🎨This one was art therapy for me indeed. Who can relate? Heartache? Burden? Fear?🙋♀️ While working on this piece, much was revealed to my spirit. I went to the studio and worked and cried and prayed and worked some more. It was a struggle as my heart was grieving so much.
👉Sometimes life's journey takes us on a bit of a convoluted path that is tangled with painful emotions and conflict and stress! But there is always comfort in the return home. Home is our place, and often our people who provide true rest for our weary souls.
🏡Home is
where we are welcomed at the door...
where we lay down our burdens...
where we are accepted, appreciated, and loved! Knock and the door will be opened; Home Sweet Home is waiting for you.
💗 "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened." (Matthew 7:7 & 8)
👉What I'm learning is that life and love are messy and fractured and pieced together in pain.
🖌I started with a simple and tidy drawing of a door. To me, there is something intriguing, interesting, appealing about doors and their specific designs. I often take note of whether they are uniquely tall or wide or heavy or have bold color or glass or iron or carvings or are adorned with wreaths or signs or screens.
🖌With this piece, as usual, my initial concept morphed. It became something of an elaborate maze of fractured lines that stop and start with no apparent reason. And because I think the @ sign looks like a maze, it became part of the work's title. These mixed up markings of light and dark and color and metallics make more sense from a distance; a sentiment I believe on many levels.
🖌Since I couldn't sand between layers as I typically do when working on wood, instead I rinsed with water and rubbing alcohol and washes of watercolor. The mingling of various media results in a synergistic effect not found in structured, isolated applications.
🖌Notice this door has no lock and there is a welcoming wreath hanging over the glass panes. The wreath formed of tear shapes denotes empathy and understanding developed by loss. Tears of sorrow --sweat beads of effort --blood droplets of sacrifice circle around and are framed within the door's windows.
🎵Several songs informed the message:
~Feels Like Home by Randy Newman (performed by Diana Krall & Bryan Adams)
~In the Father's House by Cory Asbury & ~In the House by David Crowder. The lyrics of songs are often steeped in spiritual depth. I hope to begin to illustrate/express/release such in and through my art.
🖌I have a recurring thought. When I am stressed, or sad, or oh so weary, this longing for home plays repeatedly in my head. Yes, I want to go "home", but it's not a place I seek. It's rather a peace. It's a private, purposeful, powerful sense of belonging. It's the assurance of the presence, provision, & protection of God. It's searching while knowing I'm already found.🤔
🖌I work in the studio as time allows. There, I draw / paint / read / listen to songs, and I question / hash out / pray about events of my life. Recently, I read and still ponder the following quote by Julia Cameron:
👉"Humans are complex creative beings, and when we create something that expresses our own complexity, we arrive at an inner distillate of clarity through our own creative process." And so I present @The Door. It is a bit less controlled than much of my work. Still, somehow it feels like home to me. 🏡
