Sweet Saturdays and Community

Mixed Media Collage by Crystal Neubauer

Saturdays have become my favorite day of the week, and yesterday was no exception. The workshop was soul satisfying, connecting with extraordinary talented women over art and soaking up the unique flavor of what each one brings to the table. I learn as much as I teach. The exchange of ideas, giftedness, openness and generosity that happens around the work table when art is the focus feels like community.

Coming home afterwards and watching the house fill up with our church community was icing on the cake. Sitting around the dining room table breaking bread together, worshipping, praying and sharing from the heart and from the Word while our hearts begin to be knit together by our mutual love of Christ and sense of purpose, I couldn't help feeling full to the over flowing.

This is the love of God in action. That He could take somebody as broken as me and put the pieces back together in such a way that I could never have even thought to ask for or imagine is nothing short of a miracle. It isn't a destination that I've arrived at. It is a journey that I must choose to get up and continue every day. And trust me when I tell you, I have been tempted to quit. Scared some days to take another step. So tempted to believe certain things could never change.

Jesus said to the paralyzed man "take up your mat and walk!". After 38 years of being lame he believed he could be healed and his life was changed. Essentially he was saying to the man, it doesn't have to be this way. The belief that you can never change is a lie. We all have our mats. What have you been lying in, accepting as your lot in life, that Jesus wants to heal you of today?

Collage with Encaustic Workshop January 26th!

Encaustic Wax and Collage Workshop

In this class we will be exploring from the heart of collage in combination with encaustic wax. Techniques in the class will cover building a traditional collage utilizing encaustic wax as a top layer to protect and enhance your work, building a collage with encaustic wax as the adhesive between layers, and taking your collage off the "board" with embellishments and 3D effects.

Additional techniques will include stencils, incising and mark-making, adding color with a variety of methods, basic image transfers and will enable the student to express themselves whether their style is whimsical and light or takes a more serious tone.

Workshop Detail
When -  Saturday, January 26
Time -   10:00 - 4:00
Where - PerficalSense Studio
              1209 Hinman Ave., Evanston, IL
      Just south of Dempster, look for the red house with the blue door
Cost - $110 includes everything your need to leave with a big smile on your face.
Please feel free to bring a snack and lunch, the studio will be offering coffee, tea and water.

HOPE ~ A New Years Promise

Studio on New Years Day 2013

This year I make no new resolutions, but I have set many personal goals. I suppose they would sound like resolutions if I were to list them all out, but somehow the very word "resolution" convinces me of the likelihood that I might fail - the way going on a diet becomes a battle of the inner will and I know I eventually give in to the temptation and, somewhere along the line, forget about my resolve altogether.

I am putzing around the studio reflecting today, New Years Day 2013, enjoying the rare unstructured time, still in my pjs and fuzzy socks. Apron on, paintbrush in one hand, gluten free salted caramel cupcake in the other (thanks to my daughter's very thoughtful boyfriend!), dabbing a little paint here and a little gesso there on formerly unfinished and rejected collage works, happy I saw the value in not throwing them away and pleased at how these flawed pieces often turn into my most treasured work.

My word for this year is HOPE. Hope for a future. Hope for my own life's purpose and a plan to help get me there. Hope that I have redeemed value and worth, that I have a voice and can be used by and for a cause much greater then myself. Hope in promises given to me years ago and the desire to instill and pass on this hope to others. Hope that brings freedom, and new life and purpose, that strengthens identities, binds up and heals old wounds, restores, redeems, and brings about long lasting change. 

This kind of hope has nothing to do with empty wishing, or white knuckled determination or resolve. It is the kind of hope that knows it is not all up to me, and that there is a God who sees me and is taking my flaws and turning them into one of His treasured works.

No this year I don't want the shaky ground of resolutions, I want to stand on the promises of hope.

"He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim freedom for the captives
and release from darkness for the prisoners."

It All Comes Down to Love...

"It All Came Down to Love" Crystal Neubauer

Last Tuesday night my thoughts turned to the number of terrible news events that have been occurring, the mass shooting against the children of Newtown serving to illustrate the belief that we are now entering into what the Bible calls the last days and that prophecy about increasing troubles, wars, violence, severe weather and falling away is beginning to be fulfilled. On a recent Saturday morning I had a conversation with two friends about how overwhelming it can be, how easy it is to succumb to the feeling of impending doom. I found myself questioning my purpose, whether there was time for something as frivolous as teaching art and whether God really was calling me to share my passion with young women to help them learn their own identity and figure out their own purpose in life. If we truly are in the last days does it really matter?

But then, as I drove, I had a thought-which I now feel strongly was Holy Spirit prompted- that the enemy is trying to steal our hope, the hope of the church, the hope of Gods people and the hope of all mankind. He is trying to make us feel as if it is too late to make a difference and that it is all down hill from here -the country is already going to hell in a hand basket- so we might as well give up.

And if we are strong enough not to give up, this very real enemy seeks to distract and divide us over relevant issues such as gun control and mental health. If He can keep us focused on the symptom we forget about the cause, and the only real solution. Is it a coincidence that these dark events have happened just before Christmas? That the news of the world is so dark and evil at this time is a stark reminder of the need for a Savior and, just as when Jesus was born, all the earth is poised and yearning for an answer to its troubles. The world is in desperate need of hope restored and rather then tucking our tail in defeat, God’s people need to be spreading the good news now more then ever.

Oh come, Oh come Emmanuel. Rejoice. Rejoice. Emmanuel shall come to thee. Rejoice!

Jesus is the Over Comer. He is the Light and Hope of the world. He is bigger, stronger and has already won this battle that rages. The enemy already has been defeated and he knows his time to wreak havoc is short. The victory was won at the cross and our focus needs to shift back from the evil we see in the world to the hope we have in Jesus. We are ineffective in our walk if we are caught up in all the bad we see around us. Not that we are to ignore it or pretend these things don't affect us. On the contrary, our emotions are real, these tragedies are tremendous. We should weep for those who are weeping, mourn for the lost and seek justice for the defenseless among us. Show compassion and empathy. Bring a cup of water to the thirsty.

And never forget our highest commandment is to love. Spread hope. Spread peace. Spread love. Love our neighbor.

Who is our neighbor? He is the wretched Samaritan lying in a heap at the side of the street in a tattered blanket begging for change. The woman who has made bad decisions about life and love, living with her 6^th abuser because she doesn’t believe she deserves any better, cannot even fathom a way out. The well dressed businessman who appears to have it all. It is the spiritually blind. Those who live entirely different lifestyles and beliefs. We are called to stop and see them. To reach out in love and befriend, not in a superior high and lofty way, but from a humble stance, as equals, as brothers, as fellow travelers, understanding if not for the grace of God  and knowing we too have messy lives and cannot claim perfection.

But we can claim freedom. We can claim hope. We are to be a light. A city on a hill speaks of hope, a lighthouse guiding the way to a safe harbor.

The bible says to resist the enemy and he will flee – and what better way to resist the enemy? 

Do not lay down in defeat, or retreat in self-defense or feelings of helplessness. Rise up. Rise up church! Rise up! Overcome by the blood of the lamb and the word of your testimony. Spread hope. Spread love. Spread the good news! 

"And the angel said to them, "Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people." Luke 2:10

Rusty Wheels

I have written a thousand tiny blog posts in my mind, started a few of them for reals and then stopped again in the space between the last post and now. How do I even begin to write again after two+ months? I will not try to catch up with it all today, but simply attempt to begin again.

The act of motion to beget increased motion, to get these rusty wheels moving on the track again.

I have been far from inactive- I have returned to the life of full time day job and in the midst of this Christmas season find myself running to catch up - sharing a post by another blogger who recently interviewed me, Anca Gray, who will also be featured in Seth Apter's second book due to be released early in 2014. Anca writes graciously and poetically and I am taken aback at seeing through her eyes and words....

"power and fragility inhabit their shared space

harmoniously 

in crystal neubauer's work. i discovered her collages,

mixed media paintings and encaustic pieces on etsy

a couple of years ago and i have been enraptured

with the visual feast and sheer poetry of her work

ever since.

equal parts the nature of the material 

and the sensitivity of the artist,

her work tucks unutterable prayers

between delicate layers

of vintage ephemera"... read rest of interview here