Wallpaper

Quote of the week:

"It seems to be human nature: as we become more familiar with something,even something miraculous and awe-inspiring, we lose our sense of awe and treat it as commonplace." 

Its like Wallpaper. After a while of having it up you don't really see it anymore.  It is just part of the background. I was listening to President Uchtdorf's talk while sitting at the kitchen table Saturday Morning.  When he talked about seeing the miracle that is the gospel as common place, it hit a soft spot with me. He went on to say, "We are surrounded by such an astonishing wealth of light and truth that I wonder if we truly appreciate what we have." 

How incredibly blessed I am to have had this light and truth of the gospel my whole life. To really have never been without it. And I think that I take it for granted.   It comes right back to being converted. Conversion isn't an event its a process. Sometimes when you are in the middle of it you don't see it or appreciate it because its become wallpaper. You can't see how far you've come or how high you are or how close to the top you really are. 

I think that's often why you don't know what you've got until its gone.  But I don't think you have to appreciate what you have just because its gone. You can enjoy the moment for what it is. The view just has to change, put on a different lens.  Macro, telephoto doesn't matter, just change it up.  Maybe you need to get higher, or get lower. Several years ago I got a book for Christmas called, "Elevate the Everyday".  It was basically a photography book from a mom talking to other mom's about taking pictures of our children. It was a lesson book about how to elevate the everyday moments to more than they would appear to be at first, and more than being just your basic how to photography, it was about living and appreciating the moments for what they are.

Which brings me to one of my all time favorites quotes from one of my all time favorite photographers.

Compassion can Transcend Both Time and Space

I was teaching my Sunday School class last week about the prophecies of Samuel the Lamanite.  One of those most profound prophecies was that the entire Nephite civilization would be destroyed in a matter of 4 generations.  One question that was brought up was "Why would they care what was going to happen in 400 years?"  

I have been thinking about that question all week long, perhaps because I didn't feel like it was really answered during class. Why would they care, and a more introspective question why should we care, really, what happens to the world 400 years from now or what happened 2000 years ago?

The day after this question was asked an article appeared in the FAITH section of the Deseret News. Elder Holland an apostle for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, had been participating in a conference at the Windsor Castle in London England.  During this conference  titled "Religious Persecution: The Driver for Forced Migration", Elder Holland " spoke to the gathering of civic, philanthropic, and religious leaders from around the world. He pointed to religious freedom, belief and activity as keys to improving the plight of refugees." He said:

"The sexual violence and persecution of refugees is a crisis deserving more global outrage. The world needs to be more outraged than it is," he said, "when we read of the persecution, the violence, the sexual violence, the murder, the rape, the destruction of families and any social structure that these people have had — almost entire cultures being destroyed." (See full article from Deseret News)

In recalling the persecutions and forced migration of Latter-day Saints in 19th-century America, Elder Jeffrey R. Holland noted that their anguish was lessened by the compassion of others. “We will never forget the precious opportunities, blessings, and miracles given to us during that time from God and from kind, caring people.” (See full article from Church News)

In the context of this talk the answer to the question above for me was this: compassion needs to transcend through both time and space. We need to care about the past, the future and what is going on today on the other side of the world. We need to care! These people in need of more global outrage are not my neighbors.   I have not seen their faces. They are as obscure to me as the people 400 years ago.  I do not know there names or much about them really.  But knowing their stories, their trials and their testimonies can still relate to me a sense of compassion for my fellow brothers and sisters. The same way that seeing the faces and understanding the  plight of those fellow world citizens, my brothers and sisters all over the world. The wonderful things about the gift of compassion is that it can transcend both time and space. To me its the difference of being a global citizen and reverting back into tribes and family units, like the Nephites did before the birth of Christ (3 Nephi 7:3). The Nephites just came from a massive thriving economically progressive, culturally diverse civilization to something that history has taught us was the smallest most basic unit of civilization, that of tribes. We have to care, we have to be concerned about things that are going on in the world.  Even if we have to be that small band of righteous saints who hold things together. (Helaman 13:13)

Just one more lesson we can learn from asking questions and internalizing the things we read in the Book of Mormon.


Here is one of two speeches that Elder Holland gave at the conference.

Line and Structure

I started taking a 3D art class this week.  We are starting out by creating wire art which is a new medium for me. It has come difficult issues to work with. My fingers are already sore from working with the stiff 16 gage stuff. And my hands are also black and greasy every time I pick it up. Its been a good learning experience though, to think 3D. Its very hands on which I like.  I like working with something with actual volume instead of the illusion of volume and mass.

This introduction project uses concepts that I have learned before in other art classes. Vocabulary such as volume, form, and line that I have heard and used before.  Wire is a wonderful medium to focus on all different kinds of lines, horizontal, vertical, diagonal, curvelinear, contour, cross contour, and implied. Lines have an important use in expression visually.  Lines also work together to define form and shape and create structure within the project.

While working on our zoomorphic (animal) wire projects our instructor explained the importance of a central form or structure as a starting point for our projects. For example the skeletal system in mammals is a supporting structure and a necessary place to start because its the bones that give the shape and form and foundation for everything else, the heart the muscle, skin, hair.

Its hard to photograph this because. . . its all lines, but this is a general idea anyway.

He then posed the question to us "How will you use line in your work whatever it is?" Since I really haven't decided what I want to be when I grow up. . . I don't have a focus yet, but I have used line in different mediums and studies.  Lines are everywhere. . . even in my life.

President Thomas S. Monson talked about choices in this past General Conference. "Choose to build up within ourselves a great and powerful faith which will be our most effective defense against the designs of the adversary - a real faith, the kind of faith which will sustain us and will bolster our desire to choose the right.  Without such faith, we go nowhere. With it, we can accomplish our goals."

He's talking about building our structure. Our choices determine our form, what we become, who we are.

"May we ever choose the harder right instead of the easier wrong. As we contemplate the decisions we make in our
lives each day.  if we choose Christ, we will have made the correct choice."

Choose Christ.

By choosing Christ as the foundation for our lives, God will make more of us that we could ever make of ourselves. Something truly amazing and beautiful and unique!

Reuben Margolin

I have been researching the work of a Kinetic artists by the name of Reuben Margolin for my 3D art class.  His Kinetic art is a great example of line and structure.

Round wave
This is a mechanical mobile made of wood, string, gears and a motor. This is the focal point of the piece. The repetition of curvelinear lines give it a feeling of comfort through the flowing grace and beauty of the simplest form. . . a single drop of rain. When I first looked at this I maybe if he used another material. Put some color in it dressed it up a little, you know, made it glitter.

Here are the mechanical parts. They are very well put together. Clean and organized.

In this view stepping back and you can see it all together.

Because the mechanical parts are high above its not really a focal point. (Who normally looks under the hood anyway?)  But the mechanics of the kinetic sculpture are what actually gives Round Wave it important form and structure. And it is what literally makes it move and come alive.  Its the bones and muscle and life blood of the piece.

Visually they are beautiful together!

 But it is when it is set in motion that it really come alive.

Spring Break

Had a great time visiting Arizona during our spring break.  We started on Friday night and drove about 3 hours to The Knights Inn for the first night. It was one of those places that you tell stories about because it was ancient.  The red shag carpet really set the tone for the entire facility. We were up early and on the road in no time.

Our first potty break was in AZ at this look out spot.  It was at this point that all the Navajo jewelry stands started to pop up.  They were everywhere along the highway.  Unfortuatly we didn't stop and look. 

Colorado River

We took advantage of the view from the Old Navajo Bridge that went across the Colorado River near Lee's Ferry. There was a girl there with a large antenna waving it around.  We went up and asked her what she was doing.  She was locating tagged condors in the area.  There was a condor on the cliffs near that bridge that she pointed out to us. She even had a replica of one of their eggs there for us to see.  They lay one egg every two years.

Desert View Lookout Tower

Our next stop after lunch was at the grand canyon on the south rim. This lookout tower is pretty cool. This place looks old but it was just built to like that way.  Its more of a look out spot with a gift shop inside.

This was from the bottom of the tower looking up at us in the top. Stairs spiral around on the inside. It was kind of cool.

Grand Canyon

First time for all of us.  This was at the south rim. It was an amazing view!

Phoenix, AZ
Finally made it to Arizona late Saturday afternoon. All along the freeway entrances and exits there were these cool designs that I thought were pretty neat. I had Jacob taking pictures of them for me throughout our trip.  I have a fun little collection of them now.

We had time to settle in at the hotel and have dinner before it was time for bed.

Mesa LDS Temple
Sunday in between conference sessions we drove out to the Mesa temple. It was gorgeous.  A little oasis in the dessert!

Pueblo Grande Museum

Monday while Dennis was at his conference, the plan was for me to take the kids to the Musical Instruments museum, but of course I got lost and couldn't figure out the printed directions we had. We opted to walk around the pueblo grande archaeology museum that was 2 minutes from our hotel instead. The kids were disappointed but I bribed them with swimming at the hotel if they did this first.

The museum provided umbrellas as we walked around the site.

Pool Time

When you come from 72 degrees to 92 degrees it feels more like 102 degrees.  We were so glad that there was a pool at the hotel.It was actually really nice.  The boys played nurf ball with a couple other boys who were visiting from somewhere near France. They were here for all the off season baseball games.

Chase Field

Monday night when we went to pick up Dennis from his conference we unknowingly got caught in Diamondback traffic as all the crowds were all headed to the first baseball game of the season at Chase Field. It made for a very messy pick up but we finally got him. We headed out to have dinner together and play a little that night.

Castles and Coasters/Golf and Stuff

We spent the last few hours of our day at the Castles and Coasters adventure park.  The coasters are only open on the weekends, but we rode the go-karts and bumper boats while the boys did a round of 18 hole mini golf.  While the girls were waiting for them we hung out at the arcade and played all the games they wanted.  It was a pretty fun night together.

Phoenix Zoo

Tuesday morning we loaded up all our gear, reluctantly checked out of the hotel and headed out to the zoo. We spent the whole day there. This is where the heat really caught up with us. It was pretty fun though.

This guy looks so real!

Gotta have an Icee and of course taste each others creation.

Bonnie opted for cotton candy instead.

4D Imax show of Rio.  Well 15 minutes of it anyway.

Bonnie found lots of "friends".

Sting Ray Bay

Work Conference

Dennis finally met up with one of his "most favorite" mission companions, who is from AZ and just so happened to be the guide for one of the tours at the conference. 

Just before heading out of Phoenix, Dennis took Afton and Bonnie for a potty break and found some cool insect pieces just outside the building where his conference was being held. 

We had a quick dinner at Jack-in-the-box then onto Flagstaff  to stay the night before making the rest of the way home.  We were racing the clock because we had to get Jacob home in time for work at 4pm. We did it with about 20 minutes to spare. I will say that it was nice having three drivers to split the drive time with.  It was a great trip and also nice to be home.