Finding Art Ministry - Vincent Van Gogh

As time goes by and I'm evolving in my blogging, I find myself drawn to art ministry.  My husband and I recently started attending a new church that we are incredibly comfortable with and we are excited to be taking this journey together.  Looking at the wonderful programs available at church, I began to wonder if there were any type of art ministries, and if so, how to get one started.  Being extremely new to this, I wasn't sure where to start.  I love to do research, so I decided my first step was to see if any historical artists were involved in a form of art ministry.


To my surprise, I discovered that Vincent Van Gogh had a strong desire to enter the ministry.  Vincent Van Gogh had a tortured soul and was described to have been sad, yet cheerful.  He often turned to scripture and secretly wanted to be a clergyman like his father.  At one point in his career, Van Gogh became a preacher's assistant and was exposed to the extreme poverty of the parishioners.  This exposure inspired him to live in destitute as well. His plan was to study theology and he spent much of his time translating biblical passages into English, French and German.  He was able to fulfill this plan for a short time and attended University Theology for fifteen months. Unfortunately he failed the courses and made the choice to return to poverty.


Van Gogh made a move to Belgium to live among the mining community.  He taught them the Bible and, at his own expense, cared for them. He would also frequently sleep on the floor and give his bed to a poor person.  Eventually he became a preacher in this community.  What I find interesting and unfortunate is that the church forced his resignation because of his acts of charity.  I can't even imagine how dejected this made him feel.


In a letter to his brother, Van Gogh said:
" Even in that deep misery, I felt my energy revive, and I said to myself, in spite of everything I shall rise again: I will take up my pencil, which I had forsaken in my discouragement,and I will go on with my drawing.  From that moment, everything has seemed transformed for me." 
He is also known to have said:
" But I always think the best way to know God is to love many things."


Art then became his way of religious expression.  Instead of the usual religious paintings of Mary, Jesus and churches - Van Gogh painted what he saw in front of him to be symbolic of religion.  He frequently painted sowers in a field, impoverished people sharing food and beautiful landscapes to showcase God's grace.  As an art major, I took numerous art history and art appreciation courses.  I pride myself on the ability to retain a large amount of knowledge - and I do not recall ever learning this portion of Van Gogh's history in any of my classes.  How interesting that as art major's we focused strictly on the work of the artist and none of the background history that clearly held significant importance to what the artist chose to represent.


As a painter, I have always found myself drawn to painting landscapes.  I absolutely love to paint the sky and trees - as they are forever changing in color and appearance. Below are some of my favorite works by Van Gogh; the paintings say so much about the beauty that surrounds us daily.


   Almond Branches in Bloom


 Wheatfield Under a Cloudy Sky

The Sower

Enjoy the day! 

Whoo's Got A Cute Room?!

Finally I have been able to work on my daughter's owl inspired bedroom!!  This room has been 3 years in the making - and she is only four years old!  When my daughter was about 1 1/2, I came across an adorable bedroom set with owls, birds and trees from Pottery Barn Kids and I knew I wanted to do Madailein's "big girl room" in that theme.  Once we moved into our new house and started to set her room up, Target happened to come out with a owl bedroom set as well. So, I combined pieces from both Target and PB Kids to come up with the perfect room for her. 

Since time is not something I have a lot of, I decided to use some of the wall decals that Target had to coordinate with the theme.  I always knew that I wanted to paint some trees on her wall and do a monogram above her headboard.  This summer I finally was able to put some time aside to get her room painted the way I envisioned.  I have to say, that both of my girl's rooms are my favorite rooms in the house!  I could spend all my time there.  There's still some details I want to do in Madailein's room, but at least it's about done!  I would like to paint at least one more tree on the other side of her bed and maybe one more on the opposite wall - but all in all, I am soo happy with the way her room turned out!

First Wedding of the Summer!

A few weekends ago I delivered the flowers for my first wedding of this summer!  I am very pleased with the way the bouquets turned out - and so was the bride, which is most important of all.  The bridesmaids wore Tiffany blue dresses and carried elegant simple hand-tied bouquets of white calla lilies.  The bride's bouquet was white roses and white calla lilies; both of which are just perfect for weddings.  White calla lilies can signify beauty and innocence and bring the feeling of modern and elegance to the ceremony and reception.  Hopefully this will help get my business started and more weddings coming my way!!

Fancy Nancy Time!!

What a crazy busy summer this has been so far!!  I feel like I have hardly had any time to breath, let alone do anything crafty. Two weeks ago was my eldest's 4th birthday - and I'm not sure who was more excited about it; her or me!!  She wanted to have a Fancy Nancy themed party and I have been planning this for months. 

I wanted the decorations to be as fancy as possible to stick with the whole idea of the stories.  I found a Fancy Nancy book about butterflies and decided we would do all flowers and butterflies. It was so fun to hang butterflies from the ceiling and decorate the table in tulle and flowers!!

The weekend of her birthday we had a party with a couple of friends from preschool.  This was the first party that we invited school friends to and Madailein was beyond excited to have some girls over.  I made the girls tulle tutu's to wear so they could feel fancy too.  They had a great time being girly and twirling around to make the tutu's flair out around them.  To make Madailein feel extra fancy and special for her birthday we put some butterflies in her hair just like Fancy Nancy would! Now she wants to have fancy hair all the time! All in all, I would say this birthday was a success.  :)

What happened to June?!

4th of July already?!!  What happened to June?!  Last month was so busy I feel like I hardly had time to relax.  June was full of my 3 year old's ballet recital, 2 out of state trips, the baby got tubes in her ears, my hubby and I celebrated our 9th wedding anniversary and I had the flu - geez!  Hopefully this month is not so chaotic, we need a break so we can enjoy the weather.

Well, I completely missed out on June's flower - which was the rose.  I think the rose is very appropriate for June since it is a common time for weddings. Interestingly, having a June wedding dates back 2000 years to ancient Roman times!  The Romans would honor the diety Juno; the goddess of marriage and childbirth, on June first. Roses are among the top ten most common flowers used in a wedding. They are quite simply elegant and romantic - the perfect mix for wedding flowers. Roses are also extremely versatile.  You can have a single delicate pink rose or make a statement with an abundance of bright orange roses. 

I am currently working on wedding flowers for a July wedding and I am very pleased with how they are looking.  The bridesmaids will carry a small hand tied bouquet of white calla lilies - another common flower used in weddings.  The bride's bouquet is an elegant hand tied arrangement of white roses and white calla lilies.  Below is one of the bridesmaid's bouquets; all that is missing is the ribbon around the flower stems. The wedding color is Tiffany blue; I can't wait to see how beautiful these bouquet's are against such a brilliant color.

Puppy Dog Tails!

Time for another project!!  I love creating new baby gifts just as much as I love designing wedding flowers.  These are two of the most joyous occasions in a person's life and I am always thrilled to be a part of it!!  Recently I had the honor of creating this adorable blanket for a friend who is expecting a baby boy.  It was so refreshing to make a baby boy gift after being constantly surrounded by pink!  My little ones are very girly and it's very rare that we have any crafty projects that don't involve pink and purple and princesses.  :)

I have to admit though, I had a rough time deciding what type of fabric was cute enough for a baby boy!  Thank goodness I came across this puppy dog flannel at Jo Ann's.  The puppy print is a soft Snuggle flannel and the white is Alpine fleece.  In three corners I embroidered the cutest puppies I could find!  In the last corner I embroidered the baby's nickname "Geno".  What's better than a personalized gift?! 

These one of a kind embroidered baby blankets are such a joy to create.  My very first one was a Classic Pooh for my first baby.  I still have it - even though I didn't cut the fabric evenly and it is very lop-sided!  Now I'm trying to find a cute owl embroidery design to make a blanket for my newest edition.

Roses Are Red!

It's that time of the year again for the age old tradition of prom!  Styles in prom attire have changed drastically over the years; and the corsage was certainly not exempt from this evolution.  Originally the corsage referred to a small bunch of flowers worn on the bodice of a ladies dress.  Eventually the corsage became a small bunch of flowers pinned to the shoulder or waist of a dress, or pinned on a handbag.  Ancient Greeks wore corsages at weddings to ward off evil spirits. In our modern times corsages are given to the mother's and grandmother's of the bride to distinguish them from the rest of the wedding guests.  The tradition of giving a prom date a corsage came to be in the early twentieth century.  These corsages were typically pinned to the dress and have only recently become more popular as wrist corsages.

The first silk flower corsage I made was for my brother's prom date about 10 years ago. She wore a beautiful dark purple dress, so I decided to make her corsage bright and colorful.  I used bright magenta pink roses and purple ribbon.  I was so happy with how it looked on her - just stunning! 

I decided to make some corsages to start building my portfolio of silk flowers.  This wrist corsage features red sweetheart roses, white tulle, white accent flowers and silver ribbon.  Silk corsages are more lightweight than fresh flower corsages. They will also withstand all day / evening wear without getting wilted and limp.  Just as gorgeous in pictures as the real deal!!