Sunday, November 17, 2024

fleeting, it's all fleeting

 




all above
francesca woodman
american photographer
1958-1981
~
below
i really don't know
maybe sally mann but maybe not
saved long ago sadly with no attribution




ecclesiastes 3:11
~
song here
good grief is everyone in ibiza beautiful
~cheers, raising my glass of merlot right now to the long ago person that put this on probably the best ever mixed tape back in 1991~

unknowable emergencies

francesca stern woodman
american photographer
1958-1981

(not a hymn)
why not

~see ellen thesleff omakuva for a striking resemblance~


"fifty million ideas"
my editorial:
and those damn cold cruel drear corners-
(oh see their beauty)
be joyful in hope, patient in affliction...-romans 12:12
...count it all joy...-james 1:2-4
-to well delve and remonstrate against by remaining still,
be still...-psalm 46:10
afterall, as woodman wryly states:
"this is serious!"
can we never stop (take our chances right; we own the mystery) seek and sit in strength not our own
maybe that's wisdom
~
too,
our excellence points back to our creator
even when left unrecognized-our value endures. no one can dim or diminish what God gifts each of us
(with regard to the oft tepid response to her work at the time)
there you go, the elite experts often get it wrong
but it all sorts itself out in the end
~
1 corinthians 12:9-11
~   ~ ~~james 1:17~~ ~   ~
and adding
1 corinthians 13:7
because it's always beautiful

*for years i have chosen to keep editorialization to almost zero; since the readership/viewership of this blog is also zero, i have decided to express myself as i wish*

Sunday, October 20, 2024

under grace

 
edvard munch
norwegian
1863-1944
woman on the beach, 1896
burnished aquatint
-munch's color aquatints are rare and highly sought-
~    ~
~    ~    ~ ~
hymn
here is love vast as the ocean
william rees
known also as gwilym hiraethog
welsh
8 november 1802 to 8 november 1883
~ ~    ~    ~
~    ~

maurice denis
french
1870-1943
climbing to calvary, 1889
oil on canvas
16 x 12 3/4 inches
musée d'orsay
メnoticed similar in composition to
jesus falling beneath the cross
a nineteenth century engraving by gustave doréメ
~
matthew 6:33
~
romans 3:19-26
romans 5:2-4
romans 6:14
ephesians 3:17-19

Tuesday, October 8, 2024

all the days

 
vincent van gogh
les racines, 1882
pencil, chalk, wash and watercolor on paper
20 1/4 x 27 3/4 inches
kröller-müller museum
the netherlands
~
yet
~
ever hold tight
to our blessed assurance
~
...and, lo, i am with you always...
-matthew 28:20
~
deuteronomy 31:8
psalm 25:6
psalm 34:18
isaiah 41:10
mark 9:23-24
2 corinthians 12:9
ephesians 3:20
james 4:8

Sunday, October 6, 2024

redounding faith

 
Sofie Ribbing
swedish
Boys Drawing, 1864
oil on canvas
36 x 31 inches
Gothenburg Museum of Art
~
hymn
Day by Day
Carolina Sandell
swedish
1865
caroline w. sandell berg, better known as carolina or lina sandell, wrote hundreds of hymns affirming her faith; some whilst suffering intense grief.
day by day was written several years after witnessing the drowning death of her beloved father, a Lutheran pastor.
~
Deuteronomy 33:25
Proverbs 19:21
Luke 17: 21
2 Corinthians 4:1-18 (directly 2 Cor. 4:15-18)

Sunday, July 28, 2024

brought to fullness

 
leonardo da vinci
head of Christ, circa 1494
~study for the last supper~
chalk and pencil on paper
15.7 x 12.5 inches
pinacoteca di brera
milan, italy
~
oh the deep deep love of jesus
'...underneath me,
all around me,
is the current
of His love...'
samuel trevor francis
english
1834-1925
~
lamentations 3:40
proverbs 4:23-27
psalm 11:7

Sunday, July 14, 2024

i am...resolved


ellen thesleff
finnish
omakuva (self portrait), 1895
pencil and india ink on paper
12.4 x 9.2 inches
finnish national gallery (ateneum), helsinki
~
drawn to you
audrey assad
~
james 4:8
isaiah 41:13*psalm 136:12*ezra 7:28
~
"God speaks to each of us as he makes us,
then walks with us silently out of the night.
these are the words we dimly hear:
you, sent out beyond your recall,
go to the limits of your longing.
embody me.
flare up like a flame
and make big shadows i can move in.
let everything happen to you: beauty and terror.
just keep going. no feeling is final.
don't let yourself lose me.
nearby is the country they call life.
you will know it by its seriousness.
give me your hand."
-rainer maria rilke, rilke's book of hours: love poems to God

Sunday, June 23, 2024

broken...forth


helene schjerfbeck
finnish
1862-1946
fragment, circa 1904
oil on canvas
12.4 x 13.3 inches
signe and ane gyllenberg foundation, helsinki
~
:though oil, painting technique inspired by renaissance frescoes:
<see piero della francesca's madonna del parto to name only one>
~
deuteronomy 31:6
~
hymn
morning has broken
eleanor farjeon, english
1931
bunessan: gaelic tune
~
"morning has broken
like the first morning,
blackbird has spoken
like the first bird.
praise for the singing.
praise for the morning.
praise for them, springing
fresh from the Word. ...
... mine is the sunlight.
mine is the morning
born of the one light
eden saw play.
praise with elation,
praise every morning,
God's recreation
of the new day."
~
psalm 118:24
lamentations 3:22-23
~

κλắω

Sunday, June 16, 2024

what's unseen

 
sir george clausen
head of a girl
watercolor
11 x 7.8 inches
signed lower right
sotheby's 3 july 2024
lot 62
'master works on paper from five centuries'
~
:love this image; see a little lilian westcott hale, a little gwen john and a little pompeii fresco:
~
-look closely and notice the fading to see how this image was matted/framed-
፨see what more is/was there yet unseen፨
~
great is thy faithfulness
thomas o. chisholm, 1923
"...strength for today and
bright hope for tomorrow
blessings all mine
with ten thousand beside..."
~
lamentations 3:22-33

~~~
below
pompeii photos and article here

Sunday, May 26, 2024

my victory won

 

abbott handerson thayer
1849-1921
a virgin, 1892-93
oil on canvas
90 7/16 x 71 7/8 inches
freer gallery of art
~
irish hymn and prayer
be thou my vision
circa 700
translated by mary e. byrne in 1905
~
be thou my vision
i read the symbolism in this version
as an interpretation of scripture:
isaiah 43:2, romans 8:35-39, romans 12:12
~
...and more directly,
a visual narrative most likely meant to evoke the legend of st. patrick and the king of laoghaire of tara
in 5th century ireland.
the story states that the king had forbidden any fires be lit until the lighting of the royal fire on the hill of slane commencing the feast of tara, a pagan ritual.
st. patrick, in defiance of the king's decree, boldly lit the paschal fire.
tradition continues that the king, outraged, sought to come against patrick. however, each challenge and attack by the druids and their magic was met with defeat. remarkably, the king, fearful and perhaps, in no small measure, affected by patrick's act of faith and its power, spared him from the penalty of execution and allowed him to continue his missionary work.
worthy of note it is that the king and his followers would convert to Christianity.
several centuries later, dallán forgaill, a monk, wrote rop tú mo baile (be thou my vision)
in remembrance of st. patrick; honoring his faith and courage in Christ.