night 8 - Eight Nights of Lights 2009

Tonight's topic is Penance - thinking reflectively about your life's path--and what changes you might want to enact.

Penance is defined as a feeling of regret for one's wrongdoings. Last year,I talked about making penance art. But it was penance for what happened to the Jewish children killed in the Holocaust. My feelings of regret for what someone else did that was wrong.

Several months ago, I started tonight's project. There's over 80 hours tied up into the making of it. Not something you can do in a day. But I think huge, time-consuming pieces of art are necessary every now and then in order to make us stop and give thought to what we are trying to accomplish.



Notes of Hope - my gift to Amaco because of their generosity in supporting the Holocaust Museum in Houston. If you read my blog, you know that they have sponsored a contest for the second year - making butterflies, 1.5 million of them, one for each child who died in the Holocaust.





Notes of Hope - is a collaborative piece. While the design and majority of it was completed by myself, I have contributions from Linda Peterson, Jana Ewy and Liz Welch. And we all 4 have signed the canvas. It's big. 20" x 16". Considering that strips of Friendly Plastic are only available in 1" widths.....just imagine how much product was used to create this!!! And in the process of making it, I've spent many hours thinking about the art the world has lost in the death of all the children...and the children's children that they might have had.



Notes of Hope - why the music? In Exodus, it indicates that there were about 3 million Israelites who left Egypt. And it tells us that they sang a song unto Jehovah. Now, can you fathom a choir of 3 million people singing in the desert?

And they sang: Jehovah is my strength and song, And he is become my salvation: This is my God, and I will praise him; My father's God, and I will exalt him....Thy right hand, O Jehovah, is glorious in power, Thy right hand, O Jehovah, dasheth in pieces the enemy.

My hope is that Jehovah will destroy the enemies of Israel and that we will be educated and wise enough to prevent children, such as those in the Holocaust, from perishing again.






Notes of hope - I have a lot of them!

Tonight's video will show you how to melt Friendly Plastic pellets, roll them out flat, and then airbrush designs on them. And I'm also showing you a closeup of the canvas.




1,500,000 children died in the Holocaust. 1,500,000 children who never created art. A great loss to the entire world. So I ask you to make a simple butterfly and send it directly to the Holocaust Memorial.

Hanukkah - my Eight Nights of Lights. Jehovah Jesus Messiah - the Light of the World. My art - my way of spreading a little light into the night. I hope you have enjoyed it all. May Jehovah bless you richly in the year to come.