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| "Hearts Entwined." Janelle Jensen Fritz. 36x48. Acrylics on canvas. Picture taken at Hale House Vintage Living, Fort Worth, Texas. |
Canvas Your Life
Illustrating your story.
Painting your legacy.
Imbedding your faith.
Preserving your love.
"The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance."
-Aristotle
There was a point, about a year ago, when my families heart strings were loose and disconnected. As we set out to tighten our bonds, and restore some of the tautness in our strings, I began a painting entitled "Hearts Entwined."
"Hearts Entwined" compiled several personal themes, inside jokes, traditions, faith, and family memories. It is a symbolic biographical depiction which portrays the unfolding of our past, present, and future story as a family. I consider it a visually illustrative memoir painting.
I have to let you in on at least one of our inside jokes; in order to join you into the context:
My husband and I have known each other since I was 11 and he was 15. We met at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Grand Rapids, Michigan. It was during High School that we became long-time friends. So when we began spending time together, alone, a couple years into college, it didn't feel like dating. It was then that our inside joke sprang up. This wasn't dating, this was just a standard interview process for the position as my personal bodyguard. I was simply determining his eligibility in accompanying me in my prospective jaunt of "running naked in the Alps." (Don't judge. I was 19 at that time, a Sound of Music fan, and looking to escape some of the modest conservatism which had shaped my upbringing.)
I still have tenets of that free-spirit. Perhaps that is why in our relationship we identify with the analogy of a kite flying in the air. I am the free-spirit kite, and he is the "more" grounded one that is learning when to let out the line and allow me flight. As well as, when I may need to be reeled in before I get caught thunderstruck in a lightening strike.
PAINTING YOUR LEGACY
"Art attracts us only by what it reveals of our most secret self.-Jean-Luc Godard
Thirteen years later, we have never been to the Alps, or Europe. We have two young sons, and are committed together to survive and enjoy this modern world filled with decadence and decay, and everything in-between.
Our legacy perpetuates with our two young rambunctious all-boy boys. My floating kite is clutching, with momma bear claws, a barreling army-green tank of a kite with the unlocked embrace of a trusting mother.
There are countless other symbolic representations which depict our life in "Hearts Entwined."For now, I'll keep the remainder undivulged of that "most secret self" which Jean-Luc Godard referred in the previously stated quote.
IMBEDDING YOUR FAITH
"Art is when you hear a knocking from your soul-and you answer"
-Terri Guillemets
The apostle Paul taught that "faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." (Hebrews 11:1, KJV Holy Bible)
Spiritual testimony can be difficult to articulate and express. Personal assurances and experiences abound as they affirm the tender mercies of God. These personal witnesses transcend religious affiliation and are a widespread global signification of a loving and merciful Father in Heaven. Imbedding your faith and testimony into a picture helps to give your evidences a vehicle for expressing testimony.
In the upper right of my kite, I have depicted an open anatomically correct heart. Those same colors are also represented centrally in the tied bow at the base of the kite. The string of the kite flows into a loose pattern of a red traditional heart as it becomes grasped in the hands of my husband. The blood colored bow is a symbol of a beautiful gift. In Romans 6:23, it reads; "For the wages of sin is death (spiritual & physical); but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."
In "Hearts Entwined", I share the signification and reality of the One who keeps the hearts of my family entwined. Even when our individual and collective sins and indiscretions threaten to harden and disconnect our hearts, He is there when we ask. Jesus Christ keeps his promises, He has made good on every assertion of faith in my life.
"Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you."
-Matthew 7:7, KJV Holy Bible
PRESERVING YOUR LOVE
"Art must be an expression of love or it is nothing."
-Marc Chagall
Home may be where the heart is, but our hearts are not always perfect. The traditional heart symbol of perfect symmetry is an unattainable ideal for the prosaic daily grind of life. Home is where the best and the worst in us manifest. Home can be both a sanctuary and a battle ground. Love is the binding foundation which stabilizes a home. It's the priming layer on your canvas. Without it, the colors won't build, and everything you do just seeps through.
COMMISSIONS FOR Canvas Your Life
Now that I've shared and preserved our story, I'd encourage and invite you to do the same. You have already authored your story; your memoir is in the making. A Canvas Your Life painting will also be an endearing and treasured gift.
I've been honored to have the opportunity to symbolically capture the stories of other families. As an #artworkist biographer, I've retained and represented their memories with personalized paintings. Weaving together the extraordinary and everyday scenes, which encapsulate their, home, life, or family.
I consult with the family in a process of interviewing, storytelling, and divulging. It is a therapeutic process in which some of your emotional joys and shadows are transferred and shared with me. It allows me the privilege of gaining an intimate perspective with which I am able to compose a blending of multiple concepts while concentrating a distinct theme.
Bring out the best in what holds your home or life together with a prominent painting that expresses you. Your history and dreams, love and fun, and quirks and jokes. Secure your own unique iconography by modernizing the valuable classic of a timeless painting.
Book a Canvas Your Life consultation, with
Janelle Jensen Fritz at decadencendecayart@gmail.com
"Art, broadly speaking, is that which invites us into contemplation- a rare commodity in modern life."
-Thomas Moore
"Hearts Entwined"
Bright miraculous sun, bludgeoned & obstructed
by the point-blank black tank.
Barreling into the heart of Every Mother.
Spewing bullets & bombs & burps on the fabric
of her armed & hug me kite.
Clutching with her momma bear claws.
Tied tightly with the blood bow.
Bled for them, by Him, their rock & redeemer.
Keeping us grounded, like in the Alps,
as he holds tight, keeping her safe.
-Janelle Jensen Fritz
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