Art Is Used To Help the Congo.

 In memory of Congolese displaced women.  

 

    Today I am posting four paintings that will go to our church auction.  All proceeds go to World Relief Congo.  Violence and conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo have been prevalent for many years.  My church, Fellowship Missionary, has made a commitment for the last few years to come along side of World Relief and provide prayers and funding to help these troubled people.  We have been a part of training peace builders among the tribes.  By we, I mean the people at my church  and World Relief. We pray all 

year for the displaced women of the Congo.  Many of our members train for the Race for Peace and solicit funds from sponsors. The monies go to World Relief to provide more counselors for teaching ways of resolving personal battles and ministering to the tormented and abused women. Over five million Congolese have been killed and slaughtered since 1996. Seventy-five per cent of the population lives on less than $1 a day.  My heart is heavy and burdened for the people of DR Congo.

          As I paint Congo scenes, the women, the surrounding tropical trees, it is as if I am stepping into their land and seeing individuals that become real to me.  God has given me a dream  for three successive years and shown me what I should paint to raise funds.  This year was no exception.  He showed me three women praising, and hope rose as they praised and prayed. 

     I enjoyed painting a stylistic portrait of the three gathered in praise.  This is a different style for me.  Friends have asked me who are the ladies that I paint?  I don’t know how to answer. The ladies live in the canvas and when I apply paint and prayer, they appear.  Now, sometimes I have to repaint if I get a color wrong or a body part out of proportion, but I never tire of painting.  I am as surprised as the viewer with the end result.  God gives me the design and image, but I must create His vision on the canvas.  It is like living on the edge of paradise.  His call, his gift, and the Holy Spirit leading creates these images. Putting our gifts together for the kingdom of God is what Race for Peace and Create4 Peace is celebrating.

     The woman sitting alone at the graveside appears somber.  Yet, there is hope rising in her.  Mysteriously, the MP3 laid down their arms last year.  After four years of intense praying, we heard the news report that for an unexplained reason they would no longer fight.  The warmongers stopped raping and attacking after years of violence in the DR Congo. The woman in the painting has buried her loved one and is not being hunted or accosted by the MP3. As she grieves for her loved one, she is sitting quietly finding hope in her future.

     The two figures carrying something on their heads represent hope rising too.  Hope is slowly rising in the Congo.  Peacemakers hired and trained with our race and art proceeds are helping tribes resolve problems. Life journeys are still sacrificial and difficult, but hope is welling up in individuals.

     The small map is a prayer map.  The woman stands in the midst of the Congo. She sees a beautiful sky and knows that life is getting better.  The keeper of this prayer map is reminded to pray daily for the women of the Congo.  Pray for healing of memories, emotions, and losses.  This map was created on a small four by six canvas, so it can sit on a desk or table and be a daily reminder to pray for our brothers and sisters in the Congo.

     I submit these art pieces and continued prayers that my sisters in the Congo may know peace and hope. Pray with me that these art pieces will bring a hefty price at our silent auction.  These funds will be added to the funds of World Relief Congo.

     

     

New Chapter of Life

When New Chapters Begin

 

When children return to school, learn a new teacher’s style, and greet old friends but make fresh relationships, a new chapter begins.  They are innocent of how this chapter will impact their lives.  Some will love their teacher so much that she/he will become a role model.  A new friend may bring a life changing truth via a faithful friendship.  The art teacher may strike a chord within the child that turns her life into a creative challenge.  Impacted.  Directed.  Focused.  That should be the title of these back to school chapters.

As the seasons change, we begin to have new expectations.  Perhaps that is why we love each of the four seasons. They bring new opportunities for love, inspiration, understanding, friendships, travel, and experiences.  I cherish new seasons in my life. Yesterday, I reconnected with a Muncie friend, who had moved to California two years ago.  Now, she lives eight minutes from me.  We had a delightful afternoon together.  I showed her some of my favorite salad spots, my chosen consignment boutiques, and natural food stores.  We sat on Starbuck’s patio and shared what had happened in the last two years.  She had lost two hundred pounds in those two years.  She did it by diet and exercise. I call her amazing! She looks gorgeous, feels energetic, and has discovered new truths and understandings in her life.  We are both writers so see the universe with a creative focus and decorated with magical word choices. We have begun a new chapter of friendship.

I never tire of new experiences and changes.  They create life within me.  I begin reading a new novel because I know I am going to see a different perspective when I finish it.  I start a new painting because I paint intuitively, and I will find a new understanding in the creative process. When I write a blog, many times I have no clue what I will write.  I begin and an idea emerges.  Is it a new chapter for you or me?  I hope it pricks your heart or soul and send sparks enough to launch a beautiful day. Happy chapter making!

When the muse visits

When The Muse Visits

 

            I am so blessed when I am in the creative rhythm zone.  I am learning that fresh ideas and paintings flow when I pay attention to my creative energy. It is like connecting the dots and discovering that everything is easier when I go with the mojo of the day.

            This week I felt the muse come.  So, I slowed down my week of appointments, lunches, and exercise classes and painted. The sounds of Mozart from my Boze player propelled me into a wonderful journey. Spring blossoms inspired me to paint landscapes and flowers.   I marvel at God’s ability to make so many greens.  As I have grown older, I appreciate perennials with varied green leaves. Lush leaves of hostas and ferns bubble happiness into my soul.  The blue flowers of the brunneras, pinks in the bleeding heart, and brilliant colors in my freshly planted annual baskets bring constant joy through the season.
            My youngest granddaughter, Ellis, said, “ Mimi, you want to paint every flower and every plant, don’t you?”  She is right, I do.  Carving out time for art and writing can be a challenge.  However, this week I made it a priority.  When I paint , I feel God’s pleasure.  When I write, I feel God’s pleasure.  He is the Creator and that creator in me recognizes a bonding when I paint or write.  Ellis is right.  I do want to paint all the beauty He has created in our world.

            I recognized that some weeks bring more creative energy than others.  So, when the momentum and speed of creative rhythms are with me, I have purposed to indulge deeply into my painting and writing.,  On days when ideas are less or a little dormant, I will look for other ways to express God’s love.  Saying words of silver to a friend in despair is as creative as writing books and blogs.  Giving my beautiful flowers in a special vase is an act of love and creativity.  I never tire of sharing the word of God with others.  Again, I have had to learn the rhythm and timing, not mine but the Creator’s.  So, this week whether you are painting, writing, or sharing your love in a creative way, I hope you find your creative rhythm and dance to your own song.
           Alexandra Franzen says it well when she encourages us by saying, "Today: I hope that you write, make, say, or do something wonderful.  Something that leaves the world in a better condition than you found it."

New plantings, new beginnings.

           

A dream, a painting, a Spiritual confirmation

Creating by way of the Creator

In my dream, I saw a vision of a vivid orange background with five women hanging on a rope in Africa.

When I awakened, I saw the vision flash before me.  I drew a very rough draft in my journal, and I realized this would be my piece for peace.  I had volunteered to give a painting to be sold in a silent auction at my church.  The last weekend of September, we were racing, praying, and hoping to make others more aware of the need for peace in the Congo.

I painted my long thin canvas orange canvas and waited for it to dry.  I put on my tennis shoes and set out for my training for the four-mile walk I would do to raise funds for the race for peace in the Congo.  As I walked, I began to pray for the women in the Congo and felt a spiritual stirring, a nudging from the Lord to intercede for these women.  I had been praying in the mornings during my devotion time, but those were distant prayers.  Those were prayers that were getting my heart ready to commit to interceding for the vulnerable of the Congo.  Today, was different, I began to feel their despair, their fear, and hear their cries.  Today, I knew my prayers were heart felt and heard by my Father in heaven.

The next morning I arose early to begin my painting. I was at a loss as to what Congo ladies wore.  How could I paint them?

That day I spent two and one half hours at the library searching for photos of Congolese women’s attire.  I only found a book of Faces of Africa.  I took the book home, but I knew my ladies in the painting were to have no faces.  They were the “forgotten” women in the Congo.  Even the media had not given them faces.  The Congo’s violence was seldom covered.   I looked all over the internet and still could find little of their  current, daily dress.  I could see women with various turbans and scarves, and one photo with the ladies in tee shirts and long wrapped skirts.

So, I decided this would be a faith painting.  I would begin painting in obedience.  I would trust that the Spirit would lead me and that He did.  As the figures formed on the canvas, I could feel their hearts, their sufferings, yet I knew hope was building within them and me.  Hope for peace in the Congo was coming forth in the painting and through my spirit from the Creator.  I trusted I could paint this because the great Creator had created me.  I had His spirit and He would lead.

Eagerly I awakened three successive mornings at 5:00, prayed and read the Word and then I’d begin to paint again.  I put dresses on them from my imagination.  I was worried that this wasn’t even the right colors or what the women really wore.  I just kept painting.  After getting the women all hanging from a rope like clothesline, I looked again at the photo of the two women in the wrapped skirts.  I suddenly noticed behind them were mountains.  Mountains! I hadn’t planned for mountains.  I googled the terrain of east Africa and sure enough there were mountains.  So, I painstakingly put the mountains in around the hanging women.

Then, the next morning, I got up to look at my painting and realized one of the women in the foreground, just was not positioned correctly.  I heard in my spirit, “These women have been made strong by their surroundings.  They have learned to endure hardships.” So, I began painting out the one woman and replaced her almost effortless into a strong woman forced to hang, forced to suffer, but she still had courage within.  I felt the Spirit channeling through me as I painted.  Many times I would put down my brush to wipe tears from my eyes.  Sometimes I would just paint with great hurt within. I painted and wondered, “ Is this even how the women look? Do these clothes depict Africa or my image of their dress?”  Truthfully, I was unsure of my painting, but the Spirit just kept me painting.  Spirit led and Spirit designed.  I knew it was bold and I could feel strength in the piece and my deadline for submitting it to the church gallery was near.  I had to let the oils dry or I could not get it to the church.  All that cad red and alizarin paint took a long time to dry.  I carried it to the church with insecurity that it was not good enough to offer.  It was my first painting depicting full figures of people.  I painted landscapes for three years, but I had never painted people. My husband went with me to drop the painting off at church.  He is always so supportive of my paintings bad or good.  Was this one good enough to offer to others at the church auction?

The painting , "Forgotten" was hung in the gallery on a corner panel.  I was amazed at the wonderful creations that were displayed. Evidence of the Creator was apparent.  He was working in the hearts of the artist toward peace in the Congo.  I felt humbled; yet, I was so excited to be a part of this movement of the arts.

It was Saturday night, September 28^th when I met Belinda Bauman, who is a writer, author, and advocate for the women of the Congo. She was our guest speaker for our praise gathering.  She explained that when she came around the corner panel  displaying the church’s silent auction art,  she stopped at my bold orange painting and thought a Congolese painted it. The dress was the same as the Congo.  The colors depicted the choice of their fabrics.  The turbans were just as they chose to wear.  

She had faces for my five women on the clothes line.  She had been interviewing these five ladies about the same time I was painting them.  She was in the Congo at a temporary refuge camp and was given permission as a reporter to go within the block and interview.  They led her to five women who shared their story of fears and hopes.  Their greatest fear was that they would be forgotten by the world.  Their greatest hope was peace and safety for their families.  Their desire was to be seen.

Such spiritual affirmation is exhilarating, but more importantly this testimony of two women who had never met were being used by the Lord to insure the Congolese women that they were not forgotten.  The Father saw them and heard their cries. Then, the Holy Spirit transferred that vision to me. God had manifested their likeness on canvas to assure them they were seen and not forgotten. 
The Spirit called forth something within me. I trusted and created.  The Spirit called forth to Belinda to interview those five ladies in the refuge camp at the same time.  My title of the painting was their fear.   Is God real?  I will be pleased to hear your answer.