A Second Look at a Christmas Card No 5: The Mouth Speaking

The first thing that struck me about these two cards was how beautiful they were, though they are very different paintings and arrived on different days.  On the face of it the Nativity and a rural snow-scene are the least remarkable of pictures on a Christmas card but something about these is special.  

On turning to the back of them it becomes all the more amazing yet also more explicable.  These are both copies of paintings by mouth artists.  The painstaking attention they exhibit derives from the challenge that the artist faces in delivering any painting and the relative care and pride in the work they do.

This is somewhere near the beauty of the painstaking gift of God at Christmas. 

Holiday Pics - No 1 Peace and War

Friends post lovely holiday pictures on Facebook.  Except that about this time in August it is hard to look at another 32 pictures from wherever having seen 932 already!  I virtuously posted only five.  So far.  On this blog I've decided to post some different ones that I can write about.

This picture comes from Malta.  I think it is fairly idyllic though on the wall to the right is a solemn reminder of one of the many great conflicts that the island has been involved in - in the case of the War Rooms here the Second World War.

With a bit of preacher's squeeze-a-meaning there is a lesson here about the transitory nature of this world's idylls.  But I didn't need that.  The point about this picture is that - like all photographs - it is silent.  As no people, animals or vehicles can be seen it even lacks the implied sound that many photos contain.  This was not, however, a silent scene at all.

It was a very hot afternoon. Mad dogs and Englishmen (let the reader decide which I am) went out in the midday sun, locals stayed indoors - as here.  Stayed indoors but did not stay quiet.  At the moment I took this photo two women were having the most ear-splitting row in the building at the top of the stairs.  I mean the sort of row that one half expected to end in a scream with someone being pushed over a balcony.

 

Sunshine doesn't reach the human heart, though it can greatly affect our skein.