Impressions

Today felt a little more like a vacation day. A good friend drove into the city, then together we drove to Ft Worth, ate at the Fuzzy Taco Shop near TCU, and went to the Impressionist Exhibition at the Kimbell Art Museum. Most of the paintings in the exhibition are on loan from the Art Institute of Chicago and include all the masters you expect to see for that artistic genre. It's probably one of my favorite styles, offering lighter palettes and unique techniques of applying paint to the canvas. The introduction of premixed paints allowed the painters to be more flexible and spontaneous. They moved their paints and easels out into the world instead of painting in a studio which allowed them to capture the colors of light more closely. Many of Claude Monet's paintings are the same subject, but each canvas slightly different as he followed the small, yet distinct variations of the light's impact on the subject. These artists became a set of segregated painters, not being accepted into the prestigious Salons and art galleries. At the time the preferred standards for French art required historical or religious images, using somber colors with the paint strokes being suppressed to conceal the painter's techniques and personality. One of the great joys of seeing a VanGogh in person is to stand close enough to see the generous, almost gluttonous allotment of paint on the canvas that illustrates his unique, yet dynamic perspectives through paint. I still value the Romantic and Renaissance artists whose paintings are the backbone of our western culture, interpreting historical events and giving visual imagination to biblical passages, but a trip to the museum doesn't seem complete until I've seen some Impressionist paintings as well. Of course, there have been multiple new periods after Impressionism; art didn't stop adapting and creating new ways of seeing the same world through different techniques and vantage points.

My prayer for the congregation?

Dear God, You are the great creator, providing a world of miracles and revelations. You are never stagnant remaining vibrant and pertinent while addressing contemporary life, yet maintaining a solid foundation of realistic truth. We are unable to imagine your total glory, but we can witness your interjections and interactions in our daily vigilance of your presence. Help us to create a palette of textures, colors, layers and words that help capture our praise and adoration of your motion in the world. Free our imaginations and liberate our hands to worship you with a generous and abundant spirit. Worship does not end with a song as we leave our sanctuary, but continues, celebrating your light's reflection in the world. Amen.