Experiencing the Divine.

Kat has found his way into the laundry basket for a warm place to go as the weather turns cooler. Today the high is 56 degrees.  He is nestled in this spot and is reluctant to relinquish it. I have a reluctance to move him as well, he seems to have found the place where our dog does not bother to check up on him.
     This week has been interesting. Someone invited me to join their blog and I have a new member to my site. These are firsts. I have been keeping this blog since 2009. It feels good to know that others  take the time to approve of something that means a lot to you. My interest in my Savior has taken on new meaning. It is such a personal thing, how does one share it? How do you tell someone that your relationship to Christ has given you new life and peace? How do you say, thank you Jesus for giving me new hope for the future? My early life was marked by trauma. My disability is an extension of that in some ways. To see myself moving towards a fuller, healthier life is both motivating and anxiety-producing.
    I finished a small five by seven inch watercolor titled "Broken Shell." I will post it tomorow. I have done this image  a hundred times. Pencil, pen and ink, colored pencil, pastel, watercolor. There is something that just amazes me about it. Boredom is not a feeling I experience when drawing it. I found it at the ocean six or seven years ago. To me there is something new about the experience everytime I translate it. It is not conscious. I found a quote by an unknown writer that says: " All true artists, whether they know it or not, create from a place of no-mind, from inner stillness." When I was very young I was aware of this phenomenom. 4-6 hours would disappear and I would be caught up in the experience. One artist once said that  the trick to being an artist is to be able to carry the experience into adulthood.
     Sometimes it is difficult to know what things separate you from God. What things prevent you from experiencing the best relationship with God? Rembrandt was a artist who drew hundreds of religious images. Perhaps to me a broken shell is a way of saying, this is an image that moves me to experience God's glorious creation. I can consciously remember the beauty of the shells that I found at the ocean that day and the exquisite sunset, so in a way when I paint a shell I am experiencing or re-experiencing that divine moment. Rembrandt  found beauty in the crucifixion, to me it is God's creation of a shell. Is my idea of beauty different from Rembrandt's? Should I do paintings of Christ's sacrifice to bring me closer to God? Perhaps I will start to create images like other artist's did as a way to testify to my love for my Maker. When I was younger I copied Rembrandt's etchings because something spoke to me.  In time, after many years, my images became different. Nature moved me. And it still does. It would be interesting to hear what Rembrandt would say about his idea of beauty... What would he say about his love for God? Something to think about.     GOD BLESS. Dale