The prompt for today is the word, “shadow.” I love this quote from Austin O’Malley, “When walking through the ‘valley of shadows,’ remember, a shadow is cast by a Light.” When walking through the shadows of life we must always remember there is light in front of us to guide out way. Jesus said, “I am the truth, the way and the light.”
The title of my piece for today is, “The Long But Shorter Road.” The prompt for today was the word, “sand,” that is why I chose a person stuck in the desert of life with the long road ahead but which ebbs away each day. “Movies are written in sand: applauded today, forgotten tomorrow.” D. W. Griffit Isn’t life like that also. We try to get a names for ourselves in this life, a reputation people will applaud but which will be forgotten tomorrow. In the end the only accolades we should live our lives seeking are the word of Jesus when He says, “Welcome good and faithful servant.
With the hectic summer some of my message will be brief, but always accompanied by a new drawing. Have a good and safe summer and remember others are watching, waiting for you to show them love.
The prompt for today is the word, “yellow.” I created the little illustration entitled, “Mr. Fox Watches the Tree.” The title of the article is meant to be reflective of the fact that many people put there trust in things they believe to be golden The problem is that in they end up possessing worthless yellow imitations. What I am talking about is can’t miss opportunities or get rich schemes which fail to live up to their promise. The true golden worth of a person is not how much they have it is how much they have to give away.
In my walk from birth to sixty I have come across many people who had lots of money. These people however lacked the one thing they needed in order to be truly successful…kindness. I have also known many people who had nothing but still gave away what they had to those who had even less. Who of these people shined like gold in the sunshine and which of these people had the gleam of faded yellow paint. In Mark 12:41-44 Jesus tell the tale of the widows offering. It is good parable to read in times of ego (times we seek our own golden lifestyle).
The drawing word prompt for today is, “background.” The title of my drawing is, “Black Cat in the Snow.” We live in a superficial society where everything is taken at face value. If we see what is right in front of our face and like what we see then it is okay in our book. There is an old adage that says, “You can’t judge a book by it’s cover. Literal translation, the details are not always obvious and are sometimes hidden in the background somewhere.
Throughout my lifetime, mystery novels have always been one of my favorite reads. Out of all the detectives in those novels my favorite detective has always been Sherlock Holmes. He is the master of observation. There is no detail he does not see those which are obvious and those found in the background. We need to be like Sherlock Holmes, no not detectives but people who look to the background and learn all the facts before we make a decision. The says in Proverbs 18:17, “The first to plead his case seems right, until another comes and examines him.” Learn to examine everything in life and you will make wise decisions leading to less hassles in life.
In our society we don’t do much by candlelight anymore, well except those scented kind which rid the home of unwanted smell. In by gone days candles were the chief source of light along with oil lamps. I have often wondered what it was like reading by candlelight or any other task like sewing. People managed and people filled their, “Curiosities by Candlelight,” the title of my quick little drawing for today. The drawing is one of my practice illustrations. The curious little candle comes down off of his pedestal to read.
As a child reading was my thing. Others played sports, played in the band or just hung out but I liked to read. I read anything I could my hands on, fiction or non-fiction. I have lost count of the number of books I have read in my lifetime. The list keeps growing each day. The one book which is my favorite,The Bible, is still my go to book every morning, and at times in the evening. The Bible offers me advice, the Book of Proverbs, it give me direction for my life in Psalms and the New Testament. The Bible is not antiquated like some say. It is still relevant. I would read it by candlelight if I had to but the Bible is the one book I will pick up again and again.
Of course the drawing is not Woody Woodpecker, trademark issues being what they are but the bird is a woodpecker. Growing up Woody was one of my favorite cartoons along with many others like Magilla gorilla and Quick Draw McGraw. Each week I would sit in front of my television and watch episodes with great delight. Woody and the others were the foil of each episode (the things which the needed to be stopped). He was usually seen trying to take food that didn’t belong to him. Over the years I have seen less and less of those old cartoons but still enjoy them from time to time.
Woody is another one of my bird pictures. Like I have mentioned many times I seem to draw a lot of birds but feel they are not my greatest renderings. Bird drawings seem simple to draw but in the end are very complex in their renderings. I guess I will keep on drawing my feathered friends because as they say practice makes perfect.
The title of today’s offering is based on the prompt, “streetlight” hence the title, “Dancin’ In the Streetlight.” The simple reminder for us all with this prompt and my brief message for today is this, light illumines, darkness hides all. We live in an age which many say is growing darker. Lawlessness seems to be growing. While that may be true I have been reading some old Life magazines and it seems like what we are going through now was true of earlier times. Some of the magazines from the 1950’s talk of gang violence and more. Back then they even dealt with the same diseases we’re dealing with now like cancer, diabetes among others, .
While each generation seems to think the good ole days were much better than the world now things are not always as they appear. The only truth is this, no matter how the times appear, good or bad, as followers of Jesus we always need to be dancing in the light of God’s word, our streetlight to navigate through what is up ahead.
The drawing for today is entitled, “Upside Down Glasses.” The inspiration for the drawing came from this guy I used to run into where my mom worked. It was boarding house with a little bar attached. The guy was able to put a coaster on top of a glass filled with a liquid, flip it over and pull the coaster away without any liquid seeping out around the rim. No matter how many times I tried to replicate his trick I would spill some of whatever was in the glass. Of course the people who worked there didn’t like his trick because they would have to remove the glass and wipe up the liquid.
There is a verse in Isaiah 29:16 which says:
“You turn things upside down! Shall the potter be regarded as the clay, that the thing made should say of its maker,
“He did not make me”;
or the thing formed say of him who formed it,
“He has no understanding”?
Isaiah is talking here about our relationship with God. Like the glasses turned upside down we sometimes look at our relationship with God from the wrong perspective. We think God is there to do our bidding while we were put on this Earth to seek His will for our lives. I for one ask God every day what it is He needs me to do on that particular day. It is not wrong to give your petitions to the Lord but we must be careful not see God from the bottom up instead of from the top down. We live our live in a vertical relationship with God and must always be diligent to remember who made who.
A few simple words of encouragement from Thomas Edison who when questioned about his invention the light bulb had this to say, “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”
I find at times the life of an artist seems like a life of drawing maybe not 10,000 drawings that just don’t live up to our expectations but which lead us to other drawing. Many times we have drawers full of drawing which we may view as failures. I know I used to look at these drawing and shake my head. However I like Edison don’t see them as failed attempts but as stepping stones to those drawings and paintings which I really like.
Each drawing I create leads me to another drawing, then another drawing. I no longer have failures in art but pieces which just didn’t work.
