Buy More Art: new album releases from Raising Jane and Ordinary Neighbors, You Are Awesome: 21 Crafts to Make You Happy by Abbey Hendrickson

Introducing Buy More Art, a subtly-titled weekly collection of art and art events I'm recommending to the world. A close runner up name for the new series:  Love your Artist Neighbor, Buy More Art! (borrowing language from Lauren Winner's advice for art patrons in this book)

After writing 101 Monday Mixtape posts, I'm throwing a farewell party and welcoming in the new guy. You'll notice the mixtape lives on in spirit.  We're just hanging up the jersey on the metaphor.

In case you're wondering, a couple of things I consider when I'm putting together my collection:

• Is this an emerging artist who could use a shout-out?
• Is this an emerging artist I've met, friend of a friend, reminds me of someone I know?
• Do I enjoy the painting/print/tunes/exhibit/piece/pages so much I want to own it for myself?
• Does this artist have a risk-taking story I'm cheering?
• Does this work feature the banjo? Move it straight to the top of the list.

{ This post is meant to be shared; help a starving artist and pass it on! If you'd like to receive This Sacramental Life in your inbox, enter your email address here }

-- 1 --

With Light Intention from Raising Jane

If you like exceptional, vocally driven Folk & Celtic music, you'll be glad you met Raising Jane.  We've enjoyed hearing the group perform live a couple of times since moving to Austin, most recently Saturday night for the With Light Intention release party at Foodheads.  Nothing better than a crisp night in Austin with beer from band member Adam Blumenshein's brewery (Strange Land Brewery), Foodheads' savory turkey noodle soup, good friends and flying fiddles.  

By the way, if you happen to be on my Christmas list and love Celtic music you should hold off buying this album for yourself (wink).

Sample track for your enjoyment.

Raising Jane website

Raising Jane on Facebook

With Light Intention at CD Baby

With Light Intention at Amazon.com

CD release party at Foodheads, Austin --
we're grateful for our friendship with Mark and Terri Fisher!

-- 2 --

You Are Awesome: 21 Crafts to Make You Happy by Abbey Hendrickson

via Cicada Books: Abbey Hendrickson writes a blog called Aesthetic Outburst documenting her life in an old farmhouse in rural New York. In between DIY disasters, childcare catastrophes and cultural consumption, Abbey makes some fantastic and funky craft projects, which she sells through her Etsy shop. You Are Awesome is a collection of 21 clearly explained step-by-step craft ideas by Abbey Hendrickson. They range from a cross-stitched screendoor to a laptop toy made from a cardboard box. The projects are deceptively simple to make, but have a contemporary freshness that will appeal to seasoned crafters and novices alike. Each one captures the warmth and humour that Abbey herself radiates and which makes her blog so popular. There is nothing more rewarding than making things yourself. Things to live with and things to give to people you love. Let’s revel in the joy of handmade. Crafting is awesome!

You Are Awesome: 21 Crafts to Make You Happy by Abbey Hendrickson, illustrated by Fiona Biddington and published by Cicada Books.

You Are Awesome at Amazon.com

Abbey Hendrickson at her blog: Aesthetic Outburst & on Pinterest

Book review at Poppytalk

It wasn't until after I was a long-time Aesthetic Outburst blog fan that I discovered Abbey Hendrickson and her family live in Owego, NY -- as in one town away from our previous home in Endicott.  I think I figured it out when she created a relief fund for the devastated little town after the 2011 flood.  Then I realized her parents live a half a mile away from my parents' former house after she promoted their annual barn sale. Gosh, I wish I'd known Abbey when we lived less than 1,700 miles apart.

No matter where you live I recommend her new book.  And for any of you near Rochester, NY next weekend, check out details for Abbey's book signing at second storie indie market 2012.

-- 3 --

The Necessary Dark from Ordinary Neighbors

via bandcamp page:  The songs began as simple folk tunes, many of which are based on Susanna's poetry and short fiction. The music slowly morphed into ambient soundscapes in the studio with the help of Dustin Ragland (Utopian Accident ) and DM Stith (Asthmatic Kitty Records, Revival Hour). The result is a mountain of noises and beats that create a space chock-full of feeling.

Ordinary Neighbors online

Susanna Childress online

My response to Jagged With Love by Susanna Childress

Another great album hot off the presses!  I've never met Joshua Banner or Susanna Childress but I've followed his blog and her poetry for several years now.  I'm excited to dig into this collaboration of lyric and tune.  

-- bonus --

What I See When I Run botanical prints

Last Dance
Francis Ooi

What I See When I Run botanical portraits blog

What I See When I Run online store

I'm in love with this concept and with these prints.  I put together a collage of November-ish leaves but that's just a tiny selection of the variety of flora and fauna listed on the site.  Check them all out.  Looks like you need to order quickly (by 11/20) if you want any for Christmas gifts.

-- add your art --

Now it's your turn!  What art are you making, selling, buying?  Tell us about it in the  comments below.  If you've written your own post, share the link.

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"The God who impoverished himself is also the God of abundance, and somehow, perhaps at times nonsensically, Christians are called to live out of an ethic not of scarcity but of abundance—an abundance that extends both to the homeless neighbor and to the artist neighbor. . . "  -- Lauren Winner, from her chapter THE ART PATRON: Someone Who Can't Draw a Straight Line Tries to Defend her Art-Buying Habit  in For the Beauty of the Church

Buy More Art: support Matthew Clark's Bright Came the Word from His Mouth, buy art for Sandy recovery, Songs for Liturgy from Cardiphonia plus bonus "Poem Forest"

Introducing Buy More Art, a subtly-titled weekly collection of art and art events I'm recommending to the world. A close runner up name for the new series:  Love your Artist Neighbor, Buy More Art! (borrowing language from Lauren Winner's advice for art patrons in this book)

After writing 101 Monday Mixtape posts, I'm throwing a farewell party and welcoming in the new guy.  You'll notice the mixtape lives on in spirit.  We're just hanging up the jersey on the metaphor.

In case you're wondering, a couple of things I consider when I'm putting together my collection:
Is this an emerging artist who could use a shout-out?

• Is this an emerging artist I've met, friend of a friend, reminds me of someone I know?
• Do I enjoy the painting/print/tunes/exhibit/piece/pages so much I want to own it for myself?
• Does this artist have a risk-taking story I'm cheering?
• Does this work feature the banjo? Move it straight to the top of the list.

{ This post is meant to be shared; help a starving artist and pass it on! If you'd like to receive This Sacramental Life in your inbox, enter your email address here }

-- 1 --

fund Bright Came the Word from His Mouth by Matthew Clark at indiegogo

Matthew Clark is another artist I owe the privilege of knowing to the Laity Lodge Ministers to Artists retreat.  Specifically to the Saturday-night, post-concert sit-around-the-fire, ale and cigar and conversation on the patio.  I always feel a bit awkward, not knowing how to initiate meaningful conversation without resorting to small talk cliches.  Matthew Clark does not suffer that problem.  He has a gift of gracious, kindhearted openness that made sharing story and meaning feel easy and comfortable.  I feel like I got to know his sweet wife, his home in Memphis, and his music with just one conversation around the outdoor fire.

Now you have the opportunity to get to know Matthew through his music.  Knowing the little bit of Matthew that I do, it comes as no surprise that he'd take a risk on a collaboration, joining his gifts with the ideas of others.  Bright Came the Word from His Mouth is an album of songs inspired by Sandra Richter's book, The Epic of Eden.  Clark's goal for this ambitious project: to "create a cohesive telling of the epic journey of God and his children from the Eden of Genesis, through the long and broken journey of humanity to Christ, all the way to the final restoration of God's original intent - God's people, in God's place, flourishing in unbroken access to God's Presence."

Less than two days remain for the indiegogo campaign to support this project.

Go to the campaign home page for more information.  (Funding levels begin at $5.)  

Listen to a song from the album: Let Go the Floodgates

Visit Matthew Clark's website 

-- 2 --
Artists donating 100% of Proceeds to Sandy Recovery

                                                                               Source: thisiscolossal.com via Tamara on Pinterest

via This is Colossal:

New York based artist Sebastian Errazuriz is offering this thoughtfully designed cotton shirt titled I Still Love NY through Grey Area. Photo courtesy Jordan Doner.

Visit This is Colossal to Buy More Art and donate to Sandy Recovery: First Responder Artists: These Designers, Artists and Photographers are Donating 100% of Proceeds to Sandy Recovery

-- 3 --
Songs for Liturgy: A Cardiphonia Compilation album

                       

Cardiphonia provides another rich treasure of music from the church, for the church.  Twenty-two worship leaders from across the United States offer different perspectives for liturgical music. 

via Cardiphonia:

   " ...these short songs do a wonderful job at helping to remind us that the Gospel proclamation is an ever evolving and flowing narrative where neither Word, nor prayer, nor song, nor table has the last say…but in all of them together is Christ made full.

So we offer up this collection of incomplete songs as a testimony that Christ is died, Christ is risen, and Christ will come again.  It’s a fitting song to sing as we prepare for the advent season.  The full song of salvation hasn’t sounded yet."

Download the album at Bandcamp. While this album is a free gift to the Church, for the first 30 days "name your own price" donations for downloads go to to support Sandy recovery efforts in NY/NJ. 

Visit Cardiphonia for free download of the entire songbook for this album.

-- bonus -- 
Poem Forest: An audiovisual tour of New York Botanical Gardens, November 2011

                                                                       Source: blog.bmwguggenheimlab.org via Tamara on Pinterest

                                                                   

“Waterfalls, with a sound/ Like rain”

—Ch’u Ch’uang I

via BMW Guggenheim Lab blog:

"Poem Forest took place November 2011 at the New York Botanical Garden, which was celebrating the renovation of its 50-acre old-growth forest. The Garden, in conjunction with the Poetry Society of America, asked me to do something poetry-related on site. This commission excited me because I wanted to pull poetry from libraries, magazines, books, etc., and put it in the world....

So I “installed” 15 lines pulled from 2,500 years of poetry along a trail through the old-growth forest. Visitors spoke each line (printed on a handout) at specific locations (marked by small orange signs) to which the lines corresponded conceptually or physically....

Urban planners, artists, and citizens around the world must open poetic space within increasingly cramped, increasingly bottom-line-driven cities. Our political animalness gets claustrophobic. We require the commons to encounter each other and the physical landscape."

Here’s a 72-second audio piece that features Poem Forest participants reading their favorite lines. 

-- add your art --

Now it's your turn!  What art are you making, selling, buying?  Tell us about it in the Comments below.  If you've written your own post, share the link.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

"The God who impoverished himself is also the God of abundance, and somehow, perhaps at times nonsensically, Christians are called to live out of an ethic not of scarcity but of abundance—an abundance that extends both to the homeless neighbor and to the artist neighbor. . . "  -- Lauren Winner, from her chapter THE ART PATRON: Someone Who Can't Draw a Straight Line Tries to Defend her Art-Buying Habit  in For the Beauty of the Church

Buy More Art: We Heart NYC print for hurricane relief, Quarry Street Hymnal, Vol. 1, Christmas cards from James B. Janknegt and bonus from poet Billy Collins

Introducing Buy More Art, a subtly-titled weekly collection of art and art events I'm recommending to the world. An close runner up for the new series:  Love your Artist Neighbor, Buy More Art! (borrowing language from Lauren Winner's advice for art patrons in this book)

After writing 101 Monday Mixtape posts, I'm throwing a farewell party and welcoming in the new guy.  You'll notice the mixtape lives on in spirit.  We're just hanging up the jersey on the metaphor.

In case you're wondering, a couple of things I consider when I'm putting together my collection:

• Is this an emerging artist who could use a shout-out?
• Is this an emerging artist I've met, friend of a friend, reminds me of someone I know?
• Do I enjoy the painting/print/tunes/exhibit/piece/pages so much I want to own it for myself?
• Does this artist have a risk-taking story I'm cheering?
• Does this work feature the banjo? Move it straight to the top of the list.

{ This post is meant to be shared; help a starving artist and pass it on! If you'd like to receive This Sacramental Life in your inbox, enter your email address here }

-- 1 --

We Heart NYC Hurricane Sandy Relief by 2pugstudio on Etsy ($20)

                                                                                     Source: etsy.com via Tamara on Pinterest

Artist and hometown friend Erin McMahon created this reproduction print to aid hurricane relief in New York City.  Many of Erin's drypoint prints capture NYC architecture so it makes sense that she is now using art to help with relief efforts there.

In Erin's words:

New York City is one of my favorite places in the world. I created this shortly after the impact of Hurricane Sandy. The original is a drawing done in thread on Arches Watercolor paper, with a rice paper heart. You are purchasing an archival reproduction of this work, with the proceeds going to support the relief efforts in NYC as they recover from the devastating impact of this storm. 

To see and purchase artwork, visit Erin's sites:

Erin L McMahon, Printmaker
2 Pug Studio on Etsy

-- 2 --
Quarry Street Hymnal, Volume 1 by Quarry Street Hymnal

I'm grateful to worship leader and generous blogger Bruce Benedict at Cardiphonia for recommending the debut release from Quarry Street Hymnal.  It's no secret that I'm an avid fan of the re-tuned hymn album and have featured similar projects. (two examples: here and here)

This release from Philadelphia's City Church music director Bethany Brooks moves right to the top of the list of my favorites.  

from Bethany Brooks/Quarry Street Hymnal's press release:

Brooks’s music career is as deep as it is diverse. Bethany holds her masters in piano performance from The Royal Academy of Music in London and has performed as a soloist and collaborative artist in Philadelphia, New York, London, Mexico City, Odessa, Istanbul and eastern Hungary. Brooks has a classical chamber duo and is an active participant in the Philadelphia roots & rock music scene, playing and singing in numerous well – regarded projects and bands. She currently serves as Director of Musical Worship at City Church in West Philadelphia.
Quarry Street Hymnal is the product of more than 15 years of writing new music for old hymn texts. Bethany began composing new music to these historic texts as a senior in high school with the hope of exposing audiences to obscure texts by putting them into an original folk-classical style.

Quarry Street Hymnal on Facebook

-- 3 --
Christmas cards featuring art by James B. Janknegt

Joyful Mystery #3: Nativity

Meeting artist Jim Janknegt is one of the highlights of my first year in Austin.  I've featured his work several times and am delighted that this year he is offering a selection of his original paintings printed as Christmas cards. 

To purchase cards, click through to this page at his site.

To purchase other works by the artist, visit the home page at Brilliant Corners Art Farm

-- bonus --

 Billy Collins reading his poem "Litany"

Now it's your turn!  What art are you making, selling, buying?  Tell us about it in the comment box below.  If you've written your own post, share the link.

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"The God who impoverished himself is also the God of abundance, and somehow, perhaps at times nonsensically, Christians are called to live out of an ethic not of scarcity but of abundance—an abundance that extends both to the homeless neighbor and to the artist neighbor. . . "  -- Lauren Winner, from her chapter THE ART PATRON: Someone Who Can't Draw a Straight Line Tries to Defend her Art-Buying Habit  in For the Beauty of the Church

Monday Mixtape: Kenyon Adams & American Restless, fontface from E+S studios, WeMakeStuff Volume 01 + an animation

There are few things in the world I get more excited about than imaginative, risk-taking, art makers sharing their work.

Each week, usually on Monday, I compile a metaphorical mixtape, a few "tracks" of art featuring the work of independent artists making good work.  (with an occasional pop artist thrown in for kicks)

Won't you consider this weekly post my little patched-together gift to you?  Hopefully, the post shares a little bit of happy with the featured artists, too.

Enjoy!

p.s., this mixtape is meant to be shared; help a starving artist and pass it on!

track 1: Kenyon Adams & American Restless

Yet another artist I've gotten to know at the Ministers to Artists Retreat at Laity Lodge each spring.  Just like most everyone I meet there, Kenyon's passions, talents, and work defy categorizing.  I met him first as the Arts Ministry Coordinator at the Center for Faith and Work, a ministry of Redeemer Presbyterian in NYC.  Then I watched him in the award-nominated indie film Lucky Life.  This past spring, he and Charlie Peacock teamed up on an inspired musical improv and I realized this man can sing!

Seems his band began kicking up dust this past year, recording and performing in New York.  Not sure why it took me so long to mention them here.  I promise you're going to love the sound!

From their Band Profile on Facebook:

"The blues is about a soul crying out before God..."

This statement captures our shared artistic vision to create progressive rythym and blues music which marries the southern soulful stylings of Kenyon Adams and the Chicago-based roots music of Noah Lekas (American Restless).

To this picture and in this scenario we wish to contribute our own "cries" out to God in solidarity with all who struggle to reconcile inner longings with the besieging cruelty of the mundane.

Band Instrumentation: Inspired by Muddy Waters Band, The Allman Brothers Band, The Black Crowes, Little Walter, Jimmy Hendrix, Elmore James, among others.

Kenyon Adams, lead vocals & amplified harmonica
"Restless" Noah Lekas, lead guitar
Shawn Best, Drums

Kenyon Adams & American Restless on Facebook

Kenyon Adams & American Restless on ReverbNation

 track 2:  fontface from E+S Studios

Speaking of that Laity Lodge tribe, Erik & Shannon Newby unveiled their newest venture, fontface on Etsy. E+S=fun and pretty every time!

About the shop (+ opportunity to be an arts patron x 2!):

We take pride in using 100% recycled, post-consumer and biodegradable papers and packaging. We also believe it’s important to invest in the arts, so we pledge to give 10% of our proceeds to supporting other creative initiatives and individual artists

fontface on Etsy

fontface on Facebook

Shannon Newby

the card I'm going to send Brian (don't tell him...)

track 3:  WeMakeStuff Volume 01

WeMakeStuff Volume 01 from WeMakeStuffVancouver on Vimeo.

I didn't know about this Vancouver-based indiegogo campaign until just a few days ago (thanks to DT for the hat tip).  How exciting to link there today and find out they've reached their goal already!  Still, if you'd like to contribute you have to the end of today to add your contribution (Monday, October 15).  Mostly, I love what they're doing and why they're doing it and thought you would, too.

The Artist-in-a-Tribe is a beautiful thing.

from the indiegogo page:

WeMakeStuff Volume 01 is a stunning book that will showcase one hundred artists and innovators from Vancouver exploring the collision of faith and creativity. It will be a historical document showcasing creative people expressing their process, intent and the tensions of their reality.

The one hundred are artists, innovators, inventors, engineers, architects, designers, film-makers, dancers, programmers, entrepreneurs, chefs and writers. For the first time, their collective voices are being recorded in one ground-breaking publication.

WeMakeStuff Volume 01 on Facebook

WeMakeStuff Volume 01 on Twitter

bonus track:  Homemade Portraits: Sophie Blackall

The Missed Connections of Sophie Blackall on Etsy blog

Watch more Etsy videos

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Before I go, I should tell you that I love to hear what poems, pictures, 

songs and reasonable words you are enjoying.

  Please do stop by the comment box and share a bit with me.