among the thousands

There we are, second row down, eighth from left

Etsy did a call for sellers to come out for a photo shoot back in the Winter, and so the girl and I went out to the city for an adventure.  We had fun waiting our turn and having our picture taken in a light-filled loft in midtown, but then I forgot about it and it only just now occurred to me to look for the magazine. Turns out that we made the cut! And we (yes, Magnolia is there too....looks like the youngest Etsy seller of the bunch!) made our way into the April issue of Inc. magazine. Seeing as how I'm just one of 400,000 Etsy sellers, hundreds of whom were photographed that day, and dozens of whom ended up in a feature spread in the magazine, I'm not surprised that I never received official notification that I had made it to print. My Etsy jewelry shop has not received any spikes in sales (though on Halflight I did sell 7 paintings to one person the other day, what a lovely treat!), so I can't say that this form of press was effective for me personally, but the adventure in the loft was worth doing!  See pictures for evidence of one of NYC's hidden treasures, Gary's Loft.  And here's a link to the article itself.

love wins

The Life of Heaven Now, Acrylic on canvas, silk, thread, found objects, 10 x 8 inches

There's heaven here now, somewhere else.
There's heaven here, sometime else.
And then there's Jesus's invitation to heaven
here
and
now,
in this moment,
in this place.

Try and paint that.

(Rob Bell, Love Wins, 2011, page 62)

Rob Bell's book is waking me up.  So when I saw the words, try and paint that, I knew that I had to.  I've been collecting shards of heaven and hell from NYC streets for years, waiting to one day begin a series of paintings (some combination of Superimposed Cities and Lost Cities series) based around these cryptic, beautiful and heartbreaking objects.  So here is the first.  My heart beeps (as my 2 year old daughter says) in Red Hook, Brooklyn, a neighborhood with a long history of intergenerational poverty, unemployment, and low levels of high school completion, which is also home to my little friend Heaven, who turns nine today.  Here are some things I have discovered on the ground in Red Hook:  1. Sycamore seed pod 2. Heroin bag 3. Shell 4. Nail 5. Sea glass 6. Metal heart pendant with peeling pink paint 7. Plastic gun 8. Puzzle piece.  These lost remants remind me that heaven and hell are here, now, with us in Red Hook and beyond, and they act as miniature yet tangible reminders that "if we want hell, if we want heaven, they are ours" (p. 118). 


[Taken from the original Occasional Religion post, Kristin Brenneman Eno, April 19, 2011]

occasional religion

A friend from college, Cabell King, launched a really thoughtful blog, Occasional Religion, and I'm honored to be a part of it.  He has invited a fascinating selection of scholars, poets and visual artists to weigh in on current events through the lens of our respective faiths and academic and/or artistic perspectives.  Here is the series of collages I made in response to the current conflict in Libya:

"Their fruit will serve for food and their leaves for healing," Ezekiel 47:12.