The Saint of Hopeless Causes
Jude was the Saint of Hopeless Causes. I guess I sympathise.
Church
Religion – the house of God
Our English word religion has a Greek heritage. The Greek prefix for Religion is “religio” meaning “to bind up”.
Binding up can be good, as in binding up a wound. But it has another connotation, meaning to restrain.
Now restraint can be fun in some situations… meaning that law enforcement is not involved! But in a religious context, I think Jesus said he wanted to free people, not restrain them. Too often, our religions seek to restrain not only people but God, too.
I don’t think God likes to be restrained. I haven’t met him, so maybe he has kinks. I mean, he said we are created in his image, and I have kinks. Are my kinks His? If so, I feel sorry for him.
Mosaics
I was dragged into doing mosaics. Not willingly… it was Liz’s thing. I did my oil painting, and found object sculptures, she did her multi-media and mosaics.
But the deadline was crashing down on the AtlantiCare mural, 56-foot long, 10-foot high. She had an apprentice assisting, but I was dragged in screaming and kicking. By the end, I was hooked.
I brought in the next commercial job… a friend asked us to do murals for an adult retirement center. I talked him into tripling the stipend, and we installed a three-panel permanent installation.
We did a two-panel install after that, and taught classes in Key West. I did a really cool class with high school art students after that. Since then, we solicit public art projects. The best thing about this is getting paid for doing what we love.