Rick writes:
I was showing this lettering to a friend last week and thought that you would enjoy the view and the story.
To orient yourself to this image, you are standing in our front hall, looking through the stained glass into our kitchen. Just below it on the other side is the kitchen sink.
When Maria moved into the house, she didn't want to look at a wall while doing dishes. So she studied with Carl Paulson, a local stained glass artist and then created this window.
Of course, she did the lettering that arches above. Later, we added the tangled frame to border the image when it came time to paint the front hallway again.
The lettering reads, "Deep within the midst of winter I finally learned there was in me an invincible summer."
Maria adds:
This is my adaptation of an Albert Camus quote. I say this because I had heard it translated a few different ways from the French. But at the time, I decided this is how it should read for me.
Most of the translations began with “In the midst . . . ,” but I had no desire to illuminate an “I”. . . so I changed it to a “D”. And, I added the “finally” because it took me a number of years to get to this realization.
I created the calligraphic addition to the stained glass at a time in my life where I needed a reminder to stay strong. I believe that waking each morning and seeing this changed my life. A simple reminder to keep looking up.
First I made the window. Five years later, on a Mother’s Day, I added the verse. Then thirty years later we added the border. I love this concept of adapting art as needed, giving it new life every now and then. It’s like moving the furniture around in a room. Same room, new look.
Rick continues:
My friend's visit inspired this blog post. As I showed him this quote, I paid attention to the word "finally." I think that word is key to Maria's writing of this quote. I have no doubt that each of us has "an invincible summer" within. We might believe it to be true, but belief is not the same as knowing. Sometimes it can require the "midst of [a] winter" to "finally" know and fully feel the inner invincibility of such a summer.
How much gratitude might Mr. Camus have had for that cold winter's midst which revealed to him the experience of his invincible summer?
We view life as an art form, an ever unfolding series of acts of imaginative creativity. No matter what may occur, no matter what accidental drops of ink fall, a sense of gratitude will always serve us well . . . even if it is to hold a sense of gratitude in anticipation of the warmth of an (inner) invincible summer.
In a magical turn of events, in 2014, we hired Maria's teacher’s son, Stephen Paulson to create a stained glass window for our porch. It reminds us each morning, as we admire the amazing composition and brilliant colors, what is most important in life.
P.S.
In the hallway photo above, check out the lampshade with its touch of knightsbridge. No surface is safe (from becoming more beautiful) in our home!
What is one of your favorite uplifting quotes? Please share in the comments below.
Enjoy!
P.P.S.
What tools did I use? The lettering was so long ago, but in looking at it just now . . . the black was definitely sign painter’s paint, very intense. The rest was some combination of acrylic/ gouache.
The tangles were most likely Sakura Graphic One. Or their Identipen. And graphite pencil shading.
It appears that I put a coat of urethane over the tangles but not the lettering.
M.
“Begin. Start right where you are. Consider your possibilities and find inspiration… to add more meaning and zest to your life.” by Alexandra Stoddard
Thank you again for adding meaning and zest to my life.
linda Stephens on
Vicki Walsh on
Find Your Joy in the Journey
These two quotes help sustain me. The first one is actually a decal on my car’s back window! I didn’t realize until later that the second part is the first part of Maria’s favorite saying "Anything is possible, one stroke at a time. I guess you could combine the two!
As I journey through chemo, Zentangle practice helps me focus and relax at the same time, allowing creative and healing thoughts to mix together, swirling in that never-ending dance.
Ginger White CZT #34 on
Find Your Joy in the Journey
These two quotes help sustain me. The first one is actually a decal on my car’s back window! I didn’t realize until later that the second part is the first part of Maria’s favorite saying "Anything is possible, one stroke at a time. I guess you could combine the two!
As I journey through chemo, Zentangle practice helps me focus and relax at the same time, allowing creative and healing thoughts to mix together, swirling in that never-ending dance.
Ginger White CZT #34 on
Alicia on
I feel like this is saying, when you put your intentions out to the Universe, and feel the feelings of what it feels like to experience the things you want, then, by the law of attraction, they will come to you. I wanted to draw, to create art with pen and paper. And then Zentangle appeared in my life. This has expanded into my learning to watercolor paint. It’s wonderful. So grateful.
Jacqueline Brewer on
Love this post! Two of my favorites: He who binds himself to a joy does the winged life destroy. But he who kisses the joy as it flies, lives forever in eternity’s sunrise. -William Blake
Think not that you can guide the course of love, for love as it finds you worthy, guides your course. -Kahlil Gibran
Leslie Hancock on
Karen Cargile on
Karen Cargile on
One of the quotes I often go back to is “Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.”
Soren Kierkegaard
Tonight I had the pleasure of seeing Rhiannon Giddens live in Massachusetts and she said (probably not exactly) “the only thing that we can control in this world is how kind we are—how kind to others and to ourselves”
Jessica M on
Lianne W on
Gratitude turns what we have into enough.
Angie Gittles, Czt on
Delightful post, as usual. I remember the glass and calligraphy from my visit ‘way back in 2010.
A quotation I’ve liked for a long, long time is from Anaïs Nin, “Life expands or contracts according to one’s courage.” I don’t always manage to embrace it, but it’s a good reminder at times!
Margaret Bremner on
I’ve always loved this quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson:
People seem not to see that their opinion of the world is also a confession of their character.
Maybe not “uplifting” per se… however, to me this is my self attitude check… to remember that what I think is what I am and to stay focused on the positives and to focus on seeing the good in everything around me and to watch how I react to situations that occur and come up in my life…
Linda Hunter on
How beautiful – the stained glass, the artwork AND the shared story. Thank you Rick and Maria. We have matching leadlight windows in doors and windows of our house supposedly from 100 years ago when the house was first built – but never thought of adding new creations, how inspiring. I have many favourite quotes, but one to share here is “Creativity is contagious, pass it on” – Albert Einstein
Michelle Dugdale CZT37 on
Annemarie Mcneil on
Thank you so much for this hearwarming and uplifting blog and wonderful pics. I have a lot of favourite quotes but at the moment it is:
Everything will be OK in the end – if it’s not OK, it’s not the end.
Oscar Wilde
Lisette Hofer on
I had that Camus quote on a poster in my room when I was in my teens. Always makes me smile to think about the poster and how it might have brightened those turbulent adolescent years.
Many of my favorite quotes in recent years have come from Albert Einstein, especially this one,
“Look deep into nature and you will understand everything better.”
Patricia Croisier on
An old Shaker quote
Suz on
«On ne voit bien qu’avec le cœur.
L’essentiel est invisible pour les yeux. »
Antoine de Saint Exupéry – Le Petit Prine
Isabelle Theodet, CZT EU 4 on
The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,
Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it.
~The Rubaiyat, Omar Khayyam
Or,
John Wesley’s Rule:
Do all the good you can
In all the ways you can
In all the places you can
To all the people you can
As long as ever you can.
Jessica Dykes on
Every noble work is at first impossible.
—Thomas Caryle
Jackie Saunders on
Annie Sargent, CZT33 on
Mary Jo Heyen on
Thank you for sharing this beautiful story & art.
Josephine Wood on