{"product_id":"true-faith-true-light-the-devotional-art-of-ed-stilley-the-arkansas-character","title":"True Faith  True Light: The Devotional Art of Ed Stilley (The Arkansas Character)","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn 1979  Ed Stilley was leading a simple life as a farmer and singer of religious hymns in Hogscald Hollow  a tiny Ozark community south of Eureka Springs  Arkansas. Life was filled with hard work and making do for Ed  his wife Eliza  and their five children  who lived in many ways as if the second half of the twentieth century had never happened.  But one day Eds life was permanently altered. While plowing his field  he became convinced he was having a heart attack. Ed stopped his work and lay down on the ground. Staring at the sky  he saw himself as a large tortoise struggling to swim across a river. On his back were five small tortoiseshis childrenclinging to him for survival. And then  as he lay there in the freshly plowed dirt  Ed received a vision from God  telling him that he would be restored to health if he would agree to do one thing: make musical instruments and give them to children.  And so he did. Beginning with a few simple hand tools  Ed worked tirelessly for twenty-five years to create over two hundred instruments  each a crazy quilt of heavy  rough-sawn wood scraps joined with found objects. A rusty door hinge  a steak bone  a stack of dimes  springs  saw blades  pot lids  metal pipes  glass bottles  aerosol cansEd used anything he could to build a working guitar  fiddle  or dulcimer. On each instrument Ed inscribed True Faith  True Light  Have Faith in God.  True Faith  True Light: The Devotional Art of Ed Stilley documents Ed Stilleys life and work  giving us a glimpse into a singular life of austere devotion.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44984588599349,"sku":"ByrdShop_1557286817","price":58.04,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9781557286819.jpg?v=1770838177","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/true-faith-true-light-the-devotional-art-of-ed-stilley-the-arkansas-character","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}