Salt and Light

 Still getting matters in order, was able to map out an idea for this panel,and hope to get cracking in the morning.Slowly adjusting to another time zone and the light of a very different sky .

Somewhere South

Hurdled through the carved hillside of Virginia and Tennesee , miles of fence and field,the truck stops and weigh stations,the mobile homes of Arkansas,and crossing the border under the staggering colors of the vast Texas skyline .I arrive and begin to unpack in what appears will be home and studio for the next few years .

A pervasive sense of optimism in the transition - a new region,new customs,new challenges,and for the time being,the solitude to compose.

Man and Land

In December , I will be making a major regional shift , leaving behind the familiarity (and comforts ? ) of the Mid - Atlantic for an undefined period in the south . I will be very curious about the impact this might have on both visual and musical work . Will there be  inspiration among new people and new terrain ? Will new surroundings sever thematic currents and stir in other directions ?

The Periphery of Solace

My alluring piano . A slow Sunday is never complete without an hour's interlude .There are panels to complete , blocks to be cut , but I am always diverted . Now back to some mill grinding , with renewed vigor .

Not Dark Yet

If there is a distinct day that divides the seasons , the first of November seems to be that day for me . . . Work is slowing , self - questioning in approach ,  (exhausting an idea or more to be done . . . ? ) a momentary pause before the next lift . Shorter days , less hours of sun . But it's not dark yet . . .

A Different Hue

  Morning. 6:37 am , and I am the waterfront's sole occupant . The cold and steady drizzle has likely frightened away most of the normally intrepid day-greeters . The water is the color of the day old puddings you used to see behind the glass in London take-away shops .

 But should the sun come into view , the water turns a different hue ...

A recent panel , from "The Deserters"  . . .                                                        

Coming Near

Like a boat approaching the sound after a long journey , on a long river ....

Lord I feel it ....

A recent panel from "The Deserters " .

The Arrow Moves

After many years of city living I recognize my tendency , however vigilant , to have my senses deadened by the familiar . Perhaps it is the surroundings of concrete and automobiles , the inevitable urban decay , or perhaps it is simply due to an accelerated pace of living . I am trying to train my mind to seek and observe what I may be missing . To uncover something new in the midst of what has grown unremarkable . . .

Mind in Exile

The onslaught of subtle autumn sounding , rendering the natural results .

Hiraeth

A few days of subdued summer , the beginning of September , and you might somehow forgive one for allowing a wistful nostalgia to permeate the mind . The Welsh have a word for it , Hiraeth , which the English can offer only a rough and pale translation - a longing and yearning for home .

Yet another (detail ) from a piece for The Deserters . . .

Somewhere Weatherside

Have nearly completed work for " The Deserters " . Have been working on some new ideas derived from some personal research and speculations from Reformation era living , will possibly post the first completed painting for my next update . I have a few recordings near completion which could beget some distraction , or occupy the premises of my redoubtable list of extensive projects . . .

Flodden Field

If memory serves , Flodden Field was the sight of a tremendous slaughter of valiant , yet overmatched Scots who followed the over -confident James IV to a massacre in Cumbria . This painting has nothing to do with that battle , but the name for me , always held a resonance of heroic failure .

Sooner Than You Think

Sweeping changes on the horizon . The lucid , tidy maps and outlines of how we sometimes envision life will play out . . . another phase or era looking to begin . Ready or not . . .

This sketch is from an old sketchbook from a few years ago . The man was a former cook in Glasgow who had been fired for drinking .

Lead a Quiet Life

The return to lino - cuts is near . Here is a recent painting .

The Sacred Journey

"Each life is not just a journey through time , but a sacred journey ."

F. Buechner

Christopher Andrew Renner

1962 - 2009

The Return

It has been a fluid , prolific season - completing a succession of work for "The Deserters " exhibition . I have neglected the other " fields " - music and printmaking , and I know I must return .

I remember when I was very young , I would rise before my parents and brothers and walk out to a certain space in the pasture behind my father's barn . There was a certain pleasure in knowing that small slice of the world was mine alone to enjoy . Even at that young age there was a sense that the moment must be made the most of , that I would soon be summoned back to the beckoning of that other world .

My Path

"My path has long hours,jolts and pains . My path has peaks and sea-troughs,sand and sky . Mine or thine . "
Edmond Jabes

Terrae Filius

A son of the soil .

Fecundity

In the clouded hours before dawn , contemplation and creative energy always seem the strongest . Silence has it's gifts - an undisturbed fruitfulness .

Teach Us To Number Our Days Aright

Little time for soliloquy . Resisting the tyranny of abandoned notions . Flashes of pencil in notebooks , hastily scripted on backs of envelopes . Prone to wander . . .

Words From The Front

Other recent paintings.These will likely be included in The Deserters exhibition.

More Annals of the Journey

More . . .

Annals of the Journey

Here are some quick scans from sketches compiled from a short - term missionary visit to Ethiopia . I will attempt to add more in the forthcoming week . . .

time for returning

In less than two weeks I will be returning to Ethiopia to work with a medical missionary project in that nation's capitol . This will be my fourth visit , and with each subsequent return there is a vast reminder of the tremendous suffering and disparity between our two realms . For most , the daily struggle for survival eclipses the notion of hopes and plans , which may be poverty's cruelest symptom .
I anticipate joyful reunions and as ever , the loved and unlovely sights and odors , noise and music , smiles and tears of Addis Ababa's urban carnival . It is an invasion of the senses , and I have collected many sights and details in sketchbooks over the years . ( many should be made available in a forthcoming monograph )

The image is a large lino-print based on the life of the biblical prophet Jeremiah

Considering

Through a series of astounding events , I find myself shifting slowly to another part of the country . Still getting my bearings , finding my way , I confess some hesitancy ... wondering if I will stir some quiescent regard for a vastly different region .

Where there is life , I will likely find inspiration . . .

This a study on panel I am pushing to complete . . .

2009 . Good days ahead . . .