REFLECTIONS ON FAITH & ART

I'm just warning you, and apologizing all at the same time. So this art group idea has me excited and a little worried. Excited because I've been part of a church in the past where the arts were a major thing (insert sniffly sigh of longing for Cedar Ridge right here.) We were technically in the suburbs when we lived in Maryland, but the suburbs of the metro Washington DC area are a long way from the suburbs of Cincinnati, Ohio, midwestern U.S. of A. Please don't misunderstand or get all insulted. There is much to be loved about Cincinnati. I just feel like most of it is in Cincinnati and not much of it trickles out to the farthest suburban suburbs where we currently reside. I see the sameness of our neighborhood and rationalize that it's no different than our Levitt house in Bowie (where every third house is the same with matching neighborhoods in Pennsylvania and Jersey!) But down deep I honestly wish we were closer in, closer to town. In the city or o...

Yeah, so we're doing this thing . On December 8th at 2:00. At my house. Seriously, what makes me think I'm qualified to lead this? I mean, I'm interested. And I was just thinking I'd really like to live in Arizona so I could work outside and make two-story tall metal sculptures. Strictly for the welding aspect of it (who cares what you make, as long as you get to use fire to join metal to metal! ) Though I'm not sure what that has to do with anything at all. So pray for this. For me. And for us, as artists and as believers. I'm not sure how many "us" there will be but even if it's just Jodi and me, we're ready to get this thing going. I'm honestly afraid once I start talking art and God I won't be able to stop.

When I first started this blog I had posted a few challenges to make people try to think outside of their own little frame of reference as well as to help get your mind going. Things were hectic, like I said in that last post. I didn't give this as much attention as it deserved because I was just thinking of it as a hobby or an interest that didn't require much more than the extra few minutes I had after living my real life (a.k.a. doing laundry, feeding kids, cleaning bathrooms...) But over the last few weeks I've been questioning some of why I believe what I believe. And I've come to the conclusion that God was hitting me with those questions to help me realize some things about myself and how I see Him and the world he created. I can't really explain it so I'll use a very generalized illustration: say you have a real estate agent, an accountant and an artist looking at a house. The real estate agent would note things like the location, the square foota...

A lot of you have heard me talking or read my rambling about this Faith & Art idea. The store and teaching classes and whatever. It sounds great and I've been praying about it and I've come to the conclusion that God doesn't want me to start big. He wants me to just start where I am. So here's the deal. Anyone who's interested in getting together and making a mess, talking, hanging out and figuring out how this works is more than welcome. Our basement is as good a place as any and if we move the couches and the foosball table and fold up the treadmill we can get a decent number of people down there. What would we do? Well, I have an idea that's come together over the last week of praying about this. It would kind of be a "class" I guess, but more open. I'll lead it but I don't want to teach - I want to bounce ideas off of you and get ideas back. I'm in it to learn just like everyone else. The premise is this: Art is a for...