Face the Fears

A page from my sketch/prayer journal.

You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing which you think you cannot do.
Eleanor Roosevelt

      FEAR, that miserable nuisance that gnaws at your gut, mercilessly squeezes and hungrily holds us hostage.

 We humans are fear magnets. Have you noticed? Our fears create internal land mines and mazes of self doubt. We fear not looking like we have our act together. We fear being rejected. We fear being vulnerable.

 But, I've noticed fear hides a dirty little secret. It's bark is louder than it's bite. I'm a slow learner though, and this understanding has regrettably taken most of my life to learn. 

 When I feel the hot sticky breath of fear on my back, I'm a lot quicker these days, to turn and square off with them. The majority slink off and dissipate. Stubborn ones, serve as reminders to be courageous.

"Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear - not absence of fear." Mark Twain

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"Painting with Purpose": San Ramon

  This past Thursday night, I hosted a Painting Party to support the Casa Materna, a birthing center, in San Ramón, Nicaragua! It is the first official "Party and Paint with Purpose" fundraiser! The event was held  in my redesigned studio in Golden Belt in Durham. It was so much fun and we were able to raise money to support the work there in San Ramon for TWO MONTHS! That's so fun!. I think we need to have a few more Art Parties like this! I chose the particular flower of the "Bird of Paradise", as our subject because it's native to this particular geographical region. It was so great to come together with "kindred souls".

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Party Prep

   I thought you might like to see a "behind the scenes" post of how I've transformed my studio into a great party place for our Art Parties! The above photo is the end result of painting, shuffling furniture and minding details.

This armoire, transfered from home, is the perfect piece to stash everything out of sight!

I painted it the same color as the walls to make it "disappear".The chairs, below, were jazzed up with a little paint and Sharpie!

Wanting to create a calm backdrop for the Art Parties, the walls were painted "amazing Grey" by Benjamin Moore. The space instantly looked twice the size.

                                            The grunt work- filling in (a million) nail holes!

The new wall color really shows off some of my new paintings too!

Laying out canvases, I wanted to make sure there was enough room to comfortably seat at least 12 guests per party.

        The two new sets of track lighting really make a difference in the ambiance of the room!

                     
                       Putting the finishing touches on the room made everything come together. White serving dishes add a touch of elegance to an evening of painting, that's for sure!

                                        I love the way white shows off the yummy treats.

Below, you can see the full effect of "before" and "after" in creating a soothing calm space for Art Parties!

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Love Day's Coming!

Sketchbook journaling

 So, I don't know if you ever think about things like this, but I do. Most of the real meanings of the "holidays" we celebrate are buried under piles of commercial clutter.

 In my (almost daily) sketchbook/prayer journaling, I was thinking about our associations with LOVE. Aside from romance, chic flicks and Disney endings, LOVE is really a pretty gutsy sort of word.

  Since celebrating our 30th anniversary this year, I've retraced the steps that have gotten us this far in our commitment to one another. It's a whole lot more than just roses and romance.

  Recently, I came across the best way I've ever heard of explaining what REAL love is all about . I made a sketch to remind myself.

 This description of love's attributes is amazing. I came across it in the The Message translation of a time tested text: 1 Corinthians 13. It goes like this:

Love never gives up. 
   Love cares more for others than for self. 
   Love doesn't want what it doesn't have. 
   Love doesn't strut, 
   Doesn't have a swelled head, 
   Doesn't force itself on others, 
   Isn't always "me first," 
   Doesn't fly off the handle, 
   Doesn't keep score of the sins of others, 
   Doesn't revel when others grovel, 
   Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth, 
   Puts up with anything, 
   Trusts God always, 
   Always looks for the best, 
   Never looks back, 
   But keeps going to the end.

Here are some pics from the surprise 30th our children put together for us:

Faith, John, Grace and Bryan conspired together to surprise us!

Visiting friends at Carolina Beach

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