For everything there is a season......a time to weep and a time to laugh
MissBennet20
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Name: Elizabeth


Interests: Pianos, guitars, fiddles, harmonicas, alto recorders, duduks, chopsticks, foosball, calligraphy, photography, archery, volleyball, soccer, Shakespeare, Milton, South Africa, mind-stretching conversation, classes with Grant Horner, stargazing, reading Scripture and singing with friends, singing in The Master's Chorale, singing under Doc Plew's conducting, dodging projectiles launched by my roommate, memorizing and quoting good sections of literature, tickling my dad, learning from my sister, hugging my mom, inspecting bugs when they land on me, surprising people with good news, espresso mocha smoothies from Java 'n Jazz, hiking to far-away-wildly-beautiful places, ice skating! Fishing! Lakes, killing mosquitos spiders and scorpions, reading, reading, reading! Laughing very hard. Making breakfast! Serving friends and strangers. Going gooey over my dogs. Drawing. Looking into a friend's eyes and knowing you've totally clicked.
Expertise: Getting sunburned until the color of my skin more or less exactly matches the exterior of a lobster. Belly flops. Eating whole teaspoons of wasabi for money (when I'm desperate). Telling stories in too much detail...hearty laughter. Having hope.
Occupation: Artist
Industry: Art


Message: message me
Website: visit my website
MSN: mustanglizzie@hotmail.com
Jabber: awfullybigadventure@gmail.com


Member Since: 4/6/2005

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Saturday, January 26, 2008

Auf Wiedersehen, Adieu


Alright, the time has come. I hereby join the ranks of those who have left Xanga for a different blog. Please visit me hereafter at www.ellsworthcreations.com/SirRoderick for continued bloggage =)

I still happily maintain my association with the the xanga site StillSharpe, though my opportunities to post the quotes of my beloved roommate are altogether too few.

Again,

www.ellsworthcreations.com/SirRoderick

Please don't be a stranger :) I shall still check my friend's xangas.


Friday, November 09, 2007

Currently Watching
William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice
By Al Pacino, Jeremy Irons, Joseph Fiennes, Lynn Collins, Zuleikha Robinson
see related

Ich spiele an meiner Arbeit und ich arbeite an meinem Spiel

This last week and a half, my boss and I have worked on a rather amazing piece. Two columns supporting a large overdoor. It almost exaclty matches the design of the 1854 sections of the Capitol in Washington DC. Supposedly it came off the exterior of an English house, built in 1779. It is true that the Capitol was modeled after designs like those, so it's possible. Anyway it was quite awfully damaged and uglified when we got to it. The gold was filthy, but it had been tip-guilded in the past 20 years or so. The woodwork was a dull, dark graphite gray, notched and cracked in lots of places. It was in a living room across from the fireplace; a room full of beautiful antiques, many with gold as well. But the dark grey of the overdoor was fighting the rest of the room and it looked very ominous...looming.
Since last Thursday we've washed it in mineral spirits (hence the face mask picture), sanded it, painted it in a light grey set coat, put a liquidy glue (size) onto the gold, re-sculpted some of the broken areas with molding paste and plaster, tip-guilded the gold, put a brownish-walnut overglaze over the whole thing, and then used various dark brown colors to antique areas of it back even further. Now it still looks 228 years old as it should, but it's not so nasty and flat and dark. Andy (my boss--who said that if I ever called him boss he'd fire me, oops) had to re-sculpt some of the frieze designs in modeling clay and bake them...today we sized and guilded those, nailed them into place (the originals were made of iron), and antiqued them.

I've learned a lot at this job...mastered none of it, hehe, but learned much (including a history of rock and roll). Andy's a good teacher because he gives me just enough information to do what is needed and then trusts me to go ahead...I'm free to ask all kind of questions, but it's good for me to learn by doing.

I can hardly believe God has given me this job...to spend all day doing fun artsy stuff...yay :) Yeah it's hard on my feet, and sometimes I have to wear yucky masks in order to breathe...oh well.

Laborare est orare. Work is prayer.
And in my case, it's play as well :)

Oh yeah, almost forgot to mention: at the home where we did this work, on the wall to one side of the overdoor there's a Claude Monet. On the other side, a Van Goh.
A 1936 Matisse in the bathroom, and a Picasso in the hallway.

Tonight is a new moon, oddly meaning no moon. Where we live, the stars are often brighter than we are used to, but on a night like this even more so! Thus the following came to mind...

"Look how the floor of heaven
Is thick inlaid with patines of bright gold;
There's not the smallest orb which thou behold'st
But in his motion like an angel sings,
Still quiring to the young-eyed cherubins;
Such harmony is in immortal souls;
But, whilst this muddy vesture of decay
Doth grossly close it in, we cannot hear it."


Wednesday, October 17, 2007

The Book of Love


This is one of my favorite songs...look it up somewhere and listen to it.

The Book of Love
(Peter Gabriel)

The book of love is long and boring
No one can lift the damn thing
It's full of charts and facts and figures and instructions for dancing

But I
I love it when you read to me
And you
You can read me anything

The book of love has music in it
In fact that's where music comes from
Some of it is just transcendental
Some of it is just really dumb

But I
I love it when you sing to me
And you
You can sing me anything

The book of love is long and boring
And written very long ago
It's full of flowers and heart-shaped boxes
And things we're all too young to know

But I
I love it when you give me things
And you
You ought to give me wedding rings
And I
I love it when you give me things
And you
You ought to give me wedding rings
And I
I love it when you give me things
And you
You ought to give me wedding rings
You ought to give me wedding rings


Sunday, October 14, 2007

Calm

The wind is in the trees.....the sun is on the grass.....their are birds eating at the feeder......one dog is running around in the flowers and the other lounging on the warm ground. I'm sitting on the back porch in my long shorts and small sandals, enjoying the view. Enjoying our ridiculous 8 ft.-jungle-flowers, hehe, and going to choir practice in a few minutes.
God is so good.
Even though my future is unsure, even though there are hard decisions to make, even though my heart is weak, even though Mandy Bricks is in the hospital, even though Mrs. Witkowski just lost her mother, even though many were injured and killed in the pile-up on the I-5, even though the Middle East is a mess, even though the world is a mess. God is good. He is the ONLY good. He is there and He is perfect. The universe holds no secrets from God, and His decisions will always be best and wisest. Why do I worry? Why do I wonder why He does what He does with the people in my life?
I have one responsibility. Obedience. Obedience takes trust. Trust takes patience. God grant me, and you, that patience.

And as my sister so wisely said--"I pray that God keep me lest I confuse inscrutability with absence."


Monday, October 08, 2007

Water, color, fire, and music


Wow!
A studpendous thunderstorm, a bright rainbow and a firey sunset all in one night! The slow heavy rain soaked in deep (we needed it!) and the rainbow was visible from horizon to horizon--then the sunset made it look like the view from the front door was on fire! It was bee-yoo-tiful.

I am continually amazed at the emotional power of music. Whether it's bagpipes, a capella choir, fiddle, classical guitar, opera, orchestral or so many others...excellent recordings (and live performances!) of these leave me speechless every time, and often change my mood in a split second. Perhaps that's a reason for me to be extremely careful with the music I love so much...it could make me quite the emotional rollercoaster, and what girl needs more of that?! Hehe...but I hope that power never loses it's effect on me. The day that music no longer moves me will, I hope, be the day I die.

I'm sitting on the couch next to the piano...such a loverly piano :) thanks to Dr. Mays' help in choosing it! When I'm done with the next thing on my list (posting on my blog was of course not on the list, hehe) I'm going to play for a while. Night is the best time for it. Or early in the morning...but people in the house don't usually appreciate that :) Anyway...I turn the lights down low, practice Christmas music, play slow Bach pieces, play Legends of the Fall, Lord of the Rings...and sometimes just try and work out some melodies I like. It's very cathartic...



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