The Great Provider
I have written over and over in this blog about our family’s struggle with money. The struggle is usually about not having enough. We just get through paying all the bills and buying all the food each month with just inches to spare. Now and then there is a surplus in the savings account for a while but then it gets absorbed by the need for a new computer, meteorite damage, or a slow month of sales. We have lived inside of this wrestling match for ever. It has become our excepted way of life. A few weeks before Christmas I began praying/fasting for a break through in this area in a focused way. During this time I was forced out of my carriage house studio by the cold and relocated to the basement. I began reorganizing the basement and de cluttering. After I got the basement in shape I moved on to the kitchen doing the same. As I worked on the house I sensed that God was working on the inside of me at the same time- cleaning out, de cluttering, reorganizing. The fasting has ended. The praying continues and there is not a concrete “break through” I can point to like the sale of an expensive painting (which is usually how we think of our break through will come) but I really believe something is shifting inside of me and in our physical circumstances. If you are reading this and are the sort of person given to prayer please pray for us that we will have “ears tuned to wisdom” in this area of God’s provision and what our part is in that mystical union. If you are not a person of prayer perhaps you could stumble through a little awkward prayer and try something new. Thank you for reading and praying.
January 1st, 2010 at 12:24 pm
My prayers are with you always. I hope to one day have my own break through and be able to purchase one of your big paintings myself, but in the meantime, continue keep you in my thoughts and prayers!
January 2nd, 2010 at 10:38 pm
I am praying for you very much. I think the paintings you have done of the most blessed of gifts God can give to a married couple… their children… are simply wonderful and are “art” in the highest sense.
Those direct portraits which you have done convey so clearly the
Truth. And as I look at them I think of our Lord’s words, ” I thank Thee, Father, Lord of Heaven and earth, that Thou hast hidden these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them to babes. Yes Father, for such was Thy gracious Will”
Those most pure of paintings do not reflect artistic contrivance designed to titillate or beckon human interpretations. I am most drawn to the simple portraits rather than those where you wish to
“express” yourself.
They offer up a simple meditation on that which is most wonderful in the human race… the simplicity of the child. You are at your best when you paint Love, the love that you see God has given you. And He has given you great talent with which to do that. Van Gogh was in love with Christ, and his paintings, the most beautiful of them express with love the only place he could see love. The most beautiful of blossoms, the family life of the poor (the Potato Eaters), the Starry Nights. Poor Vincent was not blessed with a wonderful family as you have been. But he responded as best he could with the gifts God gave him. And we see Truth in them. Renoir’s most beautiful paintings are of his wife and children. He saw the beauty in them, and we see Beauty in them.
Forgive me for being so direct. I just feel that in your paintings, the ones I am speaking of, God is praised and glorified in that which He holds so dear, the little children who know Him, love Him and trust Him in such a simple way. Our children are meant to be a blessing to us and today children are considered less than necessary, disposable, a matter of choice, balanced against other choices… a new car, a pet, total freedom of responsibility.
Your paintings belong in great museums so that people looking at them long for what you have shown them. When I look at the little print of the painting of Dove… I long to give her a hug. But the painting is more than a “picture of Dove” it is a beautifully painted icon of “the child”. This art of the child and the family is needed so much in a world where we have devalued them and so lost that path to knowing and understanding God.
Do not be discouraged. If life is difficult, perhaps it is that way so that you do not become the self-absorbed “artistic” artist of the
current times. God is all good and all that He provides for us is all good. He is using you, for already people are touched through you in your blog, the beautiful photos of the family’s activities and of course, your paintings. One of my favorite anecdotes is the children’s discussion of why one daughter feels free to run naked in the summer sun. That is so dear.
I will soon open (in the next month or two) a Catholic Library/ Bookshop in Reynoldsburg, Ohio. The print of Dove will hang there. If you would ever wish to mount a one man show here, I would be more than happy to offer you space. We are 10 minutes from the Columbus Art Gallery which has a very wonderful collection and I would be willing to do promotion for a show that would reach people at the Gallery as well as the general population in Columbus, especially the Church population all around here. That’s a very large population and includes all income levels. As I say, I am just in the process of preparing to open so it would be a future prospect. My husband and I own the building and we intend to be there, God willing, for a good long time.
Fasting and prayer are the way, and submission to the Will of God, understanding that everything He gives us is so much more than we deserve. I will pray especially the prayer of the Name of Jesus, and the Rosary for you. “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner.” This says it all, it asks for all, and it lets Him know I know my place before Him. Then I will trust in the power of His Most Holy Name to come to your aid, and the intercessory help of His most Holy Mother to help as well. Don’t be afraid, He loves you all so much! All will be well. Just ask your children.
Sincerely,
Pat Kenyon
January 13th, 2010 at 8:04 pm
I will say a prayer for your family. Take care and all our best to you and yours.