The Dancer

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This drawing is the work of Rick Ball, a fine Australian artist who has 'gone missing' .. we think, at least in the art world which is a sad loss. ( Sunday 11th January 2009 .... I discovered by referring to google.com.au .. that Rick is not missing AND he is not lost to the world of Art. For me - no, for Jocelyn and I - both of these statements are important. We valued our contact with him as person and as I noted in the side notes of this blogspot I valued him as teacher / aesthete ... it was more than art )
While this drawing has a particular title it belongs to a number of works Rick drew connected to "David's Dance" ... King David's 'uninhibited display of exuberance recorded in 2 Samuel 6.
The thought of a political leader dancing and leaping with joy before God appealed to Rick"

cf reference in Dawn Mendham's book "The Refining Fire" an Albatross publication 0 86760 035 7.

You might consider a visit to Rick's website www.rickball.com.au

This drawing draws attention to one who is severely limited yet he / she ... the figure also dances. Yes, he may not achieve yet he continues to reach out ... to dance.

Recollections and some reflections.

In April 2001 Jocelyn and I visited the Queensland Art Gallery. The "Picasso to Renoir" Exhibition.
I purchased a blank book with Andre Derain's painting entitled 'Harlequin and Pierrot' ( 1924).
This painting by Derain was attractive, enjoyable then decidedly confronting. The soundless musicians in a barren landscape. The challenge is to reach beyond this for if the One who breathes life into dead people walking AND has done so to me then where I am, a sign of that life, at least, should be. AND do I have a song to sing? At times it seems no.
This is what I wrote on the first page of this wordless book.
(Maybe in this noiseful world the only Words available to speak are the words of silence. ... Jan. 2009 )

December 2002 and I take Chaim Potok's book "The Chosen" to read at Lennox Head - a beach side vacation. .... Danny, speaking to Reuven indicates that his father would wish that everyone would " talk in silence" ... the story addresses the delights and awful pain of friendship .... the importance of the word yet the destruction words also bring.
"A word is worth one coin. silence is worth two" a note from the Talmud.
"Silence was ugly, it was black. it leared. it was cancerous, it was death" .......

"Silence talks to me sometimes .... you have to want to listen to it and then you can hear it. ... sometimes it cries and you can hear the pain of the world in it" It hurts to listen to it then. But you have to. ..." (p 259)

"The Chosen" Chaim Potok a penguin book ISBN 0 14 003094 8

The Absent Father and the Word became Flesh

The Absent Father ( father ) in the lives of children ... of families ...... of societies ..... remains a tragedy to be addressed.

Yet ..... the announcement that the Word became flesh and dwelt amongst us becomes the divine answer which sadly is often ignored even at Christmas when the affirmation is made so loudly.

Obviously this is a putting on notice that this is a theme I wish to explore this coming year. Gathering up material from research done in the past and the reminder in Rowan Williams' book "Dostoevsky Language. Faith and Fiction" will inform some of what is to follow.