art + faith + mystery

Something to think and pray about this week

2008-08-28T19:41:00.001-04:00

What does the desert signify in the story of the people of Israel, of John the Baptist, and then Jesus himself? It was not a destination, but a place for travelers going somewhere, journeying to a new life. Jesus had gone into the desert an unknown young carpenter from Nazareth, with thirty years of hidden life behind him. After the desert he returned to Galilee with power of the Spirit in him, and started to preach. Quickly he became a public figure, but he loved to withdraw to desert or mountain to recharge his energies by prayer. He moved forward like any of us, with no sure knowledge of what was to happen him. His life was shaped by the spirit driving him forward, but shaped also by the accidents of his life, the enthusiasm of some of his listeners and the resistance of others. He had a sense of where God was calling him (‘I am sent to cast fire on the earth.' Luke 12:49) and of the joy he felt in this vocation (‘My meat is to do the will of him who sent me.' John 4:34) After the quiet life of Nazareth, Jesus' public life was tumultuous. If we are to do justice to his humanity, we must accept that he did not know what would happen next, only that this was where God wanted him to be.

Most of us could point to a similar second calling, though we might not think of it in that way. A second journey like this is not an easy option. It means casting adrift from the security you have enjoyed, not knowing where the road will take you. In all this journeying we are looking for light from the Lord, as John Henry Cardinal Newman expressed it,

Lead, kindly light, amid the encircling gloom, lead thou me on!
The night is dark, and I am far from home, lead thou me on!

-Sacred Space

works of reconciliation

2008-06-17T14:54:00.002-04:00

Our work is the result of collaboration. Not just in the conceptual sense, but working on the same canvas at the same time. We began creating this way while working on the peace line in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The peace line is a wall that divides neighborhoods between protestant and catholic. Our time in Belfast was spent facilitating art workshops, working with folks from both sides of the divide to help build community. Along with the workshops, we created a commissioned piece of art for the Forthspring Inter Community Center, which bridges the thirty foot wall. We found creating in this way is much like reconciliation. It is a process of listening, respecting, being authentic with one another and trusting. There is also a shared balance of power at all times. One of us may be making a decision about what color paint stroke and where, but that has nothing to do with the "power". The power remains balanced.

We have created paintings that neither of us would have created alone. When we look at our results, we see our individual selves have not been lost. We see both our styles and ideas present but also something more. We talk a little during the process, but most of it is worked out in nonverbal communication with the other. One thing we have noticed is that we don't paint over or paint out something the other has put down without letting the idea (or stroke or color) live for a while and seeing how it fits into the whole. When we have learned all we can from the piece we are working on, together we move on to the next painting to begin a new dialogue.

Chuck + Peg

On the Bridge

2007-06-13T05:53:00.000-04:00

I'm wanting to write something about our upcoming journey to Belfast, Northern Ireland. I don't want to write for the sake of seeing my thoughts on a blog, but to craft a few words that express my hope for peace. I'm realizing that working at reconciliation that leads to peace, in my life and our world, is a process of living on the bridge. The bridge leads us to love one another. For me, it is living in contemplation, prayer, making art and offering hospitality and loving kindness to the travelors that cross.

With art and prayer we hope to live in a community of hope and love, creating and caring for the world that God has created. Pray for us on the bridge, pray for our ability to discern the needs of all that pass our way and to offer comfort in Christ.

Flames of Hope

2007-05-22T18:40:00.000-04:00

The coming of Pentecost reminds us of our desire for newness of life. In Greek the word for "breath" and "spirit" are the same, connecting the Creation story found in Genesis with the coming of the Spirit in Acts and the possibility of being re-created into a "new person" that Paul talks about in his letters. A person filled with the Spirit of Christ will continue His work and mission to reconcile and heal.

Get connected

2007-05-14T22:10:00.000-04:00

True wisdom comes from understanding that the universe is balanced on our actions, each and every one of us. Our understanding of the significance of this mystical fact leads us to an awesome conclusion: Each one of us is responsible for how the universe will unfold.

Belfast Inspiration

2007-05-13T14:57:00.000-04:00

We're heading to Belfast, Northern Ireland to facilitate a workshop and create art on the peaceline. We have a love and connection with our friends in Ireland and have a lot to learn from their experience's in reconciliation. We are focusing on the "Bridge Building" that is taking place and hope that we can live upon the bridge, facilitating those drawn to cross it, attracted by the light of creation.

Dust in the Desert

2007-04-25T20:55:00.000-04:00

Seventeen years in the desert without a roadmap. Dusty roads that have taken me to destinations that i would have never intensionally traveled. In the process I was formed into the newness of the spirit, forged in the heat of uncertainty. There is beauty in the desert if you are aware of the gentle wind that blows new meaning and understanding through your being. The journey has been lead by nothing less than grace.

Draw me a fish

2006-01-03T17:24:00.000-05:00

I have been chewing on this phrase for some time now. Three months to be exact. It may seem a little obsessive , but it was uttered to me by my father-in-law before he died. The image that his words drew from the recesses of my heart and mind has captivated me. I still haven't drawn this fish, but am wondering if it would draw me closer to the divine. Harry was an extraordinary man to me, the fuller dimension that I saw in his final few days on this planet, were profound for both my wife and me. As artists, and artists who believe art to be prayer, we found these verbal paintings to be beautiful tapestries from the garden. A sort of peaking behind the thin veil. Now that I'm further down the path of grieving I find myself ready to draw a fish and perhaps draw a deeper meaning to my life.

The Vessel

2005-10-14T16:21:00.000-04:00

The world began its existence as a vessel into which God poured his love. According to Jewish mysticism God filled the vessel beyond its breaking point, shattering it in millions of pieces. Therefore even the most diminutive things in the world hold a spark of divine love. The ubiquitous love renders everything in existence – and thus in art too – poetic, magical and divine.

Making Art: From the Inside Out

2005-08-19T16:50:00.000-04:00

Seeing (in its broadest and deepest sense) imprints us and changes us. It may even become the way we think. But seeing, however active or passive, may not be the only way of engaging beauty or being shaped and formed by art in the visible, external world. We are not only viewers of art; we are also makers of art, engaged with the creation of art objects ourselves. Each act of creation is a spiritual exercise, strengthening or honing us in particular ways, making us more and more into who we shall become and how we understand ourselves in relation to the rest of the created world. - Robin M. Jensen

From Memory to Form

2005-08-18T12:47:00.000-04:00

Making art is a creative act that draws its inspiration from the external world, incorporates the images in the memory, draws upon active mind, and produces a visible image that points far beyond itself. In other words, it is a type of spiritual formation. Because of our environment, our memories, and our visions, we are constantly in flux: our formation is continual. Creation and formation are a process; we don't suddenly arrive at our completion (at least not in this life). Artists are restless people, always at work, doing the same thing again and again, or moving on to the next project. Their discoveries are not endings, only openings. The opening chapter of the book of Genesis recalls this idea of restless repetition in the creative process. In the beginning, God created again-a second day, a third, a fourth, and so on. The text itself has a rhythmic repetition: "And there was evening and there was morning, the first day."

This God-like delight in the work, even when it seems repetitive, is where I believe the creative life and the spiritual life find their common joy. For however hard or frustrating or physically taxing it is, true artists are unable to give up striving for "the perfect expression." In retrospect, the striving itself is the source of the deep joy and satisfaction, far more than the result. With each success, the artist will set herself or himself a more challenging task, as if satisfaction or achievement were the ignition rather than the brake. We are inspired to push on, not to stop and rest on our laurels. Sabbath is still ahead of us.
-Robin M. Jensen

Beauty and Beholders: A Trend

2005-08-15T17:31:00.000-04:00

Why is it that we find visual art so problematic in the church? Why do we accept comforting stained glass or banners with slogans, but would be shocked to have neon splashed across our pulpits?

Perhaps we recall the aesthetics of an itinerant preacher's revivalist tent, or perhaps the early Puritan and Quaker influences are the roots of our lack of awareness about the visual elements of worship. Too often the lack of works of visual art in the place of worship is a reflection of a lack of interest, rather than a careful creation of space according to the canons of aesthetic minimalism. Too many churches reflect a lack of care and coldness that none of us would tolerate in our homes.
- Nancy Chinn

Imagine

2005-08-12T09:50:00.000-04:00

The problem that has affected the church down through the ages with regard to art can be put simply: How much of life is Christ to be Lord over? Is he only interested in that part of life we think of as religious or spiritual? Or is he interested in every facet of our lives-body, soul, mind and spirit? The sort of art we make will illustrate our answer.

Liturgical Needs of the Contemporary Church

2005-08-11T09:17:00.000-04:00

The challenge of today's churches must be embedded in their liturgical life. That challenge is to live courageously with compassionate and critical stances toward the realities of social and personal life, and to be concerned with the constructive and envisioning work to which the Gospel calls us in collaboration with our neighbors, at home and abroad. In the liturgy, where the church's theology and mission expressed and understood, the principal motivation for pioneering change will be found. - Janet Walton

The Use of Visual Arts in the Church

2005-08-10T08:12:00.000-04:00

With these wise words, the Roman Catholic Bishops' Committee on the Liturgy helps begin a discussion on art, the artist and the church. "God does not need liturgy; people do, and the people have only their own arts and styles of expression with which to celebrate." (Environment and Art in Catholic Worship, #4) Often neglected, or relegated to triviality, the visual arts are an important element of liturgy. Through visual arts, the church proclaims and celebrates a diversity of cultures, and expands its ability to respond to the Word of God spoken to us today.

How have visual arts been used in Christian tradition? What are some of the hesitations and fears that we as artists and we as church have about each other? How might an artist at the dawn of a new century create new art for the church? What does art have to do with worship or social change? - Nancy Chinn

Art as Sacrament

2005-08-09T09:21:00.000-04:00

Can we, as artists in the church, take a different stance toward art? In the art world, it is a challenge to turn our back on the modernist, heroic, belligerent ego of the isolate, whose work is often marked with skepticism and a dreary, cheerless, calculated approach to marketing a product, Can we embrace our own deep hunger for the real, for mystery, for freedom, and turn away from the siren of the compulsive consumption in our society?

Can we move toward embracing the paradox of the opposite as a way to relate to the other? Can we listen? Can we hone our ability to respond, and not simply react, or crush, or consume or exploit? Can we teach others an aesthetic of compassion, and find new ways to bring that alive?

To be an artist can be about expanding the human experience with the gift of imagination-to activate not only our own imaginations, but to find ways to invite the community to learn to exercise its own imagination, to honor the gift and its spark of divinity, wonderment and vision.

For the church, the challenge is a prophetic call to use art today in a very different way. can the church use art as a model for relationship and as a way to create community? can the church consider the artist in new ways, and liberate the artist from the confines of religious aesthetics, from slick and easy solutions to complex work, and honor-the struggle and sheer energy it takes to create anything? Can we the church open ourselves to change, as to a gift, celebrating the blessings of diversity and the growth of flexibility as we face new ways of seeing? If so, the church and the artist will find that art, the work of human hands and hearts, is a sacrament of divine artistry, a sign of the One who not only makes all things, but makes all things new. - Nancy Chinn

The Artist as Cultural Worker

2005-08-05T17:22:00.000-04:00

It is not enough for the artist in the church to be a good designer. I now call myself a cultural worker, and the focus of my work is visual culture. What do people see? And how do they see it? Time and time again, I see the excitement as a project begins to focus, and all the diverse talents brought to the project by the participants begin to forma constellation. The secret is that this focus is supplied by the presence of the artist among the people.

Art is not, as we are taught by our institutions and our culture, only about making things. It is about using materials to take notice of God at work among us now and here, in this time and place. And when working in temporary media - seasonal environments - we might also expect that what we learn now is not what we will learn the next time that we ask the same questions. The nature of the materials and of the project suggests that we are oriented toward a process - a kind of process theology of the arts! Art becomes not so much an object as an encounter, an event. The resulting product embodies the event. The artist animates and organizes and encourages the participation of all who respond to the invitation to encounter divine mystery through art. -Nancy Chinn

2005-07-15T09:36:00.000-04:00

Rain waters the earth, making it bring forth and sprout…. The whole creation is groaning in travail… A sower went out to sow. We are reminded that prayer is not a lifestyle option, or a mechanical technique, but something natural to all creatures, like breathing out and breathing in, like metabolising our food, like the process of growth which we achieve without knowing how we do it. In moments of crisis, when we feel ourselves on the edge of existence, we reach out to our creator. We do not engineer our growth – in the body or the spirit – but allow God to make us fertile.

Retreat Center for Art + Faith

2005-06-22T18:41:00.000-04:00

The mission of the Grünewald Guild is to awaken the creative spirit through art, faith, and community.

The Guild community gathers and connects people from around the country and the globe, from the hopeful to the accomplished, artists and theologians in everyday clothes who delight in unique talents and a common mission to share their creative spirit with a world seeking nourishment.

The Guild Community embodies a special sense of hospitality. People are in dialogue with one another and the environment, constantly open to surprise in a place where the sacramental pervades every corner. Through every aspect of our days, we reveal our authentic selves within the context of this community.

For more on the Grünewald Guild in Washington state visit: artfaith.com

CIVA Thoughts

2005-06-21T18:41:00.000-04:00

Christians in the Visual Arts, at the dawn of the twenty-first century, is heir to a long and rich tradition. Though the vocation of the artist within the Church has been questioned in recent history, the artist was highly valued in earlier centuries. Christian artists may have been marginalized in the art world by many cultural critics, but they are impacting both the Church and the culture as they live out both their faith and their vision. Where there once existed a gulf of misunderstanding, a bridge of growing trust and mutuality is now emerging. Christian artists are on the threshold of unprecedented opportunities.

In a new millennium, with vastly different media at our fingertips, what exactly is the place of the Christian artist? Are artists salt and light in the secular culture? Are we an alternate voice of God’s revelation in the established Church? Do we live in a tension between the culture and the Church?

At the core of this celebration will be an evaluation of the current state of the arts with a focus on the ways that New Media and the Moving Image can speak to our contemporary culture in relevant and challenging ways.