16 Main Gallery is located at 16 Main Street, Madison, AL 35758 http://16main.blogspot.com256-325-0161
One of these needs is for Bibles and Bible storybooks, both for children and families. Toward that end, the United Bible Societies is seeking to commission artists to produce a collection of 200 high quality, color illustrations that any national Bible Society can use for this purpose. In a sense, the collection is best thought of as a database of artwork from which Scripture materials can be produced. It is called the UBS ‘Global Illustration Project’. The commissioning will be on a “work-for-hire basis”, but there may also by professional-level illustrators who sense the call of God to carry out this work on a mission basis.
The level of artistic expertise for this work is high. Illustrators must be “visual translators” of the Biblical events. All costumes, architecture, fauna, and ethnicities must be accurate to the text. In addition, the artist’s style must be acceptable across a wide range of cultures and aesthetic tastes. While a single artist for the entire collection is preferred, it is more realistic that an artist is commissioned for the Old Testament and another for the New Testament. These are illustrations which will be produced globally for decades to come. For an illustrator who holds the Bible to be the revelation of God, this is an opportunity of a lifetime.
Any artist interested in submitting samples and pursuing further discussions about the UBS Global Illustration Project is invited to contact Randolph Capp, UBS Design Consultant at randolphcapp@biblesocieties.org.
"Sunflowers" by Sara Beth Fair, copyrightThis is the fourth devotion in the study titled, "My Plans for You". If you are just now joining us, the previous 3 are posted on the Ascribing Artists blog along with the previous study titled, "Cutting & Pruning."
There are many places in the Bible where the Christian life is described as a walk. If we are truly trying to walk as transformed believers then we have to ask what does that look like and where am I going and how do I get there? We all wonder what is God’s direction or will for our lives. Most people want to know what career they should pursue, where they should live or whom they should marry, but overlook or ignore the more important truths of loving God and loving others. So, how do we learn these most important truths? By reading the Bible. Man, does that sound boring, hard to understand and a waste of time! If you are honest, those thoughts live in the back of your dark sinful heart and mind as well and only proves we need His Word in our lives to light the path.
“Your Word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.” Psalm 119:105
To most people the Bible has been boiled down to an impersonal, impractical and impossible book of do’s and don’ts. What a travesty! In the most basic summary, the Bible is God’s story of the redemption of man. From beginning to end, Genesis to Revelation, the Bible tells the story of a Mighty Creator who created man for a loving relationship and an Omniscient God who knew in creating man higher than the animals would fall to sinful temptation and a Loving Father who loved man so much that an agreement was made before creation with His one and only Willing Son who sacrificed Himself on a cross to restore that relationship. This story is woven throughout every word and letter of the Bible. The Bible then rightfully becomes God’s personal love letter to His people. How sweet it is!
In our modern age, we run to hear from everybody in our Email, Facebook and MySpace accounts, all the while, the greatest news ever told sits getting dusty. I know many of you receive inspirational and Biblical devotions through these modern forms of communication including this one, but I’m afraid we read them as if they are from just another friend or advice columnist and move on to the next message without God’s Word ever changing our lives. May we all find ourselves curled up in a good reading chair with a warm cup, reading the greatest love story ever written and pondering not only the love it contains, but the impact it should be having in our walk, if we are truly transformed believers.
Paul LaBathe
Greetings all!
In trying to imagine where the time has gone since August, I awake to discover myself wandering in the desert. I think to myself what good am I to God when I am wandering in the desert? Well, my first mistake is thinking that God needs me to do something because I am good. My second mistake is thinking the wilderness is meaningless.
God has detoured me from Paul in Acts to Hosea and there I find the answers to my folly. In Hosea chapter 14, which is an awesome depiction of God’s grace and restoration of the sinner, at the end of verse 8 it simply states, “from me comes your fruit.” Reminds me of our previous Cutting and Pruning devotions. Why do we think that we have something good to offer God when it is of our own making? We want to make our plans and ask God to bless them to His benefit thinking we know what is best. Wow. We can either ask Him to bless our plans and worry if they will work out or we can ask Him about His plans and know they are blessed! I want to find myself living daily in the latter.
My second assumption is proved to be folly in hearing God say through Hosea, “It is I who knew you in the wilderness, in the land of drought” That sounds rather basic and broad in God speaking to Israel, but the word “you” is singular in the Hebrew and focuses on the personal covenant relationship with his people or YOU! God not only knows you are in the wilderness as a place, but knows you personally, deeply, intimately, all your thoughts and intentions while in the wilderness. It is there where He works to refocus your heart, soul, mind and strength back on Him and His plans.
If you are found wandering in the wilderness today . . . give thanks, because God is close at hand. He is calling to you and me. May we respond. . .
Paul LaBathe
Location: Madison, AL
Date: Each Sat. May thru October
I’ve always had a thing for color. I have so many memories of when I was a little girl helping my artist Mom mix paint colors or select chalk color palettes for murals she would let me help her with. I grew up loving color as a tool of expression.
Over thirty years later, I am starting to find a voice in and through color. Although I grew up in a world of art, it’s only been the last couple years that I’ve been freed up enough to think about ‘being an artist’ – and what that means for me.
Next month I’ll have been married 8 years to my (very hot) best friend. I’m so thankful that he challenges me towards freedom and grace and hope. A rare gift, I know. I also have 3 small beautifully quirky children (5, 3 and almost 2 years old). Inevitably, when people find that out they ask, “How do you find time to paint? ” It’s a 2 part answer.
The first is; I don’t…as much as I’d like to. I love my kids and the joy filled and many times aggravating job of raising them. I used to (for 7 years) be a youth minister but for now, as one of my former youth said, I ‘have my own little youth group’. So for this season, I try to balance, as best I can, giving time to them to teach and love them and giving time to myself to love and teach them and myself how to be and use what God has made in you. The other part of the answer is, “How do you find time to breathe?” You just do! You have to. It’s the most basic way you take care of the vessel God has put you in. In the same way, I find that part of the way that God has made me “in our (His) image, in our (God’s) likeness” is that I’m creative. In order to be a healthy me, to take care of His daughter, this vessel, the person God made me to be – I have to create, to express what I see and feel creatively!
1 Peter 4:15 says, ‘Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.”
So, I am practicing. Practicing the discipline of giving an answer for the hope I have.
I have seen darkness. I have wrestled with fear and doubt. I have witnessed hopelessness. But, I have seen God there…through it all. He has never left me. And so, I use colors; vibrant, true, bold, unafraid – to express my hope. I practice the discipline of choosing to see beauty where there is the unvalued, to see light where there appears to only be darkness, to see hope where it would be easier to believe bleakness.
I may not ever be an expert at this practice. I may even fail sometimes. But I am also set free in the truth that God is bigger than me. I can not, with my imperfection, thwart his purposes. His power and provision for this world and for me is greater than my little paintbrush strokes. He says “As the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish…so is my word that goes out from my mouth: it will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.” (Isaiah 55:10&11) And so, I believe him. That he can use, even me, even my mere brush strokes to speak of his freedom, of his grace, of his love.
There are many invisible things worth fighting for in this life. Intangibles worth holding on to; love, reconciliation, justice, mercy, beauty and hope to name just a few. I am a daughter, sister, friend, mother, artist. I am a fighter…for hope. What will you fight for?
The United Bible Societies is a fellowship of 145 national Bible Societies working in over 200 countries. Bible Societies serve Christians in every continent, providing Scriptures at a price that people can afford. Bible Societies are not affiliated to any one Christian denomination, but serve all Christian churches and develop products and services appropriate to local needs.
