A Friend's Advice

"When you feel like you are running in circles, at least you can try changing course by turning it into a spiral."

Linus Poster

My Soul Teacher

P.S. The title pun was only partially intended. :P

New Sumo!

I couldn't resist. I think amphibians are adorable. This sculpture made me laugh. :)

I'll have to edit this post later since I need to copy and paste the artist's name here to give him credit for his brilliance.

Let us be Armor Bearers

Consider 1 Samuel 14:6-7

Johnathan said to his armor bearer: "Come let us go over to that outpost of the enemy. Perhaps the Lord will help us, because it is no more difficult for the Lord to grant victory through a few than through many."
The armor bearer replied, "Do whatever you are inclined to do; I will match your resolve."

Can we say as much? Do we, as disciples of our Lord, strive to match the resolve to trust and serve with the faith and obedience of Jonathan's armor bearer? We are the children of the New Covenant. We wield the Spiritual Armor of our Lord Jesus Christ. I think we all need to reflect on the humble response of the nameless armor bearer.

Today, let you and I try to say to our Lord, "Do whatever you are inclined to do; I will match your resolve."

Jesus, I trust in you.

The Easter Window

This window is my personal favorite. I finished it after two other windows and had finally built up some confidence in what I as doing. That and I'm sure God lent me some extra graces here because this window still makes my heart beat faster when I see it and my own art never affects me like that.The content of the window is pretty self explanatory to anyone who has heard the Easter story.

The Pieta is my favorite panel. I am so proud of this window.

I use this images in pendants that I sell in my shop on Etsy.com.
TheCuriosityClub.etsy.com
Link

-Anna Truckey
G. Kozak Studio
Window location: Sacred Heart of the Hills Catholic Church, Auburn Hills, Michigan, USA

Stained Glass: More Than The 9/11 Panel

On September 11th I focused on one panel in the Sacred Heart of the Hills window I created. Today I'd like to display a few photos of the rest of the window. The 9/11 panel is just one out of 20 panels in this window. Not to mention that there are two windows (Eucharistic and Eye of God) above the large set. There are two more sets of windows in this church also part of the same project, but I'll cover those another day.

I love how the windows reflect in our baptismal font.

The Sacred Heart window portrays all sorts of vocations and people.

One theme asked for by the priest was "peacemakers". Thus the inclusion of non-Catholics like Martin Luther King Jr and Gandhi as well as prominent Catholics like John XXIII, Mother Teresa and St. Francis.

The windows were done under the name G. Kozak Studio. They are my grandfather's design. He died suddenly before completing the project and I took over the art and design aspect of the commission and my mother oversaw construction of the windows.
-Anna Truckey

Location: Sacred Heart of the Hills Catholic Church, Auburn Hills Michigan

Alaskan Photos 2010

Some pics are finally up. Some are yet to come. Yay Alaska!!!

Go here for more of my Alaskan pictures.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=22207&id=100000445466952&l=db90459793

September 11 in Stained Glass

My name is Anna Truckey. I am 28 years old. Back in January of 2001 my grandfather died and left a stained glass commission unfinished for my parish church, Sacred Heart of the Hills Catholic Church in Auburn Hills , Michigan. All I had from him was a rough watercolor sketch of what the window design was supposed to be of. That year, after September 11th, I noticed that one panel in my grandfather's design would (eerily) lend itself perfectly to be transformed into a 9/11 memorial window. All I had to add was the two towers in the background. In the panel were already a flight attendant, a businessman,a man of dark complexion, a doctor and a nurse, a fireman and police officer, a partial business woman on a computer (her head is in another frame of the window) and a miscellaneous man in the top right of the panel. I was given permission by the parish priest to do what I wanted with the window. Several of the portraits that I included in the window were people who died on September 11 either in the towers or on the planes. I pulled their faces off of websites of victims. One face is of a man who died that day and was the son in law of a former teacher. I turned the flight attendant into one specifically from American Airlines. I put FDNY 9-11-01 on the fireman's sleeve.
The portrait in the top right corner I transformed into Father Mychal F. Judge. I was so transfixed by his story and the photo of Father Judge's body being hauled away from the scene that I knew I had to include him.

If anyone stumbles across this blog and knew Father Judge personally, I would love to send you a photo or two of my window and his portrait in it (no charge). Please just leave a comment and an email and I will get back to you.

God bless.