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 . . .