We also just experienced the slowest pizza ever while waiting for new tires... 2hours for a medium pizza and 2 sodas... The pizza was, however, amazing.

So we just experienced the fastest tow ever... the guy came in 5 mins and backed up and was done in seconds without leaving the truck. Amazing.

Checking to see if txt msg blogging is now working.

Finally

Finally the orthodox Catholics out there point out the the conservative Catholics that there is such a thing as stupid fun,
http://deacbench.blogspot.com/2009/05/vatican-paper-on-angels-demons-harmless.html

Advanced Painting final

My final for advanced painting was a painting installation. It was highly successful and received rave reviews from my class and professor. I just wish it had been up for much longer than 8 hours after the 12 hours I worked on installation.

In a first, I've uploaded a video of the installation to youtube. But since I can't figure out how to link it easily, I've also uploaded it here on blogger...

WHOOAH

After a long and interesting residency process, I have finally been awarded Instate in Vermont! YAY!

Now I can start paying off my debt that I've accrued this semester.

Vermont Gay Marriage

Representative Robert South, a freshman Democrat from a conservative district, said he reversed his position after 228 of his constituents reached out and urged him to support the override, compared with 198 who urged him to oppose it.
(NYTIMES)

This man was one of the very few swing votes. And whatever way he voted was THE decision, either to permit or not permit gay marriage. It either would have been 150-49 one way or 149-50 the other. One way barely passing, one way barely stopping the veto override.

30 phone calls/letters or emails decided the Vermont Gay marriage legislation.

30 people like you or me.

Whatever side of the aisle you're on, are you doing your civic duty to inform your representative?

A bit too late...

"Obama's support among Catholics has eroded.

According to the Pew Research Center, the percentage of Americans who disapprove of Obama's job performance increased by nine points from February to March.

Among Catholics as a whole, his disapproval rating jumped 14 points. And among white, non-Hispanic Catholics, the figure doubled -- from 20 percent to 41 percent. "

I've got one thing to say. Why were you guys fooled by his rhetoric?

Amazing!

Check these out:
movie

epic

mix

Gradumation

I just found out that my petition for changing the transfer level of two of my classes back to ISU was approved.

So as long as I pass my classes, I am qualified for graduation this semester!

The were transferring back as sophomore level, but now they've been approved as Junior level which means I'm golden!

The attacks

The scouts are out testing our defenses and resolve.

The full frontal attack may be a year or so away.

Connecticut has a piece of legislation that would attempt to destroy the Church, which church? SPECIFICALLY THE CATHOLIC CHURCH.

Obama has outlawed conscience in medical care, by removing a presidential conscience order that had protected conscientious objections from prosecutions.

Obama has overturned the stem-cell research funding for embryos, WHEN THERE ARE PERFECTLY ACCEPTABLE ALTERNATIVES, deriving from adult stem cells which are proved to be equivalent scientifically and morally superior (you don't have to kill the adult and its relatively painless).

The Freedom of Choice Act has been announced as being reintroduced "sooner than later" by Democrats. Which does not do as it claims but actually outlaws the states' decisions against abortions.

Euthanasia is now getting protection, surprisingly by the democrats saying they want to help end abortion...

Obama is the president who has used the most biblical quotes and prayers (apparently) but even Satan quotes the bible, in well, the bible (in the 40 days of the desert, aka the first lent).

Christians need to wake up fast... the onslaught is coming. Don't expect there to be peace, don't be deluded. If these scouting actions are permitted by men of good will, like the NAZI's reclamation of the Rhineland was permitted, expect a WWII to follow within months.

Cereal Patriotism

So I was playing in class...



Whatcha think?

Art

So I'm in a Sculpture, painting and digital art class...

For sculpture, I've completed a rough copy of a DaVinci model and copied a Kitsch piece.



And today I've completed my podium for my pieces... one side is a fire place and the other is a traditional podium from a museum... both sides are joined by the "light" beneath.


The pieces will both fit on the mantle, one on either side or could fit on the "museum" side together. Suggesting that museums don't usually find it fitting to place both in their repertoire, but the average person would have no problem having both.

The sunset was beautiful today.
And this is my painting in progress.

A defense

A very good friend of mine pointed out that I should qualify my excitement over the excommunications being lifted, especially in light of the Antisemitism that exists amongst some of the group. So I wrote a short defense to him, which I think would be good to post.
-----

My excitement stems not from their ultraconservative nature or Bishop Williamson. In fact I find ultraconservativism quite distasteful. My excitement is the same that a brother would have, if his father finally told his crazy extremist brother, after several years, that he could come back. A divided family hurts. And it takes humility for the extremist brother to return, and stay home this time.

Plus not all the schismatic Lefebrites are crazy extremists. At least a few are just misguided souls who really could care less about idiocies like Williamson's statement. And there are numerous examples of God saving or being willing to save a whole group of people just for the sake of one just soul.

A third point is that salvation does not depend upon a view of human history. And I don't believe that there's a mandated excommunication in the Church Law books for an ignorant view of history.

And for the most part there will be no difference in the Church, as we already have an almost identical group inside the church called the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter. And I doubt any major concessions can ever be made to the Society of St. Pius X, aside from the recent lifting of excommunication. And the excommunication only ever pertained to those four Bishops due to their ordination without the Pope's consent. The rest of the SSPX have never been explicitly excommunicated, and if anyone was implicitly excommunicated, it was most likely only the priests and not the laity.

For me this is a matter of family mercy. Sometimes you put up with your stupid brother just because he's your stupid brother.

Honeymoon!

We're going to the Domincan Republic for our Honeymoon!

Check it out here

Michelle's Aunt Cindy and Uncle Adam are giving us a week of their timeshare program, and we're using it in style. :-)

Oh and we were blessed by an amazing deal for our Invitations... after Paul Blart: Mall Cop, Michelle and I ran over to the paper store 10 minutes before it closed and got a 98.3% discount on each set of 50... originally averaging around 30$... we got them on clearance for a $1... but it was also a 50% off sale... so it was 50 cents each set of 50!

Sold my first paintings!

Sunday? I sold my first three paintings! They were sold to two beautiful women I know... and the third (not pictured is the sacred heart that matches the Our lady of Fatima)






Now I am confident enough to say that I'm a painter! I've satisfied all three of the things that make you a "Painter".
1.) Go to a residency (bonus: full fellowship)
2.) Have a Gallery Show
and
3.) Sell Paintings

Any one of the three suffices normally, but due to providence, I got two for "free"... so the third is what was really important for me to feel confident.

End of sale

So I'm ending the $5 sale as of today... my shop is getting ready to go live (Please do not buy anything there yet!) And will be up in the next two days... it will accept paypal, google checkout and credit, as well as good hard cash/money orders/checks.

The end of the sale was supposed to coincide with the end of my show, but I delayed it hoping for more interest.

Contact Sheets

Here are contact sheets from the photos in my show... if you want any, I will offer them at the same price as in my show... but... remember that shipping and handling for delicate items is expensive... I'm not sure how cheap I can make it yet, but I'll do my best to find the best deal to get you the prints in the best condition.

So the price is 5$ a print + optional donation to help me work with the poor in India in August + shipping and handling (I haven't researched this yet)... if you do want to buy any, I'd recommend buying several, as that won't increase the shipping and handling much, if at all.

Also the first two sets of pictures (the larger sized images) are on professional glossy paper, where as the rest are on Fine Art Paper, both of which are high quality Canon papers which provide great ranges of color and photo lab quality. The Fine Art paper is Matte (not glossy). And I am willing to print any of the photos out on either paper. Though I personally prefer the paper choices I've mentioned.

Artist's Statement

This is the artist's statement that I have out in the Gallery. (It's a one page hand out).

Faith (verb): The pursuit of Truth, Goodness, and Beauty.

Most people will find this definition pleasing, because it is generous to the human spirit, and because it enlarges the “faithful” to include every human. This is because we are innately attracted to the Truth, the Good and the Beautiful. We only need to look at the last five minutes of our lives, to see this.

We can recall that in the last five minutes we’ve made decisions that involve each of these three things. We’ve decided to look at him instead of her, because he is more pleasing, we’ve decided to come to see an art show because it is good for our enrichment, and we’ve decided to say or do certain things because saying or doing otherwise would not be who we are. Regardless of our Philosophical, Religious or other views, we can all agree that Truth, Goodness and Beauty are worthy pursuits.

A Catholic is one who has discovered a deeper level to this definition; that Truth, Goodness and Beauty are a Person and not solely an idea. Recall the first time you fell in love, the kind of love where every bit of your body yearned to be touching them; you just wanted to be near, or even just close enough to see them. The kind of love that possessed you and every thing you did. You probably pursued the person until they were crazed by you, and ultimately they rejected you. The desire to possess and be possessed by the person you love, is natural to all of us, it is only through our lives, and the rejections that we experience that we learn that to possess and be possessed, we must play act as if we did not desire these things.

Yet, I’ve discovered in the pursuit, in the falling in love with this Person, that we’re never rejected, and instead the opposite is true. We discover in faith, that God is more vulnerable to us, than we are to Him. We discover that He is so vulnerable to us and He wants so much to satisfy our needs that we actually find Him “needy”. And just as we do with our human friend and lovers, we act out, we get angry, we try to hurt Him, we turn away, and we behave in ways that we hate. And just like with our human friends, we come back, we apologize, or just try forgetting.

We seek and then reject, and ultimately we return. This is the nature of our faith.

Mother Teresa and St. Francis had faith. They pursued their lives every moment as if their only desire was to grow ever more deeply in love with Jesus Christ. They lived their lives “Faith or Bust”. Yes, they fell; though we may never know exactly how hard they fell or the details of their struggles, their sins and rejections of God, we know they were human. They pursued Goodness, Beauty and Truth so radically, that the more they pursued their beloved, the more and more they became like Him. They became living “Goodness”, living “Beauty”, and they became living “Truth”.

Their lives speak to generations, to cultures and to every individual. They changed the world, by doing something as simple as falling in love. They viewed each second, each bird, each person, each drop of rain, each poverty, each excruciating agony, and each overwhelming joy as love letters from their Beloved. This is why I am an artist.

Gallery photos

I'm still exhausted from setting up the show... but here are the photos I promised!

Setting up...


The outside view of the Red Mill gallery at my work.

This is me setting up... I used the flannel fitted sheet (on right) to cover up Ecce Nika until just after dinner was over and everyone was heading to the gallery (didn't want anyone to see it from the street before show time :-) ), and I used the other flannel sheet on the ground as a setup device for my photos...I measured the three walls and then I'd mark the walls on the sheet and then pre-lay out my photos... (easier to do than switching them out on the walls).

The walls are prepped for any volunteers...

Dilini and Lori to the rescue!

My first painting ever... and still one that I love.
Our Lady of She-shan
Sacred heart #1, Our Lady of Fatima, and sacred heart #2.
Ecce Nika!
Photos in the main gallery (where the paintings are also)

walking from the main gallery into the entrance gallery

walls of photos from India (around 240!)




Three small paintings!

okay... sleepytime.

Oh! and I really think I need to retake photos of Ecce... it looks better without the flash/bad camera lighting.