​I first started playing the guitar and singing songs during my late teenage years. I was very interested in and influenced by music by Peter, Paul, and Mary (both their own music and music they covered from other artists, like Bob Dylan). However I didn't write my own. I did however tend to rearrange some songs when I began to present them publicly. The folk style of music seemed to suit me - it has been a kind of "issues" music rather than "entertainment" music. (Later on Paul Stookey became born again and even released an album or two on his own reflecting his relationship to Yahshua.)


Once in my late teens or early twenties - let's say 1969?) I was practicing a song in my bedroom and my father walked by my closed door and said "Your flat." When I heard that I didn't reject him for saying that, but I didn't just thank him and correct the pitch, either. Somehow, unknowingly, I internalized what he said in a way that shut some kind of emotional door deep inside my soul. I continued to develop songs by other people and occasionally presented them in public places over the years that followed, but never really could seem to write my own songs. I would comment that I was a visual artist and as far as composing songs I didn't understand where the music came from and didn't seem to have lyrics occurring to me- but never the less I loved playing the guitar and working up arrangements and singing/playing in public (but I never sang privately in front of my parents)

One day around 1989? I was sitting in my car in the Barnett's Dairyette parking lot waiting for my order and the Holy Spirit placed in my mind the memory of that moment in my bedroom when I heard my dad say "I was flat". As far as I remember I hadn't thought about that during all those years since the moment it happened. Now as it came to my mind, I began to weep uncontrollably for several minutes. When that passed by, I 'looked at myself" and wondered where did that come from and why did it come from. The Holy Spirit didn't say anything about this moment ,my order was ready, I picked it up, ate it and went on my way.

About two years later in the late spring/early summer I was working for DaySpring Card Company mowing grass. For about 6 - 8 months I had been preparing a music special for the church we were part of. At the beginning of that preparing time, in the fall, I had started "writing a song". Lyrics had come to me and I was searching for the music but it just wasn't coming - it was really bad so I stopped working on it. Now as I was sitting on the mower, mowing, those lyrics came back to me only music came to me that started to work and kept working until the song was truly born! I had written a song. Then more songs began to pour out of me over the following weeks at a pace that I exclaimed"Woah, this is too much" and they stopped coming and I said "No, sorry, let them flow." And they continued fairly heavily for two or three years and I still write occasionally, but I know I can write a lot if I choose to.

During that amazing summer when this started up, I was thinking about the "special" I was still preparing for coming up in the fall. I realized that once I presented the songs in the special, then they would evaporate (except in people's memory) but as a visual artist when I show paintings in a show and the show is over the paintings are still there to see. So I said "there must be a way to have a record of these songs so they don't disappear...a record... oh that is why they make recordings of the music !!!" So I had about 18 songs I wanted to record and hired a recording studio in town and prepared and recorded those songs. What an experience that was. The creating continued in expressing them while recording and then as I worked with the sound engineer in mix-down. 

What a very rewarding time this explosion of a new grace has been. Praise Yahweh! Apparently Yahweh decided in that moment in the parking lot, some 20 years after the moment in my room, to open that very creative door in my heart that I didn't even know had shut. It certainly is His good pleasure to give us His Kingdom. What a pleasure to receive words and music from Yahweh's Heart and Mind and get to create them into song form and share Him through them with other people. But I am not the only one - He has given graces (gifts) to everyone and anyone who will can cultivate their grace, by the Holy Spirit, and share Yahweh with other people through these gifts:
https://www.wellspring-contemporary-art.com/blog
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=darney+willis&spfreload=5

​Darnéy

Several years ago I wrote the text that is presented in the section "Darnéy -  Between the Potter’s Hands" presented below. It was something I have said sometimes during a concert before I sang a particular song I wrote called "Between the Potter’s Hands - 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SV8yn9ERaII
​
Last spring I was sitting in class modeling a small lump of clay into a human head while my class was busy working on their project. Sometime during one of the days surrounding that day I noticed a pile of discarded clay that had dried and it looked very interesting. So I played with the shapes and combined them together. The ceramics teacher also thought what I had put together had very compelling form and she bisque fired it for me. One day as I was carrying my little sculpted clay head into my office, I set it down on a shelf next to my "found object" clay sculpture. I then realized, to my amazement, it needed to rest inside the top of this "pile" of assembled clay.

A couple of days ago it occurred to me to combine the above two experiences together into one thought and so here is the combined thought:
​
                                                                 Darnéy -  Between the Potter’s Hands

Have you ever felt like Someone reached out and gathered up your life in their big strong hands and began to shape and squeeze on you like a master potter and you were a lump of clay? The potters call this process “wedging”. It is similar to kneading dough in cooking. They are preparing the clay for creating with and trying to get all the air bubbles out of it so it won’t explode under firing. I believe this is what Yahweh, the Creator of the Universe, the Cosmos, loves to do in a very kind benevolent way.

After this wedging process this Master Potter throws you down onto the working surface of His great potter’s wheel. With His great right foot and leg He begins to turn a great heavy wheel that is directly below this working surface to begin to spin it. Slowly at first and then faster and faster He spins this heavy wheel until its momentum rapidly spins this working surface that you are presently “seated” on. You are now not only sore from all the pushing and squeezing but getting very dizzy. Now He places His great powerful hands around you and starts molding and shaping you. This goes on for what seems like an eternity until finally He quits working on you. The spinning wheel begins to slowly quit revolving and finally it stops. Now you think, “ At last He is through working on me and I am ready for doing something for Him. I have been pushed and squeezed and spun around till I am dizzy. Surely this preparation process is over”.

Yahweh gently removes you from the wheel and places you on a shelf to dry! And there you sit until you are completely dry. Finally Yahweh approaches you and you think it is now time. So what does He do with you? He places you in a very hot fire and you really bake for a while. After this is completed He carefully places you…back on a shelf to cool off and sit. After what seems like a very long time Yahweh once again approaches you and you think, “ Now I have been pushed and squeezed and spun around till I am dizzy and then gone through a very hot fire. Surely this preparation process is over and He is ready to use me for something great”.

So Yahweh picks you up off the shelf and places you back on the working surface of His wheel. Oh no, not the wheel again. But this time He begins to paint stuff on you. Very patiently He covers you all over, except the bottom of your feet. If you were a potter you would have a clue what is coming, but you are only clay so you don’t have a clue. Next Yahweh places you back into a hot fire to melt the glaze He has covered you with. After what seems to you to be an excessive time in the fire again, Yahweh comes and picks you up – and places you on a shelf again. 

And there you sit and sit. This time while you are sitting you notice there are others also sitting on this shelf and shelves around you. Each one is uniquely and wonderfully made. Occasionally Yahweh returns and looks around at these shelves and the vessels sitting on them. You try to get His attention, saying, “pick me, pick me”, but He doesn’t seem to notice.

Finally He approaches you and stands looking at you. He continues to just stand there looking at you, so long that you are beginning to feel embarrassed. You think, “ What is He looking at? When is He going to use me for something important?”. Suddenly Yahweh speaks: “ Oh, I am going to use you soon enough, but right now I have been simply enjoying what I have made.”

                                                 Darnéy   "Treasure in an Earthen Vessel"         clay     2018
​

A few weeks ago I had an experience in nature that was very spiritually significant to me. On a particular saturday morning I was prepared to paint my second "quad" painting (a painting composed of 4 stretched canvas sections due to its size - each section is 54' wide x 88' high totaling about   9' x 15'). I was planning to start this painting during the morning; in mid afternoon go with my wife to the celebration memorial of a very mature, righteous, man of Yahweh; and return to my studio/home to continue painting. 

I followed this schedule and, returning home from the celebration slowly driving down our long dirt driveway, we passed a peach tree I have not done anything with for many years. I was driving and the tree was on my wife's passenger side of the road. My wife was glancing at this peach tree and suddenly asked if I saw the peach. I said "no" and she said "stop", so I did. We got out and walked under the peach tree, looking up at one fully formed, very large, beautiful ripe peach. 

You might say, " Well, of course - it was a peach tree". But it was the only peach on the whole tree. There was no evidence of there having been any other peaches at all on this tree or on the ground below. Just one and it was just about to drop. So I reached a branch above my head and pulled on it to get the branch with the peach low enough to remove the peach. I handed it to my wife and she asked if I wanted some of it as we re-entered the car and began to drive on home. I said no, go ahead. Because I was paying attention to the driveway I just assumed she progressed to eat the peach. 

Later in the house I went to the kitchen and opened the refrigerator and found half of the peach in a cup. I picked it up and ate it. It was absolutely the most ripe, sweet, tender, delicious peach I have ever eaten. I have told this story to a few people and one person said there haven't been any peaches in NW Arkansas this year because of the timing of a freeze in the Spring.

So what is the point of this story? To begin with as I saw this amazing solitary peach and realized my wife just saw it because she was the passenger and not driving and "happened" to look up at just the right moment to see this peach, which was virtually buried in the leaves - I knew this was very spiritually prophetic (revealing) of something significant for us to know. The rest of that day's story is I returned to paint on this quad painting, and before I quit for the night I realized  this was becoming a very unusual and strong painting at the end of a very unusual day.

I finished the painting a few days later and yes it is a very unusual and strong painting - it is just as if Yahweh is saying,   " ... here is something in my heart and mind and now I have been able to fully give it to you to manifest". I had (still am) been standing in the gap interceding heavily for several couples with impossible relationship problems. To see this one beautiful fruit on that tree and realize Yahweh caused both of us to find and harvest and eat it caused me to remember Yahweh is the Being of cycles evidenced in His Creation - He doesn't plow forever but brings to the moment of birth and brings delivery. Faith walking with Yahweh is full of such cycles. The bearing of fruit that remains, that is rich in substance and perpetual in purpose, is the harvest end of the cycle that starts with faithfully plowing, preparing, planting, cultivating, waiting. So I received this prophetic peach as an encouragement that I was entering a season of harvesting the fruit of long days of intercessory labor. I wanted to establish an "ebenezer" to commemorate this remarkable weekend, so I called this painting "onepeachykeeniris".

Since then I have pressed into Yahweh for deeper understanding of this single peach moment:

• one possible reason the peach was so good was it was the only peach the tree produced during impossible obstacles
• I have been interceding for couple relationships -Yahweh brought this peach to my wife and I together and we both ate it
• Yahweh brought this peach to us at just the right moment, a  ripened condition right before it would drop to the ground, so we could have it and it not be wasted - He has a perfect timing for His anointing to be release through us so it will find a good environment to flourish in and not "spill out on the ground and be wasted".
• Yahweh's Word (dreams, visions, assignments, purposes desires) won't return to him empty.                                                                           

 Darnéy     "onepeachykeeniris"   2018     176.5" x 104"

              Darnéy    "healingirises" Triptych       Washington Regional Medical Center Collection

​This work, “healingirises”, is a large-scale triptych of three different views of the iris flower. In the late spring/early summer of 2002 I received a commission from the Washington Regional Medical Center in Fayetteville, Arkansas, to paint a work as part of the collection they were acquiring for their new facility. The three canvases were painted with acrylic paint on stretched cotton. The left panel is 78” x 96”. The center panel is 90” x 120”. The right panel is 78” x 96”.
 
When I went to see the site, the facility, I prayed for an idea or a vision, because I new the committee would ask me for one. When they showed me this one particular large waiting area that had about a 40 foot long wall lit with a bank of north windows, I knew this was the space and sure enough they asked me what I “saw”. I saw three large canvases of irises in natural colors of blues, greens and purples.  Iris flowers were a strong current interest of mine, but what was different about this piece was the colors were going to be more “natural” than invented, and the viewpoint approach would be different than I had been working.
 
The left canvas is a middle distance view of a garden of irises. Several iris flowers with their green stems are in the viewing area.
 

​The right canvas is a close up view of one large iris and a couple of smaller ones are seen behind it.

​The center canvas is a macro close up view into the flower. It is zoomed in so close not all of its outside contours or edges are seen.
 

​Even though this center view is like the views I mostly worked with before this commission, I believed it would be better to help the viewer adjust to this perspective by giving them a progressive experience from a more traditional viewpoint to this more extreme type of view.
 
The philosophical statement I submitted to the Medical Center included “… these flower images are meant to be more than mere visual illusions or mimics of iris flowers – they are intended to be metaphors or doorways into visual, emotional, and sometimes even spiritual journeys into flowerscapes of peace, order, beauty, and unity.  They are metaphors of the human condition, of the magnificent yet fragile nature of our humanity and our constant dependence on our Creator for inspiration, protection, nurturing, and restoration”.
 
The Kingdom of our Creator is described as right order (righteousness) peace and joy. I like to work with “precarious order” a dynamic balance between order on the one hand and chaos on the other. I believe when this is achieved I can produce a visually presented peace and impart the potential of inner peace to the viewer. In a world so full of outer turmoil, this quality of life is very valuable. When it is obtained it can result in great expression of joy, or joyful celebration.
 

​I paint large scale canvases with bold invented color - lyrical and very expressive color passages of natural images viewed so very close up only part of the external contours of the particular mages are seen.  I don't use the internal natural details normally seen with such a view.  Currently I am painting flower images, mainly from the iris flower. These images are meant to be more than visual illusions or mimics of iris flowers - they are intended to be metaphors or doorways into visual, emotional, and sometimes even spiritual journeys - into flowerscapes of peace, order, beauty, and unity.  They are metaphors of the human condition, of the magnificent yet fragile nature of our humanity and our constant dependence on our Creator for inspiration, protection, nurturing, and restoration.  I realize humans are capable of extremely ugly horrible cruel things also, which is worth addressing in paint as well.   Presently my work is both a joyful celebration of living, having purpose on this earth, and bearing fruit and also addressing issues that arise on the earth from mankind leaving an intimate relationship with our Creator and thus mismanaging our stewardship of the earth.
 
The Kingdom of our Creator is described as right order (righteousness), peace, and joy. When I paint I seek what I call precarious or dynamic balance between order on the one hand and chaos on the other. I believe when this is achieved it produces a visually presented peace and can help prepare the   viewer to receive inner peace. In a world so full of inner and outer turmoil, this quality of life is very valuable and when obtained can result in great expression of joy, or joyful celebration.
 
I can describe my formal interest in strong edges or exterior contours of objects in nature, especially the iris flower, in spiritual terms: the edges are apostolic boundaries and the content within them is prophetic expression. This is like the thought of King David of Israel: “the lines have been drawn for us in pleasant places”.
 
From the beginning of painting in this manner I have valued the two dimensional nature of the canvas and considered the formal balancing of relationships of color areas, shapes, values just as strong a purpose as presenting the subject concept. Recently I have begun to see that holding the intrinsic nature of painting on a two dimensional surface as valuable in itself seems to be an issue of  integrity. Just as it might make sense to expect that a vessel be used to contain some substance, it  seems right that a flat surface used for presenting visual elements not be expected to be used to create an illusion of natural spatial depth. Using the surface to present formal spatial depth could lead to the essence experience of natural spatial depth or the viewer’s experience with natural spatial depth could lead to formal encounter of spatial depth on a canvas. Allowing the flat surface of canvas or paper to live independently of artificial allusions of illustrating  natural representation gives the artist the freedom to explore the essence of natural experience.
 
I once was working as a house painter and was working on a many paned bay window. I became aware that each of these panes was one of my 6 x 8 foot canvases. In front of me I could see one large multi-paneled piece. The idea of many panels has intrigued me ever since. The commission for Washington Regional was a triptych. I  have been recently thinking more about what is significant to me about this and realize the metaphor of a window means a couple of things to me. For one it reminds me of Apostle Paul saying in the New Testament of the Christian Bible that we see in a glass dimly, realizing our limited ability in understanding some of the mysteries of life.
 
The other idea is related to the notion that seemed to exist even in Roman art and later in Renaissance pretty much until Cezanne. That is painting  about nature as if one were looking through a window out at it. With that idea of looking through the window, devices were developed such as spatial depth and picture plane illusionistic portrayal of one frozen moment in one’s observation of something that is, ironically, not frozen but quite alive. Because I like to treat the painting surface as a flat surface and enjoy formal relationships of picture depth with or without reference to natural illusion, it occurs to me how fitting it is to use the canvas not as something one has looked through a window to see, but something that is a window one looks at to look at nature  through or to look deeper into nature, life. This certainly can be approached with a single canvas, but the use of multiple canvases in a single piece enhances the metaphoric quality of it.
 
  

​A few days ago I finished my most recent painting. As I was looking at it I realized I began a serious pursuit of understanding visual art and developing a gift in painting in the summer of 1967, probably this very month. As you can see from the photo of the painting on the left above, I started out trying to paint as faithful to what I could see, concerning organic objects from nature. I suppose this makes sense for one working in a visual medium like painting, since we are trying to understand what we are “seeing”. But “seeing” depends on why we are looking. If I am only interested in the physical appearance or anatomy of the object, like a plant, certainly an accurate representation of that object seams to make sense. Colloquially, people tend to call this kind of painting “realism”.  Another term, maybe more suited could be “naturalism”, referring to what is seen in nature.
 
If one uses “realism” in referring to accurate descriptive painting of objects from “organic” (non-manmade) nature, I think one needs to realize to begin with: painting is a 2-D (dimensional) medium. It only operates in the width and height dimensions. A painter can only imply or suggest the third dimension of “depth” or the fourth dimension of ”time”. These formal (technical) issues of principles of composition create a very strong problem with what one experiences in nature. Very few things in the visible world of nature are purely flat and nothing in nature is totally still. Organic things that are alive are full of movement and dead things are decomposing. We instinctively know, sense, this. So this creates quite a challenge for painters to not only satisfy their own understanding of what they see but to offer convincing images of nature to others.
 
I am going to plan to discuss this issue of painting in “realism” in much more depth in another post, but for now I am celebrating this memory reminder of beginning this visual art journey 49 years ago. As you can see today I am not painting in the same approach that I started out in, as evidenced by the image of the painting on the right above. I am still referencing elements from organic objects in nature, but not choosing to be as faithful as possible to anatomical details, 3 -D properties, or local color (color seen in the object I am working from). Looking at what was probably my first “plant” painting suggests I possessed the skills to be able to develop quite an accurate, convincing ability to paint organic nature in probably a photo-realistic approach. Apparently I have chosen a different path as my reason for “seeing” has also developed over the years. I am planning to discuss this in a future post as well. 

​I paint large scale canvases with bold invented color - lyrical and very expressive color passages of natural images viewed so very close up only part of the external contours of the particular mages are seen.  I don't use the internal natural details normally seen with such a view.  Currently I am painting flower images, mainly from the iris flower. These images are meant to be more than visual illusions or mimics of iris flowers - they are intended to be metaphors or doorways into visual, emotional, and sometimes even spiritual journeys - into flowerscapes of peace, order, beauty, and unity.  They are metaphors of the human condition, of the magnificent yet fragile nature of our humanity and our constant dependence on our Creator for inspiration, protection, nurturing, and restoration.  I realize humans are capable of extremely ugly horrible cruel things also, which is worth addressing in paint as well.   Presently my work is both a joyful celebration of living, having purpose on this earth, and bearing fruit and also addressing issues that arise on the earth from mankind leaving an intimate relationship with our Creator and thus mismanaging our stewardship of the earth.
 
The Kingdom of our Creator is described as right order (righteousness), peace, and joy. When I paint
I seek what I call precarious or dynamic balance between order on the one hand and chaos on the 
other. I believe when this is achieved it produces a visually presented peace and can help prepare the   viewer to receive inner peace. In a world so full of inner and outer turmoil, this quality of life is very valuable and when obtained can result in great expression of joy, or joyful celebration.
 
I can describe my formal interest in strong edges or exterior contours of objects in nature, especially
the iris flower, in spiritual terms: the edges are apostolic boundaries and the content within them is
prophetic expression. This is like the thought of King David of Israel: “the lines have been drawn for us in pleasant places”.
 
From the beginning of painting in this manner I have valued the two dimensional nature of the
canvas and considered the formal balancing of relationships of color areas, shapes, values just as      strong a purpose as presenting the subject concept. Recently I have begun to see that holding the     
intrinsic nature of painting on a two dimensional surface as valuable in itself seems to be an issue of  
 integrity. Just as it might make sense to expect that a vessel be used to contain some substance, it  seems right that a flat surface used for presenting visual elements not be expected to be used to create an illusion of natural spatial depth. Using the surface to present formal spatial depth could lead to the essence experience of natural spatial depth or the viewer’s experience with natural spatial depth could lead to formal encounter of spatial depth on a canvas. Allowing the flat surface of canvas or paper to live independently of artificial allusions of illustrating  natural representation gives the artist the freedom to explore the essence of natural experience.
 
I once was working as a house painter and was working on a many paned bay window. I became aware that each of these panes was one of my 6 x 8 foot canvases. In front of me I could see one large multi-paneled piece. The idea of many panels has intrigued me ever since. The commission for Washington Regional was a triptych. I  have been recently thinking more about what is significant to me about this and realize the metaphor of a window means a couple of things to me. For one it reminds me of Apostle Paul saying in the New Testament of the Christian Bible that we see in a glass dimly, realizing our limited ability in understanding some of the mysteries of life.
 
The other idea is related to the notion that seemed to exist even in Roman art and later in Renaissance pretty much until Cezanne. That is painting  about nature as if one were looking through a window out at it. With that idea of looking through the window, devices were developed such as spatial depth and picture plane illusionistic portrayal of one frozen moment in one’s observation of something that is, ironically, not frozen but quite alive. Because I like to treat the painting surface as a flat surface and enjoy formal relationships of picture depth with or without reference to natural illusion, it occurs to me how fitting it is to use the canvas not as something one has looked through a window to see, but something that is a window one looks at to look at nature  through or to look deeper into nature, life. This certainly can be approached with a single canvas, but the use of multiple canvases in a single piece enhances the metaphoric quality of it.