Orthodox Writers, Readers, and Artists: Kristina Wenger

Picture this: I am asked to write a blog featuring my photography and my homemade photo cards, and how my eyes and my art and my faith all come together. I agree. I prepare to comply, and as I write, I realize that I am really very new to photography. Sure, I have been an artist for decades, but visual art has come more recently to my palette. For most of my life, I’ve expressed myself in a completely different form. I am actually a teller of tales, a storyteller. I have been (though I didn’t know it, then), ever since I was a child and wanted to out-tell my daddy when it was joke-telling time. I’d crawl up into his lap, after a meal, and we’d tell jokes and laugh.

In my first 2 decades, I made up stories for playmates, told jokes, acted in plays, and bored my friends and family with every detail of my escapades. But it wasn’t until I was a teacher in a small Christian school, daily telling Bible stories to my first graders, that I realized how much I enjoy telling stories! My students would listen, enraptured, as we re-lived the stories together. I began to realize why Our Lord Himself used so many stories in his teachings: we learn through them. It was fun! And I was hooked.

Courtesy of Matthew Lester Photography

In the decades since, I have told stories to my own two children. At the church we attended before we became Orthodox, I began telling them to other people’s children, as well. I now am blessed with the opportunity to go into schools and libraries and tell folktales from other places, and learn from those tales, while celebrating the beauty of the cultures in our world. I am grateful for the opportunity to read and re-tell each week’s Gospel reading  for children in a way that I pray will help them pay better attention during the reading at church each Sunday. It is still fun! And I’m still hooked.

I should have guessed that I would eventually launch into photography. You see, when I am telling stories, I remember them through a series of “photographs,” or mental pictures, that remind me of the significant events in the tale. It’s like I make a little mental scrapbook of the story and simply walk the listeners through, one detail at a time… So, I suppose photography was a logical next artistic step for me.

For as long as I can remember, I have been a “noticer.” Especially in nature, I make an effort to notice things.  The childlike part of me wonders, and I am determined not to outgrow that wonder! On any given day, you will hear me say, “Don’t miss the (insert name of amazing detail, ie: sunrise; clouds; perfectly red leaves; cute little person; etc.)!!!” This world is a beautiful work of art, and I don’t want to miss any of the Artist’s carefully placed details! And, as I walk through the scrapbook of His love for us, I intend to proclaim what I see, and simply walk those around me through it, as well, one detail at a time…

However, the “noticer” needed others to help her to truly see…  As a child of missionaries, growing up in Guatemala, I was constantly surrounded by much beauty. From the lush green rainforests where I lived to the brilliant colors of the flowers and clothing of the people around me, to the gleam of huge Guatemalan smiles, my surroundings were astonishingly lovely. I enjoyed them all, but didn’t truly realize their beauty until I returned as a young adult, with another artistically-minded friend, who really showed me what I had been seeing all along, but hadn’t noticed. Within the last six months, I returned to my home country again, this time with my husband and children, and, this time, I was completely mesmerized as I saw “my” world, through their eyes. What a gloriously beautiful place! I have learned that we all need others to walk with us, through the scrapbook of His love, to help each other see one detail at a time…

When I take a picture, I am chronicling a story. Perhaps I am telling the story of the events of our family, or I am simply conveying the tale of the incredible beauty of the world as I see it. I try to notice the small things, the details, and capture them with my camera. Nature is my favorite subject matter. As I see what God has done or created, I know that not everyone is there to notice it at that particular moment, but I don’t want them to miss it! So I capture what I can, with my camera, so I can show off His work to others, later.

Saint Basil the Great said, “I want creation to penetrate you with so much admiration that wherever you go, the least plant may bring you the clear remembrance of the Creator… Scripture depicts to us the Supreme Artist, praising each one of His works; soon when His work is complete He will accord praise to the whole together…  A single plant, a blade of grass or one speck of dust is sufficient to occupy all your intelligence in beholding the art with which it has been made.”

Picture this: the beautiful world that God has blessed us to live in awaits your notice. Is it not amazing? Whatever you do, soak it up! Allow it to penetrate you with so much admiration that even just a tiny plant reminds you of the Creator. Don’t miss it! Then it is up to you to take each picture that He gives you, and walk those around you through it, so that they don’t miss a single detail. But, here’s a warning from this storyteller-photographer:  It’s fun! You’ll be hooked…

Since I was very young, I have made my own cards. I love receiving handmade cards because I know the time and love that was put into crafting such a gift for me, and I try to reciprocate. At some point in my young adult years, I began to use photographs as the main image on my cards, usually photographs of God’s beautiful creation. After Christmas 2010, when most of the gifts that I gave were handmade cards, enough people inquired about their availability for purchase, that I launched “Cards Through My Lens,” at www.CardsThroughMyLens.com. With this blog post, I am launching my latest line: “Beautifully Guatemalan,”  highlighting my home country as I saw it in the middle of 2011. I hope you’ll visit my website, and that you don’t miss the amazing moments that God made for us all to enjoy!

Kristina Wenger is a wife and mother of two, a community volunteer, and a peace-lover who teaches children about other cultures. She enjoys crafting, singing, reading, baking, hiking, and photography, although not necessarily simultaneously. She loves to laugh, and delights in little things and in little people. She is grateful to God for bringing her, her husband, and her two children into the Holy Orthodox Church on Holy Saturday of 2005.

Hello! It’s me again.

Promoting books, mine and other people's, at the OCA All American Conference

I’m breaking in on the “Orthodox Writers, Readers, and Artists” series to say hello and tell you how it’s going. When I first visualized the series, I thought I’d have one guest each month. After some preliminary research, I thought maybe I’d have two. Shortly after the series launched, I realized I should abandon this measured approach and just stuff guests in wherever they fit.

My guest list is growing like a slinky rolling downstairs. You can meet someone new on this blog every week between now and next summer.  Or perhaps fall.  Or winter.

In my adventures searching for creative Orthodox people, I have confirmed my suspicion that there are many of us, that we would love to be connected to each other, and that we all hope to see a robust support system in the Orthodox writing world equivalent to what is available to secular writers.

So far, it seems to me that Orthodox artists are slightly better off. Iconographers, for example, seem more likely to be featured in local newspapers. Iconography is an art form known by the secular world. It may be valued only as art, but people know what it is.

No such luck for Orthodox writers, it seems. Why is this? Why is an icon accessible to the general public, but an Orthodox book is likely to be read only by the Orthodox? Perhaps looking is not as demanding as reading. Or (allowing my less cynical self some air time) the spiritual content of an icon has the power to attract people.

Orthodox illustrators seem to fall somewhere in the middle, perhaps because their artistic skills can be used for secular or sacred purposes. In their Orthodox lives, however, they share many experiences with Orthodox writers.

To date, this series has been enormously fun for me. I love finding new writers and artists, I love learning about what they do, and I love talking to other people about it. Much of the networking I did at the OCA conference a few weeks ago centered on this blog series. It was such a high to move from one end of the conference hall to the other, talking to people about my guest posters and how great they are. Way better than champagne. As good as chocolate. As good as having the whole box of Godiva TO YOURSELF.

I’m currently working on some new features for the blog, and continuing to ponder ways to water our Orthodox creative world and admire its blossoms. I look forward to being in touch with you as this project grows.

Orthodox Writers, Readers, and Artists: Emma Cazabonne, “Beauty will save the world.”

“Beauty will save the world,” wrote Dostoevsky in The Idiot, first published serially in 1868-1869.

Many Orthodox writers and thinkers have since used the phrase. I encountered it about 25 years ago in a book by Paul Evdokimov, and it never left me. At the time, I was just discovering Orthodoxy; but I had been exposed to art for many years and was doing a bit of drawing and painting myself.

After two world wars, numerous ecological disasters, and ugly terrorist acts all over our planet, we may be tempted to despair. But I believe “beauty will save the world.”

To attract your attention, whether on paper, on the little screen or on your monitor, the media focus almost exclusively on ugliness and catastrophes. But beauty will save the world.

Now an official member of the Orthodox Church, I believe in the saving beauty of Christ’s redeeming death and Resurrection.

I also believe that following Christ means participating in His redeeming work, at many levels. I will only speak here about one level. As an Orthodox believer, I feel particularly called to spread beauty in our world. And I strive to do it through my artwork and my writing.

Born from French parents gifted with talents for drawing and painting, I started painting in grade school; I even remember nailing old sheets on a piece of wood to make my own “canvas.” I was not 10 at the time.

A few years later, an art teacher introduced me to the fascinating world of colors, and I attended weekly art classes until university. After some low years in art production, I discovered rock painting. I have now been painting almost exclusively on rocks for 10 years. I paint things I find beautiful and believe will introduce beauty in the life of others. Seeing the joy of my customers when they discover my rocks brings me a lot of hope, as they have a glimpse that everything may not be rotten and in our world.

Beauty will save the world.

 

I paint birds, flowers, landscapes, etc, memorial rocks for deceased pets, from pictures taken by the pet owner, and icons and Orthodox stain-glass style designs.

Beauty will save the world.

God’s saving Beauty was made visible in the flesh: “The Word was made flesh.” John 1:14. We have access to this multi-faceted beauty in our daily contact with the Word in the Scriptures.

I believe we can find and propagate beauty not only through visual arts, but also through The Word and words. I have loved words since I was about 4, when I started reading by myself. Since then, I have grown into a passionate lover of words and books.

It is not only fascinating to read, but also to share with others the beauty I find in books, whether they are fiction or non-fiction works. I started a book blog a year ago, and it has been a deep experience to interact with others on the beauty and depth of words. I entitled my blog Words And Peace, to convey the idea that you can reach some peaceful depth in yourself through reading and sharing, and of course I could not miss the opportunity of introducing a pun, on War And Peace, as you would all have guessed. My blog’s address is:
http://wordsandpeace.wordpress.com
. The last Orthodox book I reviewed was:

You can read my review here.

I write a lot every month through my translation work of articles and books, mostly from English to French, and occasionally from French to English. The world of translation is absolutely fascinating. I deeply believe we still need bridges in our global world. The image of the world as a village is still a myth, not exactly yet part of our daily reality: we still need help communicating with each other on our planet, and that is the beautiful role of translators, among others. The more we understand each other, the easier we will be at peace. I believe part of my mission as an Orthodox believer is to be a “beauty and peace maker,” by helping people understand each other.

I believe I contribute to this bridge building also through my online French classes, geared to students of all levels, from total beginners to Ph. D. students and proficient learners who just want to keep up with their French conversation skills.

Beauty will save the world.

More creatively, I have given lots of conferences focused mainly on monastic spirituality, both for Western and Eastern Christians. Some of these conferences I have published as articles. The most relevant to our topic here is my article on Gregory Palamas. Discovering that few Western Christians knew about him, I tried to write an accessible presentation of his life and works. I initially wrote and published it in French, then in English and Spanish. The English version is available in the Cistercian Studies Quarterly 37:3 (2002): 303-333 .

Who better than Gregory Palamas wrote about the beauty and depth of our faith? I discovered Gregory through the mystery of the Transfiguration back in the late 80s, and since then I have striven to propagate this beauty.

And last but not least, I published a book a few years ago focused on light. Early on, I discovered that as much as Eastern Fathers and Mothers, writers pertaining to the Western Christian tradition focused a lot on the topic of light. I decided then to publish an anthology of short spiritual texts related to the theme of light in Cistercian Fathers and Mothers:

A Light to Enlighten the
Darkness: Daily Readings for Meditation during the Winter Season Selected by Emma Cazabonne (Cistercian
Publications, 2008) ISBN: 978-0-87907-227-8

Beauty will save the world.

Some of our contemporaries may think beauty, whether in art or in words, is something totally irrelevant to our busy and efficient modern world, where the main goal seems sometimes to make money and buy things. Just as we need our daily bread, I believe that more than ever, we need our daily portion of beauty to survive and thrive.

To paraphrase a passage by Nina Sankovitch in her latest book Tolstoy and The Purple Chair: My Year of Magical Reading (Harper: 2011), I wish for all of us that beauty may become “an escape, not from, but into living.”

_______________________

Note: I am referring to this passage:

“Cyril  Connolly, twentieth-century writer and critic, wrote that ‘words are alive and literature becomes an escape, not from, but into living.’ That was how I wanted to use books: as an escape back to life. I wanted to engulf myself in books and come up whole again.” p.20

 

Emma Cazabonne is a French tutor, an English-French translator, and a rockpainter. She was born in France and has been living in the US for 10 years. After 20 years as a Trappistine nun, she converted to Orthodoxy. With her husband, a clinical counselor combining Orthodox spiritual elements and psychological principles in his practice, she attends a small ROCOR parish in the Chicagoland.

Orthodox Writers, Readers, and Artists: Claire Brandenburg, “What is in the Kitchen?”

Creating interesting characters is very important to a story. The character has to be someone that you, as a writer, understand on an interior level. You know what he will do and what he won’t do. That character has to be someone that the reader also wants to follow and to spend some time with, and is in many ways the key to keeping people turning the page.

So how do we go about that?

I open my double door pantry and start going through the shelves… hmmm, a can of this, a can of that…how about some of these spices on the door?

What on earth am I talking about?  Well, let me tell you a little more.

I spend a lot of time observing people, even speaking in their accent if they speak unusually to my ears, (of course not to their face).  I guess in a way I act out who I perceive that they are.  Of course this representation is I myself living in a different circumstance, in perhaps a different culture, and taking on mannerisms of that life.

I ask God to show this to me as well.  I ask how would he (the character) do this or do that?  What would he chose? What is next thing that might happen?  Does that feel right, does this feel right?  And then I wait until I have the answer.

I also research and ask questions of people; how do they do the things that they do, the jobs that they have, or things that they enjoy.  A person spends a lot of time each day at their work, they love it, they hate it; but they grow in it, and it changes them because they are interacting with other people; and often not people who would necessarily be friend choices.  Watching people at work tells you a lot about them.  You see personality manifested through their actions. As an illustrator, my job is showing the reader what is happening.  That is a writer’s job is as well.  You want to show a lot about your characters through the way they move through their day or through a problem.

I am working on a young adult novel.  It has been a long term project; in fact, I have been working on it now for over five years.  I have tried to create a character of a mixed cultural background deriving the personality of Isaac, the principle character, from the Hispanic people of Northern New Mexico, with whom I have lived as neighbors and friends for many years.  I also wanted to combine his personality with things I have read in Orthodox writings, wanting him to come from a background that has partly Orthodox roots.  I went so far as to create a history for Isaac’s grandfather as well, who, though not actively met within the book, has a major impact on the central character’s consciousness and responses, and whose influence has greatly formed his character.

This is a road trip story, so I took the road trip.  I know where my character is going, what these places look like, and how he will feel about those places before he gets there.

That kind of “story” gathering is an important part of the pantry that provides food for a book and the representation of its characters who are not only good to write about but also good to read about.  With this method the adage, “Write what you know,” is played out to the hilt.

A fine artist and children’s book writer and illustrator, Claire received a BFA in art and education from the University of New Mexico. Working in a variety of different art forms for over thirty years, she has shown her work in galleries and museums and has received numerous awards. You can learn more about her published work at www.clairebrandenburg.com.  Claire is married. She and her husband have two grown children. Beside her work for Children’s Books and illustration, Claire is involved in the recording of Orthodox books and teachings on CD. Claire blogs at
http://clairebrandenburg.blogspot.com
and can also be found on Twitter and Facebook. If you visit her Facebook page, you’ll notice a link to Heavenly Ladder, a bookstore that was founded as part of an effort to establish an Orthodox Church in Taos, New Mexico. Check out the Heavenly Ladder “Travel” link to learn about tours and pilgrimages to Orthodox holy places.

Orthodox Writers, Readers, and Artists: Grace Brooks

My mother tells me that one of the real benefits that I offered to a weary parent (I was the last of four children) was that if you put me in a room with a pencil and paper, I could amuse myself for hours and could even be heard laughing at what I had created.

I can appreciate what a boon that must’ve been, even though as an adult, I’ve got some reservations (Um, just how long were we leaving little Gracie in a room by herself? Couldn’t we have spent just a little of that time working on her social skills?).

But I can see that the signs were there that I was going to be one of those oddballs that the world sometimes celebrates and sometimes frets over. I was going to be someone who beheld a wonderful world full of airplanes, bumblebees, ice cream, cuckoo clocks and other delights and then felt an irrepressible urge to capture it, futile though that was. My heart would nearly burst with it: How do you draw sunshine? How do you spell the sound a hummingbird’s wings make? What notes sound like a day in October?

And, more importantly, how did everything fit together — what was the Story? What was the point of Life and what were the rules? As you grow, you get some tantalizing clues, and you get to see other people’s answers on the subject. And you encounter the engine of all our guesswork — our culture — and that can be a wonderful and terrible thing in its storytelling. I had no reason to believe that I had any really vital part of the story to relate, but there’s nothing for it, for the ones whose hearts lead them that way. I wanted to re-tell that Great Narrative, or at least as much of it as my life expressed. I still do.
 

Great expectations

I wish I could say my creative life as an adult was one big happy story, but it’s been rather bittersweet. At the same time that I converted to Orthodoxy and began one of the best times of my spiritual life, I started a series of frustrating attempts to find the creative outlet that would give me work to do that was close to my heart. I appreciate my years as a graphic artist, and I hope that I’ve helped others tell their stories, but it hasn’t helped me tell mine.

About 15 years ago, I got bitten by the bug to create a comic strip. After a couple lukewarm attempts, I got an idea out of the blue that put me on one of those roller coaster rides that every prospective artist and writer knows too well. Initial interest from a major syndicate made me think I was on my way to a life that seemed like a dream come true. But the syndicate dropped me, and after a year of self-syndicating (for the princely sum of $6 a week), I had to admit defeat. I think I still grieve sometimes for what I thought it would lead to, though I can see a lot of reasons why it might have been better in the long run that I failed.

I could skip this unhappy episode, but I think there’s value in expressing the part of being both creatively-inclined and Orthodox that we like the least– that is to say, the reality of wanting what is difficult (arguably impossible) to acquire. Failure is a distinct possibility and success can be very elusive. Struggling makes for a good narrative if victory is assured, but the Church has known its share of sorrows, and each of us has our own to reflect upon as well. I would’ve liked easy success in both my creative and spiritual labors; instead, I have to deal with reality … and I struggle.
 

Creativity 2.0

Not that I’ve given up on writing and drawing. Blogging doesn’t pay, of course, but it does allow me to work on some skills with words and images. I get some design assignments from time to time that indulge my sense of whimsy (as with a superhero potato character I’m doing right now for a storage facility) (don’t ask). And all the while, my church life has kept me grounded and helped me to break out of the confines of my five senses, my narrow aesthetics and my enslavement to the realms of imagination.

As for my next trick, who knows? I start to wonder if, as Melinda says, I’ll find that the next project is more of a joint endeavor. It would seem to reflect more about who I am now if it was less of a one-woman show and more of a team effort.

I’m interested in a lot more of our popular culture than I used to be, and I see a lot of opportunity for Orthodoxy to find expression there. Cultural offerings have certainly gotten more vulgar and secular in my lifetime, but suddenly the opportunities to create mini-cultures have exploded. I would like to see a flowering of Orthodox themes in self-publication (as Barbara Shukin did), and also in videocasts, CD recordings, graphic novels, computer games–who can say? Technology is increasing the number of people who get to tell a story, and Orthodox have a voice in the Christian narrative that has been sorely lacking. We’re more earthy, but still attached to the sacred. We’re less sentimental, less rationalistic, more scientific and fully invested in the mystery of the Church. I’d love to hear more stories offered from an Orthodox-informed perspective.

But I haven’t won the lottery this week, so I suppose I can’t be a patron of all the change I’d like to see. I’ll have to dust off whatever skills I have and see where I can start.

Where did I leave those crayons? And does anyone have an extra blue one?

---

Grace Brooks is a freelance graphic artist and cartoonist living in Phoenix, Arizona, with her gracious husband Greg and a coonhound named Clementine. She has a BA in Fine Arts from UC Irvine, and has been a graphic artist for 28 years. She hosts a blog at www.this-side-of-glory.com

Orthodox Writers, Readers, and Artists: Sheena Hisiro

Admittedly, when Melinda first contacted me about writing a piece for her blog, I was a little hesitant.  After all, I didn’t major in writing.  Rather, I went to school for illustration, to learn to bring stories to life via pictures, not words.  But the more I thought about it, the more I realized I can do this.  While a writing degree may not be in my background, the subject matter of this piece is something I am very familiar with–my artwork.

This summer I was fortunate enough to work with Conciliar Press illustrating a new children’s book, written by Kelly Lardin, being released early next year.  The book, entitled Josiah and Julia Go to Church: A Young Child’s Guide to Church Etiquette, is a playful story for children teaching them what they should (and shouldn’t) do in church.

Obviously, with the book being set in a church, I needed to draw a church.  Rather than create a fictitious one, a concept that came immediately to mind was to depict the church I grew up in, Christ the Saviour Orthodox Church, where I spent many a childhood day.  For a number of the images, I drew from memory, having spent many hours over the course of my life studying every visual detail of the church–the pattern of the floor, the pews, the intricate wood carvings decorating the iconostasis, the decorative and very colorful garments worn by the priest and altar boys, the parishioners, the beautiful icons, the different candles burning, and once they were finished, the very large icons adorning almost every wall in the church.  These in particular fascinated me as
a child and continue to do so as an adult, with all the detail and care with which they were painted, as well as how each tells a different story.  For someone with a passion for anything visual, the church is a feast for the eyes.

The priest in the story is again my priest from childhood, Fr. Daniel Ressetar.  Up until the last couple of years when he retired, Fr. Dan was the priest at Christ the Saviour. That is to say, he “officially” retired; if you go on Sunday, you’re very likely to see him helping out with the current priest, Fr. Stephen.  Fr. Dan was then, and continues to be, an influential part of my life.  Many times when I go home to visit family, I have some news clipping or other compliments of Fr. Dan, be it an article he thought of interest to me, news about Orthodoxy, Church Bulletins, and occasionally, a book that he thought I might like.  He was there for many big events in my life, church-related and non-church related alike–my baptism, first communion (and many communions after that), first confession, high school graduation, the release of my first children’s book and subsequent one, and would have attended the most recent if not for a previous engagement.  Including him in the story was my way of paying tribute, of saying thank you, to Fr. Dan for everything he has done and continues to do for me.

Over the course of my life, many people have said, “You have a gift from God,” or “You have been truly blessed with artistic talent.”  I am very grateful to have this gift and pray that I am able to continue to utilize my talent for a very long time.

Sheena Hisiro has been drawing since she could hold a pencil. She currently lives in Brooklyn, NY where she is still drawing and loving every minute of it. Sheena is currently illustrating children’s books, designing greeting cards, and drawing cupcakes.

Orthodox Writers, Readers, and Artists: Barbara Shukin

When Melinda asked me if I would be interested in writing a blog post about writing, I thought, “Well, I am an author, I self-publish my books… Oh! Sure. I’d be glad to contribute.” But then it occurred to me, “Oh, she wants writers: people who ‘write.’ But, I don’t really ‘write.”’

You see, my background is in art. I have a Master’s degree in sculpture, and furthermore, my experience lies along the lines of conceptual art. After all, I went to the University of Illinois at Chicago during the ‘80’s. That’s what we did there and then. I have ideas.I make things. Making art and teaching is what I am “qualified” for. But, regardless, the truth is, over the past 10 years I have found myself doing quite a lot of writing.

What got me into this position, where I needed to express myself this way, is that I had an idea for a series of history notebooks: the History Portfolio books. These are books which the children build by adding written work and images according to the provided outline, and in the end function as a record of their history studies and a keepsake. Part of this original vision included publishing books for Orthodox Christian children as well, and so several years ago, I published a book called Journaling Throughout the Liturgical Year, which is a notebook as well. You see the theme? Making things. The initial idea and the production of the Portfolios didn’t require much writing, just the original vision, tons of research, and artistic decisions. Concepts, researching, making. These were areas I was familiar and comfortable with. But what happened next was that I needed to explain how to use the books, write introductions, web content, etc.  And, further down the line, I wrote Teacher’s Guides for each of the books. So, it’s snowballed.

But, “how did I get here” is not what I want to write about today. I want to write about “here I am,” and how to make the best of it. One of the first things that came to mind when gathering my thoughts about this blog post was sharing a couple of revelations I’ve had about “here I am.” About 11 years ago, I became very involved with a consuming project with our church. With the blessing of our Bishop, our group had just purchased a temple which needed to be remodeled. At this time, I had just my two oldest children.  Nearly every day from May – September, for some part of the day, we went to work on the church. I remember, one day, sitting in the church in the mess of lumber and dust and half-painted projects, and the letters of St. Theophan the Recluse came to mind. In this book, The Spiritual Life: And How to Be Attuned to It, St. Theophan replies to a young woman’s recent letter.

“What has happened to you? What kinds of questions are these? ‘I do not know what to do with my life. Should I be doing something in particular? Should I define some particular purpose for myself?’  I read this and I was dumbfounded; where could such odd thoughts have come from?” (87)

The chapter continues, and he makes it clear that she is not to waste time on these questions, but to do the work which God has put before her! This resonated with me because at this time I was personally a little conflicted because I had left other projects at home. But I looked around and thought, I did not look for this, I did not choose it, but it was put before me. And, I was so thankful for the work which had been put before me, and thankful that I didn’t have to choose between projects or be the navigator.

Earlier this year, I had another experience which reminds me of the experience I just described. I was listening to the radio, while alone in the car. As a homeschool mom, let me tell you, this occurrence is rare!  But, I heard the story of a man involved in some charitable organization, who was working in a faraway land bringing roads and, as I remember, communication capabilities. I thought, “Oh, I’d love to do something like that! It’s so meaningful!” For just a moment or two I contemplated this. But, I quickly turned my mind to something more constructive and thought, “Well, what would I do, if I could?” And, I thought, envisioning a faraway land, “I would like to teach… to work with children… to somehow touch their lives with books, good books…” and as I narrowed it down, I realized… “That’s what I do! I’m doing it! I am living my dream!” It was a very delightful surprise. And, again, I was so thankful for the work which has been put before me.

Sometimes, I clearly have jobs before me, and the work is rich and full of challenges. But, there are plenty of times that I flounder in my work. I recently heard a Russian proverb, “Pray to God, but keep rowing to shore.” In the lull between projects, or in the middle of a project which seems to be feebly coming along, I feel the need to gather some kindling to get the fire going. Back in my art school days, we had a guest visit by a curator of a gallery, and she gave some advice which I think is applicable here. She said, “Everyday, you need to be with your art, working and thinking to some degree. Some days will not be as productive or creative, and on those days you need to at least be in your studio cleaning your brushes or preparing your work space.” With my writing, I may not have the same tools of the trade as a painter or sculptor, but I do find that the more I stay away from my craft, the more distant I feel from it, a chasm opens up, and the less inclined I am to plunge in as soon as an idea strikes me.

To keep moving along, or stoke the fire, it has proven to be a good thing for me to take up small projects which are just above my comfort level. This forces me to keep learning new things. Many of these projects are teaching opportunities, giving me the reason, and deadline, to create new activities along the lines of the Portfolio and the Liturgical Year Journal. Speaking or presenting workshops has been an area which has given me the opportunity to collect my thoughts, and write. Definitely outside my comfort zone, but good for me. Deadlines and accountability can be good.  I just take each opportunity as a challenge to develop.

To really keep a good fire burning, I have found that, for me, a good length of time for a big project is about 5 or 6 months. I love to really live in a project for a while, immersing myself as much as I can, and then gaining that sense of completeness when it is done. Once I get some distance on a finished project, I find that if I can look back at my year and know I’ve finished something, it seems to provide a semblance of order, and satisfaction. Of course, completing a project… raising the curtain on the show, presenting myself and my work as if saying “this is the best I can do,” has its own problems. It can be hair-raising at worst, and humbling at best. I have repeatedly watched myself delay the end of a project, not wanting that creative fire to end. Apparently, my thinking was, “It was safe working on this project. I have a job to do, I have a clear direction, I know what I’m doing. And… when this project is over, what am I going to do?! Oh no, I’ll have to come up with something all over again, and it’s going to be messy!”

Mess or not, writing or building, it can’t be helped. It’s what I do. I make things.

Barbara Shukin is an Orthodox Christian mother of five children from ages 21 down to 4, and has homeschooled since the beginning. After receiving her MFA in sculpture from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, she taught for several years at the college level, and was concurrently the director of a college art gallery. She continues to teach through local homeschool co-ops, and by offering art classes for homeschoolers. Barbara is the author and publisher of the History Portfolio Series, the Nature Portfolio, and Journaling Throughout the Liturgical Year, offering a notebooking approach to the study of history, nature study, and the Orthodox faith.

Orthodox Writers, Readers, and…Artists!

Paint!

I am delighted to announce that the “Orthodox Writers and Readers” series is expanding to include Orthodox artists, iconographers, and, with a bit of luck, an Orthodox composer I met at church last Sunday! You may also have noticed that the original goal of two guests each month has been expanded to “however many guests we can fit” each month.

I love the series as it is, but I decided that if some is good (and it has been so good!), more is better! The more facets of the gem we consider, the more beauty we permit ourselves to experience. What does writing words have in common with “writing” icons? What does verbal description share with oil painting? What spiritual journey is unique to each kind of art? I want to know!

I hope we can explore every area of the creative life through the eyes of Orthodox Christians who are living it. I suspect each form of art brings its own visions and temptations, and its own gifts.