Living To Tell About It

With summer rodeos recently in my experiences, I have thought about what makes them so attractive to participants and crowds alike. Appreciation of the western way of life and ranching is part.  The announcer's banter with the rodeo clowns adds a humorous aspect, too.  But as in bronc and bull riding, there is a risk factor involved.  It keeps the crowd watching with bated breath hoping all goes okay for the cowboy who is being tossed about in every direction or scrambling to get out from  harm's/hooves' way!  We want him to live to tell about it.

As an artist, I want to live to tell about it, too.  I want to experience life fully engaged with my senses, my mind, and my heart to what is going on in the world in which I live.  This morning early I was reading about living water.  And I got to wondering what that meant?

 So I pursued some study on it and found some invigorating concepts to enrich my life.  Living means to breathe, to be not lifeless or dead, to be in full vigor, fresh, strong, efficient, and active.  I like that.  Like a river.  The water is not still or stagnant, but flowing and percolating.  The water is running.  Also like a spring...fresh, invigorating, creating an ideal habitat for growth.  A spring is surface evidence of what is happening under the surface.  Our lives need to be enriched by an intentional work of God's grace in our lives.  There will be overflow that can nourish and benefit others.  This also greatly affects my study and practice of creating art that speaks of truth and beauty to a world that is often hurried and hassled, beseiged by turmoil and tragedy.  

 Water is indispensable for life.  Springs, rivers, and oceans teem with life.  As a fellow human being and as an artist, I want myself to be teeming with life, full of living water so that there will be an overflow to benefit others.  Check out what Jesus said in John 4:10 and 13.  This is the foundation of my life and what influences my perspectives and creation of artworks.

(These are all watercolor studies from my watercolor travel journal)

Speaking of water...a gentle summer rain is watering the earth outside my studio door today!   

Be strong and courageous!