Announcing Monday Guest Artist Series: Redemption Stories

"This Very Thing" 6" x 6" Collage work by Crystal Neubauer

Looking back over the posts on my blog of the past several years, I can see a marked progression in doors that have opened and exciting opportunities that I've been able to participate in. I can't help but be hit with a wave of gratitude when I look at my career in this way. And, though I have been practicing the art of collage for going on ten years now, it has only been within the past few that I have had clarity on what it is about the art of collage that draws me in; why I choose the materials I choose to work with, and what the overarching theme of my work is, and really always been. It is the story of redemption, both on a grand and universal scale and in a very small and personal way. 

These bits and scraps of other peoples discards have come to represent so much more to me then just a medium to express myself. They tell a story of triumph and deliverance. Each scrap, if found on its own, may look to be just an ordinary slip of paper, or worse, dirty and worthless trash, but when brought together on the canvas they form a complete picture. The individual pieces each contribute to the larger story and the redemptive beauty can be seen.  

I can remember, as if it were yesterday, sitting in my booth, as an emerging artist, at the American Craft Expo when my eyes were opened to this. Not one piece or bit can be removed from the composition without affecting the entire picture - just as each piece of our past contributes to the whole of who we are today.  

Be sure to head on over to my blog here to read the full story of that profound day, but first I want to introduce ten artists who will be guest blogging for the next ten Mondays. I admire each one of these artists for their unique style and voice and have been touched by their work, words and so much more. Each one has agreed to share a story of redemption from their own life or work. These stories may be a broad overview or observation, or they may be very specific, deep and personal. The post may be very short or very lengthy. I have left the specifics up to each of the ten. 

Oh my! I can hardly sit still in my chair! So honored am I that each one of these very diverse and amazing people said yes! I've linked each one up to their blog or website below so that you can get an idea of the excitement to come. Be sure to come back each Monday, starting next week, as the series begins. 

And as if that isn't enough excitement - stop back by this Wednesday and Friday. I have two more series to announce, each one with another set of ten amazing guest artist contributing! 

Let the fun begin!

Jan Avellana - February 24

Grace Carol Bomer - March 3

Beth Morey - March 10

Amanda Jolley - March 17

Bridgette Guerizon Mills - March 24 

Kelly Williams - March 31

Trish Baldwin - April 7

Sue Simpson - April 14

Robin Norgren - April 21

Tessa Emie (Moore) - April 28

"People Never Change" and Other Myths of the Human Spirit

"Revelation" 6" x 6" x 1.5" collage by Crystal Neubauer

Each morning I step out of the shower and look up through the skylight at the large oak tree whose branches reach high over the roof. It is a telling way to mark the seasons. The green buds of spring unfurl into leaves so full they nearly choke out the summer sky, competing with clusters of small brown acorns that weigh the limbs down in a whispering dance until the breeze of summer gives way to the fiercer winds of fall, and the hard-shelled fruit drops in a barrage of sound on the roof rivaling any fourth of July celebration. The season changes once again and the branches are bared day after long harsh winter day. Except for the one lone brown leaf. Dead, but clinging to the tree as if there is life in it still.

Looking up at that dead leaf each morning this winter, I can't help but think of the visual metaphor it presents.

Thinking back, I remember once hearing the words "people never change" spoken to me by, what I can only assume, was an embittered soul who had given up hope of seeing any meaningful transformation come from a person they once cared about. And in truth, the world would have us believe it: "you can't teach an old dog new tricks!"

What a grim outlook on life.

It ranks right up there with other fatalistic beliefs about the human spirit like "I have no purpose" and "I am destined to always be (fill in the negative), so I might as well give up".

Nearly every day we hear of people who have determined to change their circumstances, overcome obstacles, lose weight, finally learn how to dress for social occasions, run a marathon, or whatever the case may be. And it inspires! So we resolve to become the best version of ourselves we can possibly be.

The version we know deep down exists somewhere on the inside. Not the crowd following sheep version of ourselves that smiles large and pretends to be nice by saying "no problem" to every demand on our time while secretly resenting the other person for the audacity of having a need. But the version who understands she has worth and values herself before she expects other people to.

It is the verbally abusive rage-aholic suddenly hearing the voice of God and determining to follow it. It is the addict waking up on his 31st birthday knowing he has to change or he will die. and choosing life.

It is choosing to really LIVE.

New Year's resolutions may quickly be broken, but that doesn't stop us from trying.

Truly, I believe, that it is not human nature to stay the same. It is in our very DNA to strain toward that which we know we were meant to be; Created beings wired for relationships, built with a purpose, and given the ability to choose whether to move into that purpose or to turn away. We choose whether to accept our lot in life or to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps and try to make a change.

And truly, I believe, there is merit in the trying. It is an act of the will that says I agree that I am not perfect. I agree that I need to change. Regardless of the circumstances that shaped my life, there is a point that I have to say "the choice is now mine". 

"Revelation" 6" x 6" x 1.5" collage by Crystal Neubauer

And after years of the choosing. And years of the learning new behaviors and unlearning the old. After years of determining to work really really hard to change. There I was standing in the bathroom looking up at that tree. At that one single brown leaf still clinging to it. That dead brown leaf. And I knew in my heart it was a message from God left there just for me.

"Why is the tree still clinging to that leaf?" I catch myself thinking almost simultaneously with "Why can't I stop (insert agitating behavior pattern or low self-esteem causing belief here)" and suddenly it hits me that it is the leaf that won't let go of the tree, not the other way around. The tree has done it's job to cut off life to the leaf. There is nothing left for the tree to do!

Sometimes it is necessary and good to work toward a change. Committing to that new pattern of behavior and really trying hard until it sticks. But sometimes the more you think about a thing, the more difficult it is not to do it.

Okay - I dare you to stop thinking about that blue ball!

Did you stop?

Sometimes all we are able to do is agree deep down in our spirit that we are willing to change even if we don't know how to do it on our own. And then we have to give up on the trying. Our focus has to shift.

Instead of looking at the dark dead leaf, we turn and look at the blue sky just beyond it.

And we rest.

Until one day. One day when that thing hasn't crossed your mind in a very long time you'll look back at the tree and the dead leaf will be gone. And in its place will be a hundred tiny green buds full of life.

You didn't have to do a thing except say yes.

Yes. I choose life.

"Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,' says the LORD Almighty"  ~Zachariah 4:6

And That's a Wrap

The month of January has flown by and the Celebration Sale has come to an end. Interest in purchasing available work should now be directed to my website. Thank you all, once again for the outpouring of well wishes and encouragement.

4"x 4" collage works as framed

"Unconventional Lovers" 4" x 4" collage  by Crystal Neubauer comes framed as shown above

"Unexpected" 4" x 4" collage- by Crystal Neubauer comes framed as shown above

"In A Manner of Speaking" 6" x 6" collage by Crystal Neubauer

SOLD

"He Hears My Voice" 6" x 6" collage by Crystal Neubauer

"A Winters Night" 6" x 6" collage by Crystal Neubauer

"Forty Days in the Desert" 6" x 6" collage by Crystal Neubauer

"I Will Walk With You" 4" x 4" x 1.5" - by Crystal Neubauer

"Stand Here While I Check On Something" 4"x 4" x 1.5" collage - $75 - by Crystal Neubauer

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"And This Is When We Danced" 4" x 4" x 1.5" Collage - $75 - by Crystal Neubauer

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"Carry Me Home" 4" x 4" x 1.5" Collage - $75.00 - by Crystal Neubauer

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"Surely I Am With You Always" 6"x6"x1.5" collage- by Crystal Neubauer

"Revelation" 6"x6"x1.5" collage- by Crystal Neubauer

"Rhema" 6"x6"x1.5" collage- by Crystal Neubauer

"Logos" 6"x6"x1.5" collage- by Crystal Neubauer

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"What's In A Name" 6"x6" collage by Crystal Neubauer

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"The Third Day" 6"x6" collage by Crystal Neubauer

"Next Time" 6"x6" collage by Crystal Neubauer

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"From Within" 6" x 6" collage by Crystal 

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"Ten Thousand Miles" 6" x 6" collage by Crystal Neubauer
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A Boundless Moment

He halted in the wind, and -- what was that
Far in the maples, pale, but not a ghost?
He stood there bringing March against his thought,
And yet too ready to believe the most.

"Oh, that's the Paradise-in-bloom," I said;
And truly it was fair enough for flowers
had we but in us to assume in march
Such white luxuriance of May for ours.

We stood a moment so in a strange world,
Myself as one his own pretense deceives;
And then I said the truth (and we moved on).
A young beech clinging to its last year's leaves.
~Robert Frost

Journey to the Unknown

Darest thou now, O Soul, 

Walk out with me toward the Unknown Region, 
Where neither ground is for the feet, nor any path to follow? 

No map, there, nor guide, 
Nor voice sounding, nor touch of human hand, 
Nor face with blooming flesh, nor lips, nor eyes, are in that land. 

I know it not, O Soul; 
Nor dost thou--all is a blank before us; 
All waits, undream'd of, in that region--that inaccessible land. 

Till, when the ties loosen, 
All but the ties eternal, Time and Space, 
Nor darkness, gravitation, sense, nor any bounds, bound us. 

Then we burst forth--we float, 
In Time and Space, O Soul--prepared for them; 
Equal, equipt at last--(O joy! O fruit of all!) them to fulfil, O Soul. 

~Walt Whitman