Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Here's a quote for today...

...maybe we'll start a conversation.

"The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance, and this, and not the external manner and detail, is true reality." (Aristotle)

Reminds me of a scripture verse in 2nd Corinthians: "Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal."

That which cannot be seen has greater significance than that which is seen. But, as James talks about, "Faith without works is dead" or useless. As artists, our challenge then is to translate the invisible into visible terms. (And no, I'm not suggesting every piece of art have a cross or a fish on it. I think just plain 'ole honesty will go a long way).

Honesty, experience, journey, discovery, struggle, pain, joy - these are real. What say you?

Friday, April 11, 2008

No Meeting tonight

Okay, I sent out the email Wednesday about canceling our meeting for tonight, and no one decided to pick up the slack, so there's no meeting tonight.

Let's talk about the future.

Our work together over the past few years has been up and down. We got off to a roaring start, dwindled a bit, piddled around, and we are continuing to search for exactly how to be who we want to be. The Stations of the Cross was a major step forward that took lots of time and energy and left everyone both tired and energized over the possibilities. We've been on a few field trips, had some parties, done some interesting discussions over truth, beauty, what art means, and how best to serve the Lord with the work.

Now what? I very proud of all of the work people are doing, and I think we need to kick around some new formats, new approaches, new ways of connecting each other to our work. And if you've loved (as I have) having visual art at the church, let's talk about ways to continue blessing people with that work.

All that having been said, let's start using the blog as a way to talk. One of the changes I've made is that I've committed to more time writing and blogging, because I think my primary gift relates generating ideas and creating conversations.

Anyway...pull up a chair and log on.

Peace...