“Show me the books she loves and I shall know the woman…“

Found Art

Leeana Tankersley

Found Art is a collection of spiritually enriching, uplifting stories from the author’s life. These stories are insightfully woven around the seasons found in Ecclesiastes 3 and include birthing and dying, planting and harvesting, speaking and remaining silent, weeping and laughing, mourning and dancing, war and peace.

Found Art is about seeing a certain beauty in an object, a beauty that isn’t inherently there on first glance. It requires vision, a look beyond what is to what could be.

Navigating a relationship with God in the midst of chaos, confusion, and disappointment can be disorienting. And though glimpses of God appear here and there, more often readers face the frustrating inability to find him in the midst of any of it.

But what if, like a found artist, God were busy creating something enduring from the scraps and the cast-offs? What if art is seen, not in spite of, but because of, the raw materials?

Through the lens of Ecclesiastes 3, Leeana Tankersley shows readers that sometimes they must let something die if they are ever going to be born again. Sometimes they must fight to keep their roots planted while life is trying desperately to uproot them. Sometimes they must mourn as grief is the only passage out of their pain. And sometimes they must go to war while in the very next moment they long for a day when peace is possible without it.

Any one of these scraps might be a discarded item, but collaged together, they become something entirely different. Art emerges from the carefully collaged odds and ends. God takes the unlikely moments of our lives and pieces them together into something of beauty and worth.

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I had a mixed reaction to Found Art by Leeana Tankersley. On one hand I was drawn in by her beautiful and soulful descriptions of the “new” world around her. Her description of what Found Art is and why she could relate that to her ever changing life with her navy seal husband spoke volumes. The idea of Found Art…simply put…making something beautiful out of the things that have been discarded.

You could clearly see Leeana’s love for her husband and her Lord as she continued her journey of self discovery. Every description, interaction and thought let you deeper into her soul and relationship with God. It was almost as if you were sneaking a peak into her very heart and soul. In Found Art she was not only finding the beauty of God around her but in herself. It was as if you were reading the journal of a very personal friend.

But it was that aspect that also led me to a different reaction. If you ever read the journal of a friend you know that there are times in life that seem rather mundane. At times in Found Art…I found myself glazing over the words she had written. While her descriptions were beautiful and sincere they were at times a bit too much. I wanted her to get to the point of her experience and not just the scenery around it.

I think the true beuaty of this book would be wholly appreciated by other wives and mothers of militray men. I applaud Leeana for her truth and desire to grow closer to God but did not feel completely moved or taken in by Found Art.

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