I just returned from my grandfather William Franzen’s funeral.  He lived a few months short of his 92nd birthday.  There was much to distinguish him.  He was married for 67 years.  He fought in WW2.  He had a good number of children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren (and one great-great-grandchild).  He was also a very mechanically gifted fellow.  His mechanical giftedness manifested itself in many ways but particularly in his tendency to collect and make clocks.  The night before his funeral I was in his old bedroom and I counted eight clocks (some digital, but many of them ticking) as well as two clocks in the connected bathroom.  To stand in his room (and almost anywhere in his house) is to enjoy a symphony of syncopation.  Two thoughts occurred to me.  The first was that the clocks that ticked for him tick for me.  The secondhand turns at the same speed for everyone.  The other happier thought was that he was now with his Lord and Savior in a place where time shall be no more.

This is a quick sketch I made of him a few years ago while he slept in his chair.

And here is a postcard that he sent my grandmother while in the Army during the Second World War.

I did the illustration on Carl Trueman’s upcoming book, Fools Rush In Where Monkeys Fear to Tread | P & R Publishing.  I painted the donkeyphant illustration for the author’s earlier book Republocrat and was excited to work on this new one.  Dawn Premako, the art director at P&R, is a joy to work with (she even provided reference for the likeness), and the whole job went swimmingly.

I haven’t posted in a little while, so here are a couple things.  First, we have a green guy sketch:

Secondly, click here to visit a website that some friends designed.  It shows off the greenest of villes, the city in which I live and one that you should visit.

The death of Christopher Hitchens yesterday has saddened many Atheists and perhaps many more Christians.

Mr. Hitchens was a man of many contradictions.  He was a left-wing Trotskyite who defended neo-cons forcefully and eloquently during the Iraq war.  He was an ardent Atheist whose name means “Christ-bearer.”  He was moralistic in his writing yet without warrant for that moralism in his philosophy.  He challenged Americans to think about ultimate things even as he denied that there were such categories as ultimate things.

Six or seven years ago one was likely to hear an Atheist say that they didn’t believe in God anymore than they believed in the tooth-fairy.  The implication was that belief in God was harmless immaturity.  However the New Atheists have culturally advanced very far the idea that belief in God (particularly the Christian God) is not only false, but immoral.  Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, and Christopher Hitchens spent a great deal of energy writing books in an attempt to suppress Christianity in the public square.  While these books have not proved philosophically deep (I’m not saying they’re as sloppy as someone like Bill Maher, merely that they avoid Christian Theism’s best arguments), still the work of the New Atheist has provided a veneer of  intellectual cover for people who enjoy mocking Christians on facebook and youtube comments sections.

At the conclusion of Collision, a documentary featuring a series of debates between Douglas Wilson and Christopher Hitchens, Mr. Hitchens once again reveals his penchant for contradiction.  He relates a conversation with Richard Dawkins about the eradication of religion:

“And then at one point, I think this is not on camera, I said if I could convert everyone in the world, not convert, if I could convince them to be a non-believer and I’d really done brilliantly, and there’s only one left.  One more, and then it’d be done.  There’d be no more religion in the world.  No more deism, theism.  I wouldn’t do it.

“And Dawkins said, ‘What do you mean you wouldn’t do it?’

“I said, ‘ I don’t quite know why I wouldn’t do it.’

“And it’s not just because there’d be nothing left to argue with and no one left to argue with.  It’s not just that.  Though it would be that.  Somehow if I could drive it out of the world, I wouldn’t.

“And the incredulity with which he (Richard Dawkins) looked at me stays with me still.  I’ve got to say.”

Christopher Hitchens, the man whom God used to challenge Christians so that they might not get too comfortable, will be sorely missed.

Douglas Wilson wrote this honest summary today in the pages of Christianity Today:

“We leave the soul of Christopher Hitchens (and he did have a soul, despite all his arguments) in the hands of God, who will do nothing but right.”

If you know me or have read my blog for any length of time, you know I have the tendency to over-talk.  Permit me to over-talk about over-talking for a moment.

A few years ago I had a roommate that used to get in theatrical arguments with his girlfriend.  They were sort of passionate people.  One day in response to his girlfriend’s distress he took out a piece of paper and started listing things on which they agreed.  His effort smoothed things over and the fight ended.  I was impressed with his resourcefulness when he told me this story.

When I moved from the apartment, in the process of cleaning up, I found a piece of paper in a book.  On the back was a numbered list of random things–bands, foods, movies and things.  On the list, around number 9 was the sentence: “Zach talks too much.”

After a minute I realized this was the list of agreements my roommate had shared with his girlfriend.  Glad I was able to bring them together.

If you find that you like the art on my blog, but you could do without the commentary, hop on over to my behance page and look in peace.  Today marks my one year Behance anniversary.

Just wanted to say thanks to the people at Illustration Served for the shout out.

Sorry I haven’t posted in a while.  I’ll put something up in the next few days or so, but until then, here’s a picture of my wife and I.  We just celebrated our sixth-month anniversary this past weekend.  We will be playing Kate and Petruchio in a local summer production of Taming of the Shrew.

Ha!  This picture’s hilarious.

Howdy gang.  I was married on Oct 30th.  Got me a fine woman.  Below is the cover of our wedding invitation.  This was before I got a haircut.  I also made myself look better than I do in real life and Alissa look worse in order to try to bridge the looks gap.

Here are some pictures from our wedding at Skylight chapel.