Wednesday, August 11, 2021 An Artsy Idea

Back in 2014 I had an idea, an artsy idea. These kinds of ideas occur on a regular basis and are usually beyond the scope of my skills. But this one seemed doable, so I started what I was sure would be an epic journey. Oh, you want to know what it was? Here ya go: I planned do a page of artwork for each Psalm in the psalter. I didn’t want to bite off more than I could chew, so my idea was to make each one somewhat simple, containing the following elements:
1. The word “Psalm” and the number,
2. The Latin phrase at the beginning of each one (we have those in our Book of Common Prayer)
3. The English translation of the Latin phrase (usually part of the first verse),
4. One or two simple illustrations inspired by the psalm,
5. And maybe a verse (or two).

Like that. It seemed reasonable to do one per week. It took me seven months to do six of them and I haven’t returned to this project since May of 2015. Somewhere along the line the sheer number of Psalms involved made it all so unmanageable. As you may know, there are 150 Psalms. In my original plan, it would have taken me 150 weeks, or around 3 years to finish. And then I couldn’t even do one per month, so I gave up.

But now I have more time and I’d like to pick it up again, even if I never finish it. I hear the echo of Winston Churchill saying “Nevah, nevah, nevah give up!” It’s called perseverance. Cheer me on, would you? I’ll share them as I go.

I’ll probably delete this in the morning unless it’s another muggy day.