008
Community Piece
I haven't finished the piece, but the deadline for the exhibit came and it was at an acceptable place so it's done until March 1 when I'll texture on some more words and glaze it to finish it up. I'm pretty happy with it but it is a little frustrating to be so close to having it the way I want it to look and having to wait.
Community: Leroy Barber as it was when submitted for the exhibit.
Here's a close up so you can see better how I left the grid lines visible. I love the texture this gives.
A close up of the first half of the wording I have on so far. The thick glaze was still a little wet. The white spots will be see through when it's completely dried.
The second half of the wording. I think I'll add slightly more red to the Y so it stands out a little bit against the lighter background.
Our church arts group is going to be putting on a show downtown later this year on human trafficking, trying to call attention to the issue. Our church is in the middle of making a documentary on the issue. Brandon, the guy in charge of video has been around the country and out of the country and actually interviewed some of the women trapped in the sex trade (He's been to Atlanta; I wonder if he interviewed some ladies from our old neighborhood). I'm planning on getting some photographs from Brandon and doing portraits of these women for the human trafficking show. I'm really excited about that. It's cool how this came about, too. We were in a church meeting discussing how as a body we've been led in the direction of "Isaiah 61" ministries and what we're planning on doing as a church to take action on issues like human trafficking, the environment, illiteracy and so on. When our pastor Tri brought up the sex trade and Brandon's documentary again I was really impressed with how much I wanted to paint these women's portraits. Then I was thoroughly convicted that we had to do a major show bringing attention in our area to the issue. After the meeting various ministries from the church had tables set up for folks to sign up. I bee lined it for the two chicks that head up our art group. As I opened my mouth to tell them my idea I realized they were having sign ups for a human trafficking art exhibit. They were excited about my conviction as a confirmation to them and I'll be helping to get this together as things get going.
January 26, 2008
Overworked and Exciting Work in Progress
Let's start with the exciting WIP cause that way you can skip all the pictures I have of the finished one if you so desire. I'm doing a painting for an exhibit with the theme Community. My former pastor Leroy Barber is a man who has a passion for what I think God sees as true community. He taught Andy and I a lot about the importance of being intentional with relationships and healing, especially in the area of racial reconciliation and friendships with the poor and needy. His portrait was an easy pick for me when thinking about community. I chose to do it in the grid form made famous by Chuck Close. I liked the grid style for the idea of community b/c when you paint each individual square it makes no sense at all. While a single square can look cool in itself it just doesn't stand well on it's own. But when you step back and view all the squares together there's an entirely new beauty, function and sense to the entire piece. This style says a lot about what we're to be (esp) as a Christian community.
I've been itching to do this style for a while but had to throw off my insecurities and fears first. God's freed me up a lot in my art and I'm loving doing this piece! I've given myself permission to "fail" (in my eyes) and work fully in the enjoyment and glory of God. It's so much fun! So, here's what it looked like a couple days ago. It's tedious and slow but like I said, I'm loving it.
And here's the latest one I've finished. It's called Exalt. I like it okay but I overworked it. I'm grateful for the new perspective God's given me that I can realize the successes and accept the failures in this piece and know I've got to keep creating if I'm going to get better. Sorry the pictures are such poor quality. I'm just not a photographer. We'll leave that to my sister.
Some details of the wording.
Gid's a little partial to this guy.
I'm a little partial to his foot.
I gessoed leaves throughout before beginning the painting. That turned out to be fun though hard to paint on at times.
I finished the birds and sun and knew I wanted something else at the upper right side. That night I decided to start a butterfly the next day. The next morning Gideon assessed the painting and told me I should paint a butterfly up there. I hadn't mentioned one at all, so a butterfly it was!
January 21, 2008
Things I always Want to Remember
Right now, Isaac calls Gid Geeyun.
Ike also uses the phrases Where we are we? and Not quite yet as in the other day when he left the bathroom, I asked him if he'd wiped, he said, "Not quite yet," and ran back into the bathroom.
Phineas is still contained in his bed in the mornings and I often lay in bed for a while, pregnant sick, and listen to him call before finally having mercy on him and getting him up. What I love is that he'll call, "Mommeee! Mommeee! Mommeeeeeeeeeeee!" A pause then, "Arloooooo! Arloooooo!"
Last night I admonished the boys to stay very quiet, stay in bed and go right to sleep. I then commenced to reading in the tub. Sometime later Ike came in and said, "So, Gid has to go pee-pee." Me: "Are you planning on doing it for him?" "No. He needs to go pee-pee. So can he do it?" "Um, quietly and then right back to bed." "Okay." He ran back out of the bathroom and I soon heard Gid whisper, "Well? What did she say?"
It's also incredibly cute to me that Isaac precedes many of his statements these days with "So."
Driving through a heavy snow the other day (yes, I allowed my craving for an Arby's roast beef to endanger my life and the lives of my children) Gid says, "So, Mom, how's this snow storm treatin' ya?" I reply, "Oh, not too badly, I just have to drive very slowly." "Well, Mom, it's kinda freakin' me out back here."
January 19, 2008
Baby Names
We had a talk w/the boys at lunch today about what to name the new baby. Gid's felt pretty strongly from the moment we told him I was pregnant that the baby should be a girl and we should name her Christmas Tree. I assured him he could call her that even if we named her something else. So, minus the girls name we've pretty much decided on, here's the list of names (we haven't chosen a boys name yet).
Girls
Christmas Tree
Lily
Amaya
Maia
Wheezie
Boys
Penmarker-No-teeth-til-you're-a-toddler-and-older-and-you-can't-eat-food-until-you're-older-and-you-have-teeth (we can call him Pen for short)
Honor
Ocho
Iv Biin
Zak
Some explanations are in order. Lily is a name Andy and I liked and the boys approved of. Amaya and Maia are girl friends of Gid's from Sunday school. He says pretty much anything that ends in -aia is good. Wheezie is the girl side of the two-headed dragon on Dragon Tales. Classy. I don't think there's any explanation needed for the Penmarker name though I do have to admit I think Penmarker has a nice ring to it. Honor was one we came up with when trying to explain to Gid that the meaning of the name is very important and should remind us and the new baby of how we're to live to honor God. Gid likes it because it rhymes with his friend Conner. Ocho is what the little boy, Paco, calls Herbie in Herbie Goes Bananas. Iv Biin is Gid's spelling of I've Been from a joke they heard on Super Why and think is hilarious. It goes like this: Knock knock. Who's there? Ivan. Ivan who? Ivan working on the railroad all the live long day. . . Only Gid and Ike don't get that you say Ivan instead of I've been and that's what's supposed to make it so funny. Yeah. And as sweet as it would have been for Gid to have wanted to name the baby after our good friend, Zach, the Zak he came up with is the boy side of the aforementioned two-headed dragon. Oh, yeah. I almost forgot to add the name Josiah. That's the only name Isaac could come up with after I used it as an example of names we won't pick because dear friends have already used them. Something tells me he missed the point.
So there's our list for now. Feel free to weigh in or give suggestions but expect us to pretty much ignore you. We didn't have much support on Gideon and Phineas but they're such blessings of names and carry so much power already in the boys lives. I'm continually amazed especially at how suited Gid's name is for him and how much he personally needs the message of how weak he is but that God makes us into mighty warriors. And I'd always wanted to name my first son Isaac, but God held it back in our hearts until our second son and that name suits our passionate Ike so perfectly and doesn't fit with Gid at all. I pray that God gives us wisdom in choosing this next name as well. I pray that it will be prophetic and a life-long exhortation to this new baby.
January 14, 2008
January 10, 2008
We're playing. . .
The Monahans. Gid came in and said, "Let's play the Monahans. I'm Dana, you're Miss Karen, Dad's Papa Matt and what are the other names?" So we've been pretending to be the Monahan family this morning. Gid and Ike have been running around all morning with, "Hey, Janie, try to catch me". . . "Dana, can you find me over here?". . . "Miss Karen, what's Phin's name again?" etc. There's conveniently a corresponding person in each of our families. Though Karen, Gid wants to know what the name of the baby growing inside you is. . . Does he know something we don't?
Phat Matt, head of the Monahan clan.
January 09, 2008
The New Baby - 12 wks
I had another midwife appt yesterday and things are looking great - perfect little heartbeat, I haven't lost any more weight and my uterus is measuring exactly right for my dates. I had some blood taken & they sent some urine off to a lab. The results will be back in a couple days but things look good. Oh, and I was able to make my next appt for when my sister and one of my nephews will be in town. Fun.
We haven't decided whether we'll find out the gender this time. Andy and I will be thrilled either way. It'd be fun to have four boys, but a girl would be a new type of blessing. Gideon, however is not so neutral. He's vehemently rooting for a girl - big time. The midwives we go to don't do routine ultrasounds or routine vaginal exams (what? follow the science that shows they don't make any difference in the healthy outcome of the baby or mother?). They only perform either if medically indicated or if the mother really wants it. Part of me says it would be good for Gid to have time to adjust to the idea of another brother but a stronger part of me keeps saying he's going to have to adjust whether he finds out through ultrasound or at birth. And at birth I have the strong feeling he'll fall immediately in love with the baby whatever gender it is. He wants to be at the birth and I think we'll probably go with that. He's watched all the videos of his and his brother's births and while my yelling makes him "feel sad for a minute" he maintains he really wants to see the new baby be born. So as long as we can find an appropriate caretaker available to attend the birth with him, right now it looks like he'll be along for the ride.
January 07, 2008
Gid's Letter to the "Costoom Man"
So Gideon's decided he needs a frog costume. One he can swim in. So I found frog goggles and ordered a blue and green lycra body suit as this summer's swim gear. Don't think he hasn't thought of his need for webbed feet. I'll order the flippers another month. So, about two hours after we ordered the suit Gid wanted to know where in the world that costume was and why it was taking so long. We had the delivery talk (again) and he decided he just needed to know where in route the suit was, so we needed to call the delivery man. On finding I didn't have the delivery man's phone number he felt mailing a letter was in order. So once we thought through the whole thing Gid decided the best course of action was to write a letter to the Costume Man, post it on my blog and figure surely with my vast readership he'll read the letter there. He spent hours typing out the letter. He got frustrated, erasing the whole letter every time he made what he saw as a spelling mistake. The boy started his letter something like this: haycostoommanpleezbreenghtecostoomheer. He's not so good with spacing yet. This usually took him about fifteen minutes until he wasn't happy with something, erased the whole thing and started over again. When his frustration level got too high I talked him into dictating the letter to me. So, while you will be missing out on the collectible spelling of a four and a half year old, you'll still get to peak in on the heart of my little boy. And Costume Man, if you're reading this, please make sure that sexy lycra suit's here by the 17th because I've told him that's when it'll be here.
Dear costume man please bring the costume here quickly and go around other cars. And please vroom your costume truck really fast and make it a motorcycle sound. Where do you live? And please tell us. Wherever you are please tell us and call us on the phone. And please let Gideon put it on while he's sleeping. And please get the frog costume and the frog flippers and the frog googles (editor's note: he said "googles" not "goggles") for under water.
You can see the similarities, yes?
P.S. Don't miss the most absolutely best picture ever taken in the history of the world.
January 03, 2008
I Coulda Died like a rock star!
I had another wake-up-in-order-to-puke episode last night (but this time my darling husband was home to come in and say, "What's going on in here?"). While I was puking I aspirated some of my own vomit. Quite scary and quite surreal. While I was throwing up I breathed in, getting puke in my lungs. So while still puking I had to try to cough the vomit out of my lungs & get fresh air without aspirating more. I'm glad I didn't drown in my own vomit. It was completely scary and completely gross. As my mom said, "This kid must be something pretty special." Oh, and Andy did stay in there to support me. It was he with the great wisdom, "You could've died like a rock star." Cool.