Cornelia DeLee, Artist

05/19/2026

Freed From The Bounds Of Time
By Henri Nouwen, from: Creative Ministry

Celebrating means the affirmation of the present, which becomes fully possible only by remembering the past and expecting more to come in the future. But celebrating in this sense very seldom takes place. Nothing is as difficult as really accepting one's own life. More often than not the present is denied, the past becomes a source of complaints, and the future is looked upon as a reason for despair or apathy.

When Jesus came to redeem mankind, he came to free us from the boundaries of time. Through him it became clear not only that God is with us wherever our presence is in time or space, but also that our past does not have to be denied but can be remembered and forgiven, and that we are still waiting for him to come back and reveal to us what remains unseen.

Reflection Question: What rehearsed complaints from the past might you need to let go of?

“A thousand years in your sight are like a day that has just gone by, or like a watch in the night.”—Psalm 90: 4

Robert Rauschenberg: Collection, 1954/1955; oil, paper, fabric, wood, and metal on canvas; 80 x 96 x 3 1/2 in. (203.2 x 243.84 x 8.89 cm), SFMOMA. Seminal Art work paying homage to historic art works, while transforming them into a new creation.

05/14/2026

The Benefits of Boredom —Artandicon's Blog
The most boring books I ever read for graduate school became the springboard for drifting into the white spaces between the lines of type. I would come up with new and exciting ideas for art projects for my students to teach them the same skills for the materials they would use once again in next year’s art class. Boredom is the springboard to creativity!

Boredom is an opportunity for creativity and exploration, as well as independent thinking and direction for growth in both children and adults. “I’m bored” is the magic opening phrase for all creat…

05/12/2026

Do Not Be Afraid: A River of Safety
By Richard Rohr

Father Richard teaches that a practice of contemplation carries us into the “Big River” of God’s love, enabling us to release our fears.

Grace and mercy teach us that we are all much larger than the good or bad stories we tell about ourselves or one another. Our small, fear-based stories are usually less than half true, and therefore not really “true” at all. They’re usually based on hurts and unconscious agendas that persuade us to see and judge things in a very selective way. They’re not the whole You, not the Great You. It’s not the great river and therefore not where Life can really happen. No wonder the Spirit is described as “flowing water” and as “a spring inside you” (John 4:10–14) or as a “river of life” (Revelation 22:1–2).

I believe that faith might be precisely that ability to trust the Big River of God’s providential love, which is to trust its visible embodiment (the Christ), the flow (the Holy Spirit), and the source itself (the Creator). This is a divine process that we don’t have to change, coerce, or improve. We just need to allow it and enjoy it. That takes immense confidence in God, especially when we’re hurting. Often, we feel ourselves get panicky and quickly want to make things right. We lose our ability to be present and go up into our heads and start obsessing. At that point we’re not really feeling or experiencing things in our hearts and bodies. We’re oriented toward making things happen, trying to push or even create our own river. Yet the Big River is already flowing through us and each of us is only one small part of it.

Faith does not need to push the river precisely because it is able to trust that there is a river. The river is flowing; we are already in it. This is probably the deepest meaning of “divine providence.” So do not be afraid. We have been proactively given the Spirit by a very proactive God.

Ask yourself regularly, “What am I afraid of? Does it matter? Will it matter in the great scheme of things? Is it worth holding on to?” We have to ask whether it is fear that keeps us from loving. Grace will lead us into such fears and emptiness, and grace alone can fill them, if we are willing to stay in the void. We mustn’t engineer an answer too quickly. We mustn’t get settled too fast. We all want to manufacture an answer to take away our anxiety and settle the dust. To stay in God’s hands, to trust, means that we usually have to let go of our attachments to feelings—which are going to pass away anyway. People of deep faith develop a high tolerance for ambiguity and come to recognize that it is only the small self that needs certitude or perfect order all the time. The true self is perfectly at home in the River of Mystery.

Adapted from Richard Rohr, Everything Belongs: The Gift of Contemplative Prayer, rev. ed. (Crossroad Publishing, 2003), 142–144.

Ysanne Gayet: Y (Water), 2016, Oil on canvas, 10x12cm, Paraguay, Imago Mundi; Treviso, Italy.

05/05/2026

Beauty In Difference
Henri Nouwen:
From Following Jesus: Finding Our Way Home in an Age of Anxiety

We all reflect God's love in different ways. Together we are like a mosaic. In a mosaic one stone is bright, another stone is gold, another stone is small. If we look at it closely we can admire the beauty of each stone, but if we step back from it, we can see that all the little stones reveal a beautiful picture and tell a story that none of the stones can tell by itself. Together the different stones reflect the face of God to the world.

Reflection Question: In what ways might you be able to step back and see the bigger picture of the beauty of your spiritual community?

“Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.”
— 1 Corinthians 12: 27

Sabato (Simon) Rodia: Watts Towers or "Nuestro Pueblo" (mosaic panel), 1921/1954, public art, 99.5 ft high, Sculpture, Mosaic, and Architecture made of Steel rebar, Concrete, Mortar, Ceramic, Glass, Rock, and Found Objects. American Folk art located at 1765 E. 107th Street, Watts, Los Angeles, California, United States of America.

05/01/2026

Receiving The Affection Of Jesus
By Henri Nouwen

From The Inner Voice of Love: A Journey Through Anguish to Freedom

Do not despair, thinking that you cannot change yourself after so many years. Simply enter into the presence of Jesus as you are and ask him to give you a fearless heart where he can be with you. You cannot make yourself different. Jesus came to give you a new heart, a new spirit, a new mind, and a new body. Let him transform you by his love and so enable you to receive his affection in your whole being.

Reflection Question: What might it look like for me to open my heart more fully to receive the affection of Jesus, and what fears or barriers within me make that difficult?

“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love.”?
—John 15:9

Thornton Dial: Stars of Everything, 2004, mixed media (Paint cans, plastic cans, spray paint cans, clothing, wood, steel, carpet, plastic straws, rope, oil, enamel, spray paint, and Splash Zone compound on canvas on wood), 98 x 101 1/2 x 20 1/2 in. (248.9 x 257.9 x 52 cm), Souls Grown Deep, Atlanta, Georgia.

04/30/2026

WRITE YOUR NAME FROM SPACE

What would your name look like from space? We don’t have to be stranded on a desert island to write a message—nature will do it for us with the LANDSAT satellite.

https://science.nasa.gov/mission/landsat/outreach/your-name-in-landsat/

With this online interactive, users can type in their name then view and export the graphic of that name spelled out in Earth features found in Landsat images.

04/27/2026

GEORGIA O’KEEFFE MUSEUM
O’Keeffe is a major modern artist whose body of works are now available on line at the link below. This is a great link for teachers and anyone who plans a visit to the museum itself,

https://access-ok.okeeffemuseum.org/object/?ref=hyperallergic.com

Access O’Keeffe is intended to foster ongoing research and dialogue. The O’Keeffe Museum does not authenticate works and presents information to the best of the Museum's current understanding. If you have feedback or proposed updates, please fill out the Access O’Keeffe Feedback Form.

04/22/2026

Contemplation and Loving Action
Father Richard Rohr writes:

At the Center for Action and Contemplation, we seek to ground compassionate action in contemplative, nondual consciousness. When we experience the reality of our oneness with God, others, and creation, actions of justice and healing naturally follow. If we’re working to create a more whole world, contemplation will give our actions nonviolent, loving power for the long haul.

The civil rights leader John Lewis (1940–2020) has been an inspiration to many of us. How did this saintly public man avoid deeper recognition for so long? His words read like a prayer for contemplative action:

“Study the path of others to make your way easier and more abundant. Lean toward the whispers of your own heart, discover the universal truth, and follow its dictates. Know that the truth always leads to love and the perpetuation of peace. Its products are never bitterness and strife. Clothe yourself in the work of love, in the revolutionary work of nonviolent resistance against evil. Anchor the eternity of love in your own soul and embed this planet with goodness. Release the need to hate, to harbor division, and the enticement of revenge. Release all bitterness. Hold only love, only peace in your heart, knowing that the battle of good to overcome evil is already won. Choose confrontation wisely, but when it is your time don’t be afraid to stand up, speak up, and speak out against injustice. And if you follow your truth down the road to peace and the affirmation of love, if you shine like a beacon for all to see, then the poetry of all the great dreamers and philosophers is yours to manifest in a nation, a world community, and a Beloved Community that is finally at peace with itself.” [1]

Father Richard offers encouragement:
Some form of contemplative practice is the only way (apart from great love and great suffering) to rewire people’s minds and hearts. It is the only form of prayer that dips into the unconscious and changes people at deep levels—where all of the wounds, angers, and recognitions lie hidden. Only some form of prayer of quiet changes people for good and for others in any long-term way. It sustains and deepens the short-term wisdom we learn in great love and great suffering. [2]

1] John Lewis with Brenda Jones, Across that Bridge: A Vision for Change and the Future of America(Hachette Books, 2017), 208.
[2] Richard Rohr, interview with Romal J. Tune, “Richard Rohr on White Privilege,” HUFFPOST (January 15, 2016; updated December 6, 2017).
Richard Rohr, “Grounding Compassionate Action,” Daily Meditations, December 27, 2020.

Sam Durant: We Are The Ones We've Been Waiting For and Empathy for Everyone, 2018, Sculpture, electric sign with vinyl text, 69 x 56 inches, Sculpture Milwaukee, WI. Rights: Courtesy the artist and Blum & Poe, Los Angeles, New York and Tokyo. Protest Signs from the 2017 women’s march and the 2018 March for our lives protest.

04/21/2026

THE PARTHENON
Athens in the 5th BCE was at the height of the Classical Period in art. The Parthenon is the temple dedicated to Athena, the patron goddess and protector of the city. Even in ruins it is magnificent. With computerized imagery, we can see what the sculptures and environment was like for the people of that time.
https://youtu.be/_TO5Ls296uQ?si=PG96suap3JX2EOTd
#

2.7K likes, 227 comments. "The Parthenon 3D - Ancient Greece in UNREAL ENGINE 5 + BLENDER [4K]"

04/18/2026

MICHAELINA WAUTIER: Little Known, But Very Fine 17th CE Artist

Michaelina Wautier, Self-Portrait, about 1645.
Oil on canvas. 120 x 102 cm. Private collection.
Photo © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

https://d1nn9x4fgzyvn4.cloudfront.net/2022-12/mfa-cna-studies_issue1-december2022_v3.pdf

04/14/2026

Just Trust Me
By Henri Nouwen
From: The Inner Voice of Love: A Journey Through Anguish to Freedom

God says to you, “I love you, I am with you, I want to see you come closer to me and experience the joy and peace of my presence. I want to give you a new heart and a new spirit. I want you to speak with my mouth, see with my eyes, hear with my ears, touch with my hands. All that is mine is yours. Just trust me and let me be your God.”

Reflection Question: How might your words, your vision, and your actions change if you truly spoke with God's mouth, saw with His eyes, and touched with His hands?

“A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you, and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.”
—Ezekiel 36:26

DeLee: The Heart of the City: acrylic on canvas, 18" x 24"