design

Go On, Bezalel

“See, I have chosen Bezalel son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, 3 and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with wisdom, with understanding, with knowledge and with all kinds of skills…” Exodus 31: 2 & 3.

Bezalel is kind of an early renaissance man, thousands of years before Brunelleschi, Michelangelo, or Durer. More importantly he was faithful to God’s design of him as a craftsman. He was found worthy to build the design of God concerning the tabernacle and all of its parts. As a craftsman and artist, it is hard to comprehend anything so significant to my earthly labors as to manifest on earth something that was authored in the very heart and mind of God.

Elizabeth Duffy asked me about influences and progenitors in her interview with me last year. Here is an excerpt of my response pertaining to Bezalel: I hope, maybe, to be in the line of Bezalel, who fashioned so much for the tabernacle, making the sacred things that were part of the “technology” of worship of His God for his community. Personally, I couldn’t ask for more than that. Bezalel is valuable as a paradigm of an artisan of broad experience and skill. He could work in many trades and arts with skill worthy of God’s Tabernacle. My good friend reminds me of the value of a man of that breadth of experience and skill in contrast to a culture that places a premium on experts of high degree in a single field. When I wonder if I am hurting myself by embracing so many disciplines, I am grateful for Bezalel and his place in God’s story, and a few other men I have encountered who are champions of excellence in this way. The drawing, an imagining of a portion of Bezalel’s tent-workshop, started two or three years ago, finally over the past two months I was able to finish it. It is composed along the lines of another drawing, Go On, Adam, Breathe. An potential series of drawings? The drawing to me feels so limited, compared to the vastness of what could be explored and depicted, as a task to learn about Bezalel, his labors, and his relationship to his God.

Through Winter

An Interview With Elizabeth Duffy

detail of Go On, John the Baptist, oil on panel, 2008

Elizabeth Duffy has been posting parts of an interview she began with me last spring and summer. To date, this interview consistutes the clearest and really, only articulation of the beliefs and values behind my work. I hope that you will take the time to read it. The interview will ultimately be posted in it entirety on this site, but for now, here is part 1, part ll, part lll, and the final bit part lV. Please take the time to read some of Elizabeth’s writing as well. She is authentic, humorous, and insightful. Her wit and self-effacing style reveal a woman on a significant journey with valuable things to say.

Provision

I have been printing an edition of Flying Fish, a copper-plate engraving about the miracle of provision experienced by Thor Heyerdahl and his crew in the Pacific Ocean on their balsa log raft, the Kon Tiki. This print is for sale at the Baumwerk Etsy store.

…a Walking Man drawing for my friend Steven.

Place

“Rootrill” I hope that you will forgive me for posting an eleven minute song in the twenty first century. Mostly, I hope that you enjoy it.

arc contain glow

seen through scene

bois d arc meteorite

slanting even evening light

ancient bone star dust

deere ghost sheep goat add straw and mix well

cross turn

years unfurl in the eternal present

young hands dextrous

core sample of stored solar energy

made vacant for gold

quince roots herbs leg

reamed tapered tapped turned twisted sunk fitted formed around

concentrate earth line essence

absorb the sun and use it for life

pull transfer motion

dividing even unto cambium and xylem

layers and layers

learn purpose practicing discipline

stop motion

frozen movement osage root as it once reached

three forms of light

hand in hand you who once swayed

ancient releasing story

the turning of light upon the solar bank countless voices scratch and turn

golden hands once full wait for wisdom

new moon forest window

tall down cut stack turn stack down

erth-maker here we bend here we grow

establish converge into order dust scratcher

welcome the new bird and fare thee well

Repeats for Commerce

Obed Edom, in the form of a 12″ x 18″ linocut, is for sale on our Etsy Store finally. Right now, I have 5 impressions available. Also posted there, are a few bowls which I believe are worthy of consideration. Thanks everyone for your support, encouragement and attention. If you missed last week’s post, please give it a look. I thought it was a good one, but it sort of went under the radar- or perhaps it wasn’t as nice as I fancied.

Obed Edom, Linocut 12″ x 18″

wormy persimmon bowl

Black walnut salad bowl

Wood Fire

Lift Earth Rise , compositional sketch on guitar

small eyes wonder

A five year old little girl with a pension for the aesthetics of random objects

while carving walnut to look like earth

of the golden dust of osage

he discovers eggs make lovely lanterns

walk out to find these things from my Goldsworthy protégée

the horse rolls out, making its provision and fuel

Quercus rubra holds Quercus alba for a shave

showing how much learning is found when a draw knife pulls through the grain

and much beauty in the life of trees

yielding four legs from the rugged giant of civilization (that is Mr. Q. Alba)

back to the door. routing tongues and tenons, applying coiled energy to transferred pattern

every fit feels like a miracle

and the two become one

“Onforan” becoming a door, framing a passage

embers stirring embers

into the incense of fearless youth

a seed within a seed, life and healing travel in a mysterious shell

later, the arrangement has changed, she’s at it again

meanwhile, nature imitates nature

round violently became flat, then eases its way into concavity

green tips taken by the hoof-shod

the edges wound-up by the steel-shod

summits of pollen-yellow splendor arise from the dust

in a moment, history and beauty merge and glow

while the broad axe composes its song

as it was written in fire

as it was written in wood

Saint Thomas Grisaille

Grisaille underpainting of the remaining disciples of Jesus gathered together in a locked room as Thomas touches the wound in Jesus’ side.

Sprout

“Sprout”, pear wood

Go On, Obed Edom

For many years the story and name of Obed Edom have struck deeply within me. His story in the bible is pretty short. As with many things I have tried to make my work a path into exploring this mystery. This print is now finished. To go along with its completion, I have included a song that I wrote a number of years ago of the same subject and with the same goal in mind. I hope that they are moderately fitting accompaniment to a powerful story and special man who I know very little about.

“I Chose You, Obed Edom” linocut, 12″x18″, sepia ink on French’s Durotone paper

eyes and burning “V”, feather, wheat and cedar sprig in his head covering.

Cherubim and Mercy Seat

Obed Edom’s right hand

three birds in his beard

The Holy Ghost’s wild goose, and sleeping kestrel

The School of the Transfer of Energy

workshop studio land