Vigilante Gardening

Now that the growing season is almost over, I found this heartwarming story of a "vigilante gardener" in Brooklyn, NY. The video is worth a look. One of those, "wow, Serendipity is Alive and Well" stories. I especially appreciate the connection to the Armenian Catholic church. I spent some time with Armenian Catholics back in college, and let me tell you, they would certainly appreciate a good fresh salsa. I ate better at that church than any other church I've visited, and that's saying something.

I also love the John Wesley quotation at the end. Keep up the great work, Vigilante!

“Do all the good you can. By all the means you can. In all the ways you can. In all the places you can. At all the times you can. To all the people you can. As long as ever you can.”
― John Wesley

Unexpected News - St Mary the Virgin

Sometimes the Universe keeps sending us messages, and it takes a while for us to get around to acting on them.

Frequent readers may remember that I have become more and more radicalized over the past few years, and have become interested in "Liberation Theology." I say "interested" but I haven't cracked a book about it, and I don't really know yet all that the term means, except that I got a glimpse yesterday, and am inspired.

Our church's pastor is on vacation this summer, and yesterday we had one of my favorite fill-in priests serve: Fr. Richard Smith. He's the one who closes each mass with a benediction that is his re-phrasing of part of Paul's letter to the Romans, which I absolutely love. Anyway, yesterday our church celebrated the Feast of St Mary the Virgin (something that never would have happened in the parishes I grew up in, which were "low church, Episcopalian").

Fr Smith talked about how the Virgin Mary is pretty unrecognizable as a person - she has "become a What not a Who." He said most of what we know about Mary is tradition. But in the Gospel reading yesterday, we "hear her voice" in the Song of Mary [the Magnificat, Gospel of Luke (Luke 1:46-55).] I guess I've never paid much attention to the words before, but here they are:

46And Mary said:
"My soul glorifies the Lord
47and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
48for he has been mindful
of the humble state of his servant.
From now on all generations will call me blessed,
49for the Mighty One has done great things for me—
holy is his name.
50His mercy extends to those who fear him,
from generation to generation.
51He has performed mighty deeds with his arm;
he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.
52He has brought down rulers from their thrones
but has lifted up the humble.
53He has filled the hungry with good things
but has sent the rich away empty.
54He has helped his servant Israel,
remembering to be merciful
55to Abraham and his descendants forever,
even as he said to our fathers."

Fr. Smith went on to talk about the parts that I've highlighted by quoting from Robert McAfee Brown's book, Unexpected News: Reading the Bible with Third World Eyes. He read about a conversation between a priest in South America who was talking with some local parishioners about Mary. You should read the chapter yourself [pgs. 86-88], go and read it now and come back, I'll wait.

As you know, I'm a huge fan of religious art, and I've seen zillions of images of "Mary of the holy pictures: standing on a crescent moon, wearing a crown, rings on her fingers in a blue gown embroidered with gold." But, after reading and hearing "her" words (above) would she really be like that? I paraphrase Brown's book:

"The Mary that said that God 'has exalted those of low degree' would not have left all of her friends so she could stand on the moon." "The Mary who said God 'Has put down the mighty from their thrones' would not be wearing a crown." "The Mary who said God 'has sent the rich away empty' would not be wearing rings on her fingers." .... "Father, it may be awful to say this, but it sounds as though Mary would look just like me! My feet are dirty, my hat is old, my hands are rough, and my clothes are torn..... I think she'd be more at home here in the slum with us than in the cathedral or the General's mansion.... I think her message is more hopeful for us than it is for them. They are mighty and rich, but she tells them that God puts down the mighty from their thrones and sends the rich away empty.... And we are at the bottom of the heap and very hungry, but she tells us that God exalts those of low degree and fills the hungry with good things." Priest: "Now let's see, how could we begin to help God bring those things to pass?"

There were tears running down my face. There is a lot of suffering in the world. What can I do to feed the hungry? I am keeping my eyes open for more holy pictures of Mary, and see what she looks like. Who is pictured there?

And I will read all of this book.

Another take on the same idea: Mother of the streets.

Video from UK Trip: The Underground

I took this video when I first went down the stairs to get to the "Central Line" at Tottenham Court Road. It was quite a journey to get to the Tube platform. Sort of reminds me of this year. Enjoy!

See you in 2010!

A Path...

I just am figuring out about this chaplain thing, and maybe I've been called to do that, and it sort of doesn't seem real. But when I think back on the steps, it's eerie: like, I heard the "Fresh Air" interview with Dr Schwab the trauma surgeon, I was riveted and felt that I needed to leave my last job at a small, suburban women's college to pursue something more meaningful. I heard Al Gore and his "Inconvenient Truth", I read "Mountains beyond Mountains" in my book club, and I became radicalized.

I got this job, and at first lamented it, but have since realized that it affords me the opportunity and some time to take a class, if I set it up right, without taking too much time away from the fam. I started taking the class, and somehow got the immediate idea to shadow the chaplains. I have had an AMAZING experience with them and am basically feeling a call, and am now starting to plan out how I can do it: the masters and the lay chaplaincy.

So, this has been deferred for some time, but it's looped back to the topic that got me started on the path, AND it is using my strengths [all of this potentially]. So maybe it's all "in God's time". Happy Thanksgiving, ALL!

"Unbind him, and let him go"

As some of you know, I was recently at the funeral of a friend of mine, and while I mourned his passing, the words that the priest spoke during his homily helped me overcome another loss. The priest said, "we must forgive him for leaving us. He was struggling, suffering his own crucifixion. We need to forgive him, and let his soul go on." At those words I wept. They helped me so much. They put into perspective the struggle of my friend "James" who died, under similar circumstances, over 11 years ago now.

I didn't hear these words then, if they were even said. But now, they have helped me to deal with the loss of James. To let him go on, forgive him, and remember without devastation and fresh tears, what a great person he was before he left us.

The Sunday after the funeral, the Gospel reading at church was John 11:32-44, the story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the tomb. If you have a moment, go read it, it's a powerful and moving story of loss, and recovery. Jesus' friend Lazarus was dead and buried, and Jesus raises him from the dead (a miracle). But what struck me, and has helped me SO MUCH were the last words that Jesus says to his friends in this little story:

"Jesus said to them, "Unbind him, and let him go."

I will unbind James, and let him go. I will keep my memories of him, but I will let go of my anger at him for leaving us all. I forgive him.

November 11th

Whether you call it Armistice Day or Veteran's Day or Remembrance Day, today is a good day to remember soldiers and their sacrifices for our freedom.

I had never realized that there was a connection between Martin of Tours and Armistice day, until I just saw in the Wikipedia article on him that he was buried on November 11, 397. The day in the Church is called Martinmas, or Feast of St Martin, but it is apparently coincidence that these two share the same day. He was named Martin after Mars, the Roman god of War and is the patron saint of France and soldiers, and also conscientious objectors since he later went on to refuse to fight saying, "I am a soldier of Christ. I cannot fight." The article goes on to say:

While Martin was still a soldier at Amiens he experienced the vision that became the most-repeated story about his life. He was at the gates of the city of Amiens with his soldiers when he met a scantily dressed beggar. He impulsively cut his own military cloak in half and shared it with the beggar. That night he dreamed of Jesus wearing the half-cloak Martin had given away. He heard Jesus say to the angels: "Here is Martin, the Roman soldier who is not baptised; he has clad me." (Sulpicius, ch 2). In another story, when Martin woke his cloak was restored, and the miraculous cloak was preserved among the relic collection of the Merovingian kings of the Franks.

The Wikipedia article also notes that the word "Chaplain" comes from the name and veneration of the cape he allegedly gave a beggar...after which he had a vision of Christ and became a Christian. "One of the many services a chaplain can provide is spiritual and pastoral support for military service personnel by performing religious services at sea or in the battlefield.^[7]"

I've been observing chaplains at the local hospital and am so amazed by their work and ministry. I'm thinking about it as a path for myself.... I think it's synchronicity that I am learning about all this today. I had never even heard of Martinmas until today.

Anyways, I want to say thank you to Veterans. Someone I know on Facebook said that "on 60 Minutes this Sunday, Andy Rooney said that as a Vet, he would like to work toward a Peace Day, because every single military death is a tragedy that person and his (and now her) loved ones. He said thank me by stopping the need for a Veteran's Day."

Extra Insight

I went to Ray's funeral today. It was a "good" one, by my standards. I thought the priest's homily was excellent, a good reminder about forgiveness. And helpful for me in my continuing struggle with another friend's death.

Anyways, I was reading my horoscope from Rob Brezsny for this week, and thought I'd share, it's very appropriate for me right now:

I hope you won't merely wander around the frontier. I hope you'll undertake a meticulous yet expansive exploration of that virgin territory. Here are some tips on how to proceed: 1. Formulate specific questions about what you're looking for. 2. Develop a hypothesis for the experiments you want to carry out. 3. Ignore what doesn't interest you and pounce only on what stirs your fascination. Halloween costume suggestion: an alien anthropologist visiting Earth from another planet; a time-traveler from the future who's doing a documentary on this historical moment; a religious pilgrim who's keeping a detailed journal.

I am listening to "Personal Jesus" right now as I type..... synchronicity??

P.S. Don't forget it's Daylight Savings time this weekend - Fall Back!

Synchronicity

OK, people, bear with me here - I am sort of rocked by the synchronicity of the universe right now.

So this past Sunday at church, we heard readings from James (The Prayer of Faith 5:13-20) and the Gospel of Mark (9:38-50), and our Rector, Jim, spoke about the "main ideas" he took away from the readings and how to incorporate them into our lives. I am going to try to paraphrase. Because I feel like "it all makes sense"and I'm having an "aha" moment. Fr. Jim spends a lot of his sermons talking about how God loves us, and wants us to do God's work in the world to bring us closer to God.

13Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray. Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise. 14Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. 15And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. 16Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. [James 5]

Fr Jim talked at length about how important prayer is, and how it really can help the sick and suffering among us. At our church we have a lay person (a massage therapist in the workaday world) who offers unction each week. This is a pretty unique aspect to this church and something I have come to really respect and admire. Many members of the congregation go to her each week and have "laying on of hands" to feel better.

And then he related the reading from James to the Gospel [Mark 9]:

38"Teacher," said John, "we saw a man driving out demons in your name and we told him to stop, because he was not one of us." 39"Do not stop him," Jesus said. "No one who does a miracle in my name can in the next moment say anything bad about me, 40for whoever is not against us is for us. 41I tell you the truth, anyone who gives you a cup of water in my name because you belong to Christ will certainly not lose his reward. 42"And if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a large millstone tied around his neck. 43If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go into hell, where the fire never goes out.[c] 45And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than to have two feet and be thrown into hell.[d] 47And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell, 48where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.'[e] 49Everyone will be salted with fire. 50"Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with each other."

He admitted, as will I, that this message in the Gospel is not an easy one for many liberal Christians to hear because many of us do not believe in a hell full of fire and brimstone. We think (or I'll say I) I think hell is when we remove ourselves from God's presence, and engage in destructive (bad) behavior that hurts ourselves and others. That by NOT participating in prayer and by putting oneself away from God's love, that is sin. And that THOSE are the flames that eat at us. He talked about us being salted with fire.

I was sitting next to Josiah, who suffers from arthritis, and as Fr. Jim was speaking, I got a sense of Josiah's "inflammation" in his body, like his body is "salted with fire." And I prayed for him.

[I sometimes feel awkward about prayer - like me "just talking with God" doesn't really cut it. That I need to find someone else's words to "make it count."] So, I went online and I looked up St James the Greater (who is the one who wrote the letter above) and found this prayer:

Prayer to Saint James the Greater*

O Glorious Saint James, because of your fervor and generosity Jesus chose you to witness his glory on the Mount and his agony in the Garden. Obtain for us strength and consolation in the unending struggles of this life. Help us to follow Christ constantly and generously, to be victors over all our difficulties, and to receive the crown of glory in heaven. Amen.

That's beautiful. All of us struggle from time to time.

And then I found out that St James is the "patron saint of rheumatoid sufferers." Holy Synchronicity, Batman!

"Help us to follow Christ constantly and generously, to be victors over all our difficulties, and to receive the crown of glory in heaven. Amen."

* I'm not sure I believe fully in the idea that one should pray to saints as intermediaries. I was raised to believe that Jesus is the sole intermediary for us, that he is the one to pray to. BUT, the idea of the saints is appealing to me, and it "makes sense" to me too. And the idea that in their human lives, these saintly people understood people with similar concerns and could advocate for them, I love that! I still want to make the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela, now more than ever.

Kismet

I seriously DO love the web. There is so much synchronicity that is proved to me, almost daily, that I am amazed.

Anyway, I went to one of my favorite blogs this morning, bldgblog, and saw this post about the "Landscapes of Quarantine" show announced by the blogger:

Quarantine is both an ancient spatial practice and a state of monitored isolation, dating back at least to the Black Death – if not to Christ's 40 days in the desert – yet it has re-emerged today as an issue of urgent biological, political, and even architectural importance in an era of global tourism and flu pandemics.

Quarantine touches on serious constitutional issues associated with involuntary medical isolation, as well as on questions of governmental authority, regional jurisdiction, and the limits of inter-state cooperation. Quarantine is as much a matter of national security, public safety, and agricultural biodiversity as it is an entry point into discussions of race, purity, and unacknowledged discrimination.

And when I went to religious imagery in culture the topic of their most recent post was called "exclusion" which is where I found the image (above) by Will Govus. It's a great photo - why are the surveillance cameras there??

Cool, right!?! Those of you who know me, know how much I love the liturgical season of Lent. But I had never really thought of Jesus' 40 days in the desert as a self-imposed quarantine. Which makes me think about not only the fast, but the idea of quarantine all the more. For those who haven't read it, I recommend Daniel Defoe's "A Journal of the Plague Year". Not as great as Moll Flanders (imo), but a great description of the need for effective quarantines.

Weekly Blog Round-Up

Lots of religious art to be found out on the intertoobs this week, perhaps in honor of the start of Lent. Read on:

RELIGIOUS ART:

* A Serbian icon was recovered in Italy, via BBC. Looks like Jesus' baptism in the Jordan with my favorite, John the Baptist. Look at the motion happening in the icon. My cousin Anthony always refers to John the Baptist as the "Forerunner", and says that images of him are often full of energy, highlighting the awesome.

* Bob writes about the concept of the garden in his review of Nils Büttner’s The History of Gardens in Painting. There are beautiful images in this book, apparently. This quotation struck me, in particular, since it describes exactly the kind of floral symbolism in (religious) art that I've been fascinated by for years:

"Büttner easily transitions from this Roman contemplative use of the painted garden to the religious contemplative use of the early Christians, who linked Christ with the lost paradise of Eden. Without getting bogged down in detail, Büttner explains how flower symbolism developed around figures such as Christ and the Virgin Mary into a full-grown visual garden of salvation for believers. Büttner shows how even the garden of courtly love, a parallel development to the Christian painted garden, bought into the idea of garden as the means of salvation. “Nothing that conflicts with the ethic of courtly love is admitted into the garden,” Büttner writes, “wickedness, hate, greed, envy, and miserliness are banished from it as surely as are old age and poverty.” Sacred and profane love follow the same program of green power." Thanks, as ever, Bob!

* Narco Santo found on Tex[t]Mex. Long-time readers will remember my fascination with the Narco Santo phenomenon.


GREEN DESIGN:

* Here is a fascinating "possible solution" to the Israeli-Palestinian land conflict - use bypasses! Blgdblog always finds great design ideas.

* An excellent green idea for algae-based batteries found on Pruned

* A beautiful story about growing a forest from the Aerophant blog

DREAMS:

* I share something in common with Tai - I, too, have always wanted to live on a house boat.

* I just learned about a competition put on by British Airways called "Great Britons." "Where in the world would you go to take your passion to the next level?" As I've mentioned before, here and here, I would love to be funded to travel around countries that I think have the most moving religious art, and see it in situ. I'd love to take pictures, and talk about the art, and maybe even make a book about it. Maybe I shoud apply! I could see more art like this one from Mexico Cooks.

Odd Cookbooks

BREAKING:

I just received a package of ephemera from a friend in Kinston, NC. She knows of my love of old/wacky cookbooks, especially of the old-school church lady or county fair variety. Anyway, she photocopied some excerpts from Bull Cook and Authentic Historical Recipes and Practices, by George Leonard Herter and Berthe E. Herter, Herter's, Waseca, Minnesota.

Check it out -

Spinach Mother of Christ:

The Virgin Mary, Mother of Christ was very fond of spinach. This is as well a known fact in Nazareth today as it was 19 centuries ago. Her favorite music was that of the crude bagpipess of that times, and this also is a well-known fact.
Her recipe for preparing spinach spread with Christianity throughout Europe. On the eve of Christ's birth in the cave that was called a stable, Her only meal was spinach.
The early European immigrants from Germany, France and Italy nearly all brought this recipe with them.

Other chapter headings among those my friend sent:

"Sioux Method of Cracking Black Walnuts, Butternuts, Hickory Nuts and Hazelnuts"

or my favorite:

"In Case of a Hydrogen Bomb Attack You Must Know the Ways of the Wilderness to Survive"

other recipes include:

"Prairie Dog Bat Materson", "Fried Snapping Turtle or Smaller Turtle Meat, Scandinavian Style", and "Belgian Squirrel"

She says she's on the lookout for another copy for me! Yay! A quick google search tells me that I am not alone in my awe of the "Spinach Mohter of Christ" recipe. I just found 2 other quotations! There's probably more!

Amazing

Google Analytics (tm) is an amazing thing.

On October 20th, 2008, a visitor to my blog found it by using the search term, "meek blessed blog radical".

There's a poem in there somewhere. Thank you, visitor. You are welcome to come back for another visit, any time.

Round up

Thanks to Americablog for that. They've found a few of these desperate national anthem moments and are sharing them. I love Mo Cheeks anyways, but this seals the deal.

Look to the right, and today Carnac is featured as a "sacred destination". I went to visit Carnac when I lived in France. My friend Helen and I missed the bus from the train station in Auray, so we walked from the station to the stones, and (luckily!) caught the bus back. The standing stones were the main reason that I chose to live in Nantes for a year. That and Breton (but that's another story). I had been to Brittany for vacation when I was little, when I lived in Wales (see here, here, here, and here). The standing stones in both places fascinated me, and still do.

So those are two pretty awesome finds for one day, and then there's my horoscope, which, as usual, is perfect!

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20):

It's Blame All Your Problems on God Week. You have license to shun responsibility for the pain you feel and the messes you've made, and instead ascribe it all to the Divine Mischief Maker. The secret of achieving success in this enterprise is to act as if your dilemmas really do have nothing to do with anything you've done, but have been entirely caused by God's mistakes, his intentional cruelty, or his wicked sense of humor. By the way, Accept Total Responsibility for Your Problems Week is coming up next, and to observe that holiday correctly you will have to be thoroughly sincere about this week's. P.S. It's crucial that you really do blame everything on God, and not on actual human beings. P.P.S. If you're an atheist, it's Blame All Your Problems on Your

A Karmic Hodge Podge

Americablog had a beautiful set of travel photos from a Roman site in Tunisia - check it out!

And then I found Tangled Webs' description of how REALLY bad the oil situation is:

These are from John Mauldin's newsletter in a piece written by the oil analyst David Galland. Galland's take on Saudi Arabia is the most optimistic. I personally think that the Saudi's are hiding the fact that they are at, or very near, peak oil themselves. Then, add this to the equation:

"If you look at the situation in US presidential terms, looking at fossil fuels plus nuclear, the world burned through the equivalent of 10% of all oil ever consumed in Bush's first 4-year term. And, in our model, we're going to burn 10% of all remaining conventional crude in the second 4 years of Bush's term.

Whoa! That's some incredible increase in consumption!

You may have read such analysis before. But you will not often read it coming from a highly mainstream, very conservative market analysts.

If you like $4.00/gal oil, you're going to absolutely love $10/gal oil.

Hopefully, MY candidate for President will help reduce all this crazy consumption!

But, again, and as usual, Bob's Art Blog lifted my spirits - I love Rousseau's works. Did anyone else out there have the Muppets Calendar with Zoot as the "Sleeping Gypsy"?

And then there's Rob Breszny's ALWAYS inspirational horoscope, and general wisdom for this week:

"By means of all created things, without exception, the divine assails us, penetrates us, and molds us. We imagined it as distant and inaccessible, whereas in fact we live steeped in its burning layers . . . This palpable world, which we are used to treating with the boredom and disrespect with which we habitually regard places with no sacred association, is a holy place."
- Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, The Divine Milieu

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20):

A professional dominatrix I know says that many of her clients are men whose jobs give them excessive authority over other people. When she's bossing around these honchos, she sees herself as an agent of karmic correction, counteracting a dangerous lopsidedness in their psyches. I bring this up, Pisces, because you're in a phase when you should rectify any imbalance of power that exists in your own sphere. If you're a swaggering alpha male or female, put in a stint as a humble servant. If you're normally a timid soul, flex your willpower with feisty abandon. If you're neither a control freak nor a doormat -- and thus have no karma to balance -- spend quality time meditating on how to gain more power over the wild ebbs and flows of your imagination.

"Let the body think of the spirit as streaming, pouring, rushing and shining into it from all aides."
- Plotinus

So, isn't it an amazing coincidence, that, in keeping with the Karmic message above, my friend, Clarissa, told me this story on the walk to work today about a lost pencil? I had to share!

When Clarissa was in elementary school she had a blue pencil she absolutely loved. She used it every day, and wore it down so that it got to be small after all the sharpening, you know. So one day, she dropped it while she was riding the bus. She looked for it, couldn't find it, and figured it was lost forever. About a year later she was riding the bus and all of a sudden, HER little blue pencil rolled out from under one of the seats. She picked it up and checked, and indeed, it was hers. Feels karmic, doesn't it?

Finally, from Bris de Mots:

"Toutes les choses de la terre
Il faudrait les aimer passagères
Et les porter au bout des doigts
Et les chanter à basse voix
Les garder les offrir
Tour à tour n'y tenir
Davantage qu'un jour les prendre
Tout à l'heure les rendre
Comme son billet de voyage
Et consentir à perdre leur visage"

Anne Perrier, Oeuvre poétique, 1952-1994, in Pour un vitrail, préface de Gérard Bocholier, L'Escampette, 1996

One Year Blogging!

Hi All! Well, it's been one year, and I have to say, I'm totally loving the blogging. I got the idea for some navel-gazing from Bob. So, here's a questionnaire he posten on his site - it's good to take stock once in a while.


What's the purpose of your blog?
I started out this blog in the hopes of creating something I was looking for in other blogs but couldn't find - a place to see and discuss Religious Art. [The blogs that come closest are "Idle Speculations" or "Iconia", but they both have a different approach than I do.]

I have become fascinated by Religious Art over the years. I enjoy thinking about it, and how I respond to different images. That's how it started, but I also blog about other stuff that interests me, like the environment, style choices for women, cultural stuff, and different news about my crushes.

What are the boundaries of your blog?
I blog about the ideas or issues I feel or think something about. I usually don't tread into water that's too deep for me - I don't like getting out of my depth. I want to be able to know something about what I'm writing about, or at least say when I don't.

Why can't blogs go further, to the point where there's hardly any discernible difference between artist and critic/commentator, blog and work of art?
I'm not sure that blogs can't go further. I mean, look at Aerophant. I think that blog is art in and of itself. But then, I also don't consider myself an art critic, but rather a fan, so maybe that's a difference right there.

What scope and degree of editorial control do you exercise over your blog?
I'm writing. And I have a pretty robust filter.

What about posting comments from readers, and what about anonymity?
People can post comments. I like reading what people have to say.

I change pretty much all the names of those I write about from my personal sphere, to protect the innocent!

What about liability coverage?
?

What's the economic model of your blog?
It's like a donation.

How do you see your blog's relation to the established print art media?
I try to find images online that reflect what I'm talking about. I view my blog as a place for the lay person, religious or not, art lover or passer-by, to see the images that amaze me. I don't try to analyze art in an academic way. Sometimes I might bring what I learned long ago in college to bear, but mostly, I am writing as someone who appreciates Religious Art. My definition of what falls into that category is not fixed.

I'm much more interested in virtual media at this point, than print anyway. I mean, art magazines and catalogs are so expensive to produce, and need art historians out the wazoo to be able to authenticate and discuss art pieces for sale, basically. Most of what I'm interested in is either mass-produced, easy to find images, OR is currently in a church or museum. So a "review" of the piece isn't going to contribute to the art market - which in my mind is the state of the art world/"established art media" these days - one big market (which isn't bad, I'm just saying).

How do you attract readers/posters other than by word of mouth?
Apparently, according to Google Analytics, by talking about "nice toes" and "slutty moms". I also use Technorati - which I often call "Technocrati" 'cause I find it hard to use sometimes. And I've signed on with some interest web rings. Or, I post comments on other bloggers' sites. But I am happy with the generally constant but low-frequency traffic I get.

In general, is blog art criticism more open and liberal, and print criticism more closed and conservative?
I think so. I think it's the same with all blogging - there are no editors beyond the writers themselves. That means you get zillions of blogs saying whatever they want ["n'importe quoi!"]. But it also means, that you can stumble across some real insight and news once in a while, which is what makes the blogosphere so amazing.

Where will your blog be in three to five years?
I'm not sure. I hope I'm around in 3-5 years!

I hope to be able to do some traveling and see some religious art "in situ" and blog about it. Like, I have big dreams of going to Romania and Bulgaria to see old churches and Byzantine icons. I just read about Aksum in Ethiopia, which sounds amazing. I'd love to go back to Mexico to see the ultra-baroque churches there, maybe even for Day of the Dead. And I want to go on the pilgrimage trail from southern France to Santiago de Compostela.

I also have an elaborate plan for researching floral representations in stained glass, and medieval art generally, to see if the artists were using the flora to express ideas. Like, using a rose to mean love, for example, in medieval religious art. I have some theories, but would love to find out more about it. If there are any experts out there who know, please leave me a comment!


So there you have it, folks. And now, as I did with my first post, I leave you with the Chemical Brothers, (an incomplete song, but you get the idea) and a possibly inappropriate link.

Here we go!

Wow! I saw this photo and it made me smile.

Romanian Gypsy contestants react with delight after being selected for the final of a Gypsy beauty and traditional dance contest in Bucharest.

I am fascinated by gypsies - the Rom. The movie "Latcho Drom" is what hooked me. And gypsy music too, love it.

I went to the Patron Saint Index, and found that the gypsies' patron is Sarah! [fascinating] Anyway, there it says:

Jewish Old Testament Matriarch. Wife of the Patriarch Abraham. A convert from paganism, she was the first female convert to the faith of Abraham. Nomad in the desert of Canaan. When she was aged 90, she heard angels say she would finally become a mother. She laughed at the idea, and when her son was born, she named him Isaac from the word for laughter..... Patron of Gitans.

It must have been her nomadic lifestyle that earned her the patronage.

Quick Round-Up

• This Sunday, January 13, 2008 - Austen Fest on PBS, Masterpiece Theater - Check it out! [Thanks, Lakshmi, for the head's up!]
  
• A great post from BlogHer on smart money management for women (a hot topic for me, especially now!)
• And a prayer-let from "Our Lady of Lards" to keep my mind on the matter.

Have a great weekend, all

My Granddad

So, Ladybird tells me that her beau, the printer, has seen this blog [welcome]. We all met Andy over the holidays, my dad, the son of a printer, included. My dad was thrilled to be able to "talk shop" with Andy since he had managed the press during my grandfather's illness and after his death.

My grandfather was a "Compositor" - an excellent one - according to dad he won competitions in Britain back in the day. He loved the details and was quick to point out errors. [I can't imagine that job - having to put teensy letter and punctuation cubes in trays, backwards, for pages and pages at a time.] Anyway, sometimes I used to think I was channeling him when I would do html code in the "old days."

My granddad worked at and then ran the Westminster Press. They printed books, of course, but also posters for the London Underground, and for movies at the Academy Cinema in London. Dad and Andy talked about these posters, and some of the books my dad still has that were made by my granddad's press. I love them!

Granddad was also somewhat of a firebrand, the story goes. Apparently, for a time, he preached on a soapbox in one of the London market squares about how Jesus was a Socialist. I like to think I'm taking up the mantle, in a way....

Science Meets Art

Just saw these on one of the Science Blogs I read: Science Creative Quarterly. Beautiful, eh? It's funny because I've just been thinking a lot about Fibonacci numbers. And ideas like this have led me to the conclusion that I NEED to get over my math phobia. I am signing up for an "Ideas in Mathematics" course that I hope to take next semester. There might be hope for me yet!

We're All in This Together

Lakshmi turned me on to "Bloglines" and now I'm hooked. I visited Flatbush Gardener, and was reminded of Robert Lentz's icons.... Thanks Lakshmi, thanks, F.G., and thanks Bloglines, for letting me find "The Rev. Mama." Ahh.... the beauty of the interwebs.

The image, above, is named Compassion Mandala, and reminded me of this sermon by the Rev. Mama. "We're all in this together, keep your stick on the ice", and be the mercy and grace you want to see around you.

"... have no fear of human sin. Love people, even in their sin, for that is the semblance of Divine Love and is the highest love on earth. Love all of God's creation. The whole and every grain of sand of it. Love every leaf, every ray of God's light. Love the animals, love the plants, love everything. If you love everything, you will perceive the divine mystery in things. Once you perceive it, you will be begin to comprehend it better every day. And you will come at last to live the whole world with an all-embracing love." * (Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov)

* from Trinity Stores, Robert Lentz's Compassion Mandala