Monday, December 28, 2015

GOING FROM BLACK AND WHITE TO COLOR An Artist's story, Susan Harris

Today's guest is not an author but an artist. Abbotsford Artist Susan Harris shares some insight into her spiritual life as a painter.

Going from Black and White to Color by Susan Harris, 

As a budding artist I spend hours drawing and perfecting my skill. My own lack of confidence did me a service as well as a disservice. Working very hard I become excellent at creating a perfect portrait in black and white, however, it was not always enjoyable as I didn’t feel I had the time it took because I felt it had to be perfect. I denied myself the pleasure of creating and I wasn’t expressing my heart completely. I was stuck in black and white; not living and creating in color.

One weekend I went to an artist retreat with an Anglian Priest and his wife. He led the spiritual and she taught the art. Even though excited to learn watercolor and calligraphy, the first words that came out of her mouth made my heart sink. 

“Tonight we are just going to play as if we were at kindergarten.”

This is not what I signed up for but a surprising journey of healing began. By the end of the weekend I was bawling. A crack of hope began to open up this gift of creativity that would bring me from black and white to color.

The crack opened up even further one day as I was journaling my prayers. I kept getting distracted by drawing little pictures in the corner of my journal.

I sighed a prayer to the Father, “Help me focus on You!”

A soft and tender voice came to my spirit, “I made you that way. Go and paint your worship.”

Going from Black and White to Color, I let my worship pour out onto that canvas. #Christian #Artist Susan Harris   TWEET THIS 

With canvas, paints and worship music, I began. I let my worship pour out onto that canvas. The outcome was freeing and beautiful. Since then color truly flows with unique flavor, expression, beauty, joy and various styles. A deeper richer relationship with the Creator flows too with truths, insights, blessings, and intercessions. God speaks to me through my art. The worship I give to Him reflects back to me. We are co-creating and I have truly gone from black and white to color.
ABOUT ARTIST SUSAN HARRIS

Susan is an inspirational artist with a belief that art can touch people in ways that nothing else can. Each one of her pieces is created with the Creator and her goal is that you are surprised with hope, joy, love, warmth or a spiritual experience. Some have said that Susan’s gift downloads inspiration into their hearts!

WHERE YOU CAN REACH ARTIST SUSAN HARRIS 

www.artistsusanharris.blogspot.ca

604-776-0886

“The Arts can touch people in ways that nothing else can.”



Creative Expressions: Medium: Acrylic, Water Color, Pencil, Pen & Ink. Styles: Impressonistic, Expressionistic, Worship, Realistic Drawings, Illustrations, Cartoons. Caricatures.

Creative Experiences: Custom artwork: Paintings, Illustrations, Cartoons, and Album Covers, T-shirt Designs. Art Shows, Exhibits, Galleries: 10 shows & exhibits in Alberta, Show & Sale at “Old and Crafty Gallery” Cocrhane AB, Show & Sale at “Uniquity Creations” Kelowna, BC. Now: Show & Sale: “House of James” in Abbotsford BC.
Good Will: Painted for 3 Ghanaian Traditional African Kings. Contributions: Donated to Charities, Causes, Disaster relief, Worship Conferences & Churches

Creative Services:
Custom Artwork: Paintings, Portrait Paintings, Memorial Portraits, Murals, Costumer Appreciation Gifts, Interior Design Clients, 1.00 per square Inch; 2.00 per square inch 4’ and over.
Custom Illustrations: T-shirt designs, Illustrations, Cartooning, Children’s books: $50-$300
Custom Drawings: Portraits, Homes, Animals, Pets: $300.00
“ART for a CAUSE” 50% to Cause and 50% to Artist for any of the above. Can include renting the artwork.
50 % Discount for Non-Profit Organizations












Monday, December 14, 2015

CHRISTMAS SHOWS US MIRACLES ARE POSSIBLE -- by Guest Gail Pallotta

My guest today, Gail Pallotta is doing a give away of her E-book Mountain of Love and Danger.  

At Christmas my daughter, husband and I tried to buy lots of presents for my sister. Usually, we gave her something big from the three of us and then each of us gave her two or three smaller gifts, so she’d have lots to open. Quite often she asked for Vitamin C, face cream, blue jeans and warm sweaters.
Christmas Shows Us Miracles Are Possible
When we turn impossibilities over to God, he works the miracles we yearn for.
***
I awoke sitting up in the bed in the middle of the night. Not knowing what had happened, I gazed into a quiet, calm room. Dim lighting from outside seeped through the blinds.
You have to take care of your sister. I shook my head at the strange words pouring into it. My sister had suffered a brain injury in a car wreck, but my mother took great care of her.

***
Fifteen years later both of my parents died. Another family member and the lawyers handling my father’s estate insisted on institutionalizing my sister. By then I had a child as well as a husband and lived in a different city. My insides tossed. My brain turned to scrambled eggs, and my heart broke into a million pieces because I was the only person who wanted to help her, but it was impossible.

I hardly could concentrate on tending to my family as I tried to understand how to change the course of events and fill this need. I certainly couldn’t leave my husband and daughter. Should I bring my sister here? We’d tried before the wreck, and she hated living in the city.

I phoned my sister to discuss a solution. By now she trusted no one in our family, and wouldn’t talk to me. Her situation tugged at my heartstrings day and night. I called again. When she failed to answer, I nearly crumbled. Where was she? Had they put her in an institution?

Finally, I found her, and yes, she had been permanently committed to a state facility. However, the nurse hadn’t realized there was another family member. My sister didn’t have to stay there if I agreed I didn’t want her to. I agreed immediately. After much conversation on my part and a great deal of paperwork, she returned to her home.

I still had no idea how to look after her. I pleaded with her to trust me and help me solve her problems. She had a friend who had no home who would stay with her if she had someone to handle her business affairs and talk with her doctors and social workers. Was this what God had told me to do fifteen years earlier? I hired a lawyer to ensure settlement of my father’s estate and put an end to the institutional talk. Until my sister’s death her friend cooked and drove her wherever she needed to go, and I fulfilled her other needs by phone.  

I had prayed constantly throughout this difficult time, but worried needlessly. God had a solution to this problem before it even existed. My husband and daughter often helped me help her. At Christmas I remember that God blessed us by letting my sister’s friend and us be there for her.  


The purchase links for Mountain of Love and Danger: 

Monday, December 07, 2015

THE FAMILY FEAST by Author Laurie Alice Eakes

My guest today is my friend and Multi-Award-Winning Author of more than two dozen novels, Laurie Alice Eakes.

The Family Feast 

by Laurie Alice Eakes  

Holidays are considered a difficult time to be without family for a reason. Not much is more depressing than seeing a table spread with all the traditional Thanksgiving goodies--dressing, mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, fresh green beans, homemade rolls, homemade cranberry sauce, and, of course, the turkey, with pumpkin and apple pie waiting in the wings for later--and have just the two of us to share it.



Thanksgiving dinner is the only meal I actually enjoy cooking. I even love the leftovers. At the same time, I hurt to think that my family and friends were over a thousand miles away, as my husband’s job kept us in Texas for one more year.

Although I have no recollection of doing so, my heart must have cried  out for family, for one of my niece’s appetizers, for one of my sister’s desserts, a gift of chocolate from my friend who never cooks, and the conversation and laughter around all that food.

And the Lord heard my subconscious cry.

As I was thinking about shopping for Thanksgiving, whether or not I should order a turkey from one market or another, two young women from church, cousins, we knew from our small group, approached us and invited to spend Thanksgiving with their family.


Somewhere between twenty and thirty people filled this beautiful home, not to mention the tantalizing aromas of all my Thanksgiving favorites and more (like homemade samosas) At the end of the day, sated with food, conversation and laughter, I knew the Lord ensured I hadn’t missed out on a thing--not even the leftovers.
Latest novel by Laurie Alice Eakes

For nearly two hundred years, women in Ashley Tolliver’s family have practiced the art of midwifery in their mountain community. Now she wants to take her skills a step further, but attending medical school means abandoning those women to whom she has dedicated her life, the mountains she loves, and the awakening of her heart.
Ashley Tolliver has tended to the women of her small Appalachian community for years. As their midwife, she thinks she has seen it all. Until a young woman gives birth to a baby at Ashley’s home and is abducted just as she tries to take the dangerously bleeding woman her to the nearest hospital. Now Ashley is on a mission to find the woman and her newborn baby . . . before it’s too late.
Hunter McDermott is on a quest—to track down his birth mother. After receiving more media attention than he could ever want for being in the right place at the right time, he receives a mysterious phone call from a woman claiming to be his mother. Hunter seeks out the aid of the local midwife in the mountain town where the phone call originated—surely she can shed some light on his own family background.
Ashley isn’t prepared for the way Hunter’s entrance into her world affects her heart and her future. He reignites dreams of her own family she has long put aside in favor earning her medical degree and being able to do even more for her community. But is it commitment to her calling or fear of the unknown that keeps her feet firmly planted in the Appalachian soil? Or is it something more—fear of her growing feelings for Hunter—that make her hesitant to explore the world beyond the mountains?

ABOUT AUTHOR LAURIE ALICE EAKES


She lives in Texas with her husband and sundry cats and dogs. When asked what she does for fun, she says write. She also loves to read, go for long walks, especially on the beach, and listen to music, especially live music with her husband.

 She lives in Texas with her husband and sundry pets. She loves watching old movies with her husband in the winter, and going for long walks along Galveston beaches in the summer. When she isn’t writing, she considers that housework is a time to work out plot points, and visiting museums is a recreational activity.

©

Marti Corn Photography.