Get In the Boat
I didn’t mean to post my sailboat drawing here at The Ruff Draft. I have another, slightly more clandestine (I like that word) blog called Ruff Edge Design that I think of as the place for my art attempts and…
Daring Despite the Danger
“The known, our current story, protects us from the unknown, from chaos—which is to say, provides our experience with determinate and predictable structure. … When we are in the domain of the known, so to speak, there is no reason…
The Awful Futility of Explaining
In Marcel Billot’s foreword to Sacred Art by M.A. Couturier, he explains that L’Art Sacré was a review run for a time by two Dominican priests, Father Couturier and Father Pie-Raymond Régamey. They managed, apparently, to work together and produce…
Trust Issues
Domenique de Menil writes, in her foreword to Sacred Art, a collection of essays and reflections by M.A. Courturier, O.P. : “For Père Couturier, to be sure, straightforwardness, which begets clarity, was the simple and immediate principle of his personal…
A Madeleine Day
Will I ever retire Walking on Water: just leave it alone or give it away? I doubt it. It continues to speak to me, even though I would never think to include L’Engle in a list of my favorite writers.…
Never Underestimate the Importance of Good Editing
I still cover up much of my old artwork, especially in art journals. Sometimes, the inclination stems from the little voice in my head saying, “You’re doing it wrong.” Sometimes, a page doesn’t need to be completely covered up; it…
The Making of Meaning
How do I look at the world now? Art? Photography? Literature? Faith? Don’t even get me started on the lies people in power tell and have always told, simply to control us so that they remain in power. I no…
How Absolute?
Two chapters a day is my quota for War and Peace. It’s possible that I will make it more of a priority at some point, but for now, I am content with my pace and have been pleasantly surprised by…
Thinking and Knowing
Art and poetry get banished from our lives, and we are impoverished. We put our hands in our empty pockets and wonder why nothing fills them. We turn to roadmaps and instruction manuals but are still unable to decipher how…
Person or Commodity?
When I look back at my writing, I notice common themes, and while in the past, it bothered me, because it seemed like I was unable to move forward or entertain an original thought, I no longer feel that way.…
Meaning and Reality
Questions about reality have come up over and over and over in the last year. When answers have been found, they’ve not always been satisfactory, although they have consistently led me to further questions. Oh, but now, that last sentence…
Freedom of the Humble Soul
I had every intention yesterday of writing about the interesting bits I found in The Gaze of Love by Sister Wendy Beckett, but I managed to get off on a political tangent. Can you imagine? Let’s see if I can…
