Today I added the knitting needle to the scarf that is being made. I tried adding an additional knitting needle floating in the foreground (see photo) and hated it, so I wiped it off. So, below is the current status of it, sans extra needle.
|
With the pile of yarn now in place, you can see it coming together. I have also added a layer of cable-knit to the scarf that I am pleased with. I am going to attempt to add a knitting needle to the scarf to show that action of knitting. I did try a glaze of ultramarine blue over the coppertone, but I hated it. It came out purple. I will have to find a new blue to use for this… one that is warmer.
I am thinking of taking the string from the pile, and tying it to the ankle or finger of the figure in the left panel… as a “reminder” of sorts … or maybe it can be the outline of the BOX that he is in. I have not made that part of the Threshold painting yet (…the outline of the box, from the original DaVinci drawing) Maybe I will do it in red yarn, THEN tie it to a finger. hmmmm…
So I now have the second draft of this painting. I worked the background sufficiently enough that it matches “Threshold” now much better. I think I will have one more go at the background tomorrow after this dries. Then – when side by side, I will do a bit of painting on the both of them to make the lines and shades come even closer. As it is, the skys are looking nicely. The most significant addition to date is the little spot over the shoulder of the sweater. Click the painting, and you will see in the background of the hills of Assisi, on the side of the hill is a little token to San Francesco painted into the trees … the little dilapidated church of San Damiano, just a mile outside of Assisi – the church that HE rebuilt. A fitting tribute to him, and to my hope that the re-making of the Church today will include a higher value of serving God through justice and mercy and reconciliation of the outcast and outsiders. So, My family loves the unpainted sheen of the copper-gilded frame. My question to you is should I make this one match the red-orange glaze painted on Threshold, or leave this one as-is? I am actually thinking of putting a blue glaze over it to contrast the first. Leave your comments below.
So, I have started a new painting. It seems like this is going to be a nice companion to “Threshold” and one that I have been thinking of this painting for about a year. As you can read in the previous post about the sweater and scarf, there is this sense of the transformation – from one expression of a garment to another… or from one form of the church to another. While Threshold holds many layers of meaning for me, it represents the Imago Dei – the Image of God in each of us, using yours truly as the model. Just as St Francis stripped himself of his clothes – his covering that represented the security of his earthly father’s house and everything familiar – his clothing was replaced with a simple robe, something that was much more useful for his new way of life.
So, as I have been reading listening and talking to others about the state of the Church and Christianity, I am beginning to understand what “deconstructionism” can mean for it. Pete Rollins (author of “How (Not) to Speak of God“) was at a talk that I attended a few months ago, and while he spoke about this (de/constructionism), I imagined a sweater floating above the ground. This is the kind of cable-knit sweater that a grandmother may have made for you because you lived in a cold region and you needed the sweater. Now that you have outgrown the sweater – and in addition, the climate has changed – the old sweater is not as useful to you as it may have been in the recent past. In my mind this sweater is on an invisible form, so you can see into the sweater at the openings of the hands, neck and waist, but where the lower part of the sweater used to be full length, it has begun to unravel into a pile of yarn on the floor below. Surrounding the sweater is a mountain scape as the sun is setting behind the clouds. I imagine that the Church is feeling a bit like this old sweater. Now that the climate of culture is changing around us, the structure of the church is unraveling – in order to take on a new form. Perhaps it will be re-made into a vest, or a scarf or several pars of socks, but the fact of the matter is – it is changing. Along with it, my faith is being unraveled – in a good way. It is not like I feel that it is invalid, or even being lost, but it is also being changed. The old sweater is one that I have held with high regard and cherished it since it was first given to me. Now that it is unraveling, I look forward to being able to have it made into something new. I do not yet know what it will be, but it will become useful for the time when it is ready. And as for that invisible form that I saw the sweater on… I know that the Body that the sweater once rested on is never-changing, it’s just that it is time for the garment to be up-dated. |
||
|
Copyright © 2010 A Plein Air Life - All Rights Reserved Log in |
||
Recent Comments