I admit that, as often happend, I did ask, “where and what is the Yemen Republic?” Turns out I have a pathetic knowledge of geography – especially concerning for someone who was, at one point, studying to be a geography teacher. Hmm… Anyway, short answer is, it’s in the Middle East. The Arabic script on the stamp should’ve given that one away…
A grab from my blog’s stats month-by-month summary, beginning with its birth in February 2008.
#1
#2
#3
Photographs, March 2009.
Autumn has arrived and, in for us that has meant beautiful roses to photograph. We took some time out over two weekends in March and April to capture some of the beautiful blooms. I’ve so far sold two prints of photo #2 shown here (via RedBubble.Com)! It always feels very exciting when people enjoy my art and photography.
I find beautiful gardens so uplifting and, thankfully, this garden seems to be low allergy. Phew!
Felt tip marker and crayon on pink tinted paper, December 2008.
something completely different…
Please forgive me… it’s 10.02 pm and I’m very very tired…
It’s been interesting to note that, for some reason, people from the USA are reading this blog more than anyone else. I wonder if that means it’s comprehensible and relevant or if my Aussie ramblings are confusing. Careful, I might start throwing in words like “cobber” “chonks” and “crikey” to boost my Aussie readership.
I’m interested in hearing from regular readers (and there must be a few of you because in just over a year I’ve had 30,500 hits on this site). I would like to know if there are any topics on which you would particularly like me to write a blog post. I think it’s a symptom of the fact that I am doing half my usual university study load this semester, and would like to take advantage of the extra time to perhaps write a few short blog posts on up to 5 requested topics.
Please use the comments box to add your (genuine) suggestions. If you are reading this on facebook.com, please follow the provided link to the WordPress Blog and add your comments there.
Suggested topics might include:
– Australian culture.
– Thoroughbred horse pedigrees (maybe there’s a particular horse you’re interested in and want to know a bit about its family). Australian horses preferred.
– Christianity and Apologetics. Have you got any questions about a particular area of apologetics? I may be able to dig up some information for you (as an interested layperson).
– Art! This is primarily an art blog, so I should probably write on art at least once in a while!
– Maybe you have some suggested ideas for my RedBubble Online Store and Gallery, where I sell some of my art designs as t-shirts and art prints.
– Vegetarianism. Do you have any questions about vegetarianism?
– Environmentalism issues.
– Books! I read a lot of books… so I might have some suggested reading ideas for you.
I really hope my readers can help me with this! Be creative. 🙂
**
Here’s my latest t-shirt design, which is available for purchase at RedBubble.Com. I entitled it “INRI,” which is an abbreviation of the Latin for, “Jesus of Nazereth, King of the Jews,” that is often seen on images of the Cross in Roman Catholic Churches. That said, as always my art here is intended as a non-denominational celebration of the foundational aspects of Christianity that followers of Jesus hold in common.
While I do not have time to go into great detail here, I thought that a brief summary of the Gospel message is in order:
– in the beginning, God created the Heavens and the Earth and they were perfect. There was no suffering or death.
– Satan was a great angel who, in his pride, sought to take God’s place. As a result, he Fell and became the Devil. He is not the exact opposite of God, but rather a corrupted, and very powerful, creature.
– God appointed the first humans to be his representatives on Earth. However, they gave up their authority by obeying the Devil. Later, in the Gospels, the Devil is seens as telling Jesus that he (the Devil) was given all authority on the Earth (see Luke 4:6). All that was under the dominion of Humanity was now the Devil’s.
– This was the beginning of the Curse, the entrance of death and suffering into human existence. The punishment for humanity’s sin (disobedience to God’s commands) is death. All humans who have since existed inherit this sin from their fathers. However, God promises to one day send one who will be of the seed of a woman – not a man. The only way for men or women to reach God is through the shedding of blood of an innocent individual.
– God the Son, one of the three persons of the Trinity (the Trinity being One God who is represented in Three Individual but Indivisible Persons… phew! I know, it can be such a mystery, can’t it?!), took on human flesh. That is, though He remained fully God, He was also fully man. He was born of a Jewish Virgin, but not of a human father. God the Father was His Father.
– Jesus lived a short life, but in only three years of ministry transformed the world. His ideas were radical and often offensive to the people of His day, who plotted to kill Him. The Devil probably thought that he had won by killing Jesus… but, in the shedding of Jesus’ innocent blood, the perfect payment for all human sin was made.
– After three days in the Tomb, Jesus rose again and subsequently appeared to hundreds of people before being lifted to Heaven. He sent the Holy Spirit of God to live in believers, empowering them to continue Jesus’ earthly work.
It is an astounding Gospel and very good news for any who has ears to hear and an open heart. Admittedly, it took me several years to be convinced of it as being True… oh but it is glorious!
A few thoughts:
– think of all the various religions, spiritualities and rituals that demand the shedding of blood and sacrifice. What does it mean if God Himself has become the sacrifice? What exactly are all the religions shedding blood for, anyway?
– The Bible tells us that no one can earn their way to God through their own efforts of work (Ephesians, Chapter 2). For me, I was quite shocked at this. I had spent years thinking that my own goodness and morality would be enough to find God, and I was upset to think that it wasn’t enough. However, I eventually realised that it was a great relief. How would I have known that I had done enough for God? How would I be able to tell between good and evil, for that matter? What place, then, do good deeds have in the Christian life?
Good books…
If you want to learn more on this topic there are countless resources out there. If you’ve only ever read anti-Jesus conspiracies, but consider yourself open-minded, you may want to check out the pro-Jesus books (to balance your views).
Some useful books are The Case for Christ by Lee Strobel, which takes a court case approach to the Gospel accounts of Jesus. The Jesus I Never Knew and What’s So Amazing About Grace? by Philip Yancey are fantastic books that really challenged all my assumptions about Christianity. Ravi Zacharias’ Jesus Among Other Gods is also a good book; and a fantastic read that really dissects the questions about Jesus and the Gospels is Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis. Last time I checked they’re all readily available. You might want to try Australian bookstores like Koorong and Word.
Hi all,
Belated Easter greetings and many thanks to all the wonderful people who have added their comments and encouragements and Easter greetings.
I just want to share a quick plug for a friend of ours, Josh Stuchbery. He’s barely 21 years old yet turning out some beautiful photography. We had the privilege of attending his Debut Exhibition in March 2009 and were very impressed with the quality artwork on offer. His landscape photos were especially striking, in my opinion. It is so rare to see good panorama photography that manages to avoid the skewed and bowed look often seen in that format, so Josh has achieved a really great standard in his photos. He offers his photography for sale in various formats as well as video production services.
His website is at http://www.jstuchbery.com/jStuchbery_Productions/Home.html. Hope you can check it out!
Back in 2002, as a new convert to Christianity, it was almost immediately made clear to me that I’d better brush up on my knowledge of all music Hillsong (and, to a slightly lesser extent, Planetshakers). Having never heard of Hillsong before, I really had no clue what or why they were so significant. But it’s almost impossible to be an Australian Christian without meeting people who have made the pilgrimage to Sydney to sing along with a few hundred thousand other Christians. Being a Victorian, I will admit I have little interest in anything Sydney, and will happily stay in the south freezing cold with our all-black dress sense, cheaper housing and oversized population of wannabe writers and artists. Not to mention that there is roughly 1 cafe for every 2 Melbournians (possibly an exaggeration).
Anyway, it was during part of my husband’s and my quest to discover more about his Ukrainian heritage that we discovered that Hillsong have also made themselves a home in Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine. So, purely for interest’s sake, I present to you the Australian Hillsong worship song “All I Need Is You,” followed by the Ukrainian version. Wow! The similarities are eery, and I think the only obvious difference is the language.
By the way, I’ve had the pleasure of seeing the Hillsong United band live once, when they led worship at my local church, and they were fantastic. They really conveyed such a wonderful heart for God and we saw many teenagers and young adults wanting to learn more about becoming followers of Christ at the end of the night.
Pencil on paper, February 2009.
More Russians. This is a concept sketch developing ideas about drawing the Tersk breed of horse. In the photos I’ve seen of this breed, I thought they had beautiful Arabian-like profiles.
More information:
Flickr Photos Tagged “Tersk Horse”
“Breeds of Livestock – Tersk Horse”
“Troika – Gateway to Russian Horses”
All links accessed 5 March 2009.
Graphite pencil on paper, February 2009.
Another Russian-style horse. This one is based on the Don breed.
More information:
Art for sale:
This illustration is available for sale in various printed formats, including greeting cards, canvas prints and laminated prints. See http://flokot.redbubble.com/sets/46856/works/2652453-2-russian-inspired-horses-2 for more information..
All links accessed 5 March 2009.
Tarpans are technically extinct equids but have been “re-created” by breeding particular domestic horse breeds together… This is one of the stamps I realised that I could read thanks to my random decision to learn the Cyrillic alphabet. Handy…
Graphite pencil on paper, February 2009.
It must be all the Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky books on my bedside table, or the interest in Eastern European culture I”ve developed since marrying a part-Ukrainian… but I thought I’d have a go drawing Russian types of horses. As most of the time I draw Arabians or Thoroughbreds, it was kind of nice taking a break and drawing the Russian breeds. This one is inspired by the Budenny breed of horse.
More information:
Art For Sale:
I’ve got this for sale as an art print, available in various formats including matted and framed prints and greeting cards.
Go to http://flokot.redbubble.com/sets/46856/works/2652444-2-russian-inspired-horses-1 for more information and to view in larger size.
All links accessed 5 March 2009.
Photograph, March 2009.
Yay! Being a relatively tall-ish girl with relatively large feet, it can be difficult finding appropriately sized girly shoes (and socks, for that matter). I always walk into the shoe shop with a sense of shame… It’s hard to tell the shoe salesperson my shoe size when I really don’t want to…
I loved these the moment I set eyes upon them in a factory outlet store in Melbourne on our January wedding anniversary. White with purple butterflies and tiny black lovehearts – woo hoo! And they make them in my size (and even bigger!). I immediately put them on my feet and within an hour had developed massive blisters on my heels. A month later my feet had healed enough to wear shoes again, and this time I was more careful to wear them in slowly – with appropriate socks.
This photo was taken on a dusty morning seated at my children’s school for their bi-annual teddy bears picnic. I’m not sure if the teddy bears picnic is a custom followed in other countries, or if it’s an Australian quirk. Here in Victoria, it is generally celebrated by schools with young children (7 years and below, from my experience), and organised by school librarians. Children are expected to bring a teddy bearish picnic food – honey on brown bread, or teddy bear shaped biscuits. They must also bring a favourite teddy bear. The librarians then engage in a ritual of teddy bear songs, teddy bear story telling, and often a teacher will turn up in a bear costume.
I guess it’s a little weird… especially as we don’t get bears in Australia.
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