Jen Lowe Designs: Heaven on earth

I have been thinking lately about my poor Sunday School teachers when I was a kid. They must have just shuddered when they saw me walking into class armed with my Bible....and all my questions! I remember questioning one of them about the Lord's Prayer:

"Our Father, Which art in heaven, hallowed be Thy Name.... Thy Kingdom come......on earth as it is in heaven."

Did you ever stop to think about that? He taught us to pray for His Kingdom to come to earth and be like it is in heaven. I remember asking, "where on earth is it going to be?" I remember they told me it was NOT going to be on earth....it was up in the skies because we were going to be "raptured" and taken there.

Well, with a little bit of Bible study, I haven't actually found the word "rapture" anywhere.....but rather than us flying off to someplace called heaven that is up in the skies.....I tend to think we might board an airplane and fly over to Jerusalem, where His kingdom will be set up on earth.....as it is in heaven. I know...I'm really giving you things to think about, huh? Is it too much? I don't ask that you agree.....just that you try to seriously think about what was written "then" vs what is going on in the world now.

If Jerusalem is to be where His kingdom will be on earth, then for that single reason, I stand with Israel. I stand with the Jews.

Where do you stand?

Hamas is a terrorist organization. I was in Israel in October 2005 just days before Israel withdrew from the Gaza strip. I have been following the news daily since then. I know that Hamas has continued to send missiles into Israel. And Israel has a right to defend her borders from attack. Waiting over 3 years...I believe they have been more than patient.

If you watch that video, simply ask yourself one question....."Have we already forgotten 911?" Have we forgotten what a terrorist is capable of doing? The shock of watching them take their own lives as the airplanes crashed into the twin towers? Have we become so apathetic that we do not care what terrorism is doing to Israel?

I stand with Israel. I stand with the Jews. And I am creating art that affirms my beliefs.

I love creating art with a purpose. OK, I can't tell you how much I am loving this! This collage started as a t-shirt that I cut up and stretched on a regular artist's canvas:

and then I used Radiant Rains to turn the white cotton to wonderful colors that shimmer! Yep....radiant rains on cotton - so cool! Then I put Glossy Accents over the letters. When that dried, I took my Ranger white pen and gave "shadows" to the letters. Used my cuttlebug embossing folder and embossed the candles in copper and then hand-cut them out. That's an EK Success Star of David embellishment that I painted with Dabbers, then Krylon copper pen on top.

At the top, another cuttlebug cut and emboss folder for the dove and leaf - with stickles over distress ink on that one. The Chai letters are cut from paper by Zsiage. I have always thought that the golden bear (Vail CO) looked like the Chai, so I took one that I don't use any more and added it here. Below that, a $20 shekel bill (is that what you call them?) and some coins from our trip to Israel.

This was kind of cool. The flag is printed on Jacquard's printable silk. and backed with paper. There are 2 other unbacked flags in the collage - do you see them? One of mom's watercolor roses and some silk flowers. More candles for a total of 8 - for 8 nights of lights. Diecut flourishes and swarovsky crystals.

A closeup of a piece of vellum that I hand cut, added alcohol ink, and then my white pen:

I think I posted this shekel before, but wanted a closeup here - it's Art Clay Silver over a coin. Just love it!

This is a complete experiment and I don't know if I like it or not, but it works on this collage. It's glass from Amaco and the Star of David is brass that I fired between 2 layers of glass. Look at all those air bubbles - extremely interesting, huh?