Uphill idealist

When words don't cut it and emotions run deep. When life is shifting in all the places feet sweep. When hearts are full and beats loudly bleat. This is the place that verklempt and I meet. For family. For friends. For foes who once were friends and those no longer foe... when verklempt comes to visit - you pray for the shortest stay, this about verklempt... I know. T. Eastman

It's a work in progress, but I wanted to share a glimpse of what I've been working on for the last several months. The mural is located at First Lutheran Church in Jamestown NY and has been a community effort of the True Sisterhood Jamestown group . It is a rendition of the seasons of a year represented by a tree and landscape scene that changes within the piece.  It's to help depict the Sunday School theme of, "Growing and known in Christ.  Thank you for all your help team TS. We are 90% done! By Easter week this project will be complete! Stay tuned art friends...

There are days that feel out of sync. They jumble, rustle, and rattle your center until all gravity is gone. The ravens of change caw and cause you to shudder as you walk along the path ahead. Are you really blazing a trail or just settling for a scenic route to avoid the potholes. But each day, I'm told, is brand new. And the restlessness can be a sign that something exciting and purposeful is growing here. That flock of black birds could be calling me to pay some mind to the dew on the grass and the harvest in the fields that surround me. Each step could be backwards, but there is movement. There is progress. Obstacles are being faced and filled in. Rome wasn't built in a day, and roots don't grow deep overnight. Renewal sometimes needs to be wrestled with, wandered around and waited for - until one day something just fits. There are days that feel out of sync - but this day something settled in with hope and will dig deep. The ravens told me so. M...

Photo of me loving a huge tree on the coast of Lake Chautauqua on the grounds of Chautauqua Institution. Lessons from an old tree "Encased in marble, the letters were old. The spelling was odd, but not to far off to be told. The "U's" were exchanged for the letter "v" - the reason for this is far past what I can see. Discomfort, confusion, frustration and fear are fellows that hang around letters hard to hear. Their message is odd and hard to grasp; like something that made sense in years that have passed. Moving down a path where the shade is just right, the breeze is blowing and still-green leaves dance in sunlight. A fountain flows freely in the midst of this place, with Lilly pads floating in a pool of water with incredible grace. At the end of the path there was an enormous old tree, with branches reaching high even with all the age we could see. It stood proudly there in this place it had grown, half-facing the water and half-facing the stone. This ...

These are the photos of the Unity banner I've been working on with a group of 1-3rd graders in a after-school program. This banner is a mixed media project involving fabric, pencil, marker, sewing, and fabric paint. It is approximately 4 feet by 10 feet in size. The project was individual and well as a group project, giving the children the chance to design their own square all about them and to work together on the descriptive words. Hope you enjoy the pictures. It was a big, but worthwhile project.