Leanne Shawler, Artist

So Jon Acuff asked his readers: "What do you want to finish in 2012?" Here's my answer: Here are my goals for 2012. Create communication strategies for each ministry in my church (it's in the strategic plan, so I gotta) Develop this blog to be a base for my vocation of telling my story of believing how unworthy I thought I was of God, and providing a listening base for those who are in that situation. (Um, measurable goal would be: posting twice a week on/around the topic and learning (really knowing) the stories of two other people.)  2b. Find a coherent way of saying that. Paint another large painting (3'x4', I think) Learn how to take better photos of my art. So by December 2012 I will be taking good photos of artwork and wee objects. See if I can get my twice a week of 10 minutes silence to 5 times. (which I forgot to add to my comment on Jon's blog) Lose 15 lbs. I've been maintaining my current weight for long enough. It's time to...

For the longest time, I couldn't see the point in confession. Before I truly believed that I am beloved by God, saying the confession during the church service either seemed hypocritical (did I mean the words I mouthed?) or induced  fresh waves of guilt and shame despite the absolution given by the priest. Confession said on Sundays when I was a teen. Perhaps it just takes me a bit longer, but last year as I put together a Rule of Life (part of becoming an associate of the Order of the Holy Cross), I was again confronted with this prevailing belief that confession was some antiquated words that held no real meaning now. I consulted Mary, a friend of mine, about this dilemma. It seems that, generally speaking, Episcopalians didn't much care for confession -- baggage most like from being Protestant and separated from the Catholic church 500 some years ago. Mary shared with me a prayer that both thanked God for the day's blessings and asked me to recognize when I h...

The plan was to redesign this blog and reboot it with its new focus. Funny thing is, the pieces started fitting together differently. I woke up in the wee hours of the morning in the week before Christmas with an a-ha. What I was planning wasn't exactly what God was planning. I knew that there was something more, something different, but I couldn't quite figure it out. Honestly, I still don't have it figured out. But I have another part of it... which requires consultation with the usual suspects and some more working out. So in the meantime, I did promise I'd be back this week, so here is a painting I finished recently. It's the last assigned painting assignment from the La Sirena class from  Suzi Blu that I took last year. She extended the critique time to May of this year, and I swore that I would finish this class before the year's end. However, it didn't quite come out as I planned. It was supposed to be head-to-toe figures with a good-sized ...