Small can be big

The below short video clip caught my attention because the artist interviewed shares a thought-provoking motive behind his awe-inspiring work.

He said that when he was a youth, his teacher’s made him feel very small. As he grew up, he rebelled against the notion that he was of no worth or value, and found a way to prove that what others might consider small is incredibly large with beauty, form and individuality worth noting--when one looks close enough!

Click here to see his amazing art:

In the eye of a needle

A beautiful face

To a true artist only that face is beautiful which,
quite apart from its exterior,
shines with the truth within the soul.

~ Mahatma Gandhi

More to see than apparent

While touring the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC, my wife and I came across the most fascinating work by American artist Stephen Hannock.

The mural is huge, eight to ten feet wide, and around 6 feet high.

The wonderment part of viewing the piece is, that as you walk closer to the canvas, at an unforeseen point, what you see in the picture is instantly transformed. You suddenly notice that lines and details in the painting are not plants and landscapes, but words that form stories. These phrases give historical facts and describe events that evidently happened in the location the painting depicts.

“Wow!” we exclaimed when we first noticed. A world within a world revealed itself before our gaze that was not apparent from a distance.


It’s impossible to tell in the picture I’ve inserted here, but if you look closely, you’ll see rows of crops in the fields, and light brown lines across the horizon in the forests.

These rows and lines are sentences. The mural is filled with thousands of words that tell stories. Some sentences are very long. Some are a few words. But the verbiage is everywhere you look.

What an eye-popper when you first notice!

I thought about the larger spiritual lessons to learn.

People are this way.

When first meeting a stranger, you might sum them up in general terms about what your eye takes in. You might draw broad characterizations about their personality from how they look. But when you get to know the person better, you begin to see “the writing in the lines.” You discover marvelous qualities, talents and attributes in that individual that were not initially apparent.

And the same rule applies for getting to know each other spiritually.

To the mortal eye, friends and neighbors appear as landscapes of mortality—material bodies with physical features. But when you search them spiritually, and strive to see them close up the way God made them to begin with, you begin to take in the spiritual detail God inscribed into their being.

Instead of seeing hair color, body proportions, height and weight, you see the nature of God expressed through the kindness, wisdom, strength or character they embody. You see the words of God written into the tablet of their being...“Precious child of God, beloved and cared for, valued and worthy...”

The old cliché “see the handwriting on the wall,” has taken on new meaning for me!

The handwriting is always before us, and if we look close enough, we’ll see it.
We did in the above piece of art! And we’re all the artwork of God.

Miniature works of art

God’s universe is filled with infinite wonders. Occasionally we stumble across one of those wonders that is so out of the ordinary that it drops your jaw in awe. Willard Wigan’s works of art is one of those occasions.

Willard Wigan was born in Birmingham, England in 1957 and is the creator of the smallest works of art on earth…he is now emerging as the most globally celebrated micro-miniaturist of all time and is literally capable of turning a spec of dust into a vision of true beauty…

Here are a couple of examples.

Peter Pan, Tinkerbell and friends on a fishhook

The Statue of Liberty in the eye of a needle

Check out his web site for many more.

Amazing sidewalk art

Have you seen the amazing 3D sidewalk art photos of Julian Beever?

Beever’s displays attest to the truth that we truly live in a universe of infinite Mind where there are no limits to imagination and creativity.

Julian Beever short bio

More Beever photos

Rigid categorization

I find thought provoking ideas in the most unexpected places.

Julia Cameron, author of the international bestseller “The Artist’s Way,” a book that has become a classic on creative discovery for countless aspiring artists around the world, wrote a follow-up book titled “Walking in this world.” A reviewer of this new volume wrote

Cameron shows us how to inhabit the world with a sense of wonder, a childlike inquisitiveness that each of us was born with. "Great artists are actually great amateurs," she writes. "They have learned to wriggle out of the seriousness of rigid categorization and allow themselves to pursue the Pied Piper of delight."

The words “rigid categorization” leaped off the page when I read this. “…pursue the Pied Piper of delight,” lit me up like a lightbulb.

Rigid categorization. Wow! What a concept to contemplate, I felt.

Have you ever been victimized by rigid categorization? Here’s a few examples that crossed my mind:

“But this is the way they always done it.”
“You can’t do that. It hasn’t been done before.”
“You are too young.”
“You are too old.”
“You don’t have enough education.”
“I get up. I eat breakfast. I go to work. I come home. I eat. I go to bed. That’s what I do.”
“I was born. I grow up. I earn a living. I retire. I die.”

Can you think of any others? There are thousands…

I haven’t read Cameron’s book, but I can easily relate to the concept of rigid categorization from a spiritual point of view. To grow spiritually, we must not let our thinking be paralyzed and frozen in apathy and inaction by the rigid categorization of mortal mind.

By “mortal mind” I mean all the worldly ways of reasoning that discourage worthy ambition and fresh creative endeavor.

Twenty years ago, when I wanted to go into the full-time practice of Christian Science, I was besieged by rigid categorization. “You can’t afford to quit your job. You aren’t spiritually minded enough. You’re too young. You’ll fail. It’s too hard,” and more doubts and fears worked overtime to stop my progress. I had to face them all down, and I did by knowing all things are possible with God. I followed my “Pied Piper of delight,” and embarked down a path that has taken me into the happiest most worthwhile career I can ever imagine myself in.

Are you fighting rigid categorization in some form? It’s time to wake up and protest. Break out of the prison cell of tradition and get going with your progressive idea. All the help you need is coming from God. And as you truly trust His provision each step of the way, that right idea will come to fruition.

Making a difference through art

Alex Cook is a muralist, sculptor, poet, musician, and storyteller who lives what he loves. Living in the Boston area, he works as a multi-talented artist and helps other budding artists aspire to their artistic desires too.

Check out some of the scenes his mural painting program for teens has produced in his community. This activity not only directs the energies and talents of local youngsters in a productive way, it beautifies the environment they live in.

A practicing Christian Scientist, Alex is guided by a spiritual view to his work that permeates his whole sense of being. "I have come to see that my whole life in art," he says.

Thank you Alex for sharing your beautiful thoughts in the form of paintings, murals, music, and more for the rest of us to enjoy, plus helping others aspire to similar good works.

You can view Alex's art at www.stonebalancer.com.