May 2012
1 post
5 tags
I Corinthians 13:13 (The Message)
“But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly.”
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The images above are original designs. Please contact me for permission if you would like to use them. Thanks. Kathy (KCB)
April 2012
3 posts
5 tags
Through a glass darkly....
I Corinthians 13:12 (KJ)
We look through many windows and see reflections in many mirrors, and what we see is dimmed by looking at and through variations in our personal story, our history and our culture. The humanity of Jesus, God incarnate in a human person with a human story, gives us the sense that one day we will see God, ourselves, and others fully and understand all things clearly. Until...
4 tags
Surely The Presence....
I was working on personal issues of health and healing as I developed this image. It draws on the song that begins “Surely the presence of the Lord is in this place”. Embedded in and enfolded by the large red cross is a personal image, a kind of stick figure of my own vulnerability, which I had come to understand as a self portrait. This figure appears in other ways in pieces from...
Resurrection Crossing
This image began as a rough cross form which expressed the pain and suffering of Jesus. The color of the cross changed in my work from brown to red changing from rough wood to personal sacrifice and personally embodied power. The colors became the colors of Easter morning. The window is a fixed point through which we see both the Good Friday event and the cross traveling through the ages. The...
March 2012
1 post
3 tags
An Expanding Story
When I created this image I was working on another image in my iPad graphic program. I was drawn to the new image. And I was a also overwhelmed by it. Now I understand it and can name it, Expansion of the Story, and write about it. The cross seems to be breaking apart. Fragmenting. That is what alarmed me. And yet in the gospel of John, Jesus puts it in the agricultural language of his culture:...
September 2011
2 posts
5 tags
First Blogs and Infinite Resources
I just went through all my blog posts to date and discovered that my first posts were a year ago. Below is what I wrote then, and above is the new graphic which exprsses my current expression of what I believe now. I am even more convinced today that God is Beauty, and that when we connect with God through Beauty, God’s Love and Truth Reveal themselves. Kathy (KP/KCB)
I attended a...
4 tags
Healing and Exile
Sometimes we think of healing as an absolute. It is dramatic and permanant. I believe in this kind of healing. Miracles of this kind exist. However at this stage in my physical body’s life, and with two or three chronic conditions, I am exploring another kind of healing, another kind of miracle, smaller perhaps but just as much a gift from God. Exile, the work above, is about feeling...
July 2011
1 post
6 tags
Dancing Star-time
Frederich Neitzsche was right when he connected inner chaos with giving birth to a dancing star. Truth is of God whoever bears it to us. From my inner chaos this gift to you today.
Kathy (KCB)
April 2011
6 posts
4 tags
The Purple House on Palm/Passion Sunday
The purple house of Lent illuminates the idea that our sense of who we are as Christians is both like and unlike our neighbors. During Lent we pay special attention to living the life Christ laid out for us by focusing on our life within this dedicated time.
The last Sunday of Lent remembers the parade of the people across the palm branches they have laid down for Jesus, which becomes the...
4 tags
Lent Is A Purple House (and Lazarus leaving his...
In this story from John (the 11th Chapter) Lazarus leaves his grave clothes behind. Meanwhile others believe he best stay in the tomb. Jesus knows it is a real challenge to let someone come back to life.
These images were projected during the Advent Season 2011 in Asbury United Methodist Church in Harrisonburg Virginia. They are the property of the artist. Seek permission if you want to use...
4 tags
Lent Is A Purple House (the healing of a blind man...
John is a wonderful story teller. In the 5th chapter he tells of a man born blind who causes quite a problem in his neighborhood. Sometimes we don’t want to see what is happening right in front of us. Living in the house of Lent calls us to see God’s new activity in our lives, or maybe to see what we have been ignoring.
These images are based on the scriptures for the Sundays of...
3 tags
Lent Is A Purple House (and the Samaritan Woman)
The reading for the third Sunday of Lent is about the meeting of Jesus with the Samaritan Woman at the well where she has gone to get water. In John 4:7 Jesus asks her for a drink of water. This is a beautiful and rich story about asking and offering, giving and receiving, questioning and courage.
As always this series of graphics is the property of the artist. They were projected as part of...
Lent Is A Purple House (and Nicodemus)
Jesus challenged Nicodemus (John 3:4) to be born again. He later included the part about being born of water and Spirit. Here the water becomes a stream that flows from the cross and the Spirit is symbolized by a dove descending from God. Lent gives us a chance to be born anew in the pattern of Jesus and the plan of God that is alive in us as we acknowledge and connect with it.
2 tags
Lent Is A Purple House
To be a Christian during Lent is to live in a purple house, purple being the color for the Lenten season. It is a house not like the neighbors who do no think of their lives in terms of what Jesus taught and lived out on his way to the cross. And maybe we don’t either most of the time. But as we Christians approach Easter, there is that cross on the hill above the purple house.
January 2011
1 post
Heart: Timeless Valentine
The heart is the center of our lives, pumping blood to all parts of our body: enabling our muscles, enlivening our minds, and giving material weight and power to our souls. The heart is a symbol of courage, energy, and compassion. Not a trifle, not a trivial extension of ourselves. It is a deep beauty we have within and share in many forms.
December 2010
3 posts
3 tags
Mary Mother of Jesus: Waiting
Waiting is not something we do well in our culture. Pregnancy is waiting. The heaviness of hope is borne within Mary and in each of us. In truth we are always waiting for God’s graciousness and generosity. Mary reminds us of this in her waiting time.
These images are part of my 2010 series on the young Mary. Please ask if you would like to use them in some way.
3 tags
Mary Jesus' Mother: Into the Unknown
Mary was carried by Grace, but the way was still unknown. It was her first child. Her body and the world around her were changing. And then there was this God Connection Thing…this new thing God was doing in and through her. Yet she moved on by faith into what Grace was providing.
This series of images was created on my iphone app in the year 2010. Permisssion to use the images...
3 tags
Mary Mother of Jesus: Waves of Grace
In the prior blog post I stated that in this series of works I focused on the moment of the Annuciation and the months following. Mary is a young girl when she and God connect. She has not experienced the pain and struggle that will come. Awe and wonder and gratitude carry her into the unknown of body, mind and spirit on waves of Grace.
As with all the images in these blog posts they were...
November 2010
1 post
Mary of Bethlehem this Advent
The Annunciation… a graphic print… first in a series created 2010… KCB
My personal journey with Mary of Bethlehem began in a moment when I realized that my call to ordained ministry made us companions. It was the 70’s when I received the call. I did not know any female pastors. It was a new thing. There was prejudice and skepticism, but the God who had called me, also...
October 2010
5 posts
Changing is a Wonderful and Scarey Opportunity
My art teachers often directed me to turn abstract compositions upside down and sideways and decide which was the best orientation. Which satisfied my feelings and ideas. The new update on the app with which I create much of my work gave me the same opportunity when I save the work to my photo gallery or send it by text or email. Below are the other orientations of this piece. Each has a...
Changing Means Roadblocks Met
Changing requires commitment
Changing is often an option
2 tags
Remembering God
There is something important about walking on dirt and seeing sky and clouds and a pine branch hanging down in front of my eyes, that reminds me I am not alone in the universe (which is stretching out larger every day); important because I remember to remember God. There is a presence that reaches to me. I am grateful that I remember.
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As with all my...
August 2010
1 post
July 2010
1 post
In the Heat of Summer
The title of this image is Mountain Morning. In the record heat of summer days it is good to remember that sometime in the day there will be coolness. It is called “morning”. Not being a morning person maybe I need to be reminded of this when I complain about the heat. The graphic which I did it over a period of weeks suddenly came together as an expression of the coolness of a...
April 2010
3 posts
3 tags
Stations of the Cross-- The Weight of Dust:Station...
As I write this, it is Holy Saturday. The tomb is not yet empty. Easter is tomorrow. Tomorrow is the day of celebration of Jesus’ victory over death. Today there is quiet, waiting, and contemplating the mystery of the cross.
Station 14: Jesus Is Laid in the Tomb
What if Jesus couldn’t rise
held in that tomb because he
wanted to change the world the way
he thought it should...
3 tags
Stations of the Cross-- The Weight of Dust:Station...
When I did this tile I wondered why we had to have this as part of the process. Of course the persons doing the stations originally had their reasons. My wondering tinged with an impatience to finish the project, reminded me that even today the rituals of death and dying need to be completed. Death slows down life momentarily. Slowing down, taking time for life and reflection on it, is good...
3 tags
Stations of the Cross--The Weight of Dust: Station...
When I worked with this tile the clay took over. There was a sense of finality and acceptance. The poem truely came out of the clay.
Death on the Cross
The heart of flesh
has done its work.
Earth and heaven join.
Time joins timeless.
Station 12-
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The tiles, poems, photographs, and images are the property of the author/artist. ...
March 2010
10 posts
4 tags
Stations of the Cross-- The Weight of Dust:...
The nail in this tile is embedded in the clay and fired.
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The tiles, images, photos, and poems are the property of the artist. Please contact me for information.
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Station 11- Crucified
Father, forgive them,
all and each.
It is done.
Into your hands….
Peace.
3 tags
Stations of the Cross-- The Weight of Dust:...
The creation of this particular station was painful to me as the poem will reflect, perhaps because I have a long history of working with cloth. The cloth here is clay, yet people often ask me if it is cloth. In the tradition this station comes immediately
before the crucifixion. In the scripture the Jesus’ clothes are stripped away and he is given garments that signify the mocking...
Stations of the Cross for Holy Week
During the week of March 29-April 2, Holy Week in the Christian Tradition, I will post the final five stations ending on Good Friday. Taking a break this week.
Blessings—
3 tags
Stations of the Cross: The Weight of Dust --...
This is the midway point for this witness to the journey of Jesus to crucifixion, who began by saying “I don’t want a God who ends up in the dirt” (See the First Fall), yet who chooses to continue the journey. In this tile the heart is moving closer to the rocks of the earth, and to being claimed by the ground in burial. There are stress marks in the clay and brokenness in...
3 tags
Stations of the Cross: The Weight of Dust --...
The heart in this tile is turned up and receptive to the women on Jesus’ journey, and it bears the dust of the life he had lived.
Station 8 – Jesus Meets the Women of Jerusalem
I had to be there. It seemed unusually hot and dusty.
Maybe it was the pain and the anger I felt
around me and inside.
I brought my children.
There was no one to watch out for them.
Everyone was at the...
2 tags
Stations of the Cross: The Weight of Dust --...
Halfway through the journey. Seven more stations, seven more tiles. A weariness sets in. I remember how difficult some days it became to complete the tile work. Yet the journey and the work was worth it.
Station 7 –
Jesus Falls a Second Time
Your mother, Jesus– staying with you,
and the woman who reached up to you
with a simple piece of cloth–
Love given and received.
Somehow it...
3 tags
Stations of the Cross: The Weight of Dust--...
This particular station points to the importance of women to the journey of Jesus. Veronica is not a Biblical reference, but somehow this act of a woman is too important to be dismissed. In this narrative she comes forth at the moment when Jesus needs her intervention, at that moment which gives scholars and Biblical interpreters much for discussion and debate. The weight of dust is heavy...
3 tags
Stations of the Cross: The Weight of Dust--...
Writers often talk about how the characters take over the story. This happened to me as I worked with the clay in this case. The hand would not get into proper proportion. When I wrote the poem much later, I saw this large hand as an emotional statement. When one is being assisted, the hand that helps appears out of proportion to what is happening around the actors. God became visible for...
3 tags
Stations of the Cross: The Weight of Dust--...
Station 4— Jesus Sees His Mother
This tile surface is more broken in this tile due to some unavoidable firing variations. This station cuts deeply for me and the surface brokenness is appropriate.
Station 4 — Jesus Sees His Mother
In Her Image….
He looked down and for a moment
the agony that shook his body split open–
it was her face that broke the darkness
and...
3 tags
Stations of the Cross: The Weight of Dust--...
Station 4— Jesus Sees His Mother
This tile surface is more broken in this tile due to some unavoidable firing variations. It is for me the most emotional of the stations and the surface brokenness is appropriate.
Station 4 — Jesus Sees His Mother
In Her Image….
He looked down and for a moment
the agony that shook his body split open–
it was her face that broke the...
2 tags
Stations of the Cross: The Weight of Dust --...
Station 3 : Jesus Falls the First Time
The title of this set of 14 Stations is The Weight of Dust. The set contains the traditional stations rooted in church history. The photos are of clay tiles framed in pine and completed in 2008. After completing the clay work I responded to the process by writing poems beginning with Station 4: Jesus and His Mother, a tile completed during Advent...
February 2010
5 posts
2 tags
Stations of the Cross for Lent- Station 2
Stations of the Cross: The Weight of Dust
Station 2
When they laid the cross on your back, Jesus
what did your heart do and your blood pressure.
When they laid the cross on your back
it was a physical experience not a spiritual triumph.
When they laid the cross on your back
it was heavy with the weight of
wood and nails and fear–
...
3 tags
Stations of the Cross for Lent
During these days before Easter I will be posting images of the 14 clay tiles I completed in the Spring of 2008. Stations of the Cross is a devotional tool used by the church since very early. In Jerusalem each Friday pilgrims walk the route Jesus took on his last day of life stopping at each of the stations. After completeing all the tiles I wrote poems which came out of my work with the...
Unexpected Beauty
God’s Beauty Found in Unexpected Places
I was getting ready for two art shows with simultaneous deadlines. Each show presented its own challenges. One challenge was picking up plexiglass for two frames from a local glass shop. The work they do for artists is good and the people are cooperative and helpful. The challenge is the parking lot. The business is in an older area of town and the head in...
January 2010
5 posts
The Friendship of Beauty and Truth
Beauty and Truth Are Friends
Beauty is everywhere. Photographer Roy DeCarava found it in his neighborhood in Harlem. His black and white photographs of neighbors and celebrities, of people doing what they enjoy or think important, were featured on CBS Sunday Morning recently when he was remembered as a notable person who died in 2009. Pictured were some of his images and these words, “It...
1 tag
Soul in Dailyness
Most of my work is abstract or non-representational. This was done on my iPhone using Sketch Book app. Please give me credit if using it beyond this post using my artist name: Kathryn Cramer Brown (See my profile info)
Kathy
1 tag
Beauty Everyday
This morning I watched an episode of Iron Chef America, a program on the Food Network, and was taken by Beauty once again. This was an episode in which award winning chefs were challenged to use vegetables and fruits from the White House Kitchen Garden as the stars, as the main ingredients, in the recipes they created for the judges. Also used was honey from the White House bee hive as a...
3 tags
Beauty+Art+Soul : Why these words together
I attended a spiritual retreat as part of a Shalem program in DC in 2000. My final project for the program was “Beauty As A Spiritual Path”. I had just begun using the drawing program on my computer and I added simple drawings to a number of readings and reflections I had collected. New insights and new drawings accumulated over the years, and when I retired as a pastor in 2004,...