Easter is here!

Sunday has come and our Lord has risen!!!

Giotto, Noli Me Tangere, 1305, Assisi, Italy

Noli Me Tangere in latin means "touch me not", coming from the passage in the Bible where Mary goes to the tomb and the angels tell her not to weep for her Lord has Risen! Jesus appears to the weeping Mary and says "touch me not, for I have not yet ascended to the father. But go to my brothers, and tell them that I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God." John 20:17-18.

I do not know much about this painting. Only that it is beautiful and to me represents triumph over death, a white flag being waved above death. Death could not hold our Lord. This is an interesting scene because Giotto doesn't present Christ embracing Mary, nor is he rejecting her. But he is saying "wait! I will be back! I'm going to my Father to prepare a place for you. But in the mean time, go tell the world about me."

Happy Happy Easter! He has RISEN.

Holy Week: Holy Saturday

Today is Holy Saturday. It commemorates the day Christ was laid in the Tomb, Lent, and the last day of Holy week.

The Lamentation (Mourning of Christ), 1305-6

This is one of the most moving pieces. My heart aches and cries to see this grieving mother stare into the lifeless eyes of her Son. See the mother, see his friends, see the angels.

The tree that stands leafless, watching, perhaps symbolizes the the Tree of Knowledge and origiona sin. Notice, Jesus Christ, suspended between heaven and earth, a broken yet dignified body, broken for you and me.

Come see His hands and His feet,
The scars that speak of sacrifice,
Hand that flung stars into space,
To cruel nails surrendered.

Yet, while there is great sorrow, Sunday is coming...
What Sister Wendy said about this artist:
"Everyone who saw 'The Lamentation of Christ' on the chapel walls would have known the story well - that Jesus died on the cross and that a profound sorrow ensued. Giotto took that intellectual conviction and made it throb in the nerves." Sister Wendy

Holy Week: Good Friday

Today is Good Friday. We remember the passion and death of our Lord.

Giotto, Crucifixion, 1305, Padua, Italy

Now I can
Trade these ashes in for beauty
And wear forgiveness like a crown
Coming to kiss the feet of mercy
I lay every burden down
At the foot of the cross

Holy Week: Maundy Thursday

Today is Maundy Thursday, commemorating the Last Supper with Jesus Christ with his disciples. This Holy Week I want to highlight the paintings of Italian Florentine painter Giotto di Bondone (1266-1337) whose paintings date back to the Late Middle Ages and who is regarded as the first Renaissance painter by art historians.

Giotto is one of my favorite painters. In this painting I am captured by the weighty representation of the figures, the golden halo of Christ, and the concerned and uneasy looks of his followers. The time of pain and death is drawing near, yet Christ has a look of acceptance of what is about to come. Giotto has captured it well. As Sister Wendy said: "Giotto brought to life the mysteries of faith, and art was never the same again."

Giotto, The Last Supper, 1305, Padua, Italy

my childhood illustrated

As I sit here, basking in the sunshine of an early spring morning in the gleaming Emerald City, reading magical tales from many lands and feasting on its illustrations, I reminisce about the fantastical depictors of my favorite story tale pastimes that captured my heart and eye since and while I was a child. Let me share with you my favorite illustrators that contributed to my love of its story. I certainly will raise my children on these visual and story delights.

The whimsical Quentin Blake, illustrating for Roald Dahl’s Matilda, The BFG, and his other mad stories.

[The BFG]

[Matilda]

Garth Williams, illustrating for E. B. White in Charlotte’s Web (as well as Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House Series and many Golden Books)

Is this not how we remember Charlotte, Wilbur, Fern, and the other barnyard friends?

[Charlotte's Web]

And lastly but certainly not the leastly…

Pauline Baynes who took my hand and helped me remember moments of C.S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia like the meeting of Lucy and Mr. Tumnus, the bouncing dufflepuds on the island of Coriakin, and where we first find Puddleglum the marshwiggle.

[The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe]

[The Voyage of the Dawn Treader]

[The Silver Chair]

My imagination will indeed carry on, but many of these images will remain.

Early Spring

Once more the Heavenly Power
Makes all things new,
And domes the red-plowed hills
With loving blue;
The blackbirds have their wills,
The throstles too.

Opens a door in Heaven;
From skies of glass
A Jacob's ladder falls
On greening grass,
And o'er the mountain-walls
Young angels pass.

Before them fleets the shower,
And burst the buds,
And shine the level lands,
And flash the floods;
The stars are from their hands
Flung through the woods,

The woods with living airs
How softly fanned,
Light airs from where the deep,
All down the sand,
Is breathing in his sleep,
Heard by the land.

O, follow, leaping blood,
The season's lure!
O heart, look down and up,
Serene, secure,
Warm as the crocus cup,
Like snow-drops, pure!

Past, Future glimpse and fade
Through some slight spell,
A gleam from yonder vale,
Some far blue fell;
And sympathies, how frail,
In sound and smell!

Till at thy chuckled note,
Thou twinkling bird,
The fairy fancies range,
And, lightly stirred,
Ring little bells of change
From word to word.

For now the Heavenly Power
Makes all things new,
And thaws the cold, and fills
The flower with dew;
The blackbirds have their wills,
The poets too.

-Alfred Lord Tennyson

Image: Alphonse Mucha, Spring, From The Seasons series, 1896
This colour lithograph by the Czech artist Mucha depicts a fair lady beckoning in the new season of crocuses, cherry blossoms, and all things new.

Hello spring, We welcome you!

Convergence of art and history

Jackson Pollock, Convergence, 1952

I love art history. Because it is the convergence between history and the past happenings with the coloured and textured visual experience within this present space of time.

so, if you please, allow me to share with you art that speaks to me, touches my soul, and plucks my heartstrings.

blue dress

today i bought a dress that whisks me to the greek islands of santorini to twirl.

denim

what i learned today: denim orginated in france.

but why is it the most universally worn clothing article? why is it so popular and why is it blue?

conscious that no place is home...

:( always between the gaps. passports, blood, birthplace, or current city can truly classify home. so i don't think my promise land is here.

maybe its somewhere beyond the sea.

blessed beyond all measure

humbled by the blessings i have received. blessed to be free. blessed to be able to look forward to something.

saved up but never thought i'd say this so soon but "i bought a ticket to EUROPE yesterday!"

beginning of my life goals...

prague, czech republic: dream city for half a lifetime

and

orebro(& stockholm), sweden: to visit lifetime friend Charlotte.

overwhelmed with excitiment! oh how slow this rest of the quarter is going to feel till SPRING BREAK!

love and castles. :)

hail to the stars

last night I saw orion, cassiopeia, and the big dipper all on the same sky plain, a rare observed occasion in a city of neon and chrome. magnificant!

at the end of the day in the beginning of a decade

new years resolutions:

1.) drink water every morning after waking up

2.) read all the cauldecott award books

3.) memorize "the crossing of the bar" by tennyson

4.) and of course: make more time for jesus

5.) use complete sentences in my journal

6.) blog more? :D

I learned today that first by declaring making resolutions and by declaring them makes them ten times more likely that we might keep it. we'll see.

.theend.

a little dab of color, a little dash of spice

today is monday
and my day off.

this morning was this: a little bit of colour on the palate, in a shirt dress and apron, paint brush in hand, painted a little bit of places i want to go. and pepper and fresh basil on tomatoes for lunch.

ooo, this will make mommy proud. i just made chapati bread. i've been wanting to make this forever. i understand how it can be quite a bit of work as i had to slave and sweat over the stove for a bit.

whole wheat flour, ap flour, touch of olive oil, dash of salt, hot water, and to take it to the next level of deliciousness sprinkle a touch of cumin. knead knead knead over a semi-floured surface. divide into 10 parts (or 11 as i did), and let it "rest", thats right, let it take a wee siesta for a few minutes. flatten and roll with rolling pin so its a bit like a tortilla. (or with a measuring cup, since i don't have rolling pin.) over a lightly floured surface. heat pan, and and place gently onto it for about 30 secs, or until brown spots appear, then flip.

i definatly have not perfected the art of making beautifully round chapati, but here's what i did that worked for the 11th one. after rounding it into a ball, use your palm to flatten in a circular motion, then roll out.

serve with curry, or make into a wrap. i also made chicken curry salad which is a really easy recipe. (cooked chicken, curry powder, celery, mayo) mmmm.

Enjoy on a sunny afternoon or evening with a glass of sparkling icetea and some friends to end the day with a healthy international yumminess.

... the rest of the day i exited my very hot house and hopped on a bus to visit miss cynthia at market street traders, where i got delicious fudge samples. then walked my dear sister home and had chicken curry salad wraps on chapati bread. tonight will probably will hang out with my favorite people.

thus ends the story of my day. :D.

love.

and thus she enters the world of blog...

hello hello sawadee jaa

yes yes, and thus i have indeed entered the world of blog. (much credit given to miss cynthia)

no no, im not a good writer or much less sentence former, but i hope to account these things: oldly and newly discovered quotes, heart felt feelings, poetry, complains, yummy recipes invented and un, storys of people, things of joy and sadness, images of revealed truth, peace and hope found, confusion, blah blah, etc, etc.... but most of all, hopefully as you peer into my teacup, you see reflections of the One who made me.

so then, these are the lingering sediments, what tea leaf is left to swirl at the bottom of an almost empty cup.

and thus ends my first blog. love to all. enjoy. :)