Christmas. . .the saga continues

I wanted to share a few images of our Christmas Eve services with you.

I don’t feel that I need to say too much about them.

They’re always beautiful.

Not because we all work so hard to make them so.

Not because of all the decorations and candles.

Here's a link to our Church page if you'd like to check out more!

It’s because God always shows up. 

He shows up every time two or more are gathered in His name.

I tried so hard this year to turn off all the busyness of the season, to try to find moments in my day where I could find the true meaning of what Christmas is about. 

You know what happened? 

It didn’t work. It didn’t work until I stopped trying and just let God show me. 

I found myself enjoying moments with my family and friends. I let myself revel in the sounds of nature surrounding me. I took out my Bible and read. I listened to others as they told me what their hopes and dreams and fears were.   

I connected to others and connected to my heavenly Creator.

Now does that mean that my schedule got any less hectic? Nope, not really. . .I’m thoroughly enjoying the fact that this week is so much more laid back. The fact that I’ve been able to blog at all speaks volumes!

However, the craziness didn’t really get to me. 

By the end of Christmas day, though. . .well, I went to bed around 7:30p. :D

 

These are just a couple of shots of Julie's and her neighbor's ideas of Christmas yard decor. 

The "Peace Angels" were made by Julie's Stepfather, Art.  Her next door neighbor, Mark, created the Santa Alien for the boat parade on the Butler Chain of Lakes in Windermere, Fl.

A brief glimpse of what my week before Christmas looked like.

Well technically, a week and a half. I have to make that distinction because the craziness began Friday, December 16^th (consequently that was my grandmother Opal’s 100^th birthday if she was still alive). 

I got a phone call from Danny, the youth pastor at my church in the midst of having lunch with my Aunt Joyce and Bumpa, who’d come over to visit with my parents.  Danny wanted to discuss having the youth Christmas party/get together at my house.  I agreed that this sounded like a good idea, mainly because we were running out of time, and I’d been wanting to have the group out to my place anyways.

As wonderful as this sounded in theory, it also meant a lot of work leading up to the event. Beyond straightening up the interior of my house, I had to do a lot of work organizing my yard. There is a big reason for this and that is: I live in a house trailer, and there’s really not enough room inside for 20 teenagers. So the party had to take place in my yard. Which was fine, but it meant I had to do some work on it.  I had plants that needed to be weeded, pots that needed to be moved, weed-eating that just about killed my arms, and lots of raking and sweeping. Now though, I’m so glad I had the impetus to get it all done, ‘cause I just love wandering around my yard and enjoying my new plants and the general cleanliness of it all!

I also had an Adirondack chair sitting in the middle of my living room waiting to be painted. I made this another paragraph so I could explain to you why the chair is sitting there. Danny and my friend Richard gave me three chairs as a housewarming gift a year and a half ago. Two were regular chairs and one was a rocker. I actually painted and gave back the rocker to Richard because I knew he’d enjoy it more. The other two I planned to paint in a truly artistic fashion and enjoy them myself. Well, I got one painted. It’s in my yard, and it looks great. The other, it’s STILL sitting in my living room, and I’m writing this after the party and after Christmas. HOWEVER, it is A LOT closer to being finished then it was before the party. Before the party it had nothing on it, not even primer. Now it’s got primer, paint, and a design started on it! I’m only slightly proud of myself on that. It really should be finished by now, but it takes a lot out of me physically, and plus. . .well, I’m just lazy. . .Oh well. 

Richard's finished rocker (The Bahamian flag
is the base design. The smaller scene is
that of logger-head sea turtles)

My one finished chair.
It's a basic color theme design
with my own white flourish on top.

This next part, well it’s just absolutely ridiculous, but I still get a little thrill about it.

I moved into my place last May. This is after my friend Julie and I worked on it for six months, doing small repairs, cleaning, and painting every room. However, there were a few things that just did not get done in the midst of everything else. One of those things was replacing the toilet seat in my bathroom. 

Now, to describe my bathroom, it’s small, so every little detail stands out pretty blatantly. For some reason when this trailer was designed, somebody had the bright idea to install a mustard yellow toilet and bathtub. Do you know how hard it is to match any desirable color scheme with mustard yellow anything? But I persevered, and came up with a blue and brown combination. Somehow I managed to find a shower curtain that included blue, brown, white, and a green that it is very close in color to my odd ball fixtures. 

The toilet seat however was mauve. I ask you why would it be mauve? I have no idea.

Anyways, it was damaged slightly in that one of the little bumpers that allow it to sit on top of the seat part was broken in half. This made it scratch the surface of the seat. The seat itself was not damaged in anyway except that it looked unappealing. So I’ve lived with it for a year. Well, I’ve lived with it for a year because every time I go to the store to get a replacement, I can’t remember whether it’s a long seat or a short rounded one. . .go ahead, judge me, but it’s the truth.

Well, this time I made a concerted effort to remember that it was short and round. I went to the store, bought an off-white toilet seat, took it home and replaced it. 

And loved it. I just love walking in and looking at it, knowing that I figured out what I needed and fixed it.

Plus it looks a whole lot better than that odd pink thing that was on it before.

As such, I ended up having the party at my house, in the yard.  The kids came out on the church bus. We played trivia and question games while we all sat in camp chairs around the fire pit (Just so you know, this was Friday, December 23^rd, and it was 80 degrees outside. There was absolutely no need for the fire). Then Danny read through a devotional about the Christmas Peace during WWI.  Dinner was Ziti and garlic bread and chocolate bark that Julie had made. The kids even managed to get one of the ball sets from my Ladderball game stuck in my oak tree. Wouldn’t be a youth meeting without that! 

We had a blast, and I had tons of food and drink left over. Danny’s already talking about having the party at my house again. I think I’d like that.

And so it begins. . .

So I've been excited since yesterday afternoon and all through this morning about this new blogging thing I've tackled. I keep thinking of all the things I want to talk about and share with you. I have so many varied interests and things that I'm proficient in. I will try my best to be as focused as possible per post, though.

I told my mom about this blog, told her about the title. She didn't think much of it until I explained my thought process behind it. She said "You should explain that in your first entry." To which I replied that I had explained it, although not in the same sense that I had described it to her. "Well, you should write down what you told me, because it's more understandable that way."

So here goes. First off, it's hard to pick a name for anything online anymore because everybody else has already commandeered what you initially think of. So, then you start moving words around, breaking out the Thesaurus (online of course), and trying desperately to come up with something that doesn't sound ridiculous but still alludes to what you're all about.

I came up with lots of different names, trying for things that included art or sketching or faith in them. Then I started to think about the image that comes up so often when one talks about how God is always molding us, much like a potter works with his clay.

However, I'm not a potter. In fact I managed to get through all of my 3-D art classes only because I worked my rear off, not because I'm in any way accomplished at the field. So the idea of an artwork in progress appealed to me, but I didn't want it to be about clay under my fingernails (yech!).

Shepherd and Sheep sketch

 As much of my talents lie within the 2-D field, I began to think about how I produce an image for a piece. It usually begins with a pencil in my hand and a spare bit of paper. It's funny, I've never really thought about how I start an image, but usually it's with a circle or curved line near the corner or edge of the paper. This is simply how I break the ice between me and the blank space of the paper. "Hello paper, it's Jamie." This is going to sound absolutely nuts, but I then pause, looking at that line waiting for it to "talk" back to me. What will the next line look like?


I'm not the kind of artist who can have an idea in my head and then produce it on a blank canvas looking exactly like I imagined it. In fact, I love the fact that all of my works go through an evolution. This is where I allow God to work through me, moving my hand, my mind, and my heart to what He wants me to see. 

Blind self portrait in continuing line

I actually went to college and got my degree in Fine Arts. I had a professor there who absolutely hated the method of drawing with quick hash marks, making your drawing look "furry". His idea was that you went with one solid line and did not erase. That you had to be confident enough to be okay with that line. Needless to say, he didn't really like me. Because the next step in my process is in fact the "furry" line. I begin to sketch out the forms of the shape, going back over some lines, feeling them out, adding more curve here, taking a length out there. I then go back with my eraser and take away what is non-essential or what gets in the way of the idea I'm trying to get across.

Hence the title "Eraser Marked Soul".

I know that I'm like my sketches. God is with me, working on my image as a whole, leaving some lines, taking some away, allowing for my soul to evolve and become what He longs for me to be.

Just Jamie

I have no idea what the etiquette for writing a blog might be. The idea of sitting down to write my thoughts on the in and out, daily occurrence, general lah-di-da, ho-hum-ness of my life seems a tad bit ridiculous to my way of thinking. However, the idea of having these writings to look back on in later years also strikes a cord in my heart. I wish I had more examples of writing from family and friends who've passed on.

My cousin blogs. You can find her at http://hopeabound.blogspot.com/. She's the main reason I'm blogging. I love getting to read about her daily life and that of her twin girls. I wish I got to see them more, but reading about them and seeing their pictures is almost as good.

So, here I am.

I'm on the cusp of 30 years old. How dreadful. . .lol. I don't mean that.

Mom at 2011 Cane Grinding 

My life is not a normal one, I'll grant that. I spend my days taking care of my mom, who lives out her life dealing with the difficulties of being confined to a wheelchair. She came to this situation late in life. I'll tell that story another time. Needless to say it's extremely frustrating to her and to my dad and I. It's not something that any of us had in mind when it came to how the two of them would live out their retirement years.



 So, I am a caretaker. From 8:30a to 12:30p most days I run her around on errands in her specialized wheelchair van. From grocery shopping to taking her to get her hair cut, we spend a lot of time in the van. This also includes managing our 25 rental properties that the family owns. My mom and I are extremely close, and I'm very glad that I am in the position where I can be as much help to her as she was to me when I was growing up.

From 12:30p through the rest of the day I'm employed by my church where I do a myriad of tasks, most of which do not actually fall under my "job description" but which I undertake with no qualms. . .ok maybe a few qualms. . .but not a whole lot. I am "paid" to create and run the Power Point slideshows for both our 9:00a and 11:15a worship services. I also created and maintain our two websites as well as our facebook accounts.

I'm also a youth counselor, and so a lot of my extra time is took up with youth group activities. Needless to say you'll probably end up seeing lots of photos from our events and mission trips in later posts.

But the name of my blog is "Eraser Marked Soul". This refers to the fact that I am an artist. . .with a caveat. I am an artist and I fully understand and give complete credit for all my artwork to God. The Creator works through me in all my work especially my art. As such, He is constantly at work on my soul, creating me to be what can only be a perfect creation when I am with Him again in the end. So, from hereon until that end, I am a work in progress. . .
So, to leave you with an idea of just what some of that art looks like, here's a pic of a recent project that I and the children's ministry here at the church put together for their Christmas play. It's tissue paper glued onto poster board sheets. I then drew out the letters onto white bulletin board paper and cut out the odd shapes to make it look like stained glass windows.