Resolved

This year will see much more activity on the blog. Going to start the creative challenge, practicing for a quick draw charity auction, and am putting all the pieces in place to start offering art production for hire. Should be a fun ride.

Catching up

Well, golf season is now over. My team took first place. Had a great vacation in upper Michigan. Took lots of photos. Celebrated twenty two years with my lovely wife. Looking forward to the next twenty plus. Watched a friend spend two months next to his wife in ICU. Watched his joy as she recovered.

Not much in the way of drawings to talk about. However, I have numerous photos to go through and will be posting the best of the best to Fine Art America.

I offered to retouch photos damaged in the flooding in North Dakota. Didn't have any takers -- they must be "all digital" up there. So if you know someone who had some photos damaged by flooding by the overflowing banks of the Missouri River in 2011, send me an email.

Kh

When art transcends reality.

Awhile back I drew two drawings for a friend of mine of their dog. The comment made was that I captured her spirit more than any photo could. Well, two days ago my friend said they had to put their dog down. Fourteen years of love and affection ending with such a difficult decision. I was humbled when she expressed how special my drawings were to them now that their friend and companion was no longer around.

That is why I prefer to do custom drawings over some "commercialized" image. It warmed my heart to hear of the emotional value my art had for them.

Kurt

First week of golf league today.

So, why does an art blog start with golf? Parallels.

Let me explain. When you tee up that blank canvas you have all the potential in the world to hit a great shot. You make your strokes with confidence. You can find yourself in the fairway or behind a tree. Makes no difference, just keep stroking away until the hole is complete. Some holes are good, some exciting, and some just don't work. It is the same with art. Not all the images work well and some are more exciting than others. But one piece of art does not a round make. Whether your last piece of art was great or didn't work does not mean it is time to quit. Time for the next hole.

Whether you feel a post of mine works or doesn't, just let me play through to the next hole and enjoy the day sharing some creativity with you.

Hope we have great time.

Kurt

Prints for sale.

You can now purchase prints of my artwork at KurtHoldorf.com. I encourage you to explore the matting and framing options so you can see how easy it is to use. The mobile art studio should get a lot of use this summer so check back every couple of weeks to see new art postings.

Thanks!

Kurt

Christmas explained.

Hebrews 9:22 states "In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness"

An odd way to start a discussion about Christmas to be sure. But this one passage, in my humble opinion, is the basis for both Christmas and Easter transpiring the way they did. In fact, I will go so far as to show that they had to go down the way they did.

Plain logic is what I will use.

The Covenant of the old testament involved the shedding of blood to atone for a sin (forgiveness). That is what is meant "the law requires."

God felt a need to change the covenant. Don't know why but it doesn't matter for understanding. If God all of the sudden says "Whoa, let's stop doing this and start doing that, disregard what I said before." That is not very stable. Wouldn't take long for people to tire of a god like that.

However, to change the covenant and still have the first covenant fulfilled, a blood sacrifice would have to still cover all sins. What earthly thing could be sacrificed and be so amazing that all sins for all people for the rest of humanity would be forgiven? I can't think of anything that impressive.

That's where Christmas comes in. Something greater than anything in this world would have to shed blood, so something had to come to earth. Not only would it have to be not of this world, but perfect. We wouldn't be able to appreciate the blood covering our sin unless we had a common reference point. Hence human form. To further the pattern of loving forgiveness, the human lived a perfect life and took on a child/parent status so we would further understand the significance of the blood that would be shed.

One shedding of blood covering billions of people's sins. Only something so extreme would seem to have relevance for such a long time. If the one big sacrifice was a perfect animal, Christianity would have died shortly after the animal. Even if the sacrifice was a regular human, the significance would not fly for this long. God had to come to us. Not because He needed it that way, but because we would need it that way.

That brings us to Easter--the fulfillment of the first covenant and the beginning of the new covenant. What is that new covenant? Love.

Why did we need Christmas and Easter? For the example of true love.

In Matthew 22:36, we learn that love is what ALL the teachings were about in both the old and new agreements between God and people. After all, the Bible says God is love.

Ok, both Christmas and Easter are connected. They represent a transition in the agreement between God and people. The emphasis changed from "the rules" to "salvation from the rules." The pattern for true love is given.

Unfortunately, we've turned both holidays into materialistic happy times. How about we start a trend and make them loving happy times. Find somebody to share a loving moment with this Christmas.

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Kurt Holdorf

Kurt@kurtholdorf.com

New Web Site

I refocused my website to highlighting my pencil drawings. I'll be participating in a Quick Drawing contest at the Black Hills Rodeo so thought it would be a good time to retire the desk and drawers. It was a lot of fun working on that site but time to move on.

If you miss the old site, just go to www.kurtholdorf.com/old/ and it should be working.

The new site will be gaining new features and tidbits along the way that stay focused on the illustrations. Hope you enjoy.

Kurt