My guerrilla art adventure!

Last night Lynnae and I painted 9 art pieces and then went out in the snow and nailed them to trees, light poles, and park benches in our city. I put the "you are beautiful" one in a local restaurants bathroom. It was so fun. And we didn't get caught, cause you know, the sentiment is nice, but maybe not everyone wants us nailing art to their tree. I got the idea from jenlemen here and kerismith.com guerrilla artist page here. She says:

Guerilla art is a fun and insidious way of sharing your vision with the world. It is a method of art making which entails leaving anonymous art pieces in public places. It can be done for a variety of reasons, to make a statement, to share your ideas....My current fascination with it stems from a belief in the importance of making art without attachment to the outcome. To do something that has nothing to do with making money, or listening to the ego.

Here are just a few pictures. I so hope the mass of snow we just got didn't cover them up or ruin them. Also posted this for this week's inspiremethursday.com theme "leaving your comfort zone" . This defiantly did that!



Twas fun.

Inspire me thursday: Giving upside-down painting

I generally love color, but for some reason lately I just want to paint things in black and white. This painting is about much more than giving, but I am posting it for the inspire me Thursday giving theme because the upper right square is my image for giving.

It's supposed to be upside down because I like thinking about giving as something that is a contrarian act. Even though at Christmas it's the thing to do, to really give we have to break the pattern we normally live in.

Sometimes giving causes us to turn ourselves upside down. When I worked on staff at a Bible Camp we called this the "upside-down kingdom". The upside down kingdom was a world where we gave instead of took, served instead of led, and where the last would be first.

Inspire me thursday: Paradox - a remix

At inspiremethursday I suggested a theme (paradox) because I think it would be fun to do multiple paintings that represent paradox that flow from this one above. I also suggested it because I really want to see what other people would do with it. I haven't been painting much these days (sadly) because of random trips to Belgium and such... so this is great motivation for me to get at it. I also found this quote that I like that represents paradox. So I just did a little text treatment of it.

We all have paradox in our lives. It's both/and living.

Inspire Me Thursday - Intimacy

This is actually a painting I did quite a while ago but when I was thinking about intimacy it fit for me better than anything that was in my mind to paint. I am not going to explain it, so you may read your own interpretation into it. Read yourself in it, because we all need to have a good relationship with ourselves don't we?

So here you go. This week's Inspire me Thursday painting for the prompt word "intimacy".

Inspire me thursday - artist trading cards

The Inspire me Thursday challenge this week is to make an artist trading card. This is one I made in photoshop and then I would color print it on card stock. I would like to also try it with materials I am just not sure how. Perhaps if I sewed I could sew it. For now thought I seem to be enamored with this flower and unique flowers in general. :) This made for a fun art/poetry combo.

Inspiration Thursday - play, fun, and games

The inspire me thursday prompt is "fun and games" and play. For me fun and games and play is coloring outside the lines and coloring things that are supposed to be one color another. Remember coloring by number? Did anyone else color by a number that wasn't there? This flower leafy thing is supposed to be green with green stems. But it's orange. :) Sadly you can't really see that the orange is outside the lines. But it is. Trust me.

Inspire me thursday - Watercolor

This is an "earthy" watercolor I did on a window I plucked out of an alley. That little brown thing in the bottom left corner is actually a baby pine cone. I thought it was cute. And yes, the earth is crying. This is actually a scene from a dream I had several years ago.

How do you decide to switch churches?

Last night I decided to be brave. I went to a discussion hosted by the church I mentioned earlier this week with the "do not fear" pastor (who's name is Trey). It was a discussion group on some writings of Wendel Berry (whose poetry I tend to like). We discussed his essays not his poetry but it was a great discussion. I met some great people. I didn't feel shy at all. I should be brave all the time. I never seem to regret it much.

And again both in visiting this church and now in visiting the discussion group I wonder how one best decides to go about switching churches? I have always tried to stay pretty committed to my church and not just run off at the first sign of me and the church disagreeing.

Here's my main reason for wanting to leave though and go to this church. Lately I've been thinking I have to give up on any dreams of working in the church. Because even if I stayed totally closeted I would know the difference in thought between me and where I worked. So this means no counseling in the church. No being the professor at a christian seminary or university or bible college. This makes me really sad, these dreams dying. But then I was sitting in church last Sunday and I thought "O my word they would not only let me minister here they would welcome it!" And all my dreams of working in the church came back. And frankly I do not know quite what to do about that. But it was very noticeable and it's one of the things I'm thinking about most in regards to church these days.

In other news:

I'm skipping the inspire me thursday prompt this week. The theme is watercolor which I could have done, but maybe instead this week let me tell you about two things that have inspired me. Do check out the other people's stuff though. http://www.inspiremethursday.com

First over at jenlemen.com she's going to try her hand at some guerilla art a la Keri Smith style. And I think that is the most fantastic idea ever. It makes me want to go out and put little art pieces on park benches that say "You are beautiful" and "Don't give up". Such a fun idea!

Inspire me Thursday - DNA

This week I found the inspiremethursday.com prompt a little tricky. The prompt was DNA. It was something I wasn't sure how to paint and no poem came to me so I just did some random adobe photoshop work. The line down the mosaic representation of a DNA double helix says "Is there a DNA of life or of love? Is it so small we cannot see it? Is it a building block? Do I have all the building blocks I need? Where do I buy them?" I think if you click on the image you can see a bigger version. I don't love it but it it will have to do.

Inspire me Thursday

This is my contribution for inspire me thursday this week. The word we are suppose to work off of is diary. I do need to say that I did not paint the woman in this. She is the one we found in the attic here at work. However I do LOVE the way the painting and her go together. Diary's are the ink that comes out of our minds. And this is my way of expressing the ink trail that's been coming out of my mind lately. Mostly in my journal but sometimes on this blog.

Inspire me Thursday

I know it's not Thursday today, but these Inspire me Thursday people are fast at posting their stuff so I thought I'd better get with it. The Inspire me Thursday prompt this week is an open one. So this painting is based off a bible verse: John 1:46 Nathanael said to him, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" Philip said to him, "Come and see."

I feel like this is a conversation that happens a lot in the world usually non-verbally. Can anything good come out of: [Fill in the blank]? Out of you? Out of "them?" Out of New York, The South, San Francisco, the LGBT community, the Christian Evangelical Community.... and on and on!

And the answer is go and see.

Poetry or Inspire me Thursday

All I have wanted to do today and yesterday is write poetry. Luckily it’s poetry Thursday or Inspire me Thursday depending on which website you pick. Which I’ve decided to observe since conveniently I’ve already written two things that may look a bit like poems. And the "Inspire me Thursday" prompt was a good one for giving praise for artsy reflective women. So here's a poem I wrote about writers/artists... that inspire me. :) I know aren't I thematic! :) [no the picture isn't art I did, still shopping for a digital camera so I can post my own pictures/art]

Yummy!

It’s all so yummy.
Damn, you look good in all those words and color.
And I grin wildly. I throw paint outside the lines to celebrate.
Sweethearts, I will always be glad to see you.
You artists, you dreamers, you writers, you poets.
You, who are gritty and glorious,
with everyday average blinding beauty.
I point to you, and shout at God:
“God chuck blessing at them, over there!”
Today, tomorrow, yesterday.
I cannot wait! Seriously. Neither can I look away.
It’s that good.

I was thinking about some women poets, artists, and writers of books, but also bloggers I've never met like these:

http://www.lilywhiteintentions.com (Writing)
http://slanderwoman.wordpress.com (Writing)
http://www.jenlemen.com (Art)

http://abbeyofthearts.com/ (Art/Writing/Poetry)
http://ragamuffindiva.blogspot.com/ (Writing)
http://www.leonielife.com/ (Art)
http://www.magpie-girl.com (Art)
http://marialuminous.livejournal.com/ (Poetry/Writing)