Virgins playing tambourines.

Psalm 68:19-35 (ESV)

Blessed be the Lord,

who daily bears us up;

God is our salvation. Selah

Our God is a God of salvation,

and to God, the Lord, belong deliverances from death.

But God will strike the heads of his enemies,

the hairy crown of him who walks in his guilty ways.

The Lord said,

“I will bring them back from Bashan,

I will bring them back from the depths of the sea,

that you may strike your feet in their blood,

that the tongues of your dogs may have their portion from the foe.”

Your procession is seen, O God,

the procession of my God, my King, into the sanctuary—

the singers in front, the musicians last,

between them virgins playing tambourines:

“Bless God in the great congregation,

the Lord, O you who are of Israel's fountain!”

There is Benjamin, the least of them, in the lead,

the princes of Judah in their throng,

the princes of Zebulun, the princes of Naphtali.

Summon your power, O God,

the power, O God, by which you have worked for us.

Because of your temple at Jerusalem

kings shall bear gifts to you.

Rebuke the beasts that dwell among the reeds,

the herd of bulls with the calves of the peoples.

Trample underfoot those who lust after tribute;

scatter the peoples who delight in war.

Nobles shall come from Egypt;

Cush shall hasten to stretch out her hands to God.

O kingdoms of the earth, sing to God;

sing praises to the Lord, Selah

to him who rides in the heavens, the ancient heavens;

behold, he sends out his voice, his mighty voice.

Ascribe power to God,

whose majesty is over Israel,

and whose power is in the skies.

Awesome is God from his sanctuary;

the God of Israel—he is the one who gives power and strength to his people.

Blessed be God!

I love the image of virgins playing tambourines. At first, reading it, I giggled. Then I stopped and listened to what it meant, and it was lovely and beautiful. People redeemed by God out of sin, their record wiped clean so that their standing before him could be as virgins. And they are overflowing with joy. God is so good.

This.

and this:

and this:

and I want to draw this man:

such incredible eyebrows. perfect.

And I'm making chicken chili for a chili cook-off. And feeling rather abrupt.

Pondering...

But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

2 Corinthians 3:16-18 (ESV)

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 

Colossians 1:15-17 (ESV)

Studios.

As I'm moving I've been going through all of my art schtuffff and organizing, sorting. I want to set up my new room in a way that I have a structured work space to hopefully inspire structured work in the year to come. I want to get ideas out and on paper. I just got gouache paints. I'm in love already. They're milky opaque, rich colors, mix like silk. They're somewhere in between watercolor and acrylic. Just what I've been looking for. I wanted to knock out a painting to do a test run with them so I did a copy of Matte Stephens' painting of a fox riding a bike.

I'm feeling really inspired by the prospect of having organized spaces to keep my paints separate, all my books out on shelves and my room being large enough to really spread out all my things. I'd like to have some inspiration boards so I can develop a better system of getting my ideas out and gettin them done. I love whenever I come across pictures of artist's workspaces and paintings before completion, so I've put together some of my favorites I've found. I think there's a bit of a theme, relatively plain walls, work and inspiration pictures tacked up, rich walnut colored wood and crisp 50s style.

Anna Bond of Rifle Paper Co:

a wedding invitation, including the mock-up, half completed and the final product:

Matte Stephens:

Darren Waterston:Charley Harper:

isn't he sweet looking?

and he's messy! and his cat is sitting on his work!

David Hockney:

Classic Disney illustrator Mary Blair:

Benjamin Edmiston:

and for something completely different:

Evan B. Harris:

I can't wait to set up my own space now.

Otomi Textiles and Other Notions.

I went to Oaxaca, Mexico a couple years ago and really fell in love with all of the folk art made in the region. They're known for black pottery, weaving, tin, painted pottery, wood carving, chocolate and mole. 

I got this piece of black pottery there. It's kind of a candleholder/lantern.

But also, they're known for Otomi textiles. I wish I had been as intriqued by it then as I am now and only gotten one thing while I was there because they are quite expensive. Ahhh how could you not fall in love with them? The symmetrical designs, the funky mix of animals and flowers and leaves mixed with the focused color palette. Mmmmm good-ness.

I'd like to be able to just throw one over a table like that. Oh, this? Oh yeah, it's just a spare I had laying around, I thought I'd just put it here. Whatever.

Would it be crazy to try to make one myself? It would probably end up being one of those projects that I never finish. Why must I want to master every craft I see. I need to learn to focus and really study a few things... I also decided today that I'd like to learn to make silver jewelry while I was looking at this ring I got in France:

That is added to my list including extremely accurate yet whimsical watercolors (inspired by the work of Austrian masters I saw in the Albertina in Vienna), crewel embroidery, woodworking, abstract painting, become better at figure drawing/painting (not as much of a dream as something that I will have to do for my major), designing fabric and/or wallpaper and all of the random drawings I have ideas for. Every couple of months I get overwhelmed with ideas I have and I actually make lists and write them all down, with the romantic notion that someday I will finish everything I'm working on and get those images out of my mind and onto paper. I have yet to even start on ideas from a year and a half ago.

This summer I made a To-Do list for things that I have committed to getting done before school starts. A lot of them are related to furniture or decorations for my new house. The list is at least halfway done, so that's good, right? The main things I have left are a banjo strap I'm embroidering for a friend, and lampshades. I have 2 matching stacked glass ball lamps, kind of like this:

And no lampshades for them. I decided to paint some paper ones that I have. I've already started and repainted them 2 times. I'm on the 3rd plan. I think this one will work, I just have to get them done. I saw this picture of fabric from the blog "What's blogging my view" awhile ago.

mmmm green goodness. I'm going to paint a similar overlapping leaf pattern on the shades and not look back. I think it will get along quite nicely with my other things. Now I just have to find or make a seat cushion for my wood desk chair and paint it a coordinating color. Hmmphh. Always knowing that you can do it yourself is hard work.

All Delighted People

All Delighted People EP mmmhmmmmm.

Welllll hello there.

What does one write on the first blog entry? I don't feel the need to make a real introduction, so I'll just write about what I'm making these days. I move into a house with 5 other girls in Seattle in 2 weeks, so I've been getting a lot of things ready. My birthday was a couple days ago and my dad gave me this:

Mmmm. Sooo good for soup. And everything.

My mom got me "The Holiness of God" by RC Sproul and "Refractions" by Makoto Fujimura.

I got a desk for free from Craigslist, spent about 10 hours sanding it all down to discover that it was a Mahogany desk from 1958, made in Michigan. It has dovetails!!! I stained it and sealed it, bought new hardware, it was at least 20 hours total. Oh well, so worth it. It was free and now it's worth something. Here are before, during, and after pictures:

I was in Europe for all of Spring in Bible school in the Alps in Austria. So incredible. But what I was going to say really wasn't that related. My first day back in America I went to Goodwill ('merica!) and my friend wanted to get me a welcome home gift. I found this:

$3 cross-stitched bird picture. Breathtaking, I know. The painted gold frame however, wasn't quite doing it for me. The theme for my room is like Alexander Girard/Scandinavian + Mexican Folk Art/Shaker gift drawings. You know? So I repainted the frame kelly green to brighten it up.

I'm not exactly sure how I feel about the color still. An improvement, but too bright?

I got a cheapo wood full-length mirror from IKEA. Painted it, of course. I'll paint anything I can. In the same way, my mom will mosaic ANYTHING she can. Literally. And she's been buying things just to mosaic them. Such as a wood tissue box cover. Really?

Anywho. Here it is, with my lovely lovely kitten Julian. So helpful.

I can't wait to get everything into my house. I'm feeling like everything I've amassed is becoming a little scattered. It will probably pull together. If not, things can always be repainted.