Eliot Erlandson - Avanti Awards - Magna Cum Laude

I am very proud of my son Eliot, who just competed in the 2nd Annual Avanti Awards , organized by a group called Stellar Scholars. Out of a large and high-quality group of entries this year, he was able to snag the 2nd Place Award (Magna Cum Laude).

It wasn't easy, either. We bought Eliot some 3D rendering software, but it was taking too long to learn, and the model of the car he had sketched months before continued to languish on his laptop, unfinished. The deadline was rushing at him. Finally, he gave up and rendered it in Paint Shop Pro. Originally, he designed it in gold, but one of the organizers requested he change it to red. Here are both versions:





And here are some photos from the awards ceremony. The theme this year was Avanti meets Mustang, and there was a very nice car show along with the event! (In the picture of the 3 winners, Eliot is the one standing closest to the young lady in the gold dress, who presented the trophies.)

The Passing of Dr. Peter Toon

As a lover of the Book of Common Prayer, as an Anglican, I must pause here to mourn the death of Dr. Peter Toon.

Read about it here.

May light perpetual shine upon Dr. Toon. May the souls of the faithful departed rest in peace.

My Art Work Will Be For Sale

One of the things that has limited me as a visual artist, as I mentioned here, is that I am very slow at it. That means my output is limited and so there are just not many of my paintings to be had. But now, thanks to a site called RedBubble, this will be changing. Various types of prints of many of my paintings will soon be available there for purchase. Some are already available, such as this one:



This is the painting of mine that comes closest to Photorealism. Many people have mistaken it for a photograph, in fact. I had it at an open-air Art Fair years ago, and very few people gave it a second glance. They thought it was simply a large photographic print. I'm particularly pleased with the success I had in rendering the chrome.

Please go and check my RedBubble site from time to time. More works will be added soon!

Props to My Father-in-Law

Any way you measure it, my in-laws are amazing people. Each of them has decades of competitive running to their credit. For many years, they went on bicycle camping trips every summer, on which they rode many hundreds of miles, some of it in very hilly terrain.

One year they rode bicycles across Death Valley.

In July.

Individually and together, they have maintained a decades-long testimony to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. But what I love about their brand of spirituality is that it has physical manifestations. Long after their age-peers have retired from active pursuits, they continue to push themselves to achieve amazing things.

My father-in-law, Don Walkwitz, will turn 76 next month. Over the weekend, he ran a 5K race in 24 minutes, 52 seconds at the Get Fit Tulsa event. Here, I will do the math for you: That is an average of exactly 8 minutes per mile for the 3.1 mile course!

In this race, my father-in-law beat guys in their 60s, 50s, 40s, 30s, and 20s. If I had been in Tulsa that day, he'd have beaten me, too.

Godspeed, Don!

A New Painting

I consider myself a serious painter. Whether others do, I cannot tell. My volumetric output is tiny, because I am only able to do it part time, and because I work so slowly. Still, when I achieve the look I intended for a painting, it makes me happy.

This one makes me happy.

It seems odd to me that, with all its sunny exuberance, I finished the painting on Good Friday. However, considering how our Lord spent that Friday evening (the harrowing of hell), perhaps it is not so incongruous after all.

Beautifully Understated

Since the day I first discovered Anglicanism, I have appreciated one thing about its particular aesthetic, and that is how it likes to speak in reserved tones, with all things beautifully understated.

So, imagine my delight to read the following words from the The Rt. Rev’d Wendell N. Gibbs, Jr., bishop of the Diocese of Michigan, in commenting on EDOMI's current financial woes:¹

We are in a different financial place than where we were even 6 short months ago.

I cannot help picturing a group of Episcopal bishops, gathered together indaba-ing in the Afterlife, when one bishop offers in a solemn tone:

We are in a warmer place than heretofore.

¹The letter from Bishop Gibbs goes on to say: The reality is that our anticipated revenue for 2009 and beyond will not exceed $2,000,000 annually (and may actually be less as we have not yet received all of the 2008 Parochial Reports that were due on March 1). We currently have a budget of $2,985,835.

So, EDOMI has a budget of about $3 Million, with projected revenues of less than $2 Million.

Lenten Thoughts of a High Anglican

Here is a poem I like, appropriate to the season, from John Betjeman.

Lenten Thoughts of a High Anglican

Isn't she lovely, "the Mistress"?
With her wide-apart grey-green eyes,
The droop of her lips and, when she smiles,
Her glance of amused surprise?

How nonchalantly she wears her clothes,
How expensive they are as well!
And the sound of her voice is as soft and deep
As the Christ Church tenor bell.

But why do I call her "the Mistress"
Who know not her way of life?
Because she has more of a cared-for air
Than many a legal wife.

How elegantly she swings along
In the vapoury incense veil;
The angel choir must pause in song
When she kneels at the altar rail.

The parson said that we shouldn't stare
Around when we come to church,
Or the Unknown God we are seeking
May forever elude our search.

But I hope that the preacher will not think
It unorthodox and odd
If I add that I glimpse in "the Mistress"
A hint of the Unknown God.