What's the point?

In May of this year I had the opportunity to visit a friend who lives near Chicago and while there we visited the Art Institute of Chicage where this picture is exhibited. It's called A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, by Georges-Pierre Seurat. I’ve seen it in books, but nothing prepared me for seeing it in it’s original at the museum. I had never paid attention to the dimensions, so when I walked in the room and saw it how big it was I was in awe! It’s apporximately 6’8” x 10’10”; the people are almost lifesize!

I love this picture, not necessarily for the scene, but because of the way it is painted. It’s a Post Impressionist painting employing a fascinating method called pointillism which is a contrast of miniature dots: tiny, precise brush strokes of different colors close to one another that form a single hue in the viewers eye when viewed at a distance. It’s kind of hard to see in this picture, but in real life it is fascinating and beautiful. It took Seurat two years to complete it. He spent a lot of time at the park drawing outlines and perfecting shapes before employing a single brushstroke, but the time and effort produced a beautiful masterpiece.

I’ve been working on my first Isaiah post, but it is taking me a little longer than I thought it would. I am not an expert on Isaiah! I’m not versed in the historical. The way I am studying Isaiah right now is just by reading and writing my impressions. I find myself writing so much, but in looking back, only a little of it makes sense. It’s like I have to write to clear away the cobwebs that are making it hard to see what I am supposed to be learning. I find a scripture here and there that leads me to ask a question, and I may or may not get an answer, so my notes have been mostly random thoughts jotted down on paper with no rhyme or reason to them. It's much like Isaiah himself, he seems very disconnected because unlike the Book of Mormon prophets, he doesn’t write a chronological history, he jumps around through time and it’s really hard to decipher. Trying to put those thoughts into something coherent enough to post is challenging!

As of this writing I am on chapter 10, but I want to begin my Isaiah posts with chapter one, so I am going back and trying to shape those thoughts into something coherent. It is hard work and time consuming, yet I am fascinated by what I am learning. I am beginning to see the outline and each chapter yeilds a few brushstrokes on the landscape. Looked at up closely it doesn’t seem to make much sense, and I am probably way off base on some things, but as I review my thoughts from the previous chapters along with the knowledge acquired from the later chapters, I am finding many connections and the picture is beginning to form. Oh, believe me, it is only a small corner, but nevertheless it is starting to take shape. My problem is getting it all on paper! I am learning so many things, and a dozen blogs have been written in my head, but when I get to the computer they seem to dissapte into thin air! But I will press forward and I will have a post for you soon. And when I do post, if it seem convoluted as you read, remember that right now I am just shaping the outline and putting in a few dots, but eventually, hopefully, it will become a beautiful picture.