Now the green blade riseth

Now the green blade riseth from the buried grain,
Wheat that in the dark earth many days has lain;
Love lives again, that with the dead has been:
Love is come again like wheat that springeth green.


In the grave they laid him, Love whom hate had slain,
Thinking that never would he wake again,
Laid in the earth like grain that sleeps unseen:
Love is come again like wheat that springeth green.


Forth he came at Easter, like the risen grain,
He that for three days in the grave had lain,
Quick from the dead my risen Lord is seen:
Love is come again like wheat that springeth green.


When our hearts are wintry, grieving, or in pain,
Thy touch can call us back to life again,
Fields of our hearts that dead and bare have been:
Love is come again like wheat that springeth green.


  Medieval French Carol

now is the season of Easter

The events of last week were very powerful.

 I have posted about the work that I did for the Great Vigil of Easter, the 40 foot tall Icon/Banner and the beautiful service we had until almost midnight.

I am going to tell about a moment that happened while I was painting during a very long intense week.
The banner is heavy canvas, 16 feet wide and 40 feet high. The only space we could use for painting in the last week, (we had to move it a couple of times) was the warehouse storage room belonging to the organization, World Relief.
World Relief has many offices all over the country but the one in our town is primarily focused on receiving and settling refugees and immigrants. Recently I have heard that they are helping a lot of Iraqi war refugees. Many of course, are widows and orphans. I had an encounter with a lady who was one of these recent arrivals and spoke no English but communicated with me in a moving way.

As I was on my knees painting away in the middle of the day, a woman dressed in long black robes, with her head also covered in black approached me. She spoke to me and it sounded like a question, so I answered that this giant painting was for the Easter service. She responded with the one word "Easter!" then she began to pray, with her hands upraised in the Orans posture.

She walked to the center front of the canvas as it was spread out on the floor and prayed for a long time, tears streaming down her face.  She continued to walk all around and repeated praying at four more spots. Finally, I put my brush down, (I had been painting all this time, not sure what to do) I approached her with my hand outstretched. She grabbed me in a huge hug, kissed me many times and repeated something that sounded like gratitude.
All I can think, is that she surmised that I was working on a giant Icon (why not, everything in America is big) . And as an Iraqi Christian, she was honoring the image in a traditional way.
Needless to say, covered with kisses and tears, I was  touched to the heart. I believe my work was really Blessed that day.
So we went from this, the photos above, to this below, the Saturday night service with full choir and orchestra and a resounding  Alleluia.

a few more photos of Easter Vigil

Alleluia

Christ is Risen. He is risen indeed.

This enormous icon/banner was viewed by many people over the weekend. Yes, I cringed when it went up, it is my "artist" thing to feel poorly about images that I have made.
That is not the important thing, Christ risen in reality is most important.

I have some stories to tell about the last week of painting. I will post more of them.

The Altar Cloth shown here is the part I most enjoy at this time. I painted it almost at the last minute. (another long story, involving a trip to the emergency room, mid-painting, with a family member, and everyone is fine now thank you). It is the Tree of Life with nine fruits of the Spirit. Gold, white, green and red on appliqued fabric.

The enormous mural of Christ Resurrected is finally finished. I have been giving up all my spare time to this project. Will I cringe when this is displayed at the Great Alleluia? I hope not, but I am too close to the project at this time. I will need some distance, some time away from it. 

Here it is still out on the floor , 40 feet tall and 16 feet wide. 

thoughts about color

Showing here (left) one of my color sketches when we still thought Christ should be white and gold.

This image (right) was our inspiration.

 Matthias Grunewald's painting of The Christ Resurrected (Isenheim Altarpiece).

                                          As I said yesterday, the problem was that we did not want our image to look like a white suburban caucasian version of  Christ. And, the Byzantine icon imagery is so powerful for me that I want to get some of that mystery and glow.

This is my absolutely favorite icon image, Christ the Pantocrator from St. Catherine's Monastery, Mount Sinai. It is the oldest known icon of Christ, encaustic on panel.  This is reported to be from the early 6th century and the lifelike qualities and realism of the expression are amazing.

process of icon study

As you can see the process is overwhelming! We had quite a debate about the skin tones of the Christ image.
At first we had the idea that His skin would be shining white and golden, as glorious as possible. But after some applications of an ivory base color I began to think, that this would inevitably look like a caucasian Christ and I want to avoid that stereotype.  I went back to the study I had been doing for all the weeks of Lent of traditional Orthodox Icon painting.

The skin tones of Christ and Saints are a base of an olive/ochre  darkish color. On top of that usually deep reddish shadows and some warm yellow and finally descriptive white highlights added to bring out a glow. In these photos above, you can see I am laying/scumbling in a greenish/yellow ochre color. I have been studying my icon books for days now thinking about where to go next with the colors.

Here is a more traditional  Christ the Pantocrator icon image. (not my work) Artist unknown.

messing around with my blog

I am tinkering with my blog design. It seems more complicated than it should. I am intending to add some pages of art that I will group into common subjects as I have posted on them. And I am playing around with various headers to add some punch to the page. So, this one?

Or, this one?

How about the one I already inserted into the design above? I am using that one in my website already.
I am not happy with the design yet, I will have to mess around some more.

Opening of the Wired Artists Show

The Wired Artists Show opened on Friday night at William Jessup University in Rocklin, California. I wish very much that I could have been there. Frank Ordaz , a wonderfully talented painter and illustrator himself, organized this show and thoughtfully sent me this photo of my art hanging for visitors to see. So there it is!
I am waiting to see more pictures of the opening night and of the artists who were present. It is quite an honor.

oh, my knees are sore

From the very first day of gridding out this huge banner I have been injured. The skin on both my knees is raw. So I wear bandaids, athletic bandage wrapped over that, then rubber knee pads such as tile setters use.
And I am still very sore every day! It is all for a good cause and I am enjoying the process.