In the beginning...

I began making ceramic eggs last spring as metaphors for the concept of home.  Reflecting on my thoughts have led me to realize that maybe I am thinking about the egg as a metaphor for home in relation to its role of raising children.  Home is fragile and precious.  Like the egg, it is also the container of life and the beginning of all things.  This is the role of the home in our culture and society.  It begins a child’s life and prepares them for the world they will face.  Childhood is also precious and a very fragile time.  It is critical to nurture and protect it.  It affects the way children learn to move and interact with people in this world even into adulthood.  If this development is altered, trauma can happen.  Trauma can be overcome - the trials we face make us who we are.  The good news is that there is always hope for intervention if we humble ourselves and allow it to happen.

 

 

"Leave it To Beaver!"

Leave it to Beaver! Starring: Barbara Billingsley, Hugh Beaumont, Tony Dow, and Jerry Mathers as the Beaver.

In a male commentator’s voice, these are the words that have echoed from television sets across America millions of times since this renowned sitcom’s first debut in October 1957.  Even if one has not heard or seen it himself, he knows of it.  It is familiar.  This sitcom painted the picture of what it looked like to live in 1950s American suburbia.  Almost 60 years later, its influence lives on in our country.  While some people are appalled by this picture of family and suburbia life screaming “women’s rights!” or “end male domination,” many people lust over this ideal.  For those who are attracted to the marriage and family of Ward and June Cleaver, what is it about their life that is so appealing?   Is there an innate desire to live this way or is it merely an image or façade painted by our culture – a social construct? 

 

We have almost been convinced that if we lived the way the Cleaver’s did, we would be safe and secure.  Warm in our suburban home, surrounded by our white picket fence that formed the perimeter around our plush freshly mowed lawn, setting down to the table to eat a homemade baked apple pie served to us by our mother in a pearl necklace, we would be safe.  Safe.  Yes – safe – for a moment.  A fleeting moment.  Yet, life happens and sometimes we are not given that apple pie. In fact, many of us aren’t.  Then, what do we do?  Give up? Hang up the towel?  No.  There is something greater.  We have never been promised comfort or security on this Earth.  That is not the point of this life.  This life is a journey and sometimes it is a difficult one.  This life is a journey to becoming something greater if we allow ourselves to become it.  One day, this life will end. Then and only then will we experience eternal glory, eternal security, and eternal comfort.  Ward and June Cleaver do not determine where I spend eternity.

 

 

 

“In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.  These have come so that your faith – of greater worth than gold which perishes even though refined by fire – may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.” 1 Peter 1:6-7 

 

 

This too shall pass....

Security, safety, purpose, and love. Humans are on a search to find these things. Whether they be physical, emotional, relational, or spiritual, we all want security.  In the country in which we live, America, there are many things that seem to provide us the opportunity to be secure -  physical homes, institutions, systems, organizations, and structures.  In comparison to other nations, America is rich.  However, how long will these man-made and imposed orders last?  They will not - they are merely attempts to achieve what is really to come.  At any moment, a disaster could bring it all crashing down and our perfect ideas of security will be no more.  No more white picket fences, perfectly manicured lawns, or even organizations that seek to help those in need.  Everything will pass.  What will we be left with?  I challenge you to consider if the world as you know it were to fall apart, what would you do?

 

 

 

Wisteria Lane from the set of Desperate Housewives

 

 

"So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but what is unseen.  For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal." 2 Corinthians 4:18

 

Standards: Recent thoughts about my work

In my art, I am searching for how to communicate my ideas on the value of the Christian faith and worldview in relationship to the idea of one’s personal security and how it is illustrated through the home and family.  I am seeking to illustrate value, purpose, standards, and truth within these topics, but also the redemption that is available when we fail.  I believe there is an ultimate security and standard to be found.  What does that look like? How can we attain it, then nurture and protect it?