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l'Artista Blog

July 14, 2008
by Bonnie Porter
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MONDAY MONTAGE: Painting sunflowers is a guaranteed happy painting project. With kids AND with adults. We all seem to enjoy splashing thick yellow pigment on a canvas as much as Van Gogh did. And I love the Italian word for sunflower. Girasole means “turn towards the sun.”

Today in Art Camp we looked closely at a bunch of real sunflowers. The children were surprised to see the ridges on both the petals and the stems. And a closer look at the brown center is always fascinating. We wanted to get Vincent’s impasto effect so we mixed flower and salt with orange tempera paint and water. Amelia noticed that VanGogh’s orange was more of a red-orange so Cameron added some red to our impasto concoction, which Sarah accurately dubbed goopy paint!

Then we went to the drawing board. Despite my repeated attempts to draw their attention to the actual shape of sunflower petals, most of the children sketched out their impression of large flower petals. Rounded tips. Not pointy like real sunflowers. Their preconceived idea, their mental picture of a sunflower, took precedence over the actual flower they had observed just minutes beforehand.

Don’t get me wrong. I love the results of expressive artwork created by children from their imagination, during our “Free Paint” sessions. But I also want to teach them the value of observation, of drawing realistically.

Are observation and imagination integral to any creative process? Can there be imagination without observation? Does one take precedence over the other in the created order? These are some of the questions running through my mind tonight. Questions I’ll be taking to the Word in the morning.

July 3, 2008
by Bonnie Porter
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Confronted with the Empty Nest, my friend VJ realized she needed, as she describes it, “a place to perch”! And she found it in the Smoky Mountains.

She invited our book group to gather there for our July meeting, extending it from our usual two hour sessions at Barnes & Noble to two days in her mountain home. So five of the eight of us were able to pack up all of our worries and woes and leave them behind in Atlanta for a mid-summer retreat.

We kept to our primary agenda, discussing LOOK HOMEWARD, ANGEL, by Thomas Wolfe, and touring his home/museum in Asheville. But rest assured a lot of other Important Stuff got packed into those delightful two days. Sharing each other’s personal stories and passionate pursuits was more entertaining than the artsy movie, LADIES IN LAVENDER, which we viewed together late one night.

A life in books is our common denominator. We swapped books, titles of books and movies, book reviews, and snatched up the latest fliers at the local independent bookstore.
But similar to the Quilting Bees of another era, we also managed to share about “other” favorite things, as well as to unload some burdens. As it turned out, our very personal stories were interwoven into these lively discussions.

Perched together on the mountain top, gathered on VJ’s deck with coffee mugs in hand, I savored the aroma of these friends who always offer me comfort and acceptance. Including a depth of relationship which the characters in Wolfe’s novel, as well as many “characters” in my life today, searched for and never found.

Just back from that retreat and so ready to move forward . . . .

June 30, 2008
by Bonnie Porter
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A LA CARTE. Intended to include this quote, yesterday, from Wolfe’s novel: (p167-68, Scribner Paperback 1995 edition), keeping in mind he wrote this when he was in his twenties, in the 1920’s.
” ___And the air will be filled with warm-throated plum-dropping bird-notes. He was almost twelve. He was done with childhood. As that Spring ripened he felt entirely, for the first time, the full delight of loneliness. Sheeted in his thin nightgown, he stood in darkness by the orchard window of the back room at Gant’s, drinking the sweet air down, exulting in his isolation in darkness, hearing the strange wail of the whistle going west.”

“The prison walls of self had closed entirely round; he was walled completely by the esymplastic power of his imagination—he had learned by now to project mechanically, before the world, an acceptable counterfeit of himself which would protect him from intrusion. . . .”

And as I looked at the publisher’s info page I noticed, for the first time, the subtitle of LOOK HOMEWARD, ANGEL: A Story of the Buried Life.

Poignant.
Interested in wading through this prosaic novel? Be sure to have a dictionary in hand, or your laptop dictionary at the ready. And let me know what you think of it!

June 29, 2008
by Bonnie Porter
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A La Carte is being launched on Sunday! I’ll be making spontaneous entries, not daily. Not a set day of the week. Like my watercolors, a bit loose and free flowing.

Current thread running through my mind is the interface of Pastor Horne’s sermon this morning [Wk. two of new series—Objections to Christianity: Injustice and Oppression] and my book group’s selection for this month [Look Homeward, Angel by Thomas Wolfe].

Horne’s “haupt punkt” was that the root of injustice isn’t Christianity. It is the human heart. In fact, every particular religious group is guilty of injustice [ref. Tim Keller, The Reason for God, p. 56]. He pointed out that the God-Man, Jesus Christ, is at the heart of Christianity, proclaiming Good News to the poor and offering redemption for every heart of stone. Universally we are destitute, hopeless.

Living here in East Cobb I am surrounded by the illusion of prosperity, propriety and popularity. At first, as I was reading Wolfe’s depiction of people struggling with loneliness and isolation, people who are violent and vulgar, I found myself feeling a bit smug, repulsed by his characters. Them. They. Not I. Me. Us. We’re not like that.

Then, discussing it over dinner w/Dan last night, I realized that Wolfe is actually profiling me and my peers in 2008. If we’re honest, under our veneer, we’re as crass as the people Wolfe evokes so keenly from personal experience with people, and observations of people, in his Asheville, NC “world” in 1928. After our redemption “in Christ” our transformation evokes a sweet fragrance, a sharp contrast to the stench and filth of our unredeemed state.

And I’m left wondering, with our web of ties in contemporary culture (blogs, email, cell phones, FaceBook, etc.), are we not just as familiar with loneliness and isolation as the characters in a piece of fiction written 80 years ago. . . ?

To be continued. These are my thoughts tonight. I’m still processing. And I still need to finish reading the book since our group is headed to Asheville for a two day retreat. Our discussions at B&N usually last two hours. No telling how long this one will be!

June 26, 2008
by Bonnie Porter
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Friends. I DO have a treasure chest full of “silver and gold”! Make new friends but keep the old. One is silver the other is gold.

Summertime is when I get to spend chunks of time with friends. More time to linger since I’m not dashing around with “appointments” and classes like I do during the school-in-session months. Today was one of those delightful days. Watching D. demonstrate her creative talents while handcrafting an elaborate card for me. And visiting with E. as we gleaned inspiration from D’s techniques.

And now I see that another new friend, the little redhead, has a birthday today. Her blog entry made me wonder where MY baby book is now. Where have I stashed it? When I figure out how to add photos to my blog, that’s one photo shoot I’ll be motivated to pull off!

Now let me go see if I can find it….. And see if any of my “senior” friends can find theirs. We can have a Circle Time on our blogs (ladies, that means you have to have a blog!) and share our baby books. Not only with each other, but with some younger moms, too. A baby book exchange Tea Party? why not?!

June 24, 2008
by Bonnie Porter
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Little Redhead tagged me

Tagged! And now I’m “it”! Am I up for the challenge? You bet. My blogger learning curve needs to be stretched. Here goes.
1. WHAT DID YOU DO 10 YEARS AGO?
That was the year Dan and I were “in transition” from our life in Bell’ Italia to our life in the suburbs of Atlanta. Sure, we had been living in the suburbs of Milano, but still it was a Big Lifestyle Change for both of us. I lapsed into a bout of depression and was unable to paint, even tho’ everyone told me it would be “good therapy”. Watercolor painting requires speed and clear thinking, qualities which had temporarily diminished in my life. A sure sign that I had rebounded and recovered occurred the day I was able to open up my Winsor-Newton travel palette and begin a fresh start. . . .
2. FIVE ITEMS ON YOUR TO-DO LIST TODAY:
1. compose and mail out ministry letters
2. tell Lauren about the red-tag sale at Target for the “monkey” theme she adores
3. meet Patty at Einstein Bagels for our R&R celebration
4. simmer pinto beans all day to make a batch of refried beans for bean burritos
5. call Linda (my sister) to wish her Bon Voyage for their sailing lessons in the Virgin Islands
3. SNACKS I ENJOY:
an apple a day (confession: I’m a “granola”, attended college in CA in the 60’s!)
Trader Joe’s cereal fig bars
sourdough pretzels
new treat—my German grandson introduced me to yummy yogurt covered dried cherries
4. WHAT WOULD YOU DO IF YOU WERE A BILLIONAIRE?
I wd. set up a Reformation study center, combined with cultural art events and studies, in a Tuscan farmhouse with a winery. Kinda like Agritourism, A Semester Abroad and Early Retirees meet Francis Schaeffer, Gene Veith and John Frame and interact with contemporary artists, musicians and craftsmen.

The following bloggers I pass this challenge onto are:

If you have been tagged recently and you don’t wish to join in on the fun, please don’t feel obligated!

parisbreakfasts

susankennedy
yumiyumiart
friestyle
happyhelms
Here Are the Rules: Answer the following questions about yourself. At the end of the post you pass on the questions to 6 other bloggers and list their names. Then write them a comment telling them that they’ve been tagged and ask them to read your blog. Let the person who tagged you know that you’ve accepted the challenge and refer to your post.