Artwork & spirituality do's & don'ts case study

Don't worry, I'm not going to make this all alarmist and heavy, ha. People who know me know that I enjoy arts and crafts, and I sure enjoy being around people who love art, hobby or professional crafting, and who understand the daily urge to buy art supplies ha ha.

I also have observed through my significantly length life, ha... that art has become more intertwined in many people's minds with personal quests for spirituality and mysticism. People who know me know that I have to be honest and point out that a lot of "New Age" thinking is total garbage. However, people who really know me do know that I respect genuine, how shall I phrase this....hmmm....genuine attempts to interact on a deeper level with the materials of one's art, and any spiritual heritage, legit or not. Here is an example of to me the difference. It's one thing to give a nod to birthstones, and so utilize the traditional meanings of birthstones for each month in one's artistic craftings and expressiveness. I would also think there would be room to be quirky and droll, such as how one mixes and matches the supposed assigned months. This, however, is a vast distance from marketing and using stones for their supposed powers and abilities.

Again, I'm not going to be all heavy and school marmish and a party poop and warn about meddling with magic etc. Rather, I'm going to point out that whatever you believe, I am going to give you some tips to make your art genuinely more authentic, and to recognize some misguided thinking that may have affects via your art, unknowingly, on your mood, your outlook, your health and so forth.

Here's my main example. I bought a nifty book today with some cute crafting suggestions, and I'm just beginning to leaf through it. As is so often the case (it's almost trite now, and this is not a criticism of the author, but of the societal mindset) there is the usual construction of a bracelet with "power stones." By the way, I love the bracelet. Anyway, the author reiterates the same old tired stuff about chakras and the "meaning" of colored stones and the "powers" associated with them. So far pretty typical, but while admiring the bracelet (while rolling my eyes over the spiritual psychobabble) I realized how to turn this into a case study.

One of the stones the author uses is "black onyx" for "grounding." (Excuse me while I roll my eyes some more, ha). I see the usual flags of "why" to use this stone because it "has protective qualities," (*roll*) "absorbs and transforms negativity" (*roll roll*) "without storing it" (meaning the negativity). So just to recap: I love the bracelet, each bead is terrific, the color scheme is wonderful.....but then I read how it has this supposed mystical and spiritual function. One runs all the time into this thinking with crystals, which is why I've stopped using crystals in my art as I do not want anyone watching me to think I buy into that bull hockey.

Anyway, here is what I want to point out to you. How logical is it to make permanent in one's art something that should be a temporary or transitory experience in life?

Let's for a moment pretend that black onyx really does "absorb and transform negativity." OK, how often does one really legitimately encounter spiritual negativity in a day? Does one really need to wear a negativity vacuum cleaner on one's wrist all the time? So think of black onyx, particularly the stone in this otherwise beautiful bracelet, as being a miniature vacuum cleaner (I think Brits call it a "hoover") and that the only dust and dirt it sucks up is "negativity." What is it saying about your outlook of life, rather that just enjoying a beautiful black stone for it's color, texture and workability, if you think you need a piece of jewelry that has a vacuum cleaner constantly on?

Work with me on this visualization. In the real world where sure we are bummed out by high petrol prices, traffic jams, nasty bosses, demanding customers, long work hours (or loss of one's job), how much of that is really "spiritual negativity." Please, put Avatar aside just for a moment, LOL, and remember that you are not spiritual warriors wading through a mass of negative spiritual molasses being hurled at you while you wave your vacuum cleaner bracelet around to suck it all up and transform it like some warrior princess. Goodness. But it says a lot about your mindset (which you reinforce every time you wear the bracelet, or tell that to your customer who bought it) that he or she is wading through the slings and arrows of outrageous "spiritual negativity."

So pretend that it is true, that this stone does "absorb spiritual negativity," but if it does, that means it acts like that vacuum cleaner. So you are walking around with a vacuum cleaner on your wrist that is constantly whirring and sucking and swooshing and trying to pull in the dirt it is supposed to clean. Um, are you not attracting the negativity to you that would otherwise have just wisped by you? Remember the cartoon character Pigpen in the Peanuts cartoon strip? If he walked around with a running vacuum cleaner on his head all the time, pointing outward, would he be cleaner? No.... he would actually be dirtier as now all the surrounding dirt would be sucked toward him, adding to what he already has.

Thus, even if you believe in the totally bogus "power" of black onyx, you have a problem. You, rather than ridding yourself of the supposed routine negativity floating out there (that you must be unaware of because if it was directed to you verbally or with someone's bad behavior, you'd deal with it rather than wave your silly wrist at him with your best spirit warrior princess look), would actually be having that "spiritual negativity" attractor on full time. It does not matter that black onyx supposedly "transforms" and "stores" it in a harmless way because just like dirt caught in a really expensive filter in a vacuum cleaner, the dirt still has to be sucked into your face and all around you until it is inside that filter, no? Pigpen would have not only the cloud of his own natural dirt around him as in the cartoon, but with that live vacuum cleaner on his head an extra large cloud of all the passing dirt, including that which was harmlessly on the ground! (read my analysis a few years ago under label "debunking cults" where I explain one reason one knows tarot cards are bogus is that they assume a high percentage of negative events that actual life does not reflect unless one is being bombed in Darfur or something, and even then people would not have 25% or more horrendous days).

This is an example of how art should not codify or make permanent something that is by its natural and ought to be a transitional or transitory part of life. I know that this will be a bit hard to let go of because you've been raised in several generations where people think every burp and fart they make ought to be enshrined in a record of artistic merit for others to either admire, be shocked by, or accept your art authenticity street cred, ha. But I am assuming that artists who try to combine mysticism and spirituality in their art are sincere and well meaning, and thus I am responding to you in kind in an effort to coach you and get you to recognize an error in your logic.

Thus, practically speaking, I would have used the black onyx as it is beautifully worked in that bracelet only for its color and texture, in other word, the aesthetics (and budget) of your materials. I would not use any material that you "believe" has some sort of "power" because legit or bogus you are codifying a percentage of exposure to that supposed spiritual world that does not actually exist in reality. This creates two problems. One is that it occupies space where a genuinely more spiritual and proactive attitude could reside. The other is that it works to keep your unconscious pointed toward the very thing you seek to avoid. It's like the old joke "Don't think about pink elephants" but of course you have to when you hear those words. If you wear something you think is a vacuum cleaner-transformer of "bad things," well, you sure are thinking about bad things and it becomes like a computer virus that makes your computer consume resources and ultimately slow down or crash your meaningful work.

Let's get a little deeper into this, as I envision what someone (and trust me, I know a lot of people who are in that mindset world) might reply. If that person is really caught up in the fantasy that he or she IS indeed walking around in the world "meant to defeat invisible forces of spiritual negativity" and thus must wear the bracelet, um, hold on there. Here's my reply. Look, I studied Chinese spirituality for many years, including tai chi and kung fu. I did not walk around with a photograph of a really good tai chi movement on my wrist, LOL, I learned how to actually do it. Likewise you do not defeat presumed "negative spirituality" in secret by wearing bogus "power bracelets" and letting people continue to have whatever negative thoughts or feelings plague them. You, um, I know this sounds strange, but you actually, um, fight negativity by 1) not encouraging it and 2) learning better real ways of thought, action and prayerfulness.

One of my favorite expressions and one that has profound truth is that "Truth is the greatest antiseptic." If you think there are negative spiritual forces in the world (and there are, but nowhere near as much as people think, since all of God's creation is made in his goodness) the negativity comes from thoughts and deeds of human beings, thoughts and deeds that obviously are able to be identified, discussed and corrected in the light of day and real facts.

When one starts to think that amulets, stones and whatever human made objects, and here we are discussing arts and crafts, have "special powers," one is running from rather than dealing with the presumed issues of the times. I mean, do you think mailing a lot of rose quartz to Darfur would solve anything? *reality phone ringing*

The second thing that I envision someone in dialogue with me would say, "Well, do you mean that people should not capture in art form something they felt very badly about in a moment, but got over. And so are you saying that a really angry, sad or depressive piece should not be made if the person is to transition through that temporary state?" Yes, I am saying that to some degree, and that's the part I know is controversial.

Too much value is falsely ascribed to "venting" and "letting it out." As a counselor I have read the literature and also through my work have witnessed that as satisfying (and addictive) as "venting" or "catharsis" is, it is the least helpful of all the measures of improved mental and emotional health. It's one of those myths of the 1960's, starting with "scream therapy" I reckon. Art that is depressive, venting, cathartic and "letting it out" is codifying and making permanent something that the healthy human brain is supposed to experience, move through and let go of by transforming it to the next step. Art (and now I include music) that puts into concrete and makes viral to the viewers, listeners and purchasers is inadvertently keeping people stuck in the artist's temporary space. The artist, of course, too is likely to remain in that space.

There are obvious exceptions to what I am saying. The great painting Guernica captures the horror of war via a specific war atrocity. This is where art has a huge noble purpose. Art can indeed help to capture and make permanent the expression of something that would otherwise be lost or less understood if it were not on canvas or paper. But you see, that is a world of difference between being an unhappy depressed young person or adult in your personal life and thinking you are "cathartic" and "authentic" via repeated morbid art, versus a thoughtful piece of art that you are using not as catharsis but to snapshot or capture an admittedly transitory event or emotion that you can express with others.

Here's another way to understand the difference. Wyeth has a painting of a dog that is kind of stuck in a sandpit, and you see his or her sad and confused head looking over the rim. That work is brilliant on all levels by expressing alienation, entrapment, confusion, etc. That is a world of difference from painting over and over the body of your pet dog that was put to sleep when you were a teenager! Or of wearing a bracelet that you think invokes the "protector goddess of dead dogs," *gentle ha* or that has a stone that "fights dead dog negative spirits" *goodness gracious.* Genuine art knows the difference between capturing a moment of expressiveness versus getting on an unsatisfactory and even counterproductive supposedly "cathartic" treadmill.

When I select colors for my artwork I do so to 1) make an attractive piece and 2) aid in the expression of what I am trying to depict. I do not choose a color because "Thor's fairy aunt's dogwalker has wings in that color" or "my mom washed my mouth out with soap of that color when I told her to shut up" (ha ha, one of my proudest child warrior moments, true story, the soap I mean, not Thor LOL).

Likewise you need to discern the difference between art that, yes, may express a sad and transitory time, and that can be painted or crafted legit, versus viral "cathartic" art that keeps both you and the viewers stuck in an emotional and mental state that should be progressed through with maturity and left behind or, at the very least, remains in a better holistically integrated state within you.

I hope that you have found this helpful and even droll and amusing :-)

A low key day today

This morning I made a barbecue flavor hash (potatoes and turkey), as part of my housekeeper role, and when I sampled it to make sure it was OK, I was even tempted to not go for my usual lunch pizza slice and eat my own cooking instead! ;-) But I saved it for the owner of the house and his friends and they had it for lunch.

After going out for my pizza lunch I really hid out in the house, mostly because I'm tired, feeling low key and it's been very hot and humid outside. I finished a miniature collage intended as a gift for an ersatz friend, finished painting a miniature bird house (I cover the walls of my room with them) and did an original flower arrangement that I'm quite pleased with. Green orchids and red something or others, in a very natural setting. That's it, really, with the Internet on all day keeping me company, occasional music, and the usual bad tidings. I posted that one Bible reading and while I had the Bible open, read a favorite section from 1 Maccabees.

My only thought for the day is that I wish some actual peace came along with the awarding of the pantomine Nobel Peace Prize!!!

Art design talk

This is especially for young people. (Hi again...)
I've written before about detoxing and thus regaining some genuine originality and peace of mind in works of art (including writing). By detoxing I mean from the lurid, depressive and morbid mindsets and hence output of much art. Here is a case study I leave for you to read and study about how it used to be. Each of the USA states has a great seal. Idaho's is the only one to be designed by a woman. Look at the art work and read the description here:

www.netstate.com/states/symb/seals/id_seal.htm

I found this website when doing a little research to find images of the flower syringa, and thus got the idea of this as a case study for purifying your minds and adjusting more to reality when creating your art.

Read her motivations for each image. Now remember, this seal was designed before people became so nutty that they think each selected symbol has "hidden" meaning. That's my main point. The artist selected symbols that the vast majority of people could relate to, no secret, and when there was symbolism (about the roles of men and women and the question of women's voting rights) she is open about how she artistically deals with it.

She's not working depressive symbolism into it, such as cult imagery or, heaven forbid, as so much art is today, showing like peeling skin and the bones and skull beneath. I mean, why? Why are young people so morbid? Because they learned it from the most depressive, warped and morbid of all generations to date, their parents and teachers. Abandon that mindset because it is not truthful and it destroys your authenticity (what you think is original you are just parroting of depressives).

Here's an assignment. I was looking at cornucopias (cone shaped baskets that hold flowers and produce) at a store just in the past several days. It's a traditional symbol of the holiday of Thanksgiving. Notice that the woman in the seal has one at her feet. Sketch or computer produce a cornucopia filled with items of your own selection, including anything, not just fruits, flowers and vegetables. For example, if I were designing one, I'd try to work in something like a heavy rain cloud. I'd make other suggestions but don't want to skew your own work. Think about your motivations as you select each one, and how you would visually represent it. Use that as a way to question whether any item is truly selected to be interesting and edgy (which is good), or to be depressive and bring either yourself or the viewer down in mood and erode peace of mind. Swap any items like that which you find with something else and journal your thoughts. Save it because that will be cool to revisit each year and think about what might change in what you place in the cornucopia.

I hope you find this interesting and helpful!

What I am listening to this evening

Vienna Boys' Choir "Ave Maria" with works from Mozart, Schubert, Haydn, Bruckner, Humperdinck, Von Herbeck and Handel.

It's wonderful; I'm enjoying it very much. After that CD next up will be my first listen of:

Gregorian Chant, Christmas Chants with the Choirs of The Benedictine abbey of Montserrat, The Dominican Schola of France, The Royal Benedictine Abbey of Hautecombe, The Paris Gregorian Choir, The Nuns of the Benedictine Abbey of Maumont, The Monks of the Abbey of Einsiedeln and The Benedictine Abbey of Saint-Wandrille.

I'm working on the daily LA Times crossword puzzle, also working on several arts and crafts projects at the same time (as usual) and drinking Earl Grey tea (cold).

One of my crafts projects is using colorful bottle caps that I have collected and saved until I had enough to do something with them. I'm framing them in Plexiglas as kind of a random mosaic effect.

An easy craft project to make a smile

This is something I first started doing when I was a teenager. Everyone likes the comics in the newspaper, and that's something that the Internet news has not really erased. Even a person who has not read a paper newspaper for a long time will often pick one up and read the comics if they see one in a waiting room or somewhere. While some comics have turned into lengthy serials, or are all cynical and "earnest," there are those that remain nice and sweet, or wry, maybe with a dig, that one can appreciate at first sight.

What I used to do is cut out and save those that really give me a smile. When I was a teenager I took one of the picture gallery sleeves out of a wallet and filled it with my absolute favorite cartoons that I had snipped and saved. Every once in a while, then, I would come across that comic wallet and have a smile looking through them again. I still have the first one I made in storage somewhere. So I do the same thing today. If you want to copy the idea there are also those small photo albums that you can use. That size is also easier for the strip length size of cartoon. One of my favorite cartoon strips, "The Family Circus," is still in print and still wonderful. I've also been a long time fan of "Blondie." The ones I am collecting these days are mostly "Kit 'n Carlyle" and "Pluggers."

Anyway, I thought I'd pass this along as an easy and gently fun craft activity. It's also a good Christmas gift idea. If you know that someone in your family or one of your friends loves a particular comic strip, you can collect some of the best ones, or the most recent ones, and put them in a little *smile* album for your friend.

Picture of King David my visual refreshment

My St. Joseph edition Bible, from my childhood, remains my favorite Bible and the one I keep nearby. It has beautiful pictures that are just right. Some would call them sentimental art, but they would be missing the point that the pictures correctly capture the spirit of the portrayal. Probably my favorite picture is one of King David, and I've made copies so I can have one on my desk nearby.

It shows David in his kingly robes and crown standing on a rampart at night, under a starry sky. His eyes are closed as he is in communion with God in his role as Prophet. His hands are outstretched and on the one side the artist portrays King David's vision of the crucifixion of Christ. On the other side is a picture of him envisioning God in his heavenly throne surrounded by child angels. Beside David is an open book, portraying both his study of the scriptures and his writing of many of the Psalms.

The picture's caption reads: "David, King and Prophet. David was both King and Prophet; through the Psalms he prophesied the suffering of Christ and the universal kingship of God.---Psalms 21 and 46."

When I need visual refreshment, I gaze on that picture. Several years ago I made a collage of him playing the harp; it's in storage and I've not seen it in years. It has actual medieval bells from my collection added to it. :-(

David NEVER lost his faith in God for even a moment, something that one cannot say about even greats such as King Solomon.

A fun hobby and pastime for children

When I was growing up in the 1950's and early 1960's, several of my friends and I developed a really fun hobby that we called "The Trading Post." We got the idea from watching Westerns that portrayed how much early commerce consisted of trading, rather than the use of gold or money. Also, my brother was a collector of baseball cards, and there is a great tradition of trading of baseball cards among young collectors.

We used candy boxes, especially the two layer ones that opened so that the upper and lower levels could be viewed, and then filled them with cool stuff that we enjoyed collecting. For example, being girls, we had pretty buttons, jewelry, charms, the toys you get from gum ball machines, special art supplies that were hard to get (like a small tube of glitter or rubber stamps), ribbons, cool bottle caps, marbles, tokens from board games, such as dice, small toys or tiny plastic animal figures, rocks and crystals and so forth. We would then "open the trading post" during recess at school, or when we played after school, and traded for items we liked from each other's collections. Parents got involved because we'd try to think of cool things to add to our collections. For example, one of us wanted to get sawdust from her dad's wood working shop and color it in batches of different colors (think of it as a poor girl's sand art supply). Since we were all working class poor it was also a way that someone could get a hold of something special, such as a scrap piece of pink satin or pretty lace.

It was amazing fun and since it didn't involve money, just good hearted bargaining, it is a great activity for kids to learn how to barter and how to acquire without it being all about money. I still have stored away in my belongings items that I used to have in my trading post. For example, there used to be a handheld game that had sliding numbered tiles. My friend had a few of them and I traded to get the one that had my birthday number on it; I still have that one!

It's also a way that kids learn that even if they lose interest in certain toys that they have that they can trade with another kid who might really want that toy. Being more of the arts and crafts kind of kids we stuck with small decorative items for the most part, things that could fit in the large size candy box (like a Whitman's). I think the largest things we traded were what we called Nick dolls, which were popular then (they are the long haired troll dolls, ha).

Anyway, I thought I'd share this personal recollection with you because it was an enormously fun and positive thing for us young kids to do and you parents might want to try it as yet another alternative to TV, video games, charge card mentality etc. It also tends to promote a hobby and collecting spirit in kids at a young age. Best of luck and enjoy!

One of my photography projects

Regular readers know that I like to take photographs. I tend to download from my digital camera and print 8 1/2 x 11 images of my one or two favorites right away after a shoot. These favorites I assemble into what I think of as "my local neighborhood" photo book. It is one of my favorite couple of moments to leaf through this photo book when I want to relax. Here's the index of what my photo book looks like.

1. Tree first coming into leaf in the spring
2. Azalea blooming behind damaged fence
3. 2nd view of above
4. Reflection of me photographing local Vietnam Vet memorial
5. Helicopter at local Vietnam Vet memorial
6. Mast of ship at local Vietnam Vet memorial
7. A for sale sign on a tree
8. The door to a small country Baptist church
9. Red scale on trunk and limbs of a curving tree
10. Rose mallow close up
11. Roadside flowers close up
12. Swamp flower close up
13. Double stacked train freight cars
14. 2nd view of above
15. Two young men untangling fishing line
16. Blackbird stalking along dock railing
17. Discarded skate fish on dock
18. Magnolia tree framing bayou view
19. 2nd view of above
20. Statue of St. Mary and roses at local church
21. Close up of white rose
22. Close up of pink rose
23. Close up of pink rose turning brown
24. Wild flags (the flower of iris family)
25. Close up of above
26. Very choppy waves in the bay
27. Four oil rig platforms
28. A tern flying overhead
29. Waves flowing over stone barricades
30. A house being rebuilt showing interior staircases
31. Southern style city hall
32. Duck by a pond
33. Pair of ducks
34. Four ducks huddled
35. Bands of green and grey in the bayou
36. Close up of flowering bush
37-41 Studies of spanish moss
42. Tanks being carried on train flatbeds
43. Neighbor's tiny dog peeking
44. Mother tern feeding youngling while another adult looks on

More Devotional Art Ideas

I blogged a while back about how I enjoy making triptychs based on holy themes, and suggest this as a great, easy and thrifty activity to do with children. Here is more about what I’ve been working on and thus some ideas; although I’m sure you have many of your own.

I just did a triptych of Pope John Paul II and I love how it came out. I bought at Wal-Mart a gallery style frame for 3 4x6” photos. I printed 3 photos of JP in the vertical orientation. The first photo is of him leaning on his crosier, eyes shut, when he was older and ailing but still absorbed in prayer. The middle photo is a photo of the younger and strong JP performing the Elevation of the Host in a beautiful monstrance. The third photo is one that had become very well known. It shows the extremely ailing Pope during Mass sprinkling holy water while reading the liturgy while being supported by an aide at one elbow, out of view of the photo, but on the left being observed by the concerned (and ready to intercede) Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. The impact of these three photos is very powerful. I have the framed gallery of photos sitting on an artist easel where I can see it while I’m using this computer.

At Dollar General today I bought a gallery frame for six 4x6” photographs. I made the theme of that display “devotion and piety.” The photos are from top left to right Pope Benedict XVI kneeling in prayer, Cardinal Sean in Boston carrying a candle on the St. Francis feast day, and Archbishop Burke at prayer in his residential chapel. From left to right on the bottom row are a photo of a woman prone in front of the altar in a church in the Holy Land, a brother kneeling in prayer in his room at St. Joseph’s Friary in the Bronx, and an old holy card of a girl child praying before the cross before going to bed. I love how this gallery came out. It would be a wonderful arrangement for a child’s room. It is dark in a comforting way as these are representations of men and a child at prayer in the darkness of their rooms or in a church, and is a great “nighty night” kind of picture for a young child.

When I was a kid and parents decorated a child’s room there were not the hundred percent emphases on an entertainment theme as there is today. While parents would select a theme suitable for children there would also be a crucifix and holy pictures too. This is crucial for young children to be properly formed in love of the Lord. So while I love decorating a child’s nursery or room with a theme (an acquaintance of mine once did a room totally in “the cow jumped over the moon” for her twins, which I thought was creative) there should also be ample representation of the Lord. Children learn that God loves them and to trust him by parents teaching, for example, the child to say “nighty night” to Jesus before bed and knowing Jesus is watching over them. This is why photos of people at prayer before going to bed is also an ideal devotional art form for a young child’s room, especially when they are in their “afraid of the dark” phase.

I’m now collecting photos of antique and current scenes in Syria, a country of which I am very fond. I also have the photos for a triptych of Pope Paul VI.
And I am working on a gallery frame of four 4x6” photos of St Peter the Apostle and Jesus. One of my favorite paintings is a Dutch school of Jesus handing the keys to Peter, so I have that on top in horizontal layout. To the right of it is a painting of St. Peter in vertical layout as he holds the keys and looks heavenward. On the bottom left I have in vertical layout a painting of Jesus walking on water and putting out his hand to rescue the sinking St. Peter. And I’m now going to browse to find a suitable horizontal layout photo for the fourth place in the frame.

I bought two of the above four photo format frames from Dollar General. I just completed one in the theme of “Jesus Christ first priest.” The first photo top left is a church mosaic of Jesus with the Eucharist and chalice. Top right is a black and white holy card of Jesus crowning a priest as the priest performs the elevation of the chalice. Bottom left is a holy card that shows Jesus as priest overlooking a consecration of priests. And the bottom right is a photo of Cardinal Pell raising his arms in front and over the chalice during the celebration of the Mass.

Other obvious ideas for a child’s room would be the theme of the baby Jesus, Jesus as shepherd with lambs (you could include a great photo of the Pope blessing the lambs on the feast of St. Agnes for use in weaving the paliums.

Other ideas, ones that I am working on, include using a six photo frame to create a kind of virtual representation of a specific church building or room. Redemptoris Mater is a Vatican chapel with the most amazing floor to ceiling paintings in the most vivid colors and I’m working on collecting good representations of the walls and close ups of scenes. I’d like to put together a gallery that arranges the photos in a virtual representation of the actual chapel layout. If I had had my head about me back when I visited the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul back in 1995 I would have photographed each wall in order to have created such a virtual reality layout of that amazing place of Christian (and Islam) worship. So when you visit a shrine or a church you might want to photograph layouts with this idea in mind. Hope you find these ideas interesting and inspires your own devotional creativity!

Simple arts and crafts suggestion

This would be great to do with kids as a project.

Buy a frame (I got mine at Walmart) that is "gallery style" for 3 4x6" photographs in a row.

A triptych is a style of painting where a scene is divided into 3 sections placed side by side. They were often utilized in Catholic religious and devotional art.

I like to make one about a specific theme. So today I made one appropriate for Lent. For the first photo I printed on photo paper a holy card that I've had in the family of suffering Jesus crowned with thorns. In the second photo I printed a classic painting of Jesus resurrecting from the tomb. In the third photo I printed a Gothic style image of the resurrected Jesus as the Lamb of God. So this is a time line triptych, rather than the same scene divided into thirds.

You can make these for as I did religious purposes, or holiday, or seasonal, or some sort of theme. You can show children how to select a theme and then find 3 photos that illustrate that theme or as you explain to them "tell the story." For example a child could use hunting for Easter eggs as a theme, where the first picture shows Easter eggs, the second shows they are hidden in a yard, and the third shows a child with a basket full of eggs. Little children learn this way to tell a story using art. It then also becomes easier to introduce Bible stories to them using this method. They could make one that is Father, Son and Holy Spirit, or that shows a Bible story in three stages, like Noah's Ark or the Nativity. It's very quick, economical plus it produces a very individual design and art work. I hope you enjoy this suggestion. For a non-technology method you can leaf through a magazine or religious catalog and help the child pick out three pictures for the frame. Either way this is a great family activity for after work or school since it does not take much time and is really effective play and family time.