“I’m all alone because all my friends have died. I’m not doing anything because I don’t have anyone to do them with anymore. I’m just waiting to die.” I have a variation of this conversation every few weeks with my grandfather each time I come to visit him at my parent’s home, where he has […]
read on: Live Out Your Time as Foreigners →I keep having the goldfish dreams … it seems to be pressing on me, tugging at me, eating away at me. I have this sense that God is wanting me to go ahead and explore this composition, but I am not clear on the reason for this. I suppose that the journey is in the […]
read on: Release →The last few days I have been seeing this idea in my head over and over again. In my imagingings, I see a large goldfish gracefully swimming, swirling, and eventually encircling a woman wearing a long Qing Dynasty robe. I heard this sermon this past weekend on suffering which really spoke to me. It was […]
read on: Goldfish Dreams →Â I have been truly touched by a fellow artist, Nicole France-Coe, whose work is presently in the Leep Art Gallery at the Postema Center on the Pine Rest campus where I work. Her work is about prayer, and has a sense of whimsical reverence to it. Bright colors, and mixes of photo clippings, beads, […]
read on: Mei Yun (Beautiful Grace) →Every Thursday I lead a drum circle in the hospital where I work. Participating in this form of guided spontaneous music-making is probably as theraputic for me as it is for my patients. How often do you get to pound something for joy? To take the tension of life and transform it into a dancable […]
read on: Happiness is a Drum →I wrote this for the meeting of the Grand Rapids affiliate of Christians in the Visual Arts which we had last evening. This is the text of the small talk that I gave before we had a hand blessing for all the artists gathered at our monthly meeting.  ________________________________________________________________   A few words before we begin […]
read on: Blessing of the Hands: for GR CIVA →I have been struggling lately with depression. I see things at my job in the psychiatric hospital that have impacted me emotionally more than I let myself realize. Some people knew and prayed for me, but I have not been able to paint as much as I would have liked. I have started again, with […]
read on: New Work →Lately, I have found that once again I cannot sleep at night. Some people may wonder if it is insomnia, and to be honest, I don’t think that is the case. Often, I assume that it is quite possibly the only time that I am still enough to reflect on God, which is quite a […]
read on: God, what do you want? →It has been some time since I have written anything. I have been working on getting a piece ready for the Chinese Cultural Center of San Francisco. I shipped out 6 pieces for their exhibition “Afterlife” and finished printing a block print for my church’s production of “God’s Trombones” which we will be putting on this […]
read on: New Light →Today is the kind of day you want to stay indoors, snuggle under a blanket, and drink hot cocoa. The clouds are so thick … the light even at noon is pretty dim. Most people hate this kind of weather, but personally, I love it. The world becomes quiet, as if in a moment of […]
read on: Quiet →