post-rome art.

made this after my trip to rome in summer 04. this is close to what i'm doing for the show. dead leaves from autumn + leaves / buds in bloom now are what is really inspiring me : looking to wonderfully simplistic nature to answer my questions about death and life, and then mixing that with the Word.

i'm really excited to see what everyone else is doing. peace.

B+W finally

Hey everybody, I finally got the b+w images to work, let me know what you think. They're in backwards order from how I talked about them I think.

still here

hey all...

yeah, so it's been awhile since I've blogged on...

julia, i love those pictures.

I can't give details right now, but i am working. I haven't been trying to fade out gradually :) ... promise.

wow, one month... oh boy! By God's grace...

more later~

Julia's buds

wow, keep us updated.

color

The other two abstract paintings might not seem to go along with the look of the other ones, but I’ve been thinking and reading about color and I think that there is a really wonderful connection that color has to the issue of new life. A book I’ve been reading is called Chromophobia, its all about the fear of color in culture, secular, but a lot of neat connections to redemption and biblical themes, particularly with an idea of ‘falling into color’ and how that idea within culture is often connected to both a kind of fall into sin as well as kind of fall into grace and joy: “There are many stories of the world made color, or colorless, and their lessons are often contradictory and confusing. Color is both a fall into nature, which may in turn be a fall from grace or a fall into grace, and against nature, which may result in a corruption of nature or freedom from its corrupting forces. Color is a lapse into decadence and a recovery of innocence.” There is also a very interesting quote of Paul Cezanne: “Shut your eyes, wait, think of nothing. Now, open them… One sees nothing but a great colored undulation. What then? An irradiation and glory of color. This is what a picture should give us… an abyss in which the eye is lost, a secret germination, a colored state of grace… lose consciousness. Descend with the painter into the dim tangled roots of things, and rise again from them in colors, be steeped in the light of them”. I really love those quotes and their relation to new life, with just the idea of being steeped in a glory of newness from God. The reason I thought about including the abstract paintings is because being all color they sort of picture the idea of being steeped in color, which in turn is a picture of God steeping us in new life.

black and white

Yo folks, wanted to post about a couple of the paintings that I’m thinking about putting in the show so I can get some of your thoughts. Something screwy is going on with the posting of images so I have to wait and leave the writing on by itself for now. This’ll be long, so I’m splitting it into two posts. Hope the images show alright—they’re all about 6x7 foot, give or take a foot, so you’ll have to imagine it I guess. I’ve been doing my student teaching this semester, so creating through my students rather than directly, so my contribution to the show will have to be previous work. I’m posting 5 images, so I’m just looking for a couple thoughts on which work most with the theme of new life.

The black and white and gold images are an aesthetic approach that I enjoy because it involves both drawing and photography. The first two images are art historical ‘redo’s’—Rembrandt’s Three Crosses and Brueghel’s Way of the Cross. Obviously being about the cross they have to do with new life, but more than that, drawing on top of an image that looks sort of like a photographic blur is like how we ‘draw’ on top of reality—we think things about reality and sometimes that distorts reality (sinful and/or weak human thoughts) but it also is necessary because we have to respond to what is revealed and work to honor what God gives us. The black and white aesthetic is sort of a dark and depressing look which relates to how things are prior to new life, like the murky waters in Genesis 1. The third image is an image I’ve titled ‘Abortion 8 weeks’. I initially did it because I wanted to do a big issue painting, but as I’ve thought of the issue of new life, I thought about how abortion is as far opposite of the idea of new life as we can think because it is such precious life that is destroyed, often a creation incredibly small and not fully formed, as new as new life can be but just as it starts to live its killed. The image I did the painting from is a little strange, mostly because I didn’t want the image to be what you necessarily expect—the photographer used a quarter for scale, and moved the dead baby’s limbs. I realize its gruesome, but art is often about the business of making us notice things about the world (usually more attractive and beautiful things) that we wouldn’t otherwise notice, and so challenge our typical experience of life, so I hope that by looking at a painting of something so bad, our knowledge of the beauty and importance of new life is jolted out of laziness.

in response to julia

Hey Julia. that observation is absolutely correct about spring. I read a book called the "Message of the cross" - excellent. I recommend it to everyone. But they talked about how the passover took place in spring - because of new life the corn growing - or whatever - not sure. But how it would be this visual that God used to remind them of freedom, life and new beginnings. No accidents in times, seasons or events in Scripture. every verse unlocks and is packed with revelation into the mind of God Himself.
excellent point Julia.

I am almost done Connie. Due to my increasingly busy schedule, i don't think I will be able to do the light swith idea. I would love to, but would need lots of help. wink wink hint hint....
I have one painting 5' x 6', one drawing - 4' x 5', the conversation series squares (2) and I am currently working on a drawing.

Hows everyone else?
Rob

one month reminder

ahh, deadlines are good for us aren't they.

well i have plenty of painting ahead of me. how are those conversation series going? Jeff?? And Drew, how are your photo concepts coming?

okay, well I'll email all the artists about a week or so before our deadline, Easter, with instructions for sending me pics and info for your work.

Hope you're all well. Drop us a line here and let us know how your progress is coming.

warmly,
connie

'church marketing sucks' & other thoughts

this is a website i found - i'm interested to hear other's thoughts on it.
www.churchmarketingsucks.com

interesting premise, although it's hard to find examples of what they think 'doesn't suck' - it just seems like a lot of blogging to me, but if you beg to differ, please say so.

life starts: it's spring soon!

has anyone ever thought about how Easter and Spring happen at the same time? new life in nature, new life in Christ being resurrected... or am i light years behind everyone else?

the magnolia tree outside my window is SO close to blooming
buds that were brown all winter are now slowly turning gorgeous pink.

'all around us we observe a pregnant creation . . . ' - romans 8, the Message.

a little progress

currently: printing big type, crinkling it up, and then scanning it back in. this is in the vein of what i'll be making for NA. thoughts? using this texture in the e.e. magazine.

re: God is in the PROCESS

i am a firm believer in what connie wrote regarding the process of sanctification vs. the process of making art. there is indeed a very obvious connection. it is very exciting to know that someone else though of that. "the learning and growth happen during the times of wrestling through the process. in art: correcting, wiping out parts of a painting, reworking ideas. in sanctification: awareness of sin, conviction of sin, repentance."

the learning and growth definitely happen in wrestling. art would be too easy if we always knew exactly what we wanted to do, and could do it, without a little wrestling / tension. we HAVE to wrestle. if we aren't wrestling, then we aren't growing. i wrestle a lot with struggles (who doesn't), tensions in my walk, frustrations. but God promises that He is in charge of our growth (we are perfectly held, although unraveled).

something bill said from one of his professors is the experience of 'fighting with a painting'. i feel like that with design too-- fighting to get to a good idea, a gem -- and then carry it out, with good type, good craftsmanship, etc etc.

in wrestling though, i learn the beauty of surrender: of realizing that our sanctification - being made holy in a process, which is instaneous + progressive (wow!) is in God's hands.

a mentor of mine read through ephesians 2:10 with me once.
For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

she said 'workmanship' in greek translates to poema = poem. it is one of my favorite things to think about - that we are each God's poems. if we surrender, we let Him write us.

p.s. the image is a rough spread from a magazine i'm attempting to create for my senior thesis project, called e.e. magazine (about e.e. cummings).

sunday

hey alison, just wanted to let you know that I can't make it tomorrow.
sorry for the terribly late notice
Rob

local artists gather

Just wanted to put the word out on the blog for the locals (in case my email got dropped to your junk mail) that for those who are able there'll be a gathering at my parent's place on Sunday to eat, chat and hopefully make some art. Please let me know if you can or can't make it!

processing

(I'm still thinking about your question Connie. More later. :)

I just wanted to toss out something that I read recently and found interesting, R.C. Sproul was talking about the work of the Holy Spirit in creating new life in us. He was using the word "quickening", as in "quickening from spiritual death" or "the Spirit quickens our hearts". He talked about how, outside of spiritual terms, the most common use of the word was in regard to pregnancy, when a woman first feels the life, the movement, of the baby in her womb.... the quickening.
I thought that was great. That first movement, the first moment, the life, the action. Of course if I knew how to capture the sense of that in a piece of artwork I would do it right away! I hope that some element of it comes through.

God is in the PROCESS

How is the art/design process like sanctification?

I've been thinking through this and could use some help articulating it. a few ideas to begin...

• process more important than product
• product is the evidence of the process that the ideas went through
• the learning and growth happen during the times of wrestling through the process. in art: correcting, wiping out parts of a painting, reworking ideas. in sanctification: awareness of sin, conviction of sin, repentance.
• these parts can seem unwanted to a young/immature artist/believer but the more mature artist/believer relishes the oppotunity to improve/grow

Can you guys help me to elaborate on this?