Perpetual

  In this painting I am not using the prototype for the Icon that is known to the Roman Catholic church as Our Lady of Perpetual Help, but I looked up synonyms for the word 'perpetual' and I have painted this Madonna and Child over a litany of the promises that this word perpetual is for us. 

Our Lady of Perpetual...ceaseless....constant...
4  x 6
Acrylic on wood/ Framed
I think this Madonna has that permanent look of the seated one,she's here to stay with us. 

                                                                    Our Lady of  Perpetual

                                                                                               ceaseless

                                                                                                       constant

                                                                                                                       continuous

                                                                endless

                                                                                        enduring 

                                                                                                             eternal

                                                                                   permanent 

                                                                                          unceasing

                                                                                                     unending

                                                                                                             unfailing

                                                                                             unlimited

                                                                                               help, Pray for us.

                                                                 

Art to welcome blessings

When I traveled through the State of Bihar in India I was introduced to the Folk Art Paintings  known as Madhubani,

Images for madhubani

 - Report images 

I was told that traditionally women painted these images in the early morning to welcome the blessings, the visitation of God. They would decorate front entrances or the ground near the home. Today they are painted on paper and sold as distinct art pieces. There is not an empty space on these canvases. 

The colors, the handwork, the design flowing out of the Indian imagination continues to inspire me. I have an extensive collection of old  Indian sari's, some that are torn, but perfect for painting on. 

This piece offered me the perfect inspiration for this Madonna and Child sharing the dove of peace. And like the tradition of Madhubani art, there is not an empty space on the canvas.

SOLD
A Blessing of Peace
8 x 12
Acrylic on Indian Silk Sari

Photocards available

What shall survive of us is love

Around my mother's name there was some confusion. She was known to her friends as "Betty", but when I came home in her last years and took over her bill paying, banking, I found out that her name on her official documents was Mary Elizabeth Ann, while other cards named Betty. One day I asked her, mom what name do you think God will call you? and with no hesitation she answered; "Sweetheart"

This absolute confidence that God not only knows our name, but this Good Shepard has a particular name for each of us is the greatest inheritance my mom passed onto  her family and all who knew her. It is her eternal word to us all.

Patti,  Mariann,  Marilou,  Teresa,   JoAnne,  Betty & Dave
Sweetheart's Family

Happy 90th Birthday Mom
pray for us from your eternal rest
Mary Elizabeth Ann Dunsmore
July 9,1923 - Dec. 25, 2012

"There is a crack in everything"

SOLD

"Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in"
Leonard Cohen 
"Anthem"

I am thinking of these lines from our Canadian poet, Leonard Cohen, who is now in his seventies. 

www.leonardcohenfiles.com/zollo.html  this link will take you to a long excerpt from a book of interviews with songwriters, here you get to read about the process for Leonard, the reality of being broken as he struggles to receive inspiration, to connect with the Divine.

My two 4 x 6 Madonna and Child paintings are framed in imperfect frames, beautiful but they have at their corners some cracks. My sister quickly responds, "ah but that how the light gets in"

the hour of the pearl

that interval between day and night when time stops and examines itself.           
                                                                                      "Cannery Row"  John Steinbeck 

SOLD
Let my prayer rise
like incense
before you
12" x 36"
mixed media,acrylic on wood

Watch over us as we sleep
18" x 18"
acrylic on wood

  I love that transition time 

between day and night, 

                                  

 the light as it passes over my corners of prayer, 

 the hour of the pearl. 

             

It colors everything

We have this expression in English; "it colors everything".
Environment, circumstances, relationships,physical and emotional health, belief systems or spirituality, and perhaps something else I forgot to name, make up the "it" that colors everything.

In many Traditional Icon schools, color is considered to have the same substance as words: indeed each color has its own value and meaning. Reading "The Tree of Life" by the colors I chose: Brown is the color of the bare earth, and all that is transient and perishable. Green is the color of natural, living things. Blue indicates the infinity of the sky and is the symbol of another everlasting world. White is the symbol of the heavenly realm and God's divine light.

What is coloring your world these days?

SOLD
The Tree of Life
18" x 24"
Acrylic and silk screened paper on wood

Canada Day

One of the great mysteries of life is what country we are born in. I am Canadian by birth and I have had the security of a family, food and shelter all my life. Extensive travels have shown me that this is not everyone's privilege. My mother, born in Canada into a family of Irish Catholic descent, passed on to me the Roman Catholic traditions and practices of Mass, the rosary, the Christmas manager set. patron saints, guardian angels, grace before meals,and prayers for every occasion.  My first years away from home I lived in Europe, the Middle East, India, and then the American Southwest of Arizona. This experience exposed me to the image of the Madonna in many forms-fresco,icons and the familiar plaster statues from my youth, but in a new setting I had never seen: the outdoor shrines, and the prayer corner or altar areas in the homes of my Hispanic neighbors. Although the settings for sacred art changed in each country I passed through, the practice of a daily ritual, the gesture of lighting a candle in gratitude and petition, was a repeated theme.

Today, on this anniversary of Canada's birth, I'd like to pause and say "Thank You".

one of my Photo cards framed where
I have wired and strung a Thank You
4 x 6