Brenda Stichter, artist

New Clearing I am once again posting from my recliner. I feel very thankful for a comfortable home where I can rest and heal safely from whatever it is that I did to hurt my ankle! (I remember the day, but I thought it would be fine and didn't go to the doctor right away, so we don't have a very clear picture of what happened to it.) And isn't it remarkable that I can be in touch with you as I sit here, since we have the internet and laptop computers and phones that can move to wherever we are? This past summer was a full summer for us, and several times we had trees down due to storms going through. The last storm that did damage to our property took down a huge tree in our pasture and a bunch of the stately giants in our woods. My heart was crushed by that devastation, because I love our woods. (Just to let you know, I have only been back there one or two times since the storms because of the aforementioned ankle injury!) The last time I walked there, I climbed through lo

Joy Is the Flag Flown High 20" x 16" acrylic on paper, $560 Available by contacting me directly.  If you follow me on social media, you may know that I am sidelined with an injury these days. I have to sit with my ankle either elevated or in an ice bucket, and it is curtailing most of my activity, as you can imagine, so this painting that you may have seen before will be my feature for today's blog post.  First, I am choosing to share this painting that is so joyful just because it has been challenging to find my own joy the last week or so. Not only am I grounded, but I have a close friend who has had serious difficulties from a cancer surgery at Mayo clinic, a friend who is walking away from his faith, and several other somewhat urgent prayer matters. (Well, one good thing is that I have plenty of opportunity to pray right now!) In response to, or maybe in fighting against some of these things, I am choosing joy. (Click here for the original blog post about this paintin

This morning I was up a little before my usual time, and I decided to read from my Dad's Bible for my quiet time. As I opened the pages, I found several pages of notes that he wrote, probably in preparation for teaching a Sunday School class. It felt strange to have Dad's thoughts being so 'alive' in my hand, when he has been gone for so long. (Dad passed away in 2000.) I love it that I have his Bible and notes. His hand moved across that page writing those notes, just as I had seen many times as I was growing up. His thoughts written there reminded me of adult Sunday School classes that I had attended when he was the teacher. It was almost as if time folded back on itself for a little while this morning.  48" x 18" Painted with artist quality heavy-body acrylic paint on 1.8” deep gallery wrapped canvas Edges painted black Click here to view or purchase on my website. You might notice my 'signature' use of three interlocking circles in this work, if yo