The Master's Artist

Hope Realized

Two parents with three walking children and another on the woman's hip arrived at my monthly Visual Prayer workshop a couple months ago. The three older kids wanted to participate, the younger sat on a couch, watched, never made a sound.

I think (maybe) the mother thought it was just going to be a painting lesson. When I started explaining how to do Visual Prayer, the kids seemed excited...especially the youngest who immediately started painting zombies. At least I got through to the older two.

The mother went to the other side of the coffee shop where some of my paintings for sale are located. She pulled me aside, "That painting over there, the one with the 88 on it?"  

"I have a painting with an 88 on it?"

She was already walking towards it, pulling me.

"This one," she pointed.

Oh yes...hope. But 88?  And then I saw the circles I'd made did indeed form "88" in the bottom right. I apologized to her, that I hadn't realized those numbers were there.

"My nephew passed away last week," she said.

I put my hand on her arm, "I'm so sorry."

She told me his name, his story. He was young, so very young.  During his suffering, his family clung to the word "hope" and "88" was a special number to the family. When she looked at the wall and saw my "Hope 88" painting, as she called it, she was beside herself.

I invited her to make a Visual Prayer for her sister. She wasn't ready. But she did come back the next month and she did make one for her sister. She also took "Hope 88" home.

Maybe people see what they want to see in my art. I like to believe the Holy Spirit guides me and uses my hands to do work only He can accomplish.

* * *

~michelle pendergrass sits in awe and admiration of Jehovah Roi, The God Who Sees.

Getting the idea from my head to the canvas is not hard, but it's not easy either.

the tree is known

this one

this one brings with it emotion difficult to name

Your Heart Must Not Be Troubled

In the midst of my best friend's deepest grief, I was out of the country. My phone didn't work, I didn't have a laptop with me. I wanted to be unplugged.

I cheated. 

Maybe it was intuition, maybe the Holy Spirit IS intuition. I logged on to Facebook to find a message telling me my best friend's sister had died.

And I was out of the country. Then I had my very first art show and was flying directly to it, do not pass Go. Not going home first.

When I finally got home, the death had occurred four days previous. With wine and the cool of the evening air, my friend and I sat outside and she poured her heart out.

Both sisters had been coming to my Visual Prayer workshops for months. Both had been painting and creating because I'd invited them to join me. 

Then one of them was gone and there was such a hole in our lives.

She loved dragonflies. She loved Visual Prayer. My friend showed me the prayer her sister had started with get well cards and notes of encouragement from loved ones, but it wasn't finished.  After consoling my friend, I drove home at four in the morning and on the way decided I needed to do a Visual Prayer instead of sending flowers. I knew it was right.

I opened a Bible that was given to my ex-husband and I as a wedding gift, not appropriate to display in my home with Phil, my husband of seventeen years now, but how does one get rid of a Bible? Instead, it's now used for God's glory.  Open before me was the book of John and this passage:

Your heart must not be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in Me. In My Father's house are many dwelling places; if not, I would have told you. I am going away to prepare a place for you. If I go away and prepare a place for you, I will come back and receive you to Myself, so that where I am you may be also. You know the way where I am going."

"Lord," Thomas said, "we don't know where You're going. How can we know the way?"

Jesus told him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.

"If you know Me, you will also know My Father. From now on you do know Him and have seen Him."

"Lord," said Philip, "show us the Father, and that's enough for us."

That is the verse I highlighted in the painting. Instead of sleeping, I painted. When it was complete, it was time to shower and dress and leave for the visitation and funeral. It was placed among beautiful floral arrangements near her coffin and people talked about it.

When the pastor stepped in front of the podium to deliver the ulogy, he spoke wonderful words, he read two poems written by a cousin, he made us laugh and cry. 

And then he spoke God's Word, "Your heart must not be troubled."

Yes, indeed: Ecclesiastes 3:14: I know that all God does will last forever; there is no adding to it or taking from it. God works so that people will be in awe of Him.

* * *

Michelle Pendergrass is in a constant state of awe watching God move Visual Prayer into the hearts and lives of people around her.  She's trying especially hard to make her fear go away over the Creative Soul: Worship Outside the Lines retreat.

Discipline or Orchestration?

After reading Heather's The Art of Rest and Thomas's Artistic Discipline for the Undisciplined Times of Life, the thought hit me:  am I disciplined? And I laughed. Out loud, I think.

Because I feel like there is very little discipline in my life other than the part where I 

                Tumble outta bed and I stumble to the kitchen 
                Pour myself a cup of ambition 
                Yawnin', stretchin', try to come to life 

Visual Prayer

I'm not a good pray-er. 

I try. And that's something. But most of the time, I beat myself up for not doing it well enough. And what kind of prayer life is that? In my search for something, anything that would kept me focused, I ran across a book called Praying in Color. No doubt this was for me.

Until I got bored doodling exclusively with colored pencils and markers.

Because I homeschool and scrapbook, I had a ton of crafty materials bulging out of plastic totes and spilling out of boxes. (craft hoarder) The next step was natural progression for me. I needed to get dirty.  Doodling only afforded me a piece of creative happiness. My mind was engaged and focused and my one hand was moving, but there was a tactile element that was missing.

I needed to feel it. Touch it.  Christ's words to Thomas rang true, "Take your hand and stick it in my side. Don't be unbelieving. Believe."