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Title: Heart and Soul Medium: illustration pens on sketch book paper Style: surreal Category: illustration Created: Dec-Jan 2024-2024 Artist: Stephen J. Vattimo Heart and Soul This is preliminary drawing for a painting I am about to begin. The concept for this illustration started as a design for a pumpkin carving contest. I feel the message of the design is so important for people to hear, I decided to make it into a painting. The original design, done in pen and ink. The design only shows the two doors of the entrance to a fortress. It was designed for a live pumpkin carving event in mind. At this type of event, the carver must create their piece of art live on site with spectators watching and asking questions, and there is a time limit. The evolution of the design? I added a wall on each side of the entrance, with matching pillars. Explaining the design of the pillars The triangle top: the triune God. Representing three persons of God: Father, Son, Holy Spirit. The cross shape opening in the pillars: The cross is the only path to God, to have the debt of sin satisfied. To reconcile humankind back to himself. To be released from being a slave to the Devil. To be a new creation empowered by God Spirit. Explaining the design of the entrance way(gate) The top of the entrance is in the shape of a heart, represents the seat of human passion, ambition, and allegiance. The cultic three petal flower is used to represent God in three persons united. The symbol inside the flower: God’s ministry toward humankind. Crown: Highest authority Cross: God’s loving salvation and restoration plan. The dove: Spiritualty made alive, fellowship with God, empowerment to weather the storm of life, and equip for service to God. Change in the design of the door. In the original design, one door had roses carved on it. The pattern took up the whole door. The other door had a grape vine carved on it. The pattern took up the whole door. I modified the emblem on the doors by making them smaller and simplified, so I could place them inside heart shapes, so the new images would more clearly communicate what they are meant to represent. I also added color to the emblems(color pencil) to make them clear of what they are, because of their size and the ink medium ,they were hard to interpret. Understanding the symbol of the two doors. The door with the rose inside the heart emblem represents a heart whose passions, ambitiousness, allegiance are focused on the cares, worries, and abstaining riches of the world. Only giving God lip service. I chose the rose to represent the heart of spiritual allegiance to the world, because roses are pretty, but you can’t eat them to nourish your body. They also have thorns that can cause injury to the body. So, the parallel point is, just as flower fade and turn to dust, so will the person who chases the thing of the world and has no time for God. For life is very short, we know not which will be our last breath on this side of eternity. But if a person leaves this earth without excepting the gift God offered them which is salvation from penalty of sin and given enteral life through the work that was done on the cross by God’s son. Then that soul will appear before Jesus, and just as they did not know him in their life on earth, He will tell them he knows them not. Into the lake of fire, they will spend eternity. The door with the grape vine in the heart emblem represents a heart whose passions, ambitiousness, allegiance are for God. To know Him intimately, to obey His teachings, to serve his will. I chose the grapevine to represent the heart of spiritual allegiance to God, because grapes are nourishing to the body. Jesus also used a grape vine in one of his parables. He paralleled the spiritual relationship he had with his disciples and the grapevine. He told them just as branches of a vine must depend on the base of the vine to live and bare fruit, so they must abide him to have abundant life. Abiding in Christ is not a religious act. It is outside of religion. It is an intimate relationship. Example: you can belong to a fan club of Paul McCartney and know a lot of things you have heard about him, but he doesn’t even know you exist. Where, if Paul is your father, and you have a good parent to child relationship, then you know him intimately. So, abiding in God, we commune with him through read his word and living by its teachings. It is spending time in prayer. Sharing our hearts with God and spending time listing to him. Trusting in him as our provider and giving thanks for his provision. Living our lives, with the purpose of pleasing him with the work of our hand and loving our neighbors in the workplace as well as in the community. Just as a healthy grapevine continues to grow and produce much fruit. Having an imitate relationship with God should be more and more evident in the way we live our lives. So, when the angel of death pays you an unexpected visit, he escorts you to Jesus’s throne, you know for certain he going to welcome you with loving arms and said welcome home my faithful servant. Now to which door I chose for my life? It’s the one that is open. This bible verse one of a couple that inspired me to design this illustration. 1 Corinthians 3:12-13 King James Version 12 Now if any man builds upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble. 13 Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. This verse is not referring to the rebellious people who have rejected God, this is referring to people who are children of God, who failed to serve God faithful. Written by Stephen J. Vattimo. 3 Jan 2024 .

Kismet is always a small loaf of anxiety.

Join the cult of the black cat ;)

Cats can spell!

A person and their cat strolling through the forest in winter.

A cat looking at the koi in a pond.

Orange cat commission done with Procreate

Well, "Bats all Folks!" That's all the "Drawtober23" days in October

I created this image 1 year ago with a web application that I developed, there is no message, I just find it intriguing.

My kitty puss, Wieldson dressed as a vampire.

A brave warrior battles against a great serpent in an epic and cataclysmic fight.

Maybe being a cat-boy is cool, but annoying.. So they had to deal with him another way. DONT WORRY....KINGS I MEAN LEOS ALIVE..I THINK?? (psst guys is he alive,.........) (oh oh okay) YEAH HES GOOD JUST A BIT, UHM DEAD I MEAN ALIVE YEAH...!!! (guys run they know)

Leo..wasnt the best at taking pictures for his school page. But at least the cat ones look good, right? No he just stole them from one of his favorite games. Dammit Leo! (still tired and sleepy..honk mimimimimimi but i have no clue what to draw next honsetly. IM THINKING OF STUFF I THINK, THE SIDE PHOTOS ARE CATTAIL FROM PLANTS VZ ZOMBIES. I LIKE CATTAIL!!!!) (just kill me already...............(again))

Jean is my clan leader on the dragon petsim Flight Rising, in-game she is a nature elemental female pearlcatcher. Her in-game profile is here https://www1.flightrising.com/dragon/4025429 Lore outline: Originally born in the nature elemental lands she found herself enchanted by the stars above the canopy, and journeyed to the light territories in search of knowledge. But these dragons had little in the way of passion besides snobbery and a burning desire for truth. In her love of the night sky and shunning of the sun she did not fit here, and was bullied for it. One particularly bad episode altered the golden runes that her scales bore, covered her with patches of glowing gold - a permanent mark of the burning sun. But she did not only come to harm in the light flight, for it was here that she came across a clan of misfits just like her, formed by a guardian dragon who wanted to protect all those who were different. And then she, along with the clan, moved to the territory of the arcane flight - the home of curiosity, and those that loved the stars. They have been there ever since. Art method: I started with graphite and ink on white A4 paper, scanned it into the computer and set to multiply then used photoshop to add colour and further shading + a simple gradient for a background on the layers beneath.

This is a 3D pumpkin I carved at The Phoenixville Pa. Pumpkin Festival,for the experts carver's completion. This was my first time using the clay sculpting tool to carve with. I used the wood carving tool method for about eight years. The use of the clay tool give the carver more control to be able to do more detail . the wood carving method is chiseling away the pumpkin flesh where the clay sculpting tools method you scrape way the flesh. This the second pumpkin carving contest I have participated in in less then 5 day apart. Now that I have found a method and tools that work far better than my old ones, less see if my pumpkin carving skills can catch up to my artistic skills. Written by Stephen J. Vattimo Oct 24,2015

My cat Wieldson loves his pumpkin patch.

I highly recommend the book, Gender and Competition: How Men and Women Approach Work and Play Differently, by Kathleen J. DeBoer. In it, among other things, she elucidates that those with a conceptually masculine perspective (regardless of sex) are drawn to thinking of the world in hierarchies, which I have represented here with a triangle in the mind of the spotter on the left. She elaborates that those with a conceptually feminine perspective (again, regardless of sex) are draw to thinking of the world in webs, which I have represented here with a circle. Those that think more masculine-ly are more likely to expect beginners in a sport or field to prove themselves in the group. They will often not "hold their punches" (i.e. curb their ability) to make newcomers comfortable. All members of the group are expected to "earn their keep," in a sense. When a member of the group exceeds expectations, they move up in the hierarchy. Contrary to that, those that think more feminine-ly likely show acceptance and approval to beginners in order to foster an environment in which they will perform. They will often adjust their skills so that newcomers can more readily "keep up." When a member of the group exceeds expectations, they are expected to raise the status of the group as a whole. The playing field is "flattened" in that sense. I am not advocating for either perspective, but I will share that I have a more conceptually feminine perspective, and that I have previously left groups whose members have a more masculine perspective. Kathleen's book really helped me personally to understand the motivations of people that I genuinely did not understand prior to reading the book. It put a lot into perspective for me, and I hold fewer grudges these days. Cheers, fam~

Kismet was very proud of her accomplishment in interior design.

I take a lot of Genesis as an allegory for birth and maturation, both individually and collectively. The Garden of Eden could easily be interpreted as the womb, and we are all cast out of it at some point. Genesis 2:24 says "This is why a man leaves his father and mother and bonds with his wife, and they become one flesh." Though people use this passage to refer to the tradition of marriage, I think that it speaks to something much, much deeper than that. Literally, when two people copulate, they create a child that is of one flesh. They do not "become one flesh" because they engage in a ritual institution and are now "to be viewed as comprising a single identity," but they literally become one flesh because their genetic compositions are joined into a new being (Mark 10:8 and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh. 9 What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.”). That being said, I read somewhere once that babies born in every part of the world make phonetic sounds from pretty much every language in the world. It is only after a period of time that they start to key in on certain sounds that the people around them are making, and it is only after that that children key in enough to start developing more advanced language skills (typically). However, in this original state, there is a freedom. There are no assumptions. There is an innocence in that state. There is a lack of judgement. There comes a point at which babies/young children begin to mimic and to incorporate what they are experiencing from the creatures around them into themselves. To small creatures with an undeveloped sense of self or reality, the caregivers around them may as well be gods, at least from their perspective. They will learn from these gods around them and will begin to embody their cultural beliefs, their language, their idiosyncrasies, and their perceptions, often on a deeply unconscious level. Adults contribute to that quite thoroughly and somewhat consciously. (Genesis 1:26 Then God said, “Let Us make mankind in Our image, according to Our likeness..") (Genesis 11:7 7 Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech.) In our own way as individuals, we are each a Tower of Babel, and at some point, for each of us, that Tower fell. Barriers to communication of so many kinds were created for and/or by us. Perhaps we still spend time constructing new barriers and thinking up new ways to distance ourselves from the rest of our kind. I chose to use the phrase "materialism" to express how children engender these attributes of caregivers and others alike. However, this can easily be exchanged for a phrase like "socialism," or "corporate capitalism," or nearly any other thing that you can probably think of. Children are like sponges. They soak up even more than we realize. Most widespread religions in the world have some form of renunciation belief or ritual wherein an individual must 'cast off' the old self and put on the new. This is because, regardless of where or when a child is born in the world, the perspectives of the people around them raising them will likely leave much to be desired. It is necessary for beings to continue to learn, and this often entails a serious consideration of what was instilled into them at an earlier time. It is quintessential that we question and evaluate these things since the state of the world will have changed by the time that we reach maturation. The ideas that people gave us may apply to a world that is already different. The story of the Tower of Babel may refer to a state that earlier humans lived in, perhaps on a shared continent, in which the manners in which they communicated were similar. Then, at some point, perhaps these same peoples went off on their travels and developed new languages. In a funny way, we seem to do that as individuals. At some point, we strike out on our own, even if only a little. Though we may differ on surface level behaviors and in the symbols that we use to describe the human experience, human beings are more or less fundamentally the same. We let our differences create so, so, so many barriers between ourselves and other beings. Just think of all of the harm that things like xenophobia, racism, intolerance, and a lack of an ability to communicate verbally with one another have done to our species. Even beyond that, just think of how easily we dismiss the inner lives and inner experiences of creatures different than ourselves simply because they do not communicate verbally with us in our preferred tongue. Research is overwhelmingly in support of other beings communicating with others of their kind, whether we as individuals acknowledge it or not.. Some of us are just really into denial about it. We could achieve remarkably wonderful things, if only we would learn to recognize the similarities of our experiences. (Matthew 19:6 So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”)

The original sketch came from the prompt ‘organized’ which immediately made me think of my label maker. It grew from there and I first posted it on what happened to be the 25th anniversary of the film Practical Magic! Let me know if you spot the homages…

We often have the habit of hearing something or seeing something and then believing that we understand what we just witnessed. This latter sentiment is not always the case. Thoughts, ideas, concepts, philosophies - simple, great, complicated, deep: they all present challenges to our faculties of perception. We struggle to understand one another, often without considering these challenges though they are certainly there. We also struggle to communicate those things to others, and sometimes even to ourselves.

Suppose that 'meaning' is a faint word scribbled on a wall in a dark room. The words that we use are often barriers that separate, then, our 'comprehension' from 'meaning.' Let us suppose then that the light of the intention of a speaker is obscured by a 'word.' The angle and setup of that intention then, along with the angle and setup of the comprehension of the listener, can distort or disguise the true meaning of what the speaker is saying. Of course, the angle and setup of these things can vary greatly, just as easily as the shadows that cover 'meaning' can vary. It would seem best, then, with this in mind, to communicate as transparently as possible and to avoid and/or to detect deceit whenever possible. Dishonesty and misdirection, whether deliberate or otherwise, in the speaker or in the listener, always risk shrouding 'meaning.' When communicating earnestly, distraction can be dangerous. Shrewdness is recommended.

Halloween Cat wishes your claws are filled with candy!

A new cat character. Chuck Latte. Named after "latte" and "chocolate".