A very very oldie still speaks for this age's boredom...

I look at this behatted woman each time I go into the shower room. She’s been with me since my art university days with the signature showing that it was before I became EASK or EASGK. It’s quite a while back. I painted her over the hours and days of advanced oil painting class. She was one of the reasons I was offered a free Masters degree if I taught painting for the university. I turned down that offer and I have never regretted it. It would have sealed my fate to live in the USA and I’ve have probably still been there, living in Washington DC. I would have been marching I hope, but I’m not sure if I’d have become quite so political if I’d stayed. One of the beauties of leaving the USA was to see it from the perspective of people who’d never lived there. That is life changing for sure.

When I see her, I remember what I left and I’m glad I did. I also see my boredom (!). I could not be bothered to paint what she was wearing in the colours they were, so I mixed her with some kind of wild background to only use Paynes Grey and Titanium white. Then I got bored with all of those palm leaves and ended up painting shadows! So I look at her and laugh. She sensed my boredom and it came out in her face. I have no idea whether that was this live model’s actual expression.

That laughter helps these days. Her boredom now echoes my boredom and anger with the state of the USA. As time goes on and no one has stopped the Orange Thief, I see how many enablers there are. The news I trust is a loop of “here’s a new thing he’s done/hasn’t done/u-turned on and here are more enablers making it happen.” When I laugh with the sight of this behatted woman, it wakes me to notice what I can do this time to help turn the tide. I wish such tide turning laughter to us all.

It's wiggly, it's simple, it's trying

Like all of us, at some times, I’m sure we experience wiggly, simply or trying. Wiggly works for worms, for excited children, for lines drawn too carefully, for patterns of behaviour. Simple goes along with those ‘duh’ moments when the simple answer arrived right in front of us. “It’s trying” can be applied to any one of us by replacing “it’s” with “they’re”. Or trying could just be hard work.

This wiggly, simply, trying image is from back in the day when I was teaching myself to get as much information with as few lines as possible. It’s from a very long time ago, but it’s likely that you may have been in a meeting with me and seeing me not quite writing in my notebook. The fun of learning eventually worked its way into my paintings with my figurative but still quite ‘loose’ shapes turning into people. I call them Peeps. They now pop up at the turn of a paintbrush or the flick of a stylus.

Back then, I was learning. And now, I still think the image is wiggly, simple and that it shows trying. Back then, I filed it away and called it Thinking Peep. I’ll leave that human with that given name and offer it to you to accompany your own thinking and to give you permission to be wiggly, simple and trying (in whatever way you describe that last word!).

We wait, as ever

I recall when I taught project management. Every time I got to the planning chart (the Gantt 😊) and we talked about project real time as compared to the wonderful plans, I would say that a project manager spends most of their time waiting. They wait for people to do what they’ve promised, they wait for organisations to go through changes so that they can do what they signed up to do, they wait for committees to cancel their meetings, reschedule, get the right people in the room and make the decision they promised to do. They wait for what doesn’t work, then wait for the time it takes to learn, restructure and try again. Waiting. The planning is the easy bit. The planning, adjusting, waiting, reflection and trying again can seem endless.

I wrote all of that because it’s an easy model. Not everything is so easy to see. I reflect, this NAIDOC week when we focus on our First Nations peoples in Australia, that First Nations people in every settler invaded country wait for the broken treaties (if they exist) to be adjusted, restructured and tried again. The citizens of every country wait for elected politicians (if voting is allowed), to do what they’ve promised, then, often, they wait for corruption to appear, then wait for accountability to come out tops. We may wait for test results, medical reports, outcomes of applications, letters or emails in response. Wait. It seems to be the prevailing human condition – a permanent state if impermanency.

What to do?  The image below is a section of the artwork I was commissioned to do for the United Reformed Church 2023 General Assembly. The section has closed hands, slowly opening toward love. When we wait, we can feel like that closed hand, often angry at the time we see slipping away.  I wish you energy in the middle of whatever you wait for, to cherish the waiting time. It’s a gift of time to lay aside what we planned to do, now out of our control, and pick up something we can control. Something which gives us peace or joy. Something which helps us love. Something which helps us change our expectations and make creative decisions.  Hopeful loving energy to you.

Darkness IS as Light

Last week in my reflection with St Michael’s Uniting Church, I felt moved by the scriptures to declare that Darkness simply IS, as is Light. Dark is not evil, nor light good. They just are facts of the presence or absence of a light source. We have so built the dark/light | bad/good dichotomy into our mindset that all you need do is look up the words black and white in any dictionary and you’ll see the negative assumptions in the word black and the positive assumptions in the word white. The Psalmists tell us that the Divine is in both. In both. We need both light and shadow. But the reaction to what I considered a simple message was so strong from some people (positively and personally meaningful) that I was floored. I therefore share this with you, in case you, like many last Sunday, have found yourself in a dark place and considered that you were alone and that God wasn’t/isn’t with you. Divine Love is with you no matter where you are.

I brought the below painting, Darkness is as Light, to illustrate my own places. The left is the darkness of my childhood where I was able to see places of presence and dwell in them, the middle is my own shadow (one of last week’s listeners said it reminded them of Jung’s shadow side wisdom), and the right is the life from the buried grain - resurrection light. Here’s the painting. Here’s the reflection.

Churches grow, still

All of us at St Michael’s Uniting Church, Collins Street, Melbourne, AU, have almost only one thing on our minds (in addition to all the !”$%^%$£” happening to our planet and in our colleague nations). We’ve been worshipping in the Church Hall for almost a year as we’ve been waiting the completion of our Revitalising Project.

The whole point of the building developments has been to give the highest level accessibility possible for St Michael’s to engage with our neighbours in Melbourne’s Central Business District (CBD). The vision and work has much reminded me of The Church at Carrs Lane in Birmingham UK. I was commissioned a while ago to create an artwork which celebrated both the joining of two congregations and the accessibility of the building to make the kind of connections which St Michael’s is committed to reviving. Below is one section of the whole artwork called Tabernacle. This shows the shadow of the old building, glowing with history and life, now being an integral part of the gathering of people. The link goes to a page which tells you all about how this was made by using the communion table top from one congregation and photos from the other congregation. The energy of that creative union spreads all over this newer image of that union and work. We at St Michael’s anticipate a similar kind of energy to flow from the work which is now nearing completion.

Progressive Charismatic. Well, there we are

I led the Pentecost Service this last Sunday, tentatively because I knew what I was compelled to say. Rather than focussing on the Pentecostal explosion of flame and wind, I focussed instead on the ongoing story of God’s visitation as progressively present in our bodies and minds. Not always a great woosh - but true. True presence. Inside our bodies. Widsom, beyond eternity, working from our very flesh and bones, gives us power beyond ourselves to hope, to stare into the turmoil of these times in our planet and know that we’ll have the courage to face anything. God, Godself, named as Holy Spirit gives this. I also focussed on the often overlooked reason for the sudden whoosh of language coming out of the disciple’s mouths in the languages of those gathered. The purpose of God in Holy Spirit is to fill us with that which will help others understand. It is not to save just us and no one else. The infilling of Holy Spirit is to help us build communities of Justice and to receive our own healing as we do.

I told our church about my experience of this physically happening for the first time well over 40 years ago now, then remaining with me for life. This moment I write this blog. I name it. I’m a Charismatic. And I’m a progressive theologian. They/We exist. I was compelled to ‘Come Out’ to my church on Sunday. Here is the service if you want to listen.

This painting is called Red (Holy Spirit colour). A mirror image of me - because I had to look in the mirror :-)

Witness is at home

I'm delighted to share with you that Witness is now fixed in its new home, St Mary's Chapel in the Open Space Trust in Aberdeen. It has taken some while for the building development, as all developments go, and it is a real treat to see this gift from Aberdeen United Reformed Church have such a glorious place. It should help spread good news to visitors from near and far.

https://www.facebook.com/OSTrust/

Please contact me if you would like prints. The following formats are available. All prints on paper are sold on ivory mounting board. Frames may be ordered. Prints on canvas are stretched on wood.

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Embellished Giclee Prints: Embellished Giclee Prints are customised by me adding details, textures, or hand-drawn elements to make each cotton paper print unique. The result is a print that combines the advantages of digital printing with a personal touch.

Giclee Prints on Canvas: Giclee Prints are inkjet sprayed onto artist canvas material. This gives the print a texture and appearance similar to a traditional painting on canvas so that they resemble original paintings.

Embellished Giclee Prints on Canvas: Embellished Giclee Prints on Canvas are customised by me adding details, textures, or hand-painted elements to make each print unique. Embellishments added on top of canvas give the print a more three-dimensional painterly effect.