Friday, March 8, 2013
Motorsports Artist Rob Ijbema
There is no way I can add anything to this phenomenal article on the art of Rob Ijbema from MotorSportRetro ... so I will just tease you with a few images of Rob's art, and leave you to follow the link to the full article!
The Art of Fred Folsom
When that issue of IMAGE arrived in my mailbox, I devoured the article on Folsom immediately. Mostly, I was stunned by his paintings. They were exactly what I would have wanted to paint. Here is the center panel of his master work, "Last Call" (at the Shepherd Park Go-Go Bar), which was featured in the article. It is a triptych consisting of three 6-foot by 6-foot panels.
I got the impression, both from the article and from the images of the paintings themselves, that Folsom identified with his subjects. Indeed, that he knew and loved them, warts and all.
I wouldn't say that, in my novice art "career" at that time, I emulated Folsom exactly. But I will say that from the first time I saw his work, he has steadily occupied a certain portion of my mind, and of my vision of what it is to be a Christian artist.
Recently, as I have contemplated the creation of a somewhat Folsom-esque painting of my own, I have had reason to go back and do further research on Folsom and his art. In doing so, I have come across two excellent documentary videos on YouTube. The first is about 8 minutes in length, and the second is longer, about 27 minutes. I recommend them both. They give you a good sense of the artist and the world which he inhabits. Of particular interest to me were interviews, many years later, of some of the patrons captured in the "Last Call" painting.
Also of interest to me was the fact that Folsom continued to "touch up" this painting for 9 years after its completion!
Here are the two documentary videos:
Book of Memory (Chrome Folk Bar-B-Q)
Here is a rough demo track from my band, Chrome Folk Bar-B-Q, of my song, "Book of Memory". Even for the little demo CD we are making, it needs a bit of tweaking, but I am happy that the spirit and energy of the song seems to come through well.
It is a departure in style for us. It is located at my own musical epicenter of 1967-ish Garage Rock, but I'm the only one in the band with a passion for this music. Fortunately, my band mates humored me, and let us record this!
Book of Memory
Frozen moments, sparks were flashing,
Smiles that pierced me to the core.
But I'm nothing to you now, and
Never shall be any more.
All you taught me is forgotten,
All I taught you, gone the same.
All that’s left is endless sorrow,
Every time I hear your name.
But in God’s own book of memory,
Everything we vowed, still true.
Nothing can erase our chapter.
God remembers I loved you.
All our days of secret sharing,
All our times of joyous prayer.
All our highest hopes and fancies,
Faithfully recorded there.
Each is captured, none forgotten,
Like a jewel of great price.
Every promise, kept unbroken,
Every act of sacrifice.
There in God’s own book of memory,
Still we live beyond the pain.
All our kindnesses remembered,
All our love was not in vain.
(© 2011, by Paul Erlandson)
It is a departure in style for us. It is located at my own musical epicenter of 1967-ish Garage Rock, but I'm the only one in the band with a passion for this music. Fortunately, my band mates humored me, and let us record this!
Book of Memory
Frozen moments, sparks were flashing,
Smiles that pierced me to the core.
But I'm nothing to you now, and
Never shall be any more.
All you taught me is forgotten,
All I taught you, gone the same.
All that’s left is endless sorrow,
Every time I hear your name.
But in God’s own book of memory,
Everything we vowed, still true.
Nothing can erase our chapter.
God remembers I loved you.
All our days of secret sharing,
All our times of joyous prayer.
All our highest hopes and fancies,
Faithfully recorded there.
Each is captured, none forgotten,
Like a jewel of great price.
Every promise, kept unbroken,
Every act of sacrifice.
There in God’s own book of memory,
Still we live beyond the pain.
All our kindnesses remembered,
All our love was not in vain.
(© 2011, by Paul Erlandson)
Tuesday, March 5, 2013
Christ Church Anglican (3rd Visit)!
Each year that I attend the Arnold Sports Festival in Columbus, Ohio, I make it a point to worship at a beautiful parish church called Christ Church Anglican.
I first learned of this parish and visited it in 2010. I just fell in love with the place!
I went back in 2011, and blogged about it here.
I was not able to make it to Columbus in 2012, so I was really excited to get back this year. This time, I made it a point to pay attention and study what it is, exactly, that makes me love the place so much. Here are my findings, such as they are.
1. They remembered me and missed me. This is not too uncommon at churches of any stripe, so perhaps not a discriminator between this parish and any other. But it made me feel good when Fr. Wale Fafiade greeted me warmly by name after the service, and told me that he had been crestfallen the Sunday of Arnold weekend in 2012 to look out over the congregation and not see me there.
2. The beautiful organ playing. My wife and I love to hear a church organ well played, and the Prelude, Communion, and Postlude organ pieces were all beautiful!
3. The excellent choir. If I am not mistaken, the Christ Church Anglican choir has picked up a strong new soprano since last I heard them. In any case, though, they led the congregation very well in all the hymns and executed a fine rendition of When I Survey the Wondrous Cross for the Offertory Anthem. The choir consisted of 6 female voices and 2 male voices on this day.
4. The excellent hymns. Of course, being a gloomy, Eeyore-style Anglican, there is much in the way of Lenten hymns from The Hymnal 1940 to thrill me. The Recessional Hymn, The Glory of These Forty Days, is one of my favourites.
5. Straight 1928 BCP, no funny stuff! Even though my home parish uses the Anglican Missal, which has much in common with the 1928 BCP, it is just not the same! There is something about coming back to the 1928 BCP, in which even the page numbers of my favourite prayers are precious to me. I don't want to turn to Page 264 to read a prayer that should be found on Page 80, as God and Thomas Cranmer intended! Okay, I'm joking. Sort of. But it is a relief to know that all the rubrics will be followed, with no innovations, omissions, or additions. Call me OCD if you will, but that is what I like. It makes church for me (what T. S. Eliot would call) a still point, rather than yet another source of chaos added on top of my already too chaotic week.
6. The Litany in Lent. I don't know when I last had the privilege of praying The Litany from the 1928 BCP in a public worship service. Oh, wait, yes I do: it was Sunday, March 6, 2011. I am thankful that Christ Church Anglican includes The Litany in its Lenten services. It's prayers are exquisite. I like them so much, that I once tried to set some of them to music:
7. The reading of the Decalogue. Yes, all ten commandments, with the appropriate (sung) responses. Beautifully done.
8. The fellowship of kindred minds. Wow. I stayed around talking with several parishioners after the Holy Communion service. I connected with them on so many levels. You know something supernatural is going on when, after 20 minutes of conversation, you feel as if you have always known a person! One couple I was talking with knew all of the works of Jean Shepherd, and the gentleman had (as I had!) listened to Shep back in the 1970s on WOR radio from New York. The lady quoted, without missing a beat, one of Shepherd's longer book titles: Wanda Hickey's Night of Golden Memories and Other Disasters. I cannot in my wildest dreams imagine that conversation having occurred at my home church.
Another parishioner, a choir member in fact, turned out to be a fine artist whose Opening I had attended just the evening before at the Sharon Weiss Gallery. It was a sort of Twilight Zone moment when I realized that the choir member whose singing I had admired only 30 minutes earlier was the same woman whose art I had admired 18 hours earlier!
All in all, a most blessed experience. I am going to try to take another trip to Columbus (with my wife this time!) to visit and worship at Christ Church Anglican.
I first learned of this parish and visited it in 2010. I just fell in love with the place!
I went back in 2011, and blogged about it here.
I was not able to make it to Columbus in 2012, so I was really excited to get back this year. This time, I made it a point to pay attention and study what it is, exactly, that makes me love the place so much. Here are my findings, such as they are.
1. They remembered me and missed me. This is not too uncommon at churches of any stripe, so perhaps not a discriminator between this parish and any other. But it made me feel good when Fr. Wale Fafiade greeted me warmly by name after the service, and told me that he had been crestfallen the Sunday of Arnold weekend in 2012 to look out over the congregation and not see me there.
2. The beautiful organ playing. My wife and I love to hear a church organ well played, and the Prelude, Communion, and Postlude organ pieces were all beautiful!
3. The excellent choir. If I am not mistaken, the Christ Church Anglican choir has picked up a strong new soprano since last I heard them. In any case, though, they led the congregation very well in all the hymns and executed a fine rendition of When I Survey the Wondrous Cross for the Offertory Anthem. The choir consisted of 6 female voices and 2 male voices on this day.
4. The excellent hymns. Of course, being a gloomy, Eeyore-style Anglican, there is much in the way of Lenten hymns from The Hymnal 1940 to thrill me. The Recessional Hymn, The Glory of These Forty Days, is one of my favourites.
5. Straight 1928 BCP, no funny stuff! Even though my home parish uses the Anglican Missal, which has much in common with the 1928 BCP, it is just not the same! There is something about coming back to the 1928 BCP, in which even the page numbers of my favourite prayers are precious to me. I don't want to turn to Page 264 to read a prayer that should be found on Page 80, as God and Thomas Cranmer intended! Okay, I'm joking. Sort of. But it is a relief to know that all the rubrics will be followed, with no innovations, omissions, or additions. Call me OCD if you will, but that is what I like. It makes church for me (what T. S. Eliot would call) a still point, rather than yet another source of chaos added on top of my already too chaotic week.
6. The Litany in Lent. I don't know when I last had the privilege of praying The Litany from the 1928 BCP in a public worship service. Oh, wait, yes I do: it was Sunday, March 6, 2011. I am thankful that Christ Church Anglican includes The Litany in its Lenten services. It's prayers are exquisite. I like them so much, that I once tried to set some of them to music:
7. The reading of the Decalogue. Yes, all ten commandments, with the appropriate (sung) responses. Beautifully done.
8. The fellowship of kindred minds. Wow. I stayed around talking with several parishioners after the Holy Communion service. I connected with them on so many levels. You know something supernatural is going on when, after 20 minutes of conversation, you feel as if you have always known a person! One couple I was talking with knew all of the works of Jean Shepherd, and the gentleman had (as I had!) listened to Shep back in the 1970s on WOR radio from New York. The lady quoted, without missing a beat, one of Shepherd's longer book titles: Wanda Hickey's Night of Golden Memories and Other Disasters. I cannot in my wildest dreams imagine that conversation having occurred at my home church.
Another parishioner, a choir member in fact, turned out to be a fine artist whose Opening I had attended just the evening before at the Sharon Weiss Gallery. It was a sort of Twilight Zone moment when I realized that the choir member whose singing I had admired only 30 minutes earlier was the same woman whose art I had admired 18 hours earlier!
All in all, a most blessed experience. I am going to try to take another trip to Columbus (with my wife this time!) to visit and worship at Christ Church Anglican.
Sunday, March 3, 2013
My Incredible Arnold Weekend! (Part 2)
My incredible luck in meeting up with people I had long admired continued on Saturday at the Arnold Expo in Columbus.
Without any planning on my part, I met up with several of my favourite competitors, some of whom I had met many times before, and some of whom I met for the first time!
Without any planning on my part, I met up with several of my favourite competitors, some of whom I had met many times before, and some of whom I met for the first time!
My Incredible Arnold Weekend! (Part 1)
I am sitting here in my 3rd floor room in the incredible Bed & Breakfast in Columbus, Ohio, attempting to make an accounting of God's grace to me this weekend, and failing miserably to be able to keep up with tallying the sum of God's incredible kindnesses to me!
I arrived around 9 pm on Thursday evening. Unlike in previous years, I had done no planning this year about what or who I would see. I was on a tight budget, and so did not buy any tickets to the high-priced evening events. I just planned to roam around the Arnold Expo and see what and whom I could see. And, it turned out spectacularly!
I met so many cool people (even just on Friday!) that I had waited years to meet, it just blew my mind! Here are a few:
The lady in the 4th photo is Kris Murrell, an IFBB Pro bodybuilder. She has downsized a lot since turning Pro, but still makes me look weak and small. She talked to me and another fan for about 20 minutes, and we learned that she will soon be appearing in a major motion picture. She plays the part of "Kitty", David Spade's girlfriend. I can't wait to see it!
I arrived around 9 pm on Thursday evening. Unlike in previous years, I had done no planning this year about what or who I would see. I was on a tight budget, and so did not buy any tickets to the high-priced evening events. I just planned to roam around the Arnold Expo and see what and whom I could see. And, it turned out spectacularly!
I met so many cool people (even just on Friday!) that I had waited years to meet, it just blew my mind! Here are a few:
The lady in the 4th photo is Kris Murrell, an IFBB Pro bodybuilder. She has downsized a lot since turning Pro, but still makes me look weak and small. She talked to me and another fan for about 20 minutes, and we learned that she will soon be appearing in a major motion picture. She plays the part of "Kitty", David Spade's girlfriend. I can't wait to see it!
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
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