Work and play; play and work; V's shoes and my pillows / Nov. 2010
“A master in the art of living draws no sharp distinction between his work and his play; his labor and his leisure; his mind and his body; his education and his recreation. He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence through whatever he is doing, and leaves others to determine whether he is working or playing. To himself, he always appears to be doing both.”
~ Lawrence Pearsall Jacks
Sometimes the dining table becomes the artist's studio / August 2010
This was the bright summer day when the artist, to help ensure a good catch, set forth to repair the fishermen's boat using stain and pastels and varnish.
Pick up a pencil and draw / Beach Haven / June 2010
This was the day of being intrigued by the thick green pine tree with the branches that strained toward the sun and sitting down to study all its angles and curves.
J-girl's painting on the mountain house wall; Dec. 2005 / and a poem inspired by a talk on Beauty and Grace by Brother Michael O'Neill McGrath of Bee Still Studio
Art Will Save Us
(in memory of Verann who taught the gospel of art to so many)
Brother Mickey says that art is his way of praying into his experience. Then he proceeds to show us his prayers — wrought of paper and paint and pencil and pain and inspiration.
Pencil sketches of his parents in their last days, his mother's hands with fingers curled, his father in a bed in the living room covered with an afghan. “That which is most personal is most universal.” (Henri Nouwen) He says we must constantly keep moving forward, put all regret behind.
A painting of St. Brigid of Ireland (the patron saint of hospitality who made her own beer) holding a wild goose — loud and unpredictable like life — rather than a dove to represent the Holy Spirit. He says just love your life, don't dwell on the negative. Leave your pain and suffering as a gift at the foot of the cross. “Blessed are hearts that bend, for they shall never break.” (St. Francis DeSales)
Another pencil sketch of a priest friend saying mass at his mother's hospital bedside. He notes that it had been many years since his two brothers darkened the door of any church. When pain enters our life there is always a companion grace. “Do this in memory of me.”
Paintings of many Marys — mother, lady, mystic — with her symbol, the moon, behind her head as a halo; with her teen-aged son; sitting gracefully above a crowded beach on a summer day; illuminated by the light of the Holy Spirit. Trying to better understand religious dogma he asks a class of children “What does the Feast of the Assumption mean?” One boy has the answer: “Mary is so holy we assume she went to heaven.”
His colorful painted mandala — a simple round shape that represents wholeness; a personal diagram to reminds us of our relation to the infinite. It started out with sketches of a barren winter landscape and turned into a celebration of life. He talks of what the Irish call the “thin places” — when the boundary between this world and the next get close. In death life is changed not ended. His mantra to get through the tough spots in life is this: “Beauty will save the world.”
Brother Mickey says that art is his way of praying into his experience.
Paulo on the threshold / April 2010
This was the day when a fresh coat of white paint on the front door brought a brilliant white light into the house that refreshed and renewed us.
Franciska's watercolor flowers / May 1999
This was the day it rained that followed the day it rained that followed the day it rained until you began to feel like a water-logged watercolor painting, edges growing all soft and smeary, to-do lists and to-don't lists running together in your mind until you didn't know what you were supposed to do and what you weren't supposed to do.
This was one of the many nights of the mix tapes expert who was able to calculate, with uncanny accuracy, or maybe I should say with an engineer's accuracy, the precise mix of songs that would use every recordable inch of the 90-minute audio cassette tape, while producing an eclectic mingle of music.
Franciska's studio and sculpture / New Jersey / March 2010
This is the day of the dreaming girl shaped from clay and Franciska's hands.
Franciska's studio, tools / New Jersey / March 2010
“You need a room with no view so imagination can meet memory in the dark.”
