The word of God made flesh.  Jesus the Christ ,or "the annointed", was known during his days on earth for miraculous healings.  Healings simply because he had prayed over someone, or told someone they were healed, and especially when he TOUCHED an ill person.  One woman with a ten year hemmorage was even healed by touching the edge of his garments.  He knew the healing power went out of him immediately when it happened however.  Surrounded by a mob of people, he left his disciples perplexed by asking, "Who just touched me?"   

   Surprisingly enough, we marvel today with all of our technology, that someone 2,000 years ago could heal people by their touch.  Do we realize that with all our advancements we still haven't reached this ability..?  

    The more the son of God told people not to say that he healed, the more the news spread.  He was known to be a healer to the point that when he and his disciples entered a town, they were immediately surrounded by all the people of that place.  The ones who believed he could heal them...    got healed.  

   But back to the beginning of my blog where it says Christ, the word of God made flesh..  An important part of Christianity is the belief of this:                               "through Christ all things were made."  

This is because he was the word of God in the beginning.  And was later the word made flesh..

You see Christ healed a blind man by making clay with spit and dirt, and rubbing it on his eyes, because he was there when God made Adam out of the clay of the ground.  When God spoke, there was Christ.  Tying these two together is very important because the word is still with us... isn't it.          The word IS with us.        And as you read the scriptures, he begins to live inside YOU.   And if you are smart enough to go get your bible and read, then I say, "Here's mud in your eye."  

                      

  Because look out!   Your eyes may be opened...!   

I sincerely hope that if you are ill, with anything, that you will open up the scripture.

And my wish for you is that you will believe like the people in the towns Christ visited, even before you open up the pages.

Have you have been "touched" by my painting...?

  Randy Friemel

   Station 11 shows Jesus being nailed to the cross.  This scripture passage tells is best:

 

   He was spurned and avoided by men, a man of suffering, accustomed to infirmity

One of those from whom men hide their faces, spurned, and we held him in no esteem.

   While we thought of him as stricken, as one smitten by God and afflicted.

But he was pierced for our offenses, crushed for our sins, 

   Upon him was the chastisement that makes us whole, by his stripes we were healed.

We had all gone astray like sheep, each following his own way; but the Lord laid upon him

    The guilt of us all.

Though he was harshly treated, he submitted and opened not his mouth;

   Like a lamb led to slaughter or a sheep before shearers, he was silent and opened not his mouth.

Oppressed and condemned, he was taken away, and who would have thought any more of his

   Destiny?   When he was cut off from the land of the living, and smitten for the sin of his people,

A grave was assigned him among the wicked and a burial place with evil-doers

   Though he had done no wrong nor spoken any falsehood.  But the Lord was pleased to 

Crush him in infirmity.

   If he gives his life as an offering for sin, he shall see his descendants in a long life,

And the will of the Lord shall be accomplished through him.  Because of his affliction he shall see

   The light in fullness of days;  Through his suffering, my servant shall justify many,

And their guilt he shall bear.  Therefore I will give him his portion among the great,

    And he shall divide the spoils with the mighty, Because he surrendered himself to death

And was counted among the wicked;  and he shall take away the sins of many,

                                  And win pardon for their offenses.

 

This is Isaiah 53, 3-12   a prophecy of the Passion, written hundreds of years previous to Jesus' time.

May your Good Friday be blessed in God's richness of Love.  There is none greater than the love we celebrate today.

-Randy Friemel

Friemel Fine Art 

        

    This painting has several different things going on Spiritually.  It is Christ looking at the Eucharist(a word for "Thanksgiving" which is the bread that has become the Body of Christ for consumption by the church.   Most would think of the last supper, where the Lord held up the bread for the first time, calling it His body,"which will be given up for you, and for many"...

    It has deeper meaning though...  It is also a representation of Christ's full attention on the "Body of Christ", which is the church.

Notice how he has us fully in His grasp....?

    There is a scripture in John's gospel where he stated that God had placed his disciples in His hands, and that nothing could remove them from His hands.  Thus, the church remains in His grasp, and His attention is fully on it.  He is with us, and He is IN us.  Christ the head of the Heavenly body, as well as the earthly body.  And NOTHING can take us from His hand. No height, no depth.  Neither life nor death.  Nothing can seperate us from the eternal LOVE of God.  

 

This is my idea of what Mary may have looked like when she appeared to Juan Diego back in the early 1500's.

She is very suited to the description in revelations that says:

                              "And a great portent appeared in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars; she was with child...."      Revelations 12,1-3

   Many people don't know this, but the image of 'Our Lady of Guadalupe' has long been determined as a "woman with child". She has around her wrists a cord.  Cords such as this were used by the natives of Central America.  Wrapped around the wrists of a woman with child, probably by her husband, to announce to everyone one else quietly, the fact that she was 'with child'.

    Theologically it makes sense because she was about to give birth to Christianity in Central America, as most of the natives there became Christians after the apparition, and image on Juan Diego's tilma.  

   But did you know that the 1st Hand-Painted replica of  "Our Lady of Guadalupe" ended up on a Spanish ship a few years down the road, and that Mary was given the credit for a victory over the Moslems at sea.....?  It's true.   The Spanish were also severely out-numbered by the Moslem fleet.  Yet somehow miraculously won.  This first hand-painted image, was on the Spanish Commander's ship.  The Spanish were devout Christians who were trying to preserve their religion in their own country because it was being threatened.  I probably don't need to tell you by whom.  

   I was striving for a very peaceful look on Mary's face in this painting.  She is clothed with the sun, but also with Holiness.  When viewed in person, you can see that her eyes are not closed, although they appear that way from a distance.  She is looking at Juan Diego, whom she always consoled, especially concerning the health of his uncle, who had been seriously ill.  When she told him not to be worried, because he was already healed, upon his arrival to visit his uncle, Juan Diego found his uncle healed and well.  

There was also a very intimate exchange of words between Our Lady and Juan Diego, which was the inspiration for this painting.  "My dearest tiny little boy(whom she kept in the folds of her mantle) was how she addressed him.  Pure sweet tenderness.  And the words I like the most:  "Why are you frightened?  Am I not here?  I who am your mother?..."  

These are the words she said to Juan Diego while he was frantically trying to get to his uncle who was ill, to get him to a doctor.  He wanted to ignore what Mary had asked him to do, which was to go tell the Bishop about her, and her message to him.  Sometimes being the bearer of this type of message is easy to ignore...  But out of faith,  Saint Juan Diego turned around, took the roses that Our Lady had given him back to the Bishop, and the rest of history unfolds.  He returned to his uncle who was safe and sound.. and undoubtedly realized her words were true.. and that he helped make something great happen.   -Randy

This was a lot of fun to paint...!  I have been told over and over that I'm supposed to have fun while I'm painting, and it's beginning to finally sink in.  In fact it seems the more fun I have, the more I like the painting when it's done (or dunn...?)  Yes the other horses in the picture are supposed to look unfinished.. just in case you're wondering.  This gives you a good idea which one I want you to look at. (wink ,wink) The title is fun as well, as this is a dunn.  

   The horses belong to the River Breaks Ranch north of Amarillo.  Thanks to their great scenery and equally great horses, several other artists and I were inspired as we enjoyed the best surroundings, and hospitality.  Can't tell you how nice it is to be with a group of people who all paint.   We could get paint on ourselves and no one really cared.  We could even get paint on the teacher, and he wouldn't care.  Mostly we got paint on our canvases, and it was luckily in the right order to make it look like a horse...   Hope you enjoy..!  -Randy

 

Red River Wars Revisited

                                          

                         Subject:  Col. Ranald Slidell MacKenzie

          Nickname:  "Three Finger Jack" (because of losing a finger in the Civil War )

                   Indian Nickname: "Bad Hand"  ( for the same reason )

                                       

                     Subject:  War Chief Quinai (or Eagle) of the 'Nermernuh' as they called themselves

                   Nickname:  "Quanah" ( A play on his real name, but the nickname meant 'stink' )

                  Cavalry nickname:  "The Incarnation of Savage, Brutal, Joy" (as sited by Carter)

    It was the beginning of the Red River wars.  

Col. MacKenzie had headed up to Comanche territory with the largest group of soldiers 

to date, with the determination to take control of an age-old problem.  That problem was the

Comanche Indians, who had control of almost the whole Texas territory for around 250 years.

   They had been up to their same old tactics ,raiding the settlers, and shaving -off the 'new growth' of settlement

on the land they had always known as theirs.  It had always been thought of as impervious, and unexplored by most of civilized America.

A treacherous place with enormous expanses of grasslands, and an even bigger risk of losing your life if you attemped to cross it.

  If the Comanches didn't get you , the harshness of comancheria would..  

   A land so large that getting lost was easy, and dying of thirst was common.

 

For MacKenzie, it would mean a promotion.

For Quanah, it was a simple matter of military invasion.

                               

 

   Imagine Quanah, sitting on his horse, high up on the Llanno Estacado.  It is night time but he can see for fifty miles or more, and he knows a large encampment has permeated his homeland.  With hundreds of men and horses, along with Tonkawa scouts on horseback, and a hundred or two infantry soldiers... I would imagine you couldn't hide the dust that this large company would no doubt create.

    Now the first night out, MacKenzie and his men "unfortunately", (as Gwynne sites in his book titled: "Empire Of The Summer Moon") camped between a large herd of buffalo and their water source.  These buffalo ran amuck through MacKenzie's camp that night, and could have easily wiped out most of the camp.  Luckily the for the 4th cavalry they heard it in time to start a diversion to turn the main leading edge of the herd away from their camp.  The camp was still partially trampled, however, if Quanah or one of his look-outs spotted these soldiers from a far distance, it seems like to me (the possibility is there), that smart Indians,(Quanah) may have stampeded the buffalo towards the camp of the 4th that night.   

   And if they did.. you can bet they had a good laugh about the whole ordeal.  

And if you know the Comanches, then you know that they were well known for night raids, and military manouvers.  Gwynne may chalk it up as an "unfortunate event" for MacKenzie.. but I call it "getting schooled" by one of the most determined bands of the Comanche Indians.  The Quahadi.  Translated: "The Antelopes" 

 

 

 

 

   The Way The Panhandle Was...It was the beginning of the Red River Wars-  (thats when the civil war was over and the government sent the army back to the area called 'Texas', to once again try and stop the mighty Comanche tribe.  But why were they stopping them?

 

   Because the new settlers came to Texas:

                                                                    

 

    An then they quickly returned to the east in smaller numbers.....

                                                                   

                                                                                                                                          Why....? 

 

                                                              Because the Texas tribe "Comanches" said:

                                                                   

                                     "HMMMM.....!!  Get out of my backyard....!!!!"

 

      Now its important here to note that Plains Indian Warfare was not just the  Indians getting back at the new settlers called "Texans"...

To them this type of warfare was their LIFESTYLE.  It was harsh, brutal, eye for an eye, scalp for a scalp "all-out Warfare".  It was going on between the tribes before and DURING the time the cavalry was at war with them... and it was something they had honed into an art for hundreds of years.  Maybe thousands. 

 

    You see, the Comanches had to fight for the land we call Texas.  They had to fight off other tribes who inhabited this land because it was the prize.

   Yep that's right... This flat land we call a "platter", with nothing in sight but miles of "view", boring as it seems when you return from

New Mexico, or Colorado, or even South Texas... was actually a PRIZE.  Why??  

 

    Because it was covered with Buffalo.      Millions of Buffalo.

 

                                                              Some herds having as many as 5 million head.

 

                                                               

       That reminds me of my little buffalo sculpture.. I made it from a red rock that I found in P.D. canyon... (no dremel tools)

 

 

   The Comanche tribe, you see, was a Texas-sized tribe.  They were business-men of their time.

 

   They had women tanning hides of buffalo constantly.  They were in the fur trading business.  Big-time fur trading.

 

   They were also in the horse-trading business.  

 

                                                                         Horse trading business...???

                                                                     YEP.  

They were in it. And in fact, they were THE tribe to which all other tribes went for their horses.  Why...?  Because the Comanches had the grasslands.  And horses graze grass.  And they were the best at training horses.  They traded them already trained for more goods. And..

 The Comanche tribe with all of its different bands, from north to south and from east to west Texas, were possibly the greatest 

horsemen to ever live...

 

  This picture below demonstrates how, without a saddle, the Comanches were very adept at sliding to the side of their horse in order to "hide" from the enemy fire.  All the while they were holding their weapons, which usually included a 10 to 14 foot lance.  They kept one foot on their horses' back to do this.  And it was done usually with the horse at full gallup.. a real feat!

                       I have drawn several of these

                                                         "Possibly the greatest light-cavalry in the world, once given a pistol..."  This is quoted by a worldly man from Europe, who saw them fighting(on horseback no less) with his own eyes back in the day.  Makes me sick that there weren't video cameras back then....  

 

   The Comanches were so good on horseback in fact, that none other than THE  "Texas Rangers" based their fighting style on these very same Comanches.   What????????????   Why haven't we heard that before?  Someone left that out of our History lessons...

   Basically, the Texas Rangers were formed to fight off Indian attacks.  But guess what?  The first time they went to fight the Comanches, they got OFF their horses to fight!  Definitely the WRONG thing to do if Comanches were mounted..!

   Needless to say, they didn't fare too well that day, although they did have better weapons.

But from that day forward, the Rangers began to learn from the Comanches, and began learning to fight from horseback.  They were riding slower horses however, and their skills were no match for the Indians trained practically since birth...  and they still had a hard time winning any battles against them even after getting a new pistol called a "Colt".

 

   But horses were also how you survived out here on the plains.  And Quanah, the Comanche Chief, knew that if he stole all of MacKenzie's horses, on the night they had invaded his homeland, that he would have easily been able to cut down the whole 4th Cavalry the next day.  This would have been the "Custer Story" had it worked out the way Quanah Parker had planned..  It would have been famous.  And so would've Quanah.  All 25 years of him...

In fact they may have wandered off and died on their own without horses.  

 

Pretty darned smart for such a young chief.. 

                                                       

 

    So on that fateful night, sometime after midnight, Quanah took some of his men and they snuck over to MacKenzie's camp..

 

   They rode straight into the middle of The camp of the 4th Infantry.  This was suicide by all modern standards.

 

  Firing guns,  whoops and hollers (that only a well trained Indian warrior could muster up at night), and the sound of hundreds of hooves moved through the darkness as the Comanches raided their camp and struck terror in the heart of every one of MacKenzie's men...

The soldiers saved most of their horses luckily, but Quanah still made off with 60 to 70 steeds.

 

    Including Col. MacKenzie's very own grey pacer...!   It must've been a humiliating moment for him.

 

   Can you imagine being the Colonel, taking a horse from one of your men the next morning, and then sending him packing back to base-camp on foot...?

                                                                                    

It was only about FIFTY miles back down the trail. (poor guy)   But at least he was not unaccompanied.. he was with 66 or so of his own men who had to be sent packing it back on foot like him..  Thanks to:  These warriors in black war-paint:

 

 

                                              

 

                                                   " QUANAH  AND  THE  NIGHT  RAIDERS "

 

     Night raids were a staple of the plains tribes.  They accquired horses, slaves(for working on buffalo hides-usually women who may even become a potential 2nd wife)  These raids were carried out in modern day Mexico every summer.  The historians say that there were many more Mexicans killed during these raids, than Texans... but I'm not sure if anyone has the statistics.   Remember, horses were the same as money to the natives, and this is why there were lots of horses stolen.  

       Stealing horses at night in Mexico may have been as easy as taking candy from a baby..

 

     If it were me, I would go take their horses in broad daylight, when they were taking a "siesta"...!

 

     These raids were done during the full moon.But the early Texans had a different name for it...

    Out of fear of being attacked in a Comanche night raid, full moon was commonly referred to as - "Comanche Moon".

      Thanks for reading my blog.!                 Texas Artist-Randy Friemel