“Elixirs” Official Music Video from Giants & Pilgrims

For the past year we’ve been going to the woods with Lucy and Harriet and filming the same 12 shots, whether in summer heat, yellowed leaves, or blanketing snow. The result is this video with an incredible perspective of the seasons and a surprising story that emerged (all caught by Wes Sam-Bruce, the video’s director).

We’ll post more stories soon of how this all came about. For now, enjoy the magic of the video.

(You can pre-order the new album, Becoming, and “Elixirs” here.)

Note: For optimum viewing magic, click the HD button on the video player for best clarity

‘Middle C’ Mural in Greeley is Finished


I actually finished this mural at the end of last month, but I didn’t want to miss out on sharing some of the behind the scenes process pictures here. And actually, this morning I went and put the finishing piece on – the Middle C note right in the middle of the musical staff and finally signed the wall, so I suppose it wasn’t actually complete until today. This is the second large scale mural of I have painted for the city of Greeley – here is a picture of the first –
IMG_3580
Doing these pieces as silhouette worlds has been so enjoyable. (By the way, that is baby Beatrice in my tummy.)

My newest mural and mountains wallpapers is part of the City of Greeley’s Art in Public places alleyway project. City officials hope to see the alley — which serves as a connection between walkways from the 8th and 9th street plazas — covered with music themed artwork. Their plan is to take an eye-sore and turn it into a public gallery of sorts. Isn’t that a lovely idea?
You can read more about the city of Greeley’s plans for the alleyway and the scope of the project here.

Here is the my alley way Wall BEFORE:
Dealing with those pipes and utility boxes was the biggest challenge…

Betony Coons downtown Greeley Mural www.giantsandpilgrims.com

And in progress pictures (scroll all the way through to see the finished wall)

Betony Coons downtown Greeley Mural www.giantsandpilgrims.com
Betony Coons downtown Greeley Mural www.giantsandpilgrims.com

Betony Coons downtown Greeley Mural www.giantsandpilgrims.com
Betony Coons downtown Greeley Mural www.giantsandpilgrims.com

Betony Coons downtown Greeley Mural www.giantsandpilgrims.com


Betony Coons downtown Greeley Mural www.giantsandpilgrims.com

Betony Coons downtown Greeley Mural www.giantsandpilgrims.com


And FINISHED! (This is a composite photo, the narrowness of the alley makes it tricky to get the whole wall in one photo)

Betony Coons downtown Greeley Mural www.giantsandpilgrims.com

Betony Coons downtown Greeley Mural www.giantsandpilgrims.com

Betony Coons downtown Greeley Mural

Pre-Order the New Album Now!

Pre-order for our new album BECOMING has just opened. And you’ll be able to hear the first two songs. We are SO excited to share this with you all!

The art & music project BECOMING is centered in this idea: We are never static. We are always in the process of becoming who we’re meant to be. Though our bodies may come to a slowing point in their growth, the soul is ever-dynamic.

You’re getting a glimpse of the album with this pre-order, then it will be fully released (along with three paintings from the series, prints available) October 6th!

https://giantsandpilgrims.bandcamp.com/album/becoming

 

 

 

A Tribute to Atlas Church’s 10 Years

Atlas, our church and family community in Greeley, CO, that we helped start, turned 10 this last Sunday. As my friend Kelly put it, Atlas celebrated their 10th Anniversary – not birthday. Birthdays happen no matter what. Anniversaries are something you work hard for. You are celebrating work, blood, sweat, and tears. So, Happy Anniversary Atlas!

Since it’s very beginning, I have been in charge of the series artwork for the services. It’s one of those rewarding little side projects that can also drive me crazy. These were almost always put together at the last minute with little or no direction. Usually Jeff or Tim would send me the series title pretty late in the week I would kick myself for forgetting to be more on top of things and stay up late creating the graphics. Some of these are embarrassingly bad. Really I can’t believe I’m not just hiding them. And some, in my opinion, are still pretty lovely.
I thought about putting up all 10 years worth of art, but that was too much! But there are quite a few here. These are just some highlights (and low lights… ha). These are not in any particular order, so keep scrolling.

One of our very very first series was called 7 and was about the seven deadly sins. Each week I designed and printed these photo postcards and hand stamped and stuffed paper bags for every person. It was our first really successful series. I don’t have a slide graphic, because we didn’t have a screen back then.
bookmark_stripes2

All sorts of Advent Series:
great hall slide
advent in luke advent_joy
incarnation slide
title_slide

I still really like the way this one looks:
Incarnation

the four loves copy


My favorite Easter series artwork. We also wheat pasted these giant flowers all over the walls of the building inside and out. It was pretty great. BBM slide
This one had a series of watercolors starting with a seed. Each weed the little sprout would grow. On easter morning it turned into a flower. I still don’t get the series title.
seed slide_week7Become_lantern series artwork beginnings in luke_option 2
gods series artwork_title_slidebless_series_artwork

I would really like to take off that bad vignette filter on this one…
Branches Broadcast changed
This was from a larger painting I made. I still really like this piece.city_slide
Another one from the very early days. Called “Elements.” Every program was a hand stamped block print. If I recall I think I printed them on watercolor paper and spent hours carefully tearing the edges of every sheet.
elements
Pretty sure I was working on our very first church directory when I made this one. Lots of people I love in those tiny photos. There are still 11 or so of us from the very early days.
Family_slide follow option2 front cover
Another one from one of my paintings. I totally forgot about this piece.
garden
If I remember correctly, I think I did this on Tim’s laptop while driving home from KS. I still like how it turned out.Insides
These are kind of hard to see here, but I loved this set of collages. This series was from the very beginning of Atlas when I was still young and crazy enough to make one original piece for each week instead of an entire series. These were a Lenten series. Each represents a chapter in John leading up to Easter- water to wine, washing feet, palm branches, black friday, etc. We printed them out tall and skinny. They looked really cool.
john programs1
john programs2
I still like this one. Grunge lives on!

letters
These two photos were from a series called Holy is Normal (I think…). I took a different photo for each week. This one with the names was about loving the street our church is on. I had the various business owners hold up signs with their names and took a photo of them.
Names
Slide_cathedrals
dependance
This is a more recent one. I really love it. It feels very “me”.
scattered_v2
Another one from the very early days:
new john
I can’t take credit for this one, but it was pretty cool. Two artists in our community – Brenton and Amy. Converted parables into graphic novel form. They did one for EACH week. it was crazy awesome.
parables
I this was from this last year. I still really like this minimal design.subtraction_v2
I LOVE this wood texture. I think for the Black Friday artwork I did an inverse of this so it was black with white highlights instead.
tangible slide
This is definitely still one of my favorite series and artwork. We had just gotten kicked out of our space. We spent several weeks meeting in the back yard of a house instead. It felt holy.Temple
This was for a Thanksgiving series. I think I printed cards out that people could write thank you notes to people on as well.THANKS Program
peacemaker_slide_v2
Another oldie.
Philippians_2
This series ended in having a giant picnic in a park.porches title
I have no recollection of anything about these next couple…PulseRekindle
The only thing I ‘remember’ about this artwork was that I HATED it at the time but got so frustrated with it that I just sent it on anyway.Remember_series Art
This series was really fun. They had artists do live painting each week. The idea was about repainting the way we look at our faith.repainting copy
Whoa. This one looks SO outdated and cheesy now! I swear it was cool at the time. Hopefully…ha! I think this was our second or third series we did. Everyone had these really elaborate 3-ring binders that I made and added stuff to each week. It was so much work.
Revolution_cover_V2
I still really love the subtlety of this one. Reminder to self – use more neutral colors…
Signs and Wonders_v1right side up_cover
Some seriously bad filters on this one…
Romans
This one is kind of odd. It was one of those where they sent me the series title and I was like “What? Seriously?” Now what am I supposed to do with that…salt light city

Obviously from about 6 years ago. Not cool any more.
shift_for_screen
I wish I cropped this one a little differently. I still like the color scheme though.
slide
I want to get rid of the secondary text on this one.
slide
Why oh why is that bird graphic pixelated? Really Betony? spirit_slide
I really love how the word here is slightly off kilter.spokes slide
I like how this background turned out. But that font is just way too much…Stars
Another one that looks so outdated now… 🙂
STORM

The diety formerly known as...these_three copy
tribes_slide
trust_slide 2
Another collage series that I still really like.
Week_1_slideWeek_2_slideWeek_3_slide
This was the original Atlas Logo and title slide, later switched to the current circle with triangles (designed by Kathryn Nash).atlas prayer request postcard_front
Thanks for indulging me 🙂

Happy 10th Anniversary Atlas!!

September Ideas and Activities around the Theme “Animalia”

For this entire year I’ve been doing an at home curriculum with the family (Lucy 6, Hattie 3, Beatrice 10 months). Tim and I call the project “Abacus” and we’re sharing it each month for the fun, challenge, and community of it. Each month we choose a theme and then come up with a bunch of activities around that theme.
Read all about how to use this list and our heart behind this project here.
Explore past months themes here.

 

Growing up we had this book as a kid by Graeme Base called Animalia. It’s the basic idea of an ABC book taken to the next level – as many things that start with a letter as possible entertwined together on one page with catchy alliteration poetry. My dad and I would play a game where we would see how many things we could find that started with the letter on each page. It would be in the hundreds per page. Inspired by that book, this month’s theme is “ANIMALIA” – think the animal kingdom, animal alphabets, zoology, fables and more

 

September Dates to Take Note of:

September 7th –Labor Day
September 13th –Grandparents Day
September 19th –Talk Like a Pirate Day
September 21st – International Peace Day
(We also have two little cuties who have September birthdays)

Local: Greeley, CO events:

September 12th –Chalk-a-Lot at UNC (a fun family art event – they will be trying to break the world record for longest continuous chalk drawing)
September 12th –Potato Day at Centennial Village (one of my favorites)
September 19th – Poudre River Trail-a-Thon – we haven’t ever been to this, but it sounds great!

List of Ideas and Inspiration for ANIMALIA:

FILMS:

There are so many good family movie nights here…

Dr. Doolittle (I prefer the old one of course)
doctor_dolittle_1
Milo and Otis
We Bought a Zoo
Babe
Homeward Bound (Old version is called the Incredible Journey)
Gorillas in the Mist

BOOKS:

Animalia by Graeme Base
5891875_orig
Animalium by Katie Scott & Jenny Broom
61WwdERNfVL._SX363_BO1,204,203,200_
All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot
51n5GyrBy8L._SX331_BO1,204,203,200_

…and oh so many other great books from the perspective of animals (Redwall, Wildwood, Charlottes Web, etc…)

SCIENCE & NATURE:

Learn about animal taxonomy (remember “Kings Play Cards On Fat Green Stools”?)
tree
Animal tracks – maybe make plaster casts of them
Woodland_nursery_art_animal_tracks_1024x1024
Learn about endangered and extinct animals – could make little clay models of them
117808-004-BE1D7BE5

ART:

Funny animal combinations
74bff5032541ed17ef46798e12593e9c
Painting and drawing animals – there are some great books on this. Learning how to simplify to basic shapes is a great lesson.
51aD3sLdpHL._SX389_BO1,204,203,200_

Help the girls Sew little felt animals
il_fullxfull.747610104_eucx

OUTINGS:

Take a trip to the Zoo (or wild animal sanctuary)

LITERATURE:

Read animal fairy tales – three little pigs, billy goats gruff, etc.
613vB7Zq91L._SX258_BO1,204,203,200_
Learn about Aasops Fables
aesops-fables

MUSIC:

Listen to and talk through the Carnival of Animals by Saint-Saëns – also this Ap might be a fun add on too

screen480x480

 

DRAMA:

Play Animal charades
charades-header
Put on a play of one of Aasops Fables or a Nursery Rhyme
vl-curtain-embellishments
Make animal hand shadow puppets

September Calendar Free Desktop and iPhone Wallpaper

September 2015 desktop_v4

We are listening to our Autumn Leaves playlist this morning and burning fall scented candles. Why? Because in the Coons’ house, Sept. 1st is the beginning of fall!  And, here is a new desktop graphic/wallpaper to celebrate. Enjoy!

For the iphone wallpaper, navigate to this page on your phone and then click and hold on the iphone images. Select ‘Save image to camera roll’. Then from your camera roll set your home screen/lock screen.

For the desktop, click on the small thumbnail below to view the large size image.

High Resolution Desktop Wallpaper:
September 2015 desktop_v4

iPhone Wallpaper:
iphone september_blank