I have not posted in several weeks due to busy summer schedules. Hope that everyone is enjoying a wonderful summer. I thought I would include a photo of an old project which was a shower gift I made for our nephew and his wife for their bridal shower last summer. It is a mixed-media collage piece incorporating my calligraphy along with a section of a responsive reading text from an old hymnal and a variety of papers. Also included is a bit of Biblical text from Corinthians, which was taken from an ancient Bible that is literally falling apart. It is an amazing treasure given to me by a friend, because I don't have to feel badly about using pieces in my artwork since it is already in pieces anyway.
In addition, I wanted to share with you an excerpt from an article I read by Christine Valters Paintner. She writes, "Every person has an aching need for beauty; in beauty we discover the face of God." She further develops this point:
An aesthetic spirituality is one that recognizes this longing as a response to a call already issued, to an invitation always present in the world through beauty's presence. We are called to awaken to beauty, to see more deeply, to cultivate practices of attentiveness. We are invited to let beauty penetrate the heart, and to respond to it by creating further beauty in our own lives.
I encourage you to answer the invitation with a resounding yes!
