Art Sites Bucket List

Illustration
National Center for Children's Illustrated Literature - Abilene, TX
Eric Carle Museum - Boston

United States
Guggenheim Museum- NYC
MoMA - NYC
Art Institute- Chicago

International
Alphonse Mucha Museum - Prague
Louvre - Paris
Vatican City collection - Rome

Voyage

I recently heard this song, and it really struck a cord with me, and then got me thinking about more:

As a college student, i have come to more fully realize just how unpredictable life can be. Like the sea, one moment you can be sailing along, the next, a sudden storm sets you on edge. You can't stop living, or "sailing". Some people try to control it, planning and guarding and scheming. But living a life glued to the radar, looking for the next storm or trial, puttering along with everything tied down tight so it can't blow away in the storm is guaranteed to make the journey no fun. One of the best things about being out on the water is its unpredictability - the sudden roll as you go over a wake, the breathtaking moment when you see the reflection of the sun shimmering, or the splash that wakes you up from being too comfortable. You have to let the wind whip your hair around, and laugh, not worried about what someone else will think. Sometimes you get a little burned and it stings, but you don't stop enjoying the sun and the sailing because of it. You keep going, enjoying the ride.

You get to enjoy the ride because you don't get to be the captain. You may try to grab the wheel, but you haven't the slightest clue how to steer. So sit yourself down and enjoy the ride! You may have a request of where the course may go, but ultimately, the captain gets to drive. And no matter how much you think you know better or try to tell him how to do his job, he will always be better at it than you could ever be. Because not only does he steer the ship, he also built the ship. He knows how it should work. He knows the way the pieces of the ship work together seamlessly to help it be ready for the waves. You are his precious cargo, and he knows how to keep your head above the water. And if you aren't on his ship, than you are utterly tossed by any storms that come - the waves will overwhelm you, pull you in, beat you down. But the great thing is that you can have this:  " He sent from on high, he took me; He drew me out if many waters. He rescued me from my strong enemy, and from those who hated me...He brought me into a broad place, he rescued me, because He delighted in me." (Psalm 18:16)

We dont have to worry about the course of our lives - He's got that under control. But we do have to set foot on the ship, and we do get to choose how we will view our time there. For me, I look forward to spending my life on the deck, arms open, wind in my hair, or rain on my head, with Him at the helm.

"Voyage"

O Lord of the Oceans,
My little bark sails on a restless sea,
Grant that Jesus may sit at the helm and steer me safely;
Suffer no adverse currents to divert my heavenward course;
Let my faith not be wrecked amid storms and shoals;
Bring me to harbor with flying pennants,
hull unbreached, cargo unspoiled.

I ask great things,
expect great things,

shall recieve great things.

I venture on thee wholly, fully,
my wind, sunshine, anchor, defense.

The voyage is long,
the waves high, the storms pitiless,
but my helm is held steady, 

the Word secures safe passage,
thy grave wafts me onward,
my haven is guaranteed.

This day will bring me nearer home,
Grant me holy consistency in every transaction,
my peace flowing as a running time,
my righteousness as every chasing wave.

Help me to live circumspectly,
with skill to convert every care into prayer,
Halo my path with gentleness and love,
smooth every asperity of temper;
let me not forget how easy it is to occasion grief;
may I strive to bind up every wound,
and pour oil on troubled waters.

May world this day be better, and happier, because I live.

Let my mast before me be the Saviors' Cross,
and every oncoming wave the fountain from in his side.
Help me, protect me in the moving sea
until I reach the shore of unceasing praise.

- Valley of Vision, "Voyage"

Eric

Eric

by Lexie Shaunak on Thursday, October 13, 2011 at 11:13am

Last night I met someone.

His name is Eric.

He's tall, has dreads, and likes to sing.

He held the door for me, and told me I was pretty.

The Police was his favorite band.

He smiled at me and told me God was good to him.


Eric is homeless. Eric is one of the thousands of homeless men and women living on our streets of Memphis.* He was at IHOP, holding the door for people walking in, telling them he would sing a song for them for change. Most people would walk by without a second thought about Eric.  Most people would look away, feeling awkward.


Until recently, I probably would have too.


In speaking to Eric, the lines of "College Student" and "Homeless man" were blurred as things like music, humor, and kindness showed how clearly we are the same. We are human. We are people.It is so easy as a lifelong Memphian to turn a blind eye to homelessness. It is so easy to shrug it off and walk away. It isnt your reality. It is an inconvenience. It is scary. It is strange. They arent glamorous. They arent safe. They arent necessarily easy to love.


But neither are we.


We must start seeing the homeless as what they are: People, just like us. We must see them, however unlovable or different, as valuable and in need of love in the same way we do. We must be kind. We must be loving. We must be who we have been called and created to be, rather than the selfish people it is so easy to become. I'm not saying sell everything to give to the poor. Im not saying you should feel guilty for having  a home, or be irresponsible with your money. But I am saying that there is a lack of respect and dignity for the least of these in Memphis, and if we believe what we say we believe, we must act  on their behalf.  


Eric told us that it is so much more than money and stuff. He communicated to us that just being able to talk and laugh and sing with us fed his heart. A lonely heart. A desperate heart. A heart in need of someone to recognize that he is valuable, special, and listened to. The group of us who were headed to eat gave him some money, and one of the guys bought him dinner, but it is so much more than just meeting the physical need. It is meeting the personal, human, and spiritual need of being recognized as a human being.


If you would like to hear his story for yourself, someone did this short film about Eric:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQ_lLDQXoB8&feature=channel_video_title



Friends, I beg and urge you, please do not turn a blind eye, ear, or heart to the homeless. Please be conscious of them, full of grace, and kindness, and love. No one knows where another person has been, and every persons story is different. But if we can take the first step by recognizing the faces and hearts of homelessness, then we can begin to help those in dire need. If we dont care and consider the person before us as valuable to God and also to us, we are not only missing out on the opportunity to be a blessing to them, but also completely missing what it is to be humans, living this human life together, with love and unity as we are called to.



If you are interested in taking the next step, and not sitting by while people like Eric go unloved, please contact me. There are numerous ways already in motion that we can use your help in. Even if all this moves you to is to think a little differently, please be faithful to do so, and when you are presented the opportunity (and if you live in midtown, or ever go downtown, you will be), let your speech be filled with light and grace.  If you have been shown grace, how could you not show it to others? Every person is valuable to God. They should be valuable to us.


Maybe you dont give money. Maybe you give food, or drink, or bus pass. But please, p l e a s e, give your TIME your EARS and your HEART to the desperate in our midst.


* 1,800 estimated from 2009, Memphis Flyer http://www.memphisflyer.com/memphis/no-place-to-call-home/Content?oid=1439613

For all those that I love

Tis a Curious Thing...

by Lexie Shaunak on Wednesday, August 25, 2010 at 9:43pm

Tis a curious thing to fall in love,
And fall in love again
To think that you could not put out any more,
When then,  to you is more put in

My heart has been stolen a Thousand times,
and a thousand times again
Not by Beau's or Lovers,
But by my many Friends

Be they young or be they old,
Whatever be their lot,
I fall  in love with their souls,
And try to love with everything I've got.

My heart desires to keep them close,
To keep their hands in mine
But I know love says to let them go,
To pursue their part in the grand design.

You bring them here, to my path,
For just a little while,
You lead them here, to love with me
through laugh, cry, and trial.

I think I go to love them,
But little do I see
While I am seeking they to love,
They are loving me.

So thank you Lord for those many friends,
Ages two to seventy five
And may I love them as you do,
As long as I am alive.

And when my time is over,
My work on earth is through,
May I hold them close, all at once,
And ever be with you.

To all of you - Thank you for loving me. I will never be able to express to you how deeply blessed I feel to have/had you in my life, and be able to call you my friends.

"We Love,
Because He first loved us."
-1 John 4:19

Gesso

Gesso

by Lexie Shaunak on Saturday, January 29, 2011 at 1:50am

Sometimes God chooses to reveal Himself in the simplest of things...

Tonight, while avoiding other homework, I decided to gesso over a panel that I had worked on this time last year when  I attempted Painting I (which I ultimately dropped at midterms, and therefore did not complete, thus my re-taking it this semester). Right before I began, I had a moment of anxiety. "I worked so hard to build this paint up...if I gesso over it, it will never be the same...what if I miss it?" But I also knew that I would never work on it again or finish it. It was driving me crazy, this constant reminder of where I had failed to finish before, of my shortcomings and inability to complete the work on my own.

So I picked up my brush, and put on the first stripe of Gesso.

Immediately I began to feel better. As each stroke of the brush passed over the panel, I felt the weight of the shame that I associated with that painting lifted. As each stroke passed over, it covered the old, and made way for the new.   With one stroke left, I was hit by a revelation: Jesus is the Gesso.

Jesus is the Gesso of my life. He covered my failures and shortcomings, and made them "white as snow". He set up the new foundation for my world, and gave me the opportunity to become something Beautiful in the hands of the Master Painter. He erases my past, and gives me a future.

You use Gesso on any painting. It acts like a primer. Use it on a new canvas or panel, and it prepares it for the paint, so that it will 'stick'. Use it on an old or already painted on panel, and it covers completely the old work and renews the panel into something with potential to be anything. Some people think that they cannot be forgiven, because they have done too many bad things. But no matter how much mess you may have put on the canvas of your life, Jesus can be the Gesso.

If I had held on to that painting, too afraid or proud to admit I couldn't perfect it, new work could not be built upon it. The evidence of my shortcomings would ever be before me. Just so, if we hold on to a life outside of Christ, too afraid of how he might change us, or to lose the little kingdoms we have built, our sin is ever before us, and we cannot become the 'New Creations'*  that God has intended us to be. We are called to 'Be transformed by the renewing of your mind"* , and to die to ourselves so that we might live. For "though your sins are scarlet, they may be as snow' * and though the painting you have made of your life may fall short, it can be made new, for Jesus is the Gesso.

This is not a new thought, but it struck me hard tonight. I can never have too many reminders of 1) what I have been brought out of (death in sin) 2) what I have been brought into (Child of God), and 3) what He is doing in me (Sanctification).  I am glad that He will never give up on me, or cast me aside as a 'lost cause' and that He knows exactly what He is making, even if sometimes I don't!

* 2 Corinthians 5:17 "Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, behold the new has come!"

* Romans 12:2 "Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is - his good, pleasing and perfect will."

*Isaiah 1:18 " 'Come, Let us reason together, ' says the Lord. ' Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they are like crimson, they shall be like wool. ' "

*Ephesians 2:10 " For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus..."

*Philippians 1:6 "For I am confident of this: that He who began a good work in you will carry it through to completion."  


"Remember He is the artist and you are only the picture. You can't see it. So quietly submit to be painted---i.e., keep fulfilling all the obvious duties of your station (you really know quite well enough what they are!), asking forgiveness for each failure and then leaving it alone.You are in the right way. Walk---don't keep on looking at it." -CS LEwis

Strong and Courageous - March 24, 2011

Be Strong and Courageous - Joshua 1:9

by Lexie Shaunak on Thursday, March 24, 2011 at 11:35am

"Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified, do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go." (Joshua 1:9)

Not just a reassurance, not a suggestion. God commands Joshua (and us) to live this way.

Courage is an act of faith- 'I do not know what will happen or where it will go, but I'm going to step out into the thing that scares me boldly, because You are with me."  In light of this, continuing to live in fear is an act of unbelief and disobedience.

Today, I will be strong and courageous, even if that means just standing up to my own doubts. fears, and worries, and defeating them by resting in God's peace. In letting go of things I hope for, letting go of  frustration with things I cannot control,  and instead joyfully walking on the path He puts me on, where He has put me in this moment.

Truth >  feelings

"Before I am 25 " bucket list/ goals

So, i realized recently that when I was on Team Trek as a 9th grade 15 year old kid, I set goals for where i wanted to be in 5 years. Its been 5 years. I actually met/kept most of them, and plan to try to keep maintaining some of the things I thought would be important when I was 15 and still do. However, I also thought it might be a good idea to set some more specific goals and bucket list plans for the next 5 years. So, here it is!

Before I'm 25 I want to....

- Ride a motorcycle



- Fire some kind of big gun
- Go Camping
- Go on a girls trip to somewhere fun with my mom and sisters
- Go to NYC and Colorado or overseas again
- Go to North Carolina
-Host/Put together at least 1 Arts related (art or music) event each year to raise money for Charity
- Have some kind of solo show/group show with work in a gallery outside MCA
- Go to a BIG concert - Coldplay maybe?
- Go dancing just for the heck of it at Rumba room or some other salsa/swing etc location
- Spend an afternoon-evening laying outside watching the sun set and the stars come out
- get my own place, preferably outside memphis
- adopt a pet
- set myself up a nice website for my work
- graduate college
- apply to at least 1 grad school (whether or not I go, we'll see, but i want to have at least applied)
- be working in an arts-related field : 1st choice with a publisher or design firm, 2nd choice with a museum, 3rd choice as an art teacher 
- learn to drive a stick shift
- learn the "thriller" dance and a few other MJ dances
- Beat my Mom at a game of Scrabble/Words with Friends