Ojalá, Selah, Lateda

Mission to Coahuila, Mexico

I have arrived safely home from my trip to Piedras Negras, Coahuila, Mexico. I had an amazing week serving with my team from Mountain Lake Church and the interns and staff of Hands and Feet Ministries. I feel so incredibly blessed to have been able to have had this experience. I believe the trip will have a long-lasting effect on my life and hopefully on the lives of others.

We worshipped Sunday morning at Templo Aleluya in Piedras Negras, spent our days in the neighborhood of Lazaro Cardenas around the Escuela de Nogal in the town of Nava, and our evenings at Vacation Bible School with the children of Templo Monte Calvario in Piedras Negras. Each was unique and there are specific prayer requests and ways you can help with God’s work in each of these places. Over the course of the week I was able to use my gifts for the Kingdom, make new friends, get to know a new part of the world, and grow in my relationship with God.

I do not know if it is possible to put into words all the ways this trip has affected me, but I am going to try. My plan is to write separate posts about my different experiences to share. I will add links below as I finish my writing. In the meantime, our amazing trip leader, Mike Vanderhoff, has already uploaded over 200 pictures to a shutterfly page. They can give a great idea of what our trip looked like. There are also facebook pages for Hands and Feet Ministries, Aleluya Ministries and Templo Monte Calvario to learn more about what they are doing.

Click for more about…

VBS at Templo Monte Calvario

Mission Trip to Piedras Negras

Hello Friends,

I am writing to share with you an exciting opportunity that has opened up to me. As you know I lived in the southeast of Mexico for seven lovely tropical years. The influence Mexico had on me and my artwork is obvious. I have a great love for the country, its people and culture. And of course my dear husband, children, and foster son were all born in Mexico.

Living in Cancun and visiting Mexico City I had the opportunity to experience the very best Mexico has to offer. But as anyone who watches the news knows there are parts of Mexico that have huge problems with poverty, corruption and cartel-related crime. In my volunteer work with immigrant children here in Georgia it has been hard for me to reconcile the Mexico I know and love with the one they left behind. Their Mexico is so lacking in opportunity that families leave everything they know and risk their lives to cross to this country. For some time I have been anxious to have a better understanding of this other face of Mexico. This June I hope to have the chance to learn more first hand.

My church, Mountain Lake Church, partners with a group called Hands and Feet that works with schools, orphanages and medical clinics in Piedras Negras, Coahuila, Mexico. A group of us from Mountain Lake will be going there on a mission trip to offer our help by offering medical clinics, building a cafeteria pavilion for a local school and by sharing the love of Jesus with children at orphanages and through a week of Vacation Bible School. I am so excited about the possibility of being able to help in some small way the people of the country that I love so much while at the same time learning more about the complicated issues Mexico and Mexicans face.

Our group will fly from Atlanta to San Antonio, Texas and then cross the border by van and drive south about 2 and a half hours to Piedras Negras. Though Piedras Negras is on the border it is not near Juarez where most of the cartel crime is centered. Hands and Feet have been working in the area for over 12 years and many groups like ours have visited without incident. We do not believe we will be in any danger but neither do we take our safety lightly and we hope you will pray for us and our trip.

All of us going on this mission trip are sending out letters to our friends and family asking for commitments of prayer as well as financial support. Each of us needs $1300 to cover the cost of our transportation, lodging, food and supplies. To raise my portion I am offering prints of my painting “Light in Darkness” for $25. The painting is inspired by Matthew 5:14-16. The prints are 10×8 inches and come in 14×11 mattes with backing boards that will fit easily into a standard frame. I hope you will want to add one to your collection. If not I hope you will still commit to pray for me, the rest of my group, the people of Piedras Negras and Mexico in general.

Buy a print through Azulita’s Etsy or right here:

If you would like to donate directly to my trip’s fund instead of (or in addition to) buying a prints you can do so here.

If you make a single gift over $250.00 you will receive acknowledgment from the church but the contribution will need to be by check made out to Mountain Lake Church. Please use the form in the letter I mailed out to do that. (Download another copy here if you need to.) Other gifts of smaller amounts will be the responsibility of the individual giver to keep track of for their tax deduction.

I would also love for you to leave me a comment below letting me know that I can count on you for prayers.

Thanks.

Another Threadless Submission

Please vote for the Lotustopus

Threadless Submission

Score this design: “Eighties Revealed,” to help it get printed on Threadless!

My First Dog Painting

I am not known as an animal lover, and the only animals that usually make it into my art are birds and humans. But last month I made an exception and did my first dog portrait.

Sunshine at the ICE Bond Office

“Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewelry and fine clothes. Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight.”   – 1 Peter 3:3-4

I believe this passage got my attention during my bible reading yesterday morning because of the amazing woman we watched in action the day before in the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Bond and Deportation office the day before. My young friend and I were there for almost 5 hours this time and it is not a very pleasant place.

The young woman at the front desk was especially surly.There are a lot of rules about how to wait (including a sign forbidding the movement of furniture) and a lot of people from all over the world who have to wait very long hours. She was not only rude to the people who approached her (including me) but would also occasionally come out from behind her window to tell people not to talk on their phones, to stop blocking the door, to sit down, etc. I learned later in the day that she is actually an intern and very new at the job. I hope for her sake she decides to pursue a career other than public service.

Most of the people waiting in the office were family members or friends of people who had been detained on immigration related charges and are at Stewart or other Immigration Detention Centers. They come and sit all day for the chance to be approved to pay 1000′s of dollars of bond.  Some leave happily and head to off to pick up their loved ones. Others are missing a piece of paper or a file has been misplaced and leave in tears or in a rage.

Over the past five months I have had the chance to sit in many waiting rooms in a lot of government offices. None of them wanting you using your cell phones but there is a great deal of difference between say a new Social Security office overlooking a lake with cushioned chairs and tv’s mounted on the walls to a probation office that consists of rows of folding chairs in an otherwise blank room whose only decorations are signs warning that weapons will be confiscated.

The ICE Bond and Reporting office in Atlanta falls in the middle. It is not a cushy space for citizens to come take advantage of benefits but neither is it a place for those convicted of crimes to come give an accounting for their location. The people reporting to ICE have broken immigration law but the people paying their bonds seems to be if not citizens then at least legal residents. (It would seem to me that it would take an awful lot of nerve for an undocumented person to come to the ICE offices for any reason other than being ordered to. ) Anyway, the room is semi-comfortable and full of people settled in for a long wait. Some share their stories or their opinion on how things are likely to go once they are called to the next room. Others sit sullen or scared, closed o waiting their turn.

Yesterday was my third time visiting this office and instead of being fascinated by eavesdropping in Spanish I brought a book to read. But even though I was pretty focused on my book (a little Mexican Magical Realism to help me get ready for NaNoWriMo) I couldn’t help but notice one of the women who worked in the office. She was a large black woman, I would guess in her mid 40′s. She did not stand out physically as overly flashy or as plain. Offices in Atlanta are full of women who look just like her, but this woman (I wish I had asked her name) stood out. In an office full of serious (and seriously armed) ICE Officers, and overworked bureaucrats this woman was a ray of sunshine.

She had a smile on her face every time I saw her. She made time to listen to each person that tried to grab her attention as she walked back and forth through the waiting room from one secured area to another. Even when she had to put one over-zealous immigrant in his place she did so with good humor and respect. She had tons of work to do. Her hands were full of files and a list of files still to be pulled. Apparently one of her coworkers was out and she was doing not only her own work but someone else’s as well. Still she had time to smile at people, laugh and just generally be pleasant, polite and good-natured.

She was amazing and I was not the only one who noticed it.When we were finally called back to speak with our officer she was helping the people in the other 2 cubicles. (I must admit Officer D was pretty friendly himself considering. He actually apologized for us having to wait so long and explained that it had taken him 2 hours to arrest the last person who’d been in his cubicle!) I had already finished my book by then and was able to listen to her help a man who had been waiting to pay a bond since 6:30 that morning and still had a 3 hours drive to Stewart in front of him. She listened to his plight, apologized for his wait, and actually told him it was wrong for him to have waited so long. She was so friendly and pleasant that instead of continuing to complain this man began flirting with her. He actually told her that if he was not already married he would like to propose to her. He praised her attitude and helpfulness, mentioned his envy of her husband and left with a smile on his face. The next person she spoke to (who had a fascinating story of his client from Singapore who had paid 10,000′s in bail and then stayed past his voluntary departure date and wanted to know what he could do to keep from being arrested) went on and one and about how much he appreciated her as well. This woman was literally a bright ray of light in the darkness for so many people, including me, yesterday.

I had not seen her on my other visits to the office so I do not know if she is new or if when her coworker is present she is not so visible. I do not know i Thursday was special or if she makes that kind of impression daily, but either way I wish I could give her a medal. I would also like to ask her for her secret, though my hunch is that she is a strong believer and that her good attitude and cheerful spirit are the outpouring of the Holy Spirit through her. I think she must be one of those people that God’s love just flows through mightily. Not only would I like to be around her and people like her more often, but I would like to become one of those people.

We rarely know for sure how other people perceive us (though if I had had the foresight to ask her name I might have tried to send her a letter telling her my perception) but I am pretty sure that no one is currently writing about me and a light I shined I their life. I do try to be polite and I really do make an effort to be sympathetic to where others are coming from, but often I fail. I get frustrated, annoyed, or downright angry when people don’t meet my expectations. I can be prickly, sullen and sometimes straight out mean. Many days I have more I common with the surly intern and that is not at all how I want to be. I do not want to contribute to the darkness of the world but to the light.

I am reminded again of the verse about if being God’s choice as to what he chooses to make out of a particular ball of clay. (Romans 9:20-21) I don’t get to complain about the way I am made and it is not likely that God is planning to abruptly change my personality to make me a gregarious woman with an infectious laugh that puts everyone at ease. And even the gentle and quiet spirit in the verse I started with mat not be exactly what He has in mind for me either. But, while still being the person He made me to be it is possible for me to become so filled up the Holy Spirit that its fruit wells up and overflows into the lives of others. I do not know exactly what that might look like in my life, but that is my prayer and I hope to be able to see it.

What I’ve been up to…

I can’t seem to get myself to blog all that much lately, but I have been making art and some of it is getting posted online, just not here. Here’s some of the places around the web where my art can be found…

Various original pieces are available on Etsy.

Miche Bag Shells featuring my vector designs
are available in the Custom Miche Gallery

Prints, iphone & laptop skins and even t-shirts are available at Society6

And of course there is also a facebook page…

Azulita's Art & Design | Promote Your Page Too

Return to Figure Drawing

There were a lot of wonderful things about living in Cancun, I could go on and on, but one of my favorite things was La Casa de la Cultura, which translates literally into The House of the Culture. It was there that I first learned about Alebrijes and made my first paper maché mask. I spent long hours in the ceramics studio with an amazing couple of sculptures, and starting in 2003 I participated in weekly figure drawing sessions. (Some examples from then can still be seen on the old cancunarts.com site.) But when we left Cancun (four years ago on Wednesday) i had to leave all that behind.  I am able to continue with my paper maché, no problemo, but I hadn’t had the chance to work with clay or draw from a model in over 4 years. I was thrilled when I heard that the Dawson County Arts Council was going to have weekly figure drawing, and then very disappointed to hear there weren’t enough people interested for it to happen.  However, a small group of artists decided to go ahead and meet in one of their studios and hire their own model once a week and as I had expressed interest in the DCAC group they invited me! Friday I drove out to a beautiful farm slightly north of town and joined three other artists for three hours of drawing. The model overslept so we ended up taking turns drawing each other, but that was fine. I’m not sure how to explain it, but there is just something very different about the experience of sitting with a group of artists and drawing from the same model. I love it. I’m not sure if the difference is based more on having a life model or the communal aspect. I guess I could experiment with drawing still lifes in a group, or drawing a model by myself, but in the meantime I am just so happy to have  a chance to be part of this group. Like I said we have lived here for four years now, but it is just now starting to feel like I am part of the community. (Click on the images to see them bigger.)

Art in Georgia

As an artist and resident of Georgia I was dismayed to hear that the House
Appropriations Committee voted yesterday to eliminate the Georgia Council
for the Arts budget for FY 2011 and that GCA will cease to exist.

I know that times are difficult and that many agencies are taking cuts,
but to get rid of the arts agencies all together is a tragedy. Art is
important to our state, our communities and our individual lives. Art is
important to our souls, it separates us from the animals and machines.
If this passes…

1 – Georgia will be the only state and territory that will have no state arts agency.
2 – We will lose the Grassroots Arts Program that ensures there is arts programming in every Georgia County.
3 – Georgia will lose tax money that is reinvested in our state through the National Endowment for the Arts. This money is entirely contingent on the GCA budget being at least $900,000. This money from the NEA funds programs in every Georgia County.
4 – We will lose more jobs in this economic crisis.

Remember that investing in the arts pays off both in tax revenue, jobs, tourism – it’s one industry that is alive and well in spite of the overall economy. Please contact your state legislators TODAY, and let other voters know of the situation before Georgia becomes the only state or territory in the U.S. without a state arts agency.

I just wrote our state legislators and  I hope you’ll take a moment to do the same.

Please Follow This Link to Take Action on Important Arts Issues
http://capwiz.com/artsusa/ga/utr/2/?a=14931951&i=98643886&c=

Thanks,
Jennifer

Trusting Prophecy and Talking about It

When I first decided I wanted to have a blog the idea was to have a place to share via the written word as well as the visual image. I expected to write regularly about what was going on in my life, what I was reading, and what I was thinking about in general. I imagined I would share drawings here and there. In October of 2007 when I started this thing I wasn’t doing much in the way of “real” art, most of the images I created were doodled on post-it notes while I was supposedly busy “designing” yellow page ad after yellow page ad. Then came Illustration Friday. IF was an amazing way for me to start purposefully making art again and then actually share it. My posts became more and more just my responses to whatever that Friday’s post was, which was was fine. However for some time now I have been aware that I wanted to start actually sharing words here again. There has been a lot going on in my life and so many mornings as I write to myself in my journal I think that whatever it is I am writing might be worth sharing in this form. I have a thing about starting though. I feel like coming back to write should start with a bang. I should start with “Today is the first day of the year 2010″ or “Today I quit the job I’ve had for nine years,” or even “Today I started the Daniel Fast.” But those days have come and gone. It has been 87 days since the year started, 77 days since I quit my job, and 15 days since I started the Daniel Fast. Not a round number amongst them, but hey, a girl has to start somewhere. So here I am writing despite the fact that I have no dramatic “today is” kind of news.

There is a lot to say about quitting my job and doing the Daniel Fast and how the two are related, but today I want to share a sculpture I finished a few weeks ago and entered in a local juried art festival. It is called Trusting Prophecy and is built of paper maché on top of an orange juice bottle. I didn’t use any paint in its decoration, other than some ribbon and a rock, and that orange juice bottle, all the details are made of paper. I must admit that when I entered it, along with 5 other pieces in the Cumming FUMC Festival of Arts I thought it would surely be accepted in the show and maybe even win a prize. However I was wrong. Of the six pieces I entered only one was accepted in the show and the author of the acceptance letters made a point of letting us all know that they had  worked hard to make sure each artist had at least one piece accepted. The fact that Opinion (Proverbs 15:28) will be in the show is a consolation prize that did not make me feel any better. I think I would have rather had all my pieces be rejected out right and pretend the show never even existed than to have to show up to drop off my little piece on second hand canvas board to the show, attend the opening, and watch someone else win the prizes. My first reaction was to spew as much venom as the Aztec looking soul in the accepted piece. I wanted to rant and rave that the people in Cumming, Georgia don’t know anything about art anyway, to justify my rejection by deciding the show was probably going to be full of watercolors of kittens and daisies in rustic buckets anyway.But that is not what these pieces are about. Proverbs 15:28 says that,  “The heart of the righteous weighs its answers, but the mouth of the wicked gushes evil,” and the prophecy I cite in the title of the paper maché piece is from Exekiel 36:26, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.” This piece of art truly is a visual expression of my prayer to love people better, to have a heart that is made more of flesh than of stone. Perhaps its sole purpose was accomplished just by its being made. Perhaps it was too personal to be shared in an art show, even a church sponsored one. Or perhaps the purpose was to have this rejection, this humbling, to remind me of how much I still need to be praying this prayer and trusting in this prophecy. At least I believe I am heading in the right direction in this spiritual journey of mine, perhaps this whole experience will even bring me a step closer.