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vonda drees

journaling the Spirit's stirring

Category: Seasons and Series

Life is a symphony.

Posted on April 21, 2018 by vondadrees

Earlier this week I watched a moving documentary on Sister Rosetta Tharpe who was just inducted into the Rock &… Read more Life is a symphony.

Forward-Seeing Imagination

Posted on April 14, 2018April 14, 2018 by vondadrees

How do we find the way if we can’t see around the bend? How do we cultivate forward-seeing imagination? Grateful… Read more Forward-Seeing Imagination

Alive to Love!

Posted on April 1, 2018April 7, 2018 by vondadrees

Welcome to the first blog entry of my new website! Thanks for your curiosity, your time, your participation in this… Read more Alive to Love!

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Here’s an attempt to give Paul’s bike painting some size context. I have no clue what the next 30x30 canvas will become. I like that it’s sitting there, though, waiting patiently. Given my first 30x30 was a bumblebee and this one, a bicycle... maybe I should be listening for another “b” subject? :) Big B, little b, what begins with B? #vondadreesart

Just one thing remains... attention to the edges, a simple mandate. I do hope to work on the canvas edges today, sharing one final photo to give context to the painting’s size. From some source beyond come things that catch us porous. Love’s evolution. #vondadreesart

Here’s a close up of my rendering of Paul’s bike, the bike that carried him 2,854 kilometers (1,773 miles) through Europe last summer. #vondadreesart

After a good number of years in the making, this family-collaboration painting (a 3’x5’ mural now hanging in our TX cabin) warms my heart. Tomorrow I return to sharing images of my bicycle painting. So excited to show you what’s happened with it! #vondadreesart

“You’re here to be salt-seasoning that brings out the God-flavors of this earth. ... You are here to be light, bringing out the God-colors in the world.” Matthew 5:13,14 (The Message) #vondadreesart

I often paint in silence. I still see the music, though, that I was listening to as I painted this borage flower. Music: Paul Hindemith - Symphonic Metamorphosis Borage, I’ve read, is associated with courage. Courage inspires change. This commandment I give you: Love your enemy. #vondadreesart

Last night I started reading “The Forest Unseen” by David Haskell, and it feels like I’m in for an incredible literary journey. Haskell writes in a chapter called Sunfleck: “The plants’ response to the sudden influx of light is paradoxical. They unplug and roll away, seeming to shun the very thing that they have been seeking. The mandala’s herbs sip at a mean trickle of light for most of the day, they hide their mouths under an umbrella when the deluge comes. But such is the force of the sunfleck’s downpour that water splashes under the umbrella’s rim, and plants receive a mouthful of life.” “From Bonaventure, God is a ‘fountain fullness’ of outflowing love, only flowing in one positive direction, always and forever. There is no wrath in God. There is only outpouring love.” —from today’s Richard Rohr Daily Meditation My thoughts may seem as scattered as the leaves and branches added last night to this painting’s forest floor; I trust, though, that Something Wonderful is coming together. Next step... the bicycle. #vondadreesart

There was a moment last night, as I stepped back from this canvas, that I’m trying to find a way to describe. It was like I saw the spirit of the painting. It happened so fast. What that was remains a mystery to me. What I experience now, though, as I scroll through the images of this painting’s evolution is a sense of groundedness, like coming home. And that makes me want to listen to Sam Cooke’s “Bring It On Home to Me.” #vondadreesart

Just keep painting. Just keep painting. Just keep painting, painting, painting. almost (maybe) ready to begin working on something other than the trees...

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