The Wall

Plan for Art Room Mural


"How do I know what I think
'till I see what I say?"
E.M. Forster

"...there is nothing new under the sun."
Ecclesiastes 1:9

And so it begins, a new project for the Art Room; it is, to date, the most ambitious I have been a part of. The students will paint a mural around the entire room- 2 feet in height around the upper perimeter of the entire room- a visual time-line of art history, 136 linear feet in length. Beginning with cave paintings, the mural will progress through the ages by featuring one work indicative of each era, coming full circle into the 21st Century with graffiti art. Early man painted on walls, and today, men paint on walls.
There really is nothing new under the sun.

Sam working on the drawing

Students will stand on scaffolding and work shoulder-to-shoulder. The project may take a couple of years, depending on the students (I am selecting the images-I want the students to produce the mural). The goal is to one day have a student stand in the middle of the room and experience thousands of years with their eyes.

Proposed Images- Wall #1

Progress reports will follow from time to time.

Beginning Again

limen li·men (lī'mən)

The place or point of beginning; the threshold


"In order that people may be happy in their work, these three things are needed: they must be fit for it, they must not do too much of it, and they must have a sense of success in it."
John Ruskin
1819-1900

Every so often it happens- to grossly paraphrase John Ruskin, 'just often enough to keep you going' - a student gets it. The aha moment that teachers live for. It happened with Dana.

Dana finished her second print edition today. Several weeks in progress, her current set (titled Sublime) received the 15th and final color today. It is technically and aesthetically stunning. And to think, I was hesitant to introduce the class to screen printing, or, to use the proper jargon- serigraphy. The process is messy, technically challenging and time-consuming. Patience and discipline, attributes not usually seen in High School students, are mandatory. But, introduce it, I did.

For her first print. Dana asked if she could use an open cigarette pack as the subject. Again, hesitancy. Trinity is, after all, a Christian school. What message would be sent? It was a liminal moment. In my experience, students tend to treat the assignment seriously if they are interested in the subject. So, after a quick prayer, I said, "yes." After Dana pulled the second color, she asked, "Did I tell you the title?"

"No."

"Suicide."

"That's a good title."

Sometimes a title redeems an image. The finished print is beautiful.

And so, Dana began her second print- Sublime.

There are a number of things that make the final prints exceptional-
1.) Before Suicide Dana had never done a screen print.
2.) The screen was hand-blocked (NOT a photo screen).
3.) All the materials were non-traditional, e.g. the fabric was curtain material from Walmart stretched over a picture frame, the blockout was latex paint

and the squeegee was stiff plastic from a storage container lid

Twenty two finished prints

Well done!

Sublime

Serigraph on black Foamcore

13.5"x13.5"

by Dana Shapiro

Dana has selected the image for her third and final edition- an elephant in shades of grey. I have no doubt that it will be beautiful.

Home Again

Somewhere over there

Luggage back here


Joshua is back
on American soil. Praise God!

After the initial hugs and smiles, we asked, "What do you want to do now?"
His response, " Taco Bell."

Welcome home, Joshua.

Samuel, Joshua, Michael

Easter

Easter morning!

My daily reading of the Psalms led me to Psalm 34, an acrostic psalm. A comment from my interlinear version says, "David conquered despair by composing this alphabetical hymn, to show that our every faculty, from aleph to tav, should be dedicated to God."

I am no David, but, here is my alphabetical hymn-

Abundantly, the goodness of God surrounds me.

Breathing reminds me of this, for breath itself comes from the Lord.

Comforts of this world do not compare to the comforter of my soul.

Desires and dreams find their home in Him.

Enveloped am I by the Lover of my soul.

"Friend", He calls me!

"Go, make disciples" He tells me.

Hearing His voice heals and helps me.

'In His grip' will be the ending to my letters.

Joy comes to me in the mornings.

Kaleidoscopic is His kindness.

Love, the love of God, defies my explanations.

Mindful of my concerns, He who made me leads me.

Needless are my worries.

Other gods call to me.

Pleasing is the heart-cry aroma that ascends to the Lamb of God.

Quietly, breeze-like, the Voice of the Lord accomplishes His purpose.

'Redeemer' is a banner over my Rescuer.

'Salvation' is His name.

Truth is defined by Him.

Under the shadow of the cross live the redeemed.

'Victory In Jesus' is the Mission Theme.

Waiting and wrestling are my pastimes- the Lord seems to enjoy a good wrestling match.

X is the shape of a carried cross.

Yielded to Christ is my stance.

Zion's mountains soar with delight for the Lord God, King of the universe, Who Was, and Is, and Is To Come!

Good Friday

חֶסֶד

good \ˈgu̇d\ O.E. god (with a long "o") "having the right or desirable quality," - First record of good day is from c.1200. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/good



What's in a word? Today is Good Friday. Good. The word good is used as an adjective, a noun, an adverb, an interjection and an idiom. I use it in the name of my blog. There are 603 verses in the New American Standard translation of the Bible which include the word good (870 in the King James). Aγαθος is the greek used in Luke 18:18,19 - A ruler questioned Him, saying, "Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" And Jesus said to him, "Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone."

The expression for Good Friday in the German is Karfreitag (“Sorrowful Friday”). And so, today is good and today is sorrowful.

I look out the kitchen window and I see children, searching for eggs someone has hidden in the grass. I think they are having a 'good' moment. Searching can be good.
For the disciples of Jesus, the day between days, the time between Good Friday and Easter morning must have been a day of searching, remembering His words. Perhaps they remembered this-
"Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains by itself alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit."

Thank you, Jesus, for Good Friday.

Lamentations

HORIZONS

March/April 2010

"Every painting is a voyage into a sacred harbour."
Giotto di Bondone
1267-1337

Horizons, The Magazine For Presbyterian Women requested the use of one of my wife's paintings, I Am Not A Tourist Attraction, to be featured in the Mar/Apr issue. The focus of the issue is Human Trafficking, a crime against humanity that the United Nations Population Fund states could count as high as 4,000,000 souls.

When we lived in Memphis, Terri organized an art exhibit in a midtown gallery to raise awareness of human trafficking and to benefit the International Justice Mission. Shortly thereafter she was named Abolitionist of the Week by Not For Sale Campaign, another organization striving to end trafficking and human slavery. Some might ask, "Why use art?" Paul Gauguin said, "Art is either plagiarism or revolution." Webster defines revolution as a sudden, radical, or complete change. Art causes change. Good art can cause radical change. Images have a way of going deep. Some art has even caused revolution.

Captive

by Teresa West-Carter

I teach young people the history of art. The stories behind the paintings always intrigue me. Here is part of the story behind I Am Not A Tourist Attraction by Teresa West-Carter, my bride-
Several years ago while meditating on the book of Joel, Terri began a season of lament; she mourned the plight of the abused and the helpless. One day she envisioned a father holding a lifeless child, a picture of tragedy, surrounded by newspaper and magazine clippings of injustice and cruelty. As she collected actual clippings, one of the faces haunted her; the face of a little girl trapped in the sex slave trade stared back at her. The picture of that little girl caused a revolution in my wife's art.

Lamentations
The Death of Innocence

In the painting Lamentations, the father is supported by the hands of God. As Terri was looking at the painting, still on the easel, the Spirit of God said, "It's not finished. Paint My promises on My hands."

Lamentations
Detail

And so, a picture of a little girl led to a series of paintings- one of which is I Am Not A Tourist Attraction.

I Am Not A Tourist Attraction
available as a print from
Not For Sale Campaign
all proceeds go to Not For Sale

Kindergarten Field Trip, c. 1961

(I'm in the 2nd row)

syn·er·gy (sĭn'ər-jē) syn-ergos, συνεργός

The interaction of two or more agents or forces so that their combined effect

is greater than the sum of their individual effects.

Little boys weren't made to sit still.

While in elementary school, I was convinced that my desk was devised by someone evil, intent on breaking my will. Last week I decided to 'take a day off'. So, I drove down to Andrew Jackson State Park, in Lancaster, SC., birthplace of Andrew Jackson. There I discovered a peaceful trail. I also stepped inside a one-room school replica. The effect was profound. I walked to the back of the room and sat at a desk. I pondered the differences between this room and my childhood classrooms. Then I considered three changes in education I have witnessed;

the end to segregation

the end to prayer in school

and, the evolution of the evil school desk. In this one-room school there were desks, gathered from different time periods, the oldest being a table and bench from the 1700s. I sat there and wondered about the students who called this table 'home'.

Cyanotype Print
First Patented School Desk
U.S. Patent #400,738
Anna Breadin
April 2, 1889


"A student doesn't get a better desk than her teacher."
Matthew 10:24
The Message

I teach art. While teaching at Westminster Academy I built tables for the art room- simple, sturdy, 2x4 constructed tables. They were large enough for four students, and, they could be pushed together to form one large workspace. When I began at Trinity Prep in Charlotte I decided to build the same. A bonus I had not considered was provided by one of the parents, Brian Crutchfield, - dry erase board tops, on which the students could draw with markers.

Brilliant! Thank you Brian! He also built several counter tops, providing even more surface area to move paint and ink and glue and... stuff. Here is the napkin specs (available free to the first person who asks, just email me and I will send it to you. My email address is shekhinah@juno.com) and one of the tables. Here are a few desks I found online, proving that school furniture has evolved.

And, the teacher's desk in the one-room school.

Maybe my art table will be found among the images one day.