Visual Inspiration

Today, one of my photos will be used as illustration at Billy Coffey's blog, WHAT I LEARNED TODAY.

Billy is the author of SNOWY DAY, soon to be released.
Cool. Check it out.

Each Tuesday, a few of my photos will be used as visual inspiration on MATTER OF FACT blogsite. If you are a writer, blogger or speaker and need a little visual inspiration (especially of you're feeling UNinspired) feel free to use one to inspire and to enhance your post.

"Isn't It Tornado?"

A few years ago I had received a CD from a girlfriend I had at the time. The CD was of Jason Upton..." I have never heard of him, so he must not be that good..." I thought , as she handed it to me and attempted to tell me how much she thought I would like it. So I listened and , ya for the most part I like it but...never gave it any more thought than that. I held on the CD just cause it felt like a gift for some reason at the time...so when time came for me to filter threw all my old music and just either throw away the junk...I would keep putting this CD aside for some reason.

I even remember thinking a couple times " why does getting rid of this CD keep feeling like a bad idea?" Honestly, I never listen to it anymore and I most likely never will, lol.

One night I was sitting alone in my apartment...it had been a while since me and that girl had dated and out of nowhere it just hit me, like "hey Jordan you still have that Jason Upton CD" and I remember feeling like it was a good idea to listen to him at the time. At the time I was feeling kinda just BLAH spiritually down in the dumps, I guess you could say.

So, more or less I kinda thought if I tossed it in, I would just get maybe some encouragement of some sort and lift my spirits or something. Never did it cross my mind, what was in store for me after that. Like I said, I was kinda struggling with a lot in my life...and I was just feeling kinda numb spiritually. So I listen to his album. I began to listen to it while I was struggling before I would sleep...so I could get to sleep, really.

So, after a while , it felt like I was coming out of my "spiritual slump" caused by my lack of faith- come to find out. But I started to searching for Jesus a little more and began to work on my lack of faith. I started to feel a little "hungry" for it ...ya know? I started really wanting to see a "sign" or a miracle or something along those lines. At the time I was hearing a lot of stories of others lives and all the amazing things that God had done for them and all these cool "majorly obvious" things were happening in their lives and I would look at my life and I was like "why is it so hard to find these things in my life if they are that obvious?"

This was then weighing on my heart for a while and began to almost bother me but I was still very curious or hungry for a little something from God. I really was feeling like I was in desperate need of an answer some how, to just " the where are you God?" question. So here's how it went down...

The CD came into my life from some one else , 2 years prior to this story. After the 2 years I was struggling and needing help. The CD goes in for a bit, I feel better....more problems come up and I'm desperate for another need that runs deep with in me. So then this song one song on there stood out to me so much and I loved it for simply what it was .. a song... or was it? After playing this song out... Ithen stumble onto this video of Jason talking about this song. I forgot to tell you that this copy that I have is a LIVE recording.

After listening to this song I kept getting the same mental picture popping up in my mind...and I never could understand why... but I got the same picture again one night listening to it...and following that was the strongest feeling of "you are going to draw this"...so I did. This picture is the mental picture I received multiple times from this song. What is the song?.... you ask. Well on my computer it titled it "Dying Star" but if you look it up on you tube, I think I have found another song by that same title from him as well so ... you might have to fish for it. Here's the video of his explanation of the live recorded version and what all happened that night.

WATCH THIS it is AMAZING!!...and totally what I needed.


Turns out, God knew my heart and let me LISTEN to a miracle as its happening, and in the most crazy ways lol. While all of that is goin on... He is doing a miracle all in the process of getting me to hear this miracle that he did along time ago....and totally in a way that is me... through art and music.

Everyone wants to see or witness a miracle i believe in their lifetime. I'm included in that. I wanted so badly to see Him or hear Him, just anything ... ya know? Little did I know I had been hearing a miracle happen over and over and over again...until I really LISTENED to it...I would have never heard this AMAZING thing happen.

So listen to the live version of that song, watch that video I linked and look at my picture...and read my story and tell me Jesus is not Lord....

" Creation "

This is another mural I have painted in my apartment on the opposite wall as "The Mural in My Mind". I call this "Creation".

I'll start by explaining "the green stuff". The green swirls flowing out everywhere is the breath of life. I chose green because when I think about the word "life" or think about any living thing at all that color comes to my mind...with the words "fertility"and "growth" attached to it. The swirls are to show a process is being done here. The man is drawn in a sketchy manner to show that HE as a man is being made into something physical. As of now you can still see through him. His face and hands are not complete yet because the process is not over .

The man is drawn in this smokey manner to represent his "spirit man"/soul. He is reared back in this overwhelming pose as if something is just over taking him. I'd imagine if we could be alive somehow when we were being created it would be something like that as well.

"...from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being." I'm pretty obsessed with the idea of man's creation. I think about it a lot. For some reason ,something about the human body just really interests me. God knew what he was doing when he was constructing this creation that has skin and an armor type feel to the layout of his muscle anatomy. As if God knew 'man' was going to be a warrior of some sort, he gave him a breastplate to protect his heart and lungs, two of the most vital parts of His creation.

He also covered up one of the most sensitive parts with a coat of abdominal muscles. Covered the arms with the most practical set of muscles that allow you to function but still protect yourself in a way. I could go on and on about this but for times sake, I'll keep it short.. but the idea that we were next in line in the thoughts in God's head right after the earth was made.

Scripture said the land was covered in dirt or dust because God had not yet sent rain , he also didn't have anyone to work the earth for when it did rain...so he made man from the dirt. I love the fact that we were not accident and were designed for a purpose. I sit sometimes and think about how I create my own art for certain purposes and what not ...and I think about humans.. how we are all unique in one way or the other and have are own purposes of why we were made. That makes me want to find out so badly what I was originally supposed to do...instead of all the dumb things I choose to do in the process.

I will leave you with this, referring to the painting : when you feel incomplete or empty with no identity, or "no hands" and feeling incapable of doing anything....when you get to that point in life, I encourage you to rear back and let the breath of life overwhelm you and FLOW through you to let it finish 'Its' original purpose...to give us LIFE... and give it abundantly.

"Desire"

This picture I drew up while listening to Bob Dylan's `Desire` album. What I tried to do in this one was create 3 images that went together to create 1 over all picture.

I'll start by saying that the album is amazing. When I was listening to it, I noticed it had a Mexican style to some of the songs, if not most of them. Enough so that I would say that album was heavily influenced by the culture one way or another.

So I will start explaining what I tried to capture. I don't know what scene you see when you look at this picture right off the bat, but like I said I merged 3 points of views into one, and here they are as I intended.

View 1: from the bottom of the page you see a sidewalk. Now let your eyes walk forward and step down off that sidewalk onto a dry& cracked dirt road. Looking over the old dusty street you see an old wooden clothes-line that stretches all the way across the road hanging poor laundry. On the far side of the street you then get to a shadowed "horizon" of a fire hydrant, a little fruit stand and some mounds of dirt or rock...then the big rock wall behind that, containing a few windows cut out of it.

Take a minute to look at the picture in the way that I just suggested.

View 2: starting from the sidewalk again at the bottom of the page...let your eyes go to the edge and then imagine that the big rock wall that was mentioned (in my last description) starts immediately at the edge of the side walk. Also imagine that the whole scene that I described in View one, is painted on the wall...and the top of the wall ends where the clouds and sky begin.

Again, take a moment to took at it in this perspective.

Lastly, View 3: start from the sun that is seen in the big cut out of the wall in the center of the page. Notice how the cut out resembles an acoustic guitar, the sun is then the middle hole on a guitar. The neck of the guitar runs from the right side of the cut out spot on the wall all the way up to the little tree that is on the other side of this natural rock wall, up at the top. The hat that you see blowing in the wind, is placed just above the guitar...where it would be if it were on the head of someone playing this "guitar". Go from the hat down to the clouds right below it. They take the formation of someone's arms if they were to be holding the guitar. Keep going down from there, the boots in the middle are placed there because that is about where the feet of a man would be that would be playing this guitar...I know they are not to scale but I didn't want to make it too obvious that I was trying to put an invisible man playing a guitar in the middle of this picture. =)

When I was listening to this album those colors came to mind...the burnt orange... against that bright blue sky... just think an old Mexican villa or something. For those who may not know this album has a lot of guitar strumming in it...which influenced the overall hidden guitar player.

I hope you understood what I was trying to explain...and more so.. I hope you enjoyed the over all turn out of this picture.

"Nightmare"

I was riding in the back seat of our families' old town car down an abandon road in the middle of the night, I'm 3 years old and holding a toy dinosaur in my lap. My brothers are sitting to my left and I'm by the door behind the passenger seat. The door immediately flies open and I fall out of the car and on to the road. To my surprise I'm not injured but more astonishing than that...my family does not notice a thing...and they keep driving off into the night.

I'm sitting there on my knees holding my toy in shock with what had just happened. Instantly fear surrounded me and I had never felt this kind of abandonment before in my life. I frantically search for someone close by to help me, but i find nothing but fields. I crawl a little ways and to my surprise there is a Hardee's drive thru window...the weird thing is, its just a window, and there is no sign on it to tell me its Hardee's I just knew that it was.

Behind that window is an 18 or so year old girl working. I crawl up to it to ask for help...but nothing comes out. Again with the fear, its cold and pierces straight threw my chest. In desperation I attempt to bang my toy on the glass to get her attention. She looks down at me with the blankest stare...chewing gum with her mouth open the entire time she lazily replies to my knocking with a " I'm sorry babe I cant help ya"...and turns around and walks off.

I remember the heavy feeling of desperation and loneliness that came upon me right after that. I had never felt so vulnerable and deserted in my life. "My family had no idea i was gone, or if they did they did not care about me enough to come back and look for me." I thought. It felt like my stomach had split wide open and I was exposed and cold and confused on top of all of that. I turn around and look up at the moon across the road and to my surprise...I see the picture that I have posted. It's my families car balanced perfectly on a power line eclipsing the moon. I knew then that I would never see my family again. That feeling that arose in me at that point was so horrible that it woke me up from the FIRST and worst nightmare I have EVER had, that I can remember. Yes, this all was a nightmare.

Why I remember this still, I have no idea. It has just stuck with me to this day. I was like 4 or 5 I think when I had experienced this. I have no idea what the meaning of this dream was. All I know is I rather die than to experience any of those feelings to that same caliber. I think that is why it woke me up...they say you can't die in a dream...I have found that to be true so far but im sure if that dream would of went on any longer I would of died for sure.

"Never in One Spot ...Forever in My Heart"

This is a combination of my art work and a true story.

A little over a year ago I was about 30 minutes south of where I live at a friend's house. At the time me and the friend were doing discipleship training out of the NIV's One Year Bible.


Well later that night after it was all over with. I was heading home and got to the old familiar fork in the road that I would hit every week leaving his house. Now, I'm not one of those people that just go the same way every time out of habit. If I go the same way, it's because it's more practical than going the other. That being said... I have no idea why I chose the "other way" that night, but I did, and I'm so glad.

I was pulling on the interstate to head back home and on the On Ramp my headlights shine on this man walking with his thumb out. So I started to think about picking him up-cuz after all why in the world was I wasting my time driving 30 minutes a week to study all that I was and never put "Jesus" to practice. I quickly sized the man up and realized... IF...worst came to worst, I would be OK and able to manage my self against this stranger.

So I say, " AH...I'll go for it"... so I pull over and pick him up. I drive a little truck so I told him to throw his bags in the back and sit in the cab with me. After all I had no idea what he had in those bags so, I didn't want to take any chances, ya know? So, he does just that, and I'm trying to just focus on this guy's need more than anything else. We start talking and I tell him that I'm only able to take him a few exits north.. because I gotta get home and up for work the next day, and he was ok with that.

We get in to town and after engaging in 30 minutes of conversation with the man, I thought it was only appropriate to see if he was hungry, so I offer him some food (in hopes to maybe fulfill another need of his, considering how late it was and his location when I picked him up-not a restaurant in site). We got to Hardees and I go a head pay for his food in case he didn't have money. So we eat and delight in more conversation. I then get a call from my friends telling me that they are hanging up town for a bit, so I decided to go see them...and yes... with the "Dude".

After a bit of "hanging out" lol...me and the "Hitch-hiker" are then just driving around and I ask him where he is headed off to tonight after I drop him off, and he replies with out hesitation..."ahh, I'm just gonna crash under the over pass and head out tomorrow...it's getting too late to walk anymore." ...Now, I had been hanging out with this guy all night and I never saw any strings attached from his words to my heart, until that last sentence.

Now if i were to have a book of "codes" along the lines of "codes of conduct" these two would be on the first page: 1. never walk in the rain, nor LET any one else walk in the rain. and 2. NEVER let any other human sleep on concrete under an overpass!. hahaha... I dont even know if sleep can even be achieved in such conditions. However, after he told me that, I offered him a bed/fold up mattress that I had. lol. During our dinner conversation, I had noticed that he was talking about how a photographer once asked to take his picture while he was flying his sign. The man said yes and allowed the college student to do so. Well, I then asked him if he would care if I did as well, after all he was going to make for a great subject. He allowed me to and was thrilled because he was planning on giving his brother the copy.

As the night ended, we popped in the 1987 Batman, ya know the on with Jack Nicholson as the "Joker", haha well based on what the guy told me... it had been a month since he last watched ANYTHING...so I figured, "alright! =) we are watching this!" The night ends and the morning comes and we go our separate ways. His name was Henry Wiley and he was headed to Aurora Illinois. He is also the man in the picture at the top of my post. He was a great guest and a very adventurous soul. He LOVED traveling the way he did and had a ton of priceless stories. He also was a walking GPS ha ha ha. I guess I should of seen that last one coming right? =)

But, I created this picture a while after that night...the story tells you all the meaning of it, so I don't have a lot too this left to explain... it's more just set up like an old memory with a timeless feeling to it... I have no idea where he is today. Sadly, I lost the information he gave me that had his brother's address on it ... so I could mail him that picture... I don't think I have felt so horrible in my life about something. However, I know my actions that night met some needs in that man's life, may it be the ride, the food, the conversation, or just the shelter...or hey- could have been that Batman Movie haha... but in all seriousness, I did my best fighting against "paranoia"..."fear"...and the "what people would say", just to give this guy ONE piece of comfort in his life. Even if it were only for a few hours total.

One of my favorite scriptures..."what ever you have done for the least of these...you have done unto me"-Jesus

"Pride"

This one is part of a "Seven Deadly Sins" series that I'm doing but have not finished yet. I tried to capture the effects of pride from what I knew first hand.

The young man in the picture has reached his limit with the demon. He is balled up on his knees grabbing his face and hair out of torment, because he realizes what the demon has to offer him ...and that is truly nothing but a form of pain.

If you look at where the character is sitting in the room he is in, you will see that he is just about in the corner. That is to just symbolize discomfort in his life. I don't know anyone who "likes" being in corners lol...physically or metaphorically. To show more discomfort, I put him on his knees on a hardwood floor in dark spot, again to give you this idea that he has lived some sort of life before he arrived where he is at in this picture. His life has reached a crucial point...he is realizing how he is living is not working and , or some how ended up very alone and tormented.

Now, I view pride as a demon that dwells in or tries to influence people, or has influenced all of us. I love the "Pride comes before the fall" scripture...because I have found it to be so true. In this picture "Pride" has reached his full potential in the man and is pulling himself out to show himself off. Pride is proud, arrogant, and boastful. Those are traits that we all hate but coincidentally enough, traits we tend to carry ourselves. In the picture "Pride" is attempting to fill the room with his presence, hands on his side with his chest out bowing "hot air" to stay true to his nature. Notice that he is still attached to the man though...

Like I had mentioned before, the man is at a crucial point in his life. Although he has came to the realization he has been overtaken by this sin, that still does not rid himself from it. I believe, not only by observations on other people, but first hand that the only way possible to rid yourself of any demon that can attach its self to your personality or lifestyle, is out of our power range for the most part. I believe we can do nothing with out the help of Christ in our lives...at least nothing that produces any good healthy fruit for yourself or others.

If I look back on my life and moments or occasions where I've "risen to the top", I have always seemed to "fall back to the bottom" somehow. Sometimes this is hard for me because I will think it over and a lot of times and overlook what actually made me take that fall back down. Other times it's been a little more obvious. After time goes by and a ton of pondering ...lol. I can see clearer at what it was that led me down that path... and I have to be honest with myself and accept the fact that I either gave in to pride at some point... or tried it out, however you wanna look at it.

Pride is one of those things too where it takes the effect of walking away from the dinner table with the table cloth stuck in the back of your pants. (don't ask me how it got there just pretend it is there). So imagine this with me if you will. You get up from the table and walk away from everyone else not realizing what is actually attached to ya because you are only thinking of building up yourself... so you walk off with your chin held high saying " Look at ME, look at what I did, what about ME?!, look at ME, cant stop ME", all these things we as humans have thought...the danger of only looking inward to yourself is, you tend to miss what is actually going on around you. You get up.... walk off with that table cloth still stuck to you...and leave a mess that every one else has to live with or experience as well...and a trail of some kind of destruction behind you. That could be physical or emotional...but is destruction nonetheless.

Its funny to me how many warning signs we all get in life to prevent us from thinking or acting in this way too. For instance: "there is no I in team"...those old "trust exercises"...if you don't know what those are, I'll tell ya: it's where one person stands on something high and they have a group of people underneath them. They then turn around where they cant see the people below and fall back...in hopes they catch will catch 'em. If you think about it ... any work environment you have ever been in... if they could do everything themselves...(the boss that is) then they wouldn't need to hire anyone. Right? lol . Its these small observations in life that can help you a ton, like I have said before...I haven't finished one semester in college and I'm able to see this...so I know anyone with half a brain can agree with me here and realize life isn't JUST about us. Fellowship with other people, caring for other people, and just straight up practicing that "GOLDEN RULE" we are all taught when we were little..."do unto other as you would have them do unto you",can help your life out tremendously.

Why we tend to think we can do it all by ourselves, I'll never understand. It's ironic that there are men and women with such intelligence about everything... but somehow can still miss the simple equations in life, and the most effective I think, too. The equation is this... I'm obviously not alone on this planet, so me not thinking or caring only of myself gives room for me to think or care about at LEAST 1 other person walking this great earth. If I do this ...and my "neighbor" does this as well...then we got now 4 "people just like that" that are going to be touched by this in some way...and it keeps growing.

"Stupid theory" you say?...well seems to me we already do that equation just backwards...we are taught now from day one to think and "take care" of ourselves first...the problem with that is ...we aren't able to meet ALL of our own needs...and when you think you can do it all, and push so hard to get that message out for all to see, and they see it...... people say, "OK" he's got it ... let's go"... and they leave. That then leaves you in the "Characters" place in my picture...and when you end up at the bottom, you got no choice but to look up, and ask for help ...and HE will come to your aid...He's been there the whole time... it's just hard to see when you're looking at yourself the entire time.