The Art Scribble

 

We had our own logo and everything!

Back in September of 2019, a small group of artists gathered together for the last time. It was the last "Art Scribble" and the end of an era.

In 2012, my wife and I started attending a new church based in Arlington, but that had just started a church plant in Salem. Our old church had recently fallen apart after our pastor left to work for a non-profit, and several key members of the church leadership followed.

The new church, Highrock Northshore, was meeting in the Salem YMCA, which was only about a block away from where we were living at the time, and had been recommended to us by friends from our old church, who said it might appeal to us because it was "Artsy".
That turned out to be true. We discovered in short order that Highrock had a great interest in and commitment to, supporting and utilizing the arts.
Within a couple of months we were part of a Creative Arts Group, comprised of artists who were members of the church, to discuss ways we could use our art to help the mission of the church. My interest in the arts was appreciated so much, that when the church opened an office on Pickering Wharf, the staff set aside a desk and part of the office for me. I felt very welcomed. About year and a half after that, in the fall of 2014, my wife and I started running a monthly gathering called the Art Scribble.

This was a once-a month, Saturday gathering, usually held in the church offices, where artists from the church community could hang out, and make art together. You would bring whatever you were working on at the time: writing, drawing, knitting, painting, and share what you were working on, discuss art and whatever else was on your mind, and occasionally, you would make field trips to local museums, or just outside to draw in nature. It was all very casual. There was no preaching or agenda, other than to share art and art-making with each other. It was never attended in large numbers, (I believe the most we ever had at one meeting was 14 people). At one point we had 28 people on the e-mail list. Many liked to be invited every month, but never came. We never really pushed attendance, as space in the office was somewhat limited, and if we had too many people, it would be difficult to actually make art. We were kid-friendly, but did not have childcare per se. We also, did not offer instruction, or lessons. It was a time for artists to share, but not instruct. But even with these limitations we did have a core group of about 5-6 that made it almost every time. In retrospect, these gatherings were some of my favorite times making, and discussing art. 

That was a good day. L-R: Kerrie James, Amy Harkins, Kara Jade Fuller, Amy Courage, George Courage, Kirsten Borne

We ran the Scribble for seven years. Inevitably, the novelty wore off, and people started to drift away. Some were college students who graduated and moved away, some had children and other family commitments to attend to. Others found that Saturday was too precious a day to give up, even once a month.  Some felt pressure to have something to show at the meetings, and felt guilty if they didn't have anything. We occasionally added a new member, but we were starting to lose more than we gained.
Towards the end, it started to become a drag for us. I was dealing with the sudden death of one of my best friends, and the serious health crisis of another.  

We would set aside our Saturday for the Scribble, and only one or two people, or worse, no one, would show up. We never required a commitment, which in retrospect, may have been a mistake. At any rate, after a particularly long run of non-attendance, it was too much, and we officially decided to end it.

The announcement was met with some regret, but everyone knew that there was a kind of inevitability to it's ending. It was lovely for a season, and then, as is always the case with something lovely, it ended.

Below is the last Artscribble meeting. The core group is in attendance.  There was an air of melancholy and loss, but also of fun, and gratefulness for the time we had. 

L-R: Amy Courage, Levi Nelson, Kerrie James, Kirsten Borne. (I am unseen and taking the picture)

Epilogue: One of the regular members, Walker Simons, agreed to take over running the Scribble going forward. It has been difficult to get people to attend, especially during the Covid-19  pandemic, but I am happy that he has taken this on, and hopeful that he will not only be able to continue this tradition, but hopefully expand it, as well.

Laborare est orare

With the encroachment of the Coronavirus, our church decided to hold it's first ever "virtual" church service this last Sunday (March 15). I usually doodle in a small notebook during the sermon, but being at home and watching via YouTube gave me the opportunity to actually paint during the entire service. It's watercolor on watercolor paper. This art is driven mostly by anxiety, but also by the sermon, which talked about Jesus being the vine, and all of us Christians, the branches growing from that vine.

Lent /Easter Sermon Series Art

It has been quite a while since I last posted. A good friend died suddenly in March , and then his brother, (another close friend) ended up having major heart surgery, and I've been acting as his medical proxy and power of attorney, so...my plate has been pretty full.
At any rate, the art must go on. Here are two paintings I did for the Lent/Easter sermon series at my church (Highrock Northshore in Salem).
Several artists in the church were given a choice of several bible passages that represented various "stations of the cross" and asked to do a painting for each one (or in my case, two). There were a total of seven paintings total.
I chose two consecutive passages in the series, Mark 14:42-52 (Jesus Arrested) and Mark 14: 53-65 (Jesus before the Sanhedrin).
The canvases were all the same size ( 10" x 20") and orientation (vertical), and were to be used on large banners for the front of the church, as well as bookmarks.
I did some rough thumbnail sketches, including one that I dropped (Jesus in Gethsemane).

Arrest Thumbnail

 

 

Sanhedrin Thumbnail

Gethsemane Thumbnail

I painted the final versions both in one day, working much faster and looser than I usually do.
I wanted to convey the emotional feeling of the scenes and not "refine" all the life and energy out of it. These are closer to the way I draw naturally.
Below are the finished paintings.

New Sermon Series Art

My latest painting for Highrock Northshore. It is for a new sermon series on Exodus.
It is a kind of vertical triptych showing bondage, escape and deliverance to the promised land.

Advent Art

A piece I finished recently for Highrock Northshore church for their Advent sermon series; "Unexpected:When God Catches You By Surprise". The original is acrylic on a 14" x 17" birch panel.
It was somewhat inspired by VanGogh's "Starry Night".

Here is what the finished slide looks like.

ArtSunday Painting

This last weekend I organized an small art show for my church Highrock Northshore that we call ArtSunday. It's designed to showcase the breadth and variety of the artistic talent that we have within the congregation. Although we have several professional artists in our church, this show also gives people with widely differing levels of artistic skill, a low-pressure environment to display their art. This is the second one of these that I have done over the last year. The theme of the this one was "Intimacy" which tied in with our current sermon series on sex and intimacy. Above is my entry for the show, another little 5" x 5" acrylic painting titled "To Sleep". It is a painting of the bed I share with my wife Amy. Originally it was going to be called "Amy's Favorite Place" but we preferred the more subtle reference to Shakespeare's Hamlet.

Coolidge Reservation Painting

This 5” x 5” acrylic painting, “Fall Afternoon, Coolidge #1”, is of one of my favorite places to go for a walk; the Coolidge Reservation in Manchester-by-the-Sea, at one of my favorite times of year; early fall. I did this piece as part of a gift basket that is being donated by our church HighRock Northshore www.highrocknorthshore.org to be auctioned off at the Voices of Hope spring fundraiser for Amirah, www.amirahboston.org an organization that helps women rescued from sex trafficking.

Wrath Painting

The church I attend, Highrock Northshore, http://www.highrocknorthshore.org/ is doing a sermon series called "Lent, The Vector of Vices and Virtues". It is covering the classic seven deadly sins; Pride, Envy, Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Sloth, and Anger (or wrath). I was asked, along with several other artists, to pick one of the sins and do a piece of artwork that would be my interpretation of that sin.
I chose wrath. Anger is something I can understand on a visceral level, since I grew up with a father who had a hair-trigger temper, and I have had issues with that myself. The above image is what I came up with. A quick, acrylic painting on paper of an extremely pissed-off wolf. This is what anger feels like to me. Irrational, unreasoning, destructive.

Artspeak:IMAGINE

What the gate looked like this winter.

Artspeak (www.artspeaksalem.com) is an annual concert, artshow and auction, planned by our church, Highrock Northshore. This event is one way for those of us with an artistic bent, to take a stand against injustice and to use our creativity for good.  It is a meeting ground for artists and community members, a celebration of beauty, and a way we can be part of restoration and healing.  At ArtSpeak, local artists from within and beyond our church community come together to work, to give, and to serve. All profits from the event go to fight human trafficking here on the North Shore by supporting Amirah.  Amirah (a-meer-ah) is a Boston area non-profit dedicated to providing “transformative whole-person care for survivors of commercial exploitation.” Amirah does this by mobilizing the greater community to create safe spaces that provide opportunities for healing, restoration and reintegration and by utilizing individualized approaches to address physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, social, and vocational needs of each survivor in their care, cultivating engagement with community. www.amirahboston.org.

This year’s theme, IMAGINE, came from the words of the Apostle Paul: “Now to God who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever...”
(Eph. 3:20-21).

I had a lot of different ideas for what I was going to do for the show, (with Imagine as the theme you could literally do anything) but I eventually chose to do a painting of a dark gateway leading into a bright, green and gold landscape. This was based in part on wishful thinking, we had a very difficult and long winter in New England this year, and spring seemed like a very distant concept when I was working on the piece. It was also based partly on Song of Solomon 4:12. "You are my private garden, my treasure, my bride, a secluded spring, a hidden fountain." And lastly, it was based on one of my favorite places to go for a hike: Bradley Palmer State Forest. There is a stone entry gate on the Hamilton side of the park. There is a beautiful little stone gatehouse that has been abandoned for years, and a large wrought iron gate. Over the years it has become very overgrown with vines.
Anyway, here is my progress on the painting by session. Sessions would be 2-4 hours long.

Session 1
Roughing in the volumes and basic values in burnt umber and gray.

Session 2
Adding in color to the sky and background. Refining color on the stones.

Session 3
More detail and color in the rocks and texture for the foreground.

 Session 4
Adding greenery and vines, refining values.

 Final
Refining the lighting, detail, adding signature.

 Popped it into a plain wooden frame painted metallic gold.

 On display at the event.

Lent Devotional Art

Back in December of 2013, Brynn Harrington, one of the pastors at Highrock Northshore, (the church my wife and I attend), contacted several artists and members of the Art Group at the church about the possibility of illustrating a lent devotional booklet. We all thought it was a very interesting idea. Brynn sent us the 40 days of devotionals, a passage for each day of lent. Kerrie James, one of the Art Group leaders and Brynn, divided up the devotionals among the 6 artists: Solomon Kong, Rachel Neikirk, Kerrie James, Ben Ober, Kirsten Borne, and myself.  I was assigned 7 different passages from day 15 to day 21. My passages were all from the book of Matthew. I took a look at the passages, re-reading them and researching representations of what other artists had done with these specific passages. I wanted the images to be familiar and recognizable, without being cliché. I will focus on the first passage which was Matthew 16:21-28. I decided to focus on verse 24:

²⁴ Jesus then said to his disciples, If any man will follow me, let him forsake himself: and take up his cross, and follow me. 

Most of the images I found were similar to the one below. It is a fairly iconic image, but how to make it my own?

 

We were encouraged to do these in any style and medium we wanted, so that the final variety was visually rich and varied. Because the final illustrations in the devotional book were going to be small , (about 2 inches square), and also because I procrastinated on the project until the week before the deadline, I decided to do mine as small, very loose colored-pencil drawings. I wanted them to be as direct and simple as I could make them. I drew them all on one sheet of Bristol board at about a 1 inch by 1 inch size. I sketched in non-photo blue pencil and then inked and colored them with colored pencil.

As you can see from this detai, they are pretty rough.

I scanned the images individually so that they were 300 ppi at 3.5 inches, or about twice the size they would be when finished. I liked the texture and the energy of the sketches, but I also realized that they would need to be refined a bit for reproduction, so I brought the scans into Photoshop, and started to digital "clean-up". In most cases I was deleting the sketch lines, and saturating the color. Sometimes redrawing or clarifying parts of the image, (such as the face). The trick was to clean it up without going too far and losing the gesture and energy of the original sketch. Here is the final version of "Take up your cross".

Here are the final versions of all the artwork. You can see that they  have achieved various levels of success. The least successful is probably #2 "The Transfiguration"and the most,  #7 "the Greatest Commandment", but overall, i was pretty happy with the results.

 The final digital files were sent off to the church office to be placed into the book design.
This is what the illustration looked like printed.

The artwork was also projected as a background image for the  Good Friday service, and prints of the artwork were displayed at the Easter service.

Artspeak: Awaken Promotional Materials

Besides helping to plan, organize and set up the recent Artspeak:AWAKEN art show, concert and auction, and painting two entries for submission, I also designed all of the promotional materials including a 13" x 19" poster, an 8.5" x 11" flyer, and a 4" x 6" postcard.

ARTSPEAK!:AWAKEN Painting Number 2

After finishing my Artspeak entry number 01, "The Universe Awakens", I decided I would try to do another painting. This one is much larger and more ambitious.
My plan was to paint a painting based on a photo that I had snapped of my wife Amy shortly after we had moved into our condo. She had arisen one morning in her night gown and had gone to the window to look out at something. I saw her there framed in the window, and the light was very nice, so I grabbed my camera and took a quick shot. It was very spur of the moment.

Cut to 6 years later. I am rummaging around in my file folder of images I have wishfully named "Painting Ideas" (images I think would make nice paintings someday). This one is in it.

It occurs to me that this might be an image that would fit the Artspeak "Awaken"theme.

There were two blank 48" x 60" canvases at the church office, which belonged to my friend Kirsten. Since she is a young mother with 3 children and a job, and it was unlikely that she would be using either canvas anytime soon, and she graciously donated one of them to me.

This is the first time I have tried a painting quite this large in quite a long time.
First order of business was re-priming the canvas with several coats of gesso so that it was clean, and tight on the frame.
Next I printed out the photo on a piece of 8.5" x 11" paper and drew a grid of horizontal and vertical lines about 1 inch apart. I then calculated the size they would be on the large canvas and drew a corresponding grid on the canvas using a yardstick and a graphite stick. Then I sketched a cartoon of the image using the grid as my visual guide. Once I got that sketched in graphite, I started painting, roughing in the light and dark areas using white and black acrylic, to create some underlying tone.

Next I took some burnt sienna and started redrawing the details of the figure and background.

Then I started adding in some touches of color. Layering it in, in thinner, very liquid washes.

Then it was adding in the details, working from broader to finer areas.

Here is the palette, (an enameled meat tray)

In some cases, painting over the same areas multiple times. After about 3 full days worth of work this is where I am at. I am hoping to finish this up before the submission deadline of Tuesday, March 4.

Latest work, as of Thursday, March 7th. Looks like I will be working on this up until the last possible second!

Well, here it is, the final signed painting. Worked on until about 4:30 Friday.
Probably about 40 hours worth of work. I decided to title it simply "At the Window".

Artspeak AWAKEN Promo Piece

Our church, High Rock Northshore, holds a Performing and Visual Arts Show to Fight Human Trafficking in Salem, MA  every March to raise money and awareness for different organizations involved in fighting human trafficking. Last year the organization was iSanctuary, a California-based organization that helps women rescued from sex trafficking return to normal lives. Each year has a different theme that relates to the cause. 2013's theme was "Restore". This year's organization is Amirah House (www.amirahboston.org),  a "non-profit organization located in the Boston area dedicated providing “transformative whole-person care for survivors of commercial exploitation as we engage, educate and mobilize our communities and partners to respond to human trafficking.”

The theme this year is AWAKEN: "Art wakes us up. Just as we’re nodding off to the repetition of daily life, a picture or song or film or story rouses us, reminds us that the world is strange and beautiful, full of mysteries and wonders. Sometimes the awakening is pleasing to our senses, sometimes jarring. Either way, we feel more alive, more aware as a result." As part of the Arts group that helps plan, set-up and run the show, I was selected to produce the signature image for the event promotional materials. I kicked around several ideas for the piece. I knew I wanted something I could paint, that was different, impressive visually, and not cliché, (like a sunrise, sleeping beauty, Rip Van Winkle, etc.) or overtly religious in nature.

Then I happened across several images from the Hubble Space Telescope on a friend's FB post. 

 
They were beautiful and mysterious, like looking into creation itself. I felt that these images lent themselves perfectly to the "awaken" theme, on an almost cosmic level. The universe "waking up". 
There were many images to choose from, but I settled on one that seemed to draw the eye in a natural spiral, and also had a variety of colors in it, as well as some great contrast between the largely orange background and the intense blue of the stars.

 
Although the image was freely available on the internet, and I could have used the photograph itself, I felt strongly that I wanted to paint the image. I wanted it to feel more organic and personal. I gridded out an 8.5" x 11" color printout and created a scaled up corresponding grid on a 14" x 18" x.5" gessoed wooden panel. 

 


I started with a loose underpainting in orange and burnt umber. I quickly discovered that the image that at first appeared to be very simple, was in fact, incredibly complex and  unlike anything I had ever painted before. I render a lot of recognizable objects, in my paintings, people, buildings, vehicles. Things with recognizable scale, angles, orientation, and most importantly, edges.
This images was vast areas of space that were filled with nothing but dust, gas and stars.
Plus I was working in acrylic, and it was very hard to blend the colors for the soft look of gas clouds. I lamented the fact that I no longer own an airbrush. It was a lot harder than I had anticipated.

 
I started to add in the darker areas. If I had it to do again, I would paint the entire panel dark brown, and then add the clouds of gas over that as layers of semi-transparent washes, rather than adding in the darker areas over the orange. At one point I was so frustrated that I was ready to chuck the piece out, but I stepped away. When I came back to it, instead of feeling like I was fighting the medium, (drying too fast, not malleable enough)  it felt like it was starting to work for me. I was adding layer upon layer of thin washes, for the gas, punctuated by the opaque blue and white of the stars. It became more and more complex visually. After working on it for two days, I decided I had better stop, as the image is so complex, that I could literally spend another 20 hours adding in details.
This is what I ended up with. I fell it conveys the essence of the original image, but has some more personal touches, especially in the intensity of the colors and the brushwork.

    


I call the piece "cosmic awakening" 

ARTSPEAK: Restore Follow-Up

My wife Amy and I have been attending Highrock NorthShore regularly since the fall of 2012. We’ve lived in Salem for several years and we’re interested in both the visual and performing arts. So, when we first heard about ArtSpeak a few months ago at our Creative Arts Connection Group we knew we wanted to be involved. In preparation, we attended a planning meeting for the show and created pieces to donate.

 

My art piece was a mobile made of wooden spheres painted to look like the Earth in three stages of death, regrowth and restoration.















Amy’s piece was a cross-stitch embroidery sampler based on a design from the early 1800’s featuring a design which included 2 doves, bluebirds, and a basket of flowers.
We also helped with the load-in on Thursday night, and display set up on Friday.

This past Friday night was the main opening event for our Artspeak weekend, and I would say it was a great success. Starting after 6 pm dozens of art lovers from Highrock and the local area arrived. It was gratifying to see so many people enjoying and interacting with the art pieces we had helped create and set up.

For the first part of the evening, we adjourned to the upstairs of the Old Town Hall to hear more about iSanctuary, and to hear reflections from Pastors Brynn and Aaron, hear original songs, a poem, and even two rap songs that supported the theme of the art on display. The theme of the donated artworks was Restore, and was meant to express an unearthing and restoration of beauty, dignity and humanity in all its various forms. If you’re not aware, iSancutary is an organization committed to helping women who have been rescued from the sex-trafficking industry regain their sense of self through learning a useful trade and equipping them to support themselves through creating jewelry and stationary crafts.

Afterwards, we moved back downstairs to enjoy refreshments and to start the silent auction bidding. Over the next hour people looked at artwork, networked, ate cookies, hummus and cheese and drank sparkling lemonade from Trader Joe’s, all while checking in at the bidding table every few moments to see how their bids were performing.

Amy and I decided to bid on two pieces we especially liked. It was exciting to see if you would get the piece you hoped for or not. As the hour progressed, we found ourselves in a small bidding war over a painting titled “Evening Marsh” by Ben Ober, and took out our bid for the second piece we liked so we could focus on this one piece. It’s a lovely piece, and we anticipated that at least one other person might like it as well. However, our dollar limit was a little higher than our competitor’s and we won the bid. We are now the proud owners of an original work by Ben Ober, and are looking forward to giving it a home in our Salem condo.

Besides acquiring a new painting to put in our home, I also gained a new appreciation for how the arts can be used to bring justice and healing to our broken world. Before this event I’ve never used my creative abilities in a way that will so directly impact the lives of others in need. I was greatly encouraged by the enthusiastic turnout and reception of the event, and I believe that God is working and will continue to work in our lives and the lives of those we hope to touch through this and similar events.

Over the course of the evening we showcased 41 pieces of art and raised $3,000 dollars through the silent art auction and through selling jewelry created by iSanctuary artists.   Everyone deserves a big hand for helping to make this donation to iSanctuary possible.