Waitsel's Blog

The Fanciful Furniture (and Life) of T. J. Stone

by waitsel on April 24, 2013

Article and Photos by Waitsel Smith

I’ve talked about Lenoir before – a beautiful little town nestled in the foothills of North Carolina, the Gateway to the Smokey Mountains. Now I’d like to tell you about one of its residents, T. J. Stone.

T. J. Stone was a man who cared little for conventions and traditions if they interfered with his fanciful mind. He was born in 1874 in Thomasville, NC to Quakers. Little is known of his childhood, nor is it clear what drew T. J. to furniture; but in 1895, at the age of 21, he left for New York City to study carving – the same year that George Vanderbilt was finishing the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, NC. We don’t know with whom he studied or for how long; but in 1899, he married Rosetta Triplet – making her Rosetta Stone! – and moved to Lenoir, NC. [click to continue…]

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The Daffodil Principle Revisited

by waitsel on April 24, 2013

Getting Past the Sap to the Fire and Blood of Real Life

I recently opened my 12-year-old Apple laptop, after having neglected it for over five years, and, as I expected, it still worked. (I was surprised, though, at how small and insignificant the desktop looked, compared to my present one.) On it, I found something I had saved called “The Daffodil Principle.” If you aren’t familiar with that particular cultural phenomenon, Google “daffodil principle” and find a version that doesn’t have sappy music playing in the background, because the story itself is sappy enough without adding to it. That’s not to say I don’t like “The Daffodil Principle” – I do. What I don’t like is what people have done with it. Most likely, it started out as a journal entry by a lady named Jaroldeen Asplund Edwards about a daffodil farm near her home. What it has become, though, is the pinnacle of what I would call the “fortune cookie approach to life.” In other words, give me a message I can feel good about for the next two hours, and I’m good to go. Kind of like mental caffeine.

As Edwards tells it, she tried to get her mother to come see the daffodil farm while it was in full bloom, but the lady resisted. After basically tricking her into seeing it, she was overwhelmed by its glory. It was five acres of different varieties of daffodils planted in flowing, swirling patterns of yellow. Among the flowers, there was a sign that read, “Answers to the Questions I Know You Are Asking: 50,000 bulbs. One at a time, by one woman. Two hands, two feet, and one brain. Began in 1958.”

Now for the moral (or fortune cookie message) of the story: [click to continue…]

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Hanging Out in Galilee

by waitsel on March 17, 2013

Past Work, 1984-1986

In 1983, after three diligent years of trying to establish myself as a fine artist in Charlotte, NC, I accepted a job as an illustrator for a Christian publishing house in western Ohio. Those were idyllic years: living in the country, riding my bike on flat roads, hobnibbing with other artists and creative people, actually enjoying winters… Most of the pictures I did were of scenes from the Bible. At first I had a friend from college, who was doing Biblical research for the same organizaton, advise me on the historical, anthropological and archiological details of my assignments. Then I became enthralled with the research and began doing it myself. The whole experience was a lot of fun – almost like being a resident artist and having the time to draw and paint what I liked, with some limitations.

During this same period, some friends and I began taking art lessons from a teacher named Frank Liljegren. Frank specialized in still lifes. So, every Monday night, when we would show up at his studio, there would be a new, and usually very interesting, still life he had assembled for us to draw. He let us work in whatever medium we liked. I would usually draw in pastel or sketch in my sketchbook. It was a breath of inspiration that I believe took me to the next level in my art. Frank was a very generous, under-appreciated artist who had once lived in New York and had left under somewhat mysterious circumstances. I felt he was a diamond tucked away in a very rough part of mid-America.

All the pictures in this article are available as prints. For information on how to purchase, go to the bottom of this page.

The company I worked for published books and magazines with Biblical themes. When I would get an assignment, the first thing I would do is research the subject. Then I would have one or more of my buddies pose for me. From the photos I had taken, I would draw sketches and, in the process, add background and costumes out of my imagination.

These are some of the sketches for the watercolor painting above. The subject is the scene in Christ’s life in which He tells Peter to go catch a fish in the Sea of Galilee and find in its mouth a coin with which they can pay the tax collectors. This was obviously a miracle; but there was also an ancient custom of people throwing coins into the sea as a sacrifice to God. The fish, attracted by the color and sparkle of the coins, would swallow them. So God had prepared for this miracle in advance.

[click to continue…]

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Pop Culture Christianity

by waitsel on March 16, 2013

Should Christian culture imitate the world’s culture?

Family Force 5 and Prince

Who is influencing whom? Traditionally, the Church has influenced the world. But that trend has reversed itself over the past 100 years.

God has sent us out as lights in the midst of darkness and sheep among wolves – not lights disguised as darkness nor sheep in wolves’ clothing. When will we accept the fact that God made us a “peculiar” people for a reason? (Exodus 19:5; Deuteronomy 14:2; 26:18; Psalm 135:4; Titus 2:13; I Peter 2:9 – KJV)

Christian Music – Part 4

In the last 100 years, Pop Culture has eclipsed the Arts in this country. We have become a culture of transient entertainment rather than of lasting values. Even the Church has bought into this mindset, as the Apostle Paul predicted it would in 2 Timothy 4:3: “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires.” Civilizations whose primary goal is to be entertained – as is ours and as was the Romans’ – eventually collapse. What is the difference between Pop Culture and the Arts? Basically, it is a difference in values. We put the Arts into museums and concert halls, but Pop Culture ends up in the trash. Compare, for example, the comics in the Sunday paper with the paintings hanging in the National Gallery in Washington, DC. Even though the comics bring you momentary pleasure, would you risk your life to save them if your house caught fire? Of course not. Yet, you would try to save a Rembrandt painting if you owned one. Why? Because the painting, unlike the comics, has two qualities that we in our society value most: [click to continue…]

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Music is Spiritual

by waitsel on March 16, 2013

Christian Music – Part 3

Three things convince me of the spirituality of music: 1) the Bible, combined with nature and logic; 2) the opinions of some of the greatest minds in history; and 3) my own experience, plus that of other musicians and singers. In this article, I will cover the first two.

First, the Bible, combined with nature and logic. What is the most mundane, filthy thing mentioned in the Bible? Plus, what is the one subject Jesus addressed more than any other? The answer to both questions is money. Why would Jesus have spent so much time talking about money if it weren’t a spiritual thing? Yet, it is called “filthy lucre” in scripture (KJV). I can’t tell you how many of the greatest minds of the Church have written and spoken on the spirituality of money and/or the spiritual importance of the decisions we make regarding it. Are you going to tell me that music, which is used by heavenly beings and mankind alike to worship God, is less spiritual than money?

God is a God of order. The first thing He did in the beginning was to bring order out of chaos. Music does the same thing: it brings harmonious order out of a chaos of sounds. Otherwise, music is just noise. It is the order that makes it music. In that regard, it is the most godly of all the Arts. No other Art comes closer to imitating what God did in the beginning. For that reason, among others, music has always been exalted above the other Arts, and the Arts have been exalted above all other human activities. (See the quotes below, especially the one by John Adams near the end.) [click to continue…]

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Love God More

by waitsel on March 16, 2013

Love God More

In Fireproof, after Caleb destroys his computer with a baseball bat, he replaces it with a vase of red roses (his wife’s favorite) and a card that reads, “I love you more.”

Shouldn’t we do at least as much for God? Shouldn’t we destroy the things in our lives that are destroying our relationship with Him?

I got a ton of responses from my e-mail on “Christian Music.” About half were from women and half from men. Of the women, virtually 100% were positive, encouraging and of the “attaboy,” “high-five,” “keep on keeping on” variety. The men, on the other hand, were divided almost 50/50. Of the men who were negative, they almost all thought music was a matter of taste, and that there was nothing spiritual about it. I find this extremely fascinating, because almost all the women mentioned the spirituality of music. Now, I could almost draw some conclusions from this:

1) women are more spiritual than men

2) women give more consideration to what they “take in” than men do

3) women are more concerned about what their children are being exposed to than men

4) women are more thoughtful in general

One thing I do know from observing my fellow males: [click to continue…]

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Is This God’s Idea?

by waitsel on March 16, 2013

Christian Music – Part 1

NOTE: Please scroll to the end of the photos for the article. I’ve included some publicity photos of current groups to show people that aren’t familiar with the industry what it currently looks like. Decide for yourself what images and messages these photos are communicating. And don’t miss the insightful comments at the end from readers like you. – Waitsel

I got this off a blog called “Tainted Envy,” with a background of flying skulls and the following caption: “Flyleaf equals one of the most amazing bands ever. I’m not into Christian Rock music because I’m Atheist, but I love girl vocalist rock bands. I’m not gonna let religion get in the way of good music. Flyleaf is amazing =)”

Demon Hunter

Family Force 5

Fireflight

Underoath

FFH

Skillet

Toby Mac

Third Day

Switchfoot

Sixpence

John Reuben

I disciple fourth grade boys. Today, in Kids Worship, we were treated to a “Christian rap” song. The whole time it was playing, I was thinking, “Is this appropriate for church?” or, more importantly, “Is it appropriate for fourth graders?” There are certain associations that go along with certain types of music. In this case, I was wishing I had a leather jacket to wear and some guys’ heads to knock together. I wanted to be with my gang – I don’t have a gang! – and I wanted to rumble. Since I don’t normally have such thoughts, I believe it was the music – yes, even though it had Christian lyrics.

I believe that artistic forms carry their own message and inspire emotions; and, since there are good messages and bad ones, good emotions and bad ones, I assume there are good artistic forms and bad ones. But that is not a commonly held belief. As a musician friend of mine once stated, “There is no such thing as ‘Christian music’ – just Christian lyrics.” I don’t believe that. I believe I can tell a lot about an artist and who he serves (i.e., his god) just from the style of his music, artwork, film, marriage, business or whatever you care to name that comes under the heading of “culture.” Style demonstrates lordship; or, as Marshall McLuhan so famously put it, “The medium is the message.” [click to continue…]

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Viva la difference

by waitsel on January 23, 2013

Hilarious and right on the money!!!

1. NAMES

If Laurie, Linda, Elizabeth and Barbara go out for lunch, they will call
each other Laurie, Linda, Elizabeth and Barbara.

If Mark, Chris, Eric and Tom go out, they will affectionately refer to
each other as Fat Boy, Godzilla, Peanut-Head and Scrappy.

2. EATING OUT

When the bill arrives, Mark, Chris, Eric and Tom will each throw in a
$20 , even though it’s only for $32.50. None of them will have anything
smaller and none will actually admit they want change back.

When the women get their bill, out come the pocket calculators.

3. MONEY

A man will pay $2 for a $1 item he needs.

A woman will pay $1 for a $2 item that she doesn’t need, but it’s on
sale.

4. BATHROOMS

A man has five items in his bathroom: a toothbrush, shaving cream,
razor, a bar of soap, and a towel from the Marriott.

The average number of items in the typical woman’s bathroom is 337.
A man would not be able to identify most of these items.

5. ARGUMENTS

A woman has the last word in any argument.

Anything a man says after that… is the beginning of a new argument.

6. CATS

Women love cats.