Good Friday’s big question: Is doubt good?

[rrneck]

1. I'm trying to get

a set of optics resurrected from an old telephoto lens into a painting right now. Technically, it's a bit of a trick and I haven't' even gotten to the formal and content issues yet. It may be some of the best work I've ever done. It may be a piece of shit. I don't know. But I'm dying to find out.

Art, like faith, doesn't give us a place to stop. It offers us a place to start. The certainty of faith is not found in the termination of a search for some comfortable possession. The "journey" of faith and what it may offer us is all too often understood to be a "been there done that" outlet mall vacation. The only certainty faith can offer us is the certainty that we will take another step forward and see what happens next. When we take that step we can make a rational evaluation regarding how well things worked out. If all looks well, faith is easy. In the face of failure, our faith faces a test. Sometimes if we want to continue in the face of contrary evidence we have to make a bit of a leap.

I can get those optics mounted and stacked, but how in the hell am I going to get enough light into the back of the damn thing to expose the work underneath the lenses? I'll just have to build it and see what happens...