5th Day on the Wall

Friday started out really slow, Kelsey had plans with friends and was ready to start the Father's Day Weekend!  Go Kelsey!  I got a late start at about 10 a.m. I stopped at Gypsy's Place and had coffee with the Round Table group, or might I say grape juice with that group.  We talked about everything and laughed the day into existence. 

I left there about 10:30 a.m. and went to look at Mr. A.L.  He needed some refining and I knew just how to do it.  I mixed together all the skin tones I thought I might need.  I added his jacket color blue and black, and worked on the light that hits the top of his cap, and melts down his face to his neck and lap area.  It is amazing to watch the light create the shapes an artist can use to help them create a face, or a figure.  Without light there is nothing, and with light there is creation.  I am talking about sunlight, but I could also be talking about Son light.  Without the Son light in my life, I could not create a mural that I see unfolding in front of me.  All the glory to God....He is the master artist!

It was very hot by about 11a.m. and a man came to speak to me as I climbed down the ladder and walked halfway down the block to see A.L.'s face from a distance.  This man's name was "Eugene."  He was friendly, and I had seen him in the past few days just quietly watching the paint beginning to illustrate the portrait of A.L. or as he likes to be called "Dude Andrews."  Eugene asked me if that was Amos Andrews and I said yes.  He began to tell me that he went to school with his sons.  Eugene said at that time they were best friends.  He said it brought back memories of all the good times had by himself and Dude's sons.  He smiled threw his head back and belly laughed; saying you know I was a character.  From the look of gleam in his eye, he was still a character, a likable one.  He also said that he had helped some others see the mural in a different way when he was able to explain the tree trunks that go straight up the wall to the roof.  He said "you know you have to go the corner to see that the tree trunks you painted are attached to the trees behind the building!"  I immediately stopped, looked at him with unbelief and said how in the world did you see that.  He said "I just studied the trees and then the wind blew the leaves and they just looked like they were attached and part of the bigger picture!"  Wow, I couldn't have said it any better myself.  We are always trying to see the bigger picture in life, and this person had just opened the mural to the world.  The big blue sky, the large trees surrounding the walls of the building, the noise of the small town and the people all standing around....the mural became a living mural not contained within the wall.  He also said he was an artist also, he liked to draw and study things around him.  He continued to share some of his life with me, and we looked across at the Court House.  It was Friday and court was in session.  We saw a lot of young people go in and out of the doors, some upset, other relieved, yet all somewhat troubled.  He said I was there one time, but I lived to see a better day.  A day when consequences were not an option anymore.  I wanted to be free, so I choose a different path.  This touched my heart, because we have all been in a place of shadows before, where we don't use the path we have, or just don't see it.  I haven't walked in his shoes, but I have walked in the shadows and when the Son shine came I readily choose to leave the consequences behind and walk into the light, which I stated at the start of this, makes all the difference to people in this world. So the rest of the day I thanked God for the light in my life!  My friends, the talent God awakened in me for painting, my immediate family, (Tony, Irene, Meg, Trevor, Jay, Kristine, Sam, Cole) and my expanded family, Mary, Jacqueline, Susan, Eve, Willow, Gypsy, April, Lisa, Donnice, Suzanne, Carol Ann, Marie, and friends too numerous to add to this list!  In each of these people I see light, and my path is so lit because of my exposure to them.  I may have walked only a few minutes with some, and years with others, as we know people come in and out of our lives for all kinds of reasons, but I know I would not be who I am today without many many acquaintances, friends and extended family.  Eugene is this kind of person, a fraction of a moment shared, but light shared on a Friday, in 94 degree temperature, over grape juice with paint on my hands in front of a wall 20 feet high and 30 feet long waiting to share light with those who see it, drive by it and remember the person painted on it.

Tomorrow is Monday, I am not painting, I am running errands and finishing the lawn.  Tuesday I will start again with the background which includes the distant trees, shadows of the final trees to be painted.  Tony plans to hold the ladder, and reassure me I'm safe, Kelsey will be painting a dragon fly that will sit on his fishing pole that drops into the Trent River, and some cattails along the bank......a day to create, look for light in all we see, and remember our path may be unknown in our futures, but there will always be people to light the way just in case clouds arise......thanks to all who have helped me along my way.

In His love,  k