The View From My Art Corner

Finding beauty in the mess.

There are several months of scraps and things scattered around the space where I create.

It was like a path of memories over recent days.

Bits that I'd intended to use in art.

Quotes for art, or reminders for my day, inspirations, help for decisions.

I decided to really look.

To focus.

So I grabbed my focusing tool:  the Nikon.

And started looking.

Seeing.

Reading.

Remembering.

Sometimes I get so familiar with my surroundings

that I forget why I have it there in the first place.

So, I read and I think and I remember.

~ Scripture memory cards from Ann Voskamp ~

Decision cards ~ I made in Life Restoration online class by Melody Ross ~

Neo Colors introduced to me by Junelle Jacobsen and her lovely wild art classes

at

Yes and Amen

~ from Jeanne Oliver's class The Journey of Letting Go ~

~ Kelly Rae Roberts print ~ Surrender ~

It reads:

Whatever you may be celebrating or grieving,

may you practice courage every day

and let it nurture your spirit

however weary or uplifted it may be.

There is hope in our celebrations

and strength in our brokenness.

May you embrace your own sweet surrender

with faith and courage along the way.

Work in Progress

Many of my pieces revolve around this theme.

Life is a journey

rather than a destination.

It is a process.

And that is ok.

For several years,

I seemed to have believed

that there were people who had life

"all together"

and so therefore, there was something wrong with me.

I was in a mental

boxing match with myself.

And when you are beating yourself up

one part is always winning

and the other is always losing.

But then in a day of brokenness

I seemed to discover

God's grace

for the process

and for a His continual

transformation

that He will not give up on.

He does not give up on me

but continues to transform me

until the process is complete.

What a relief!

And what a miracle

that as my body and mind age and become older

my spirit is renewed continually.

And I seem to rediscover

who I really am

that person that was always there

but needed a

metamorphosis.

I love this passage paraphrase of Romans 12 from

The Message by Eugene Peterson:

Take your everyday, ordinary life--your sleeping, eating, going to work, and walking-around life--

and place it before God as an offering. 

Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him.

. . . . fix your attention on God.  You'll be changed from the inside out.

Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it.

Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity,

God brings the best out of you,

develops well-formed maturity in you.

I am so glad that He is not finished with me yet.

*ART & PHOTOS COPYRIGHT 2011 Jodene Shaw.*