Exhibit Opening: a photo diary [the coffeehouse]

Art Show on Main Opening

part 3: the coffeehouse

description: an event to open the art exhibit of our featured visual artists, to hear original music, author readings, and spoken word performances from featured and aspiring artists all in the ambiance of sweet, sugary desserts and savory caffeine-laden concoctions

the featured visual artists:

Erin L. McMahon

Danielle Smith

Amanda Odenwelder

Julia Dean

.....

the program: set one

Kelley White & Jeremy Kinney - 
Departing

Nancy Rounds & Andrea Shields - 
The Church in Chains is Free

Chuck Wasielewski - 

Artwork

Jason Harrod & Brian Moss 

the program: set two

Dan Keohane - 
Solomon's Grave

Julia Dean's art talk

Erin McMahon's art talk 

(more) Brian Moss & Jason Harrod

the program: set three


Laura Howell & Lori Haun - 
You Are There, Walking By Faith

Kevin Lucia - 

Coach's Midnight Diner

Tamara changing the schedule


Wayne Truesdale - 
Thanksgiving

Theresa Krause - 
Not Our Town

Lou Schlagter - 
It's the Only Way

(still more) Jason Harrod & Brian Moss

After this event, I tried to explain it to a friend who was unable to attend.  It was hard to explain, each year I find myself only being able to say that God smiles on us.  Yes, we make silly mistakes, and, yes, we have a lot to learn.  Yes, we work hard and take scary risks. No, we are not ending poverty and, no, we are not making a profit or even much that could be measured in hard data.  We're just spending time together cultivating beauty and community. But each year, there seems to be an added dynamic that clearly does not come from us - it is an energy and a restfulness and a beauty that I believe is from the Holy Spirit of the one true God who loves us deeply and graces us with His kindness.  We are grateful.

*Thank you to Hope Spicer and Andy Shipman for the beautiful photos!

Exhibit Opening: a photo diary [panel discussion]

Art Show on Main Opening
part 2: the panel discussion


description:  an opportunity for aspiring artists to hear the stories, daily work and struggles of the shows' featured artists


the questions:  how do you place a value on your art?  how do you set goals for your work?  what does your daily work look like?

an evaluation:  So far, this is the piece of the event I'd most like to fine-tune before next year.  Of course, there will always be merit in hearing the stories and daily disciplines of the artists we feature during Art Show on Main, I want to make sure we always provide time for that; it's just that there are so many deeper questions I'd like time to talk about and learn together.

For example, I had to bite my tongue to keep from inviting Brian Moss to let loose on one of his passions: the Church as patron of the arts.  He and Jason and my husband and I had a great controversy heating up on the topic as we drove out of Brooklyn on Friday afternoon.  Brian sits on the board of a non-profit organization called By/For that purposes itself to encourage churches to support artists in their communities and reclaim their historic role as patrons of the arts.

As it was, I only had time to casually suggest for people to try to get a few minutes to talk with Brian further sometime later in the day.


Since the opening, I've had more conversations about these pieces of art from Julia Dean than any other piece we've ever displayed during our four years of the Art Show on Main exhibit.

I wish we'd been able to take some time to talk not only with art-makers but art-appreciators about these pieces, specifically, and the theology of the human body in art, generally.


I'm also quite certain Kevin and Dan would have a few things about the genre of horror fiction and in what ways that intersects with the viewpoints of the Church.

And, heck, while we're at it -- Jason's got an interesting story about the original lyrics to his award-winning tune, Messed Up Everywhere Blues.  My own family is split on what we would have suggested to him had we heard the song in it's original R-rated version.  It would have made a good conversation about the tug-of-war an artist has between authenticity and accessibility.

To round out the day, we could have added to the mix Erin's strong views about the ecology of an artist's tools of the trade.  What does it mean to care for the earth's resources in our artmaking endeavors?  Not only in the content of the images, concrete and metaphorical, but also in our raw materials.  This, too, would have been an interesting discussion.

Were you there for the discussion?  Do you have any feedback that would help us with the evaluation?  Please do tell...

why we've saved for therapy instead of college

I'm sure I've mentioned I'm the first-time mother of a high school senior, right? I thought you all might enjoy reading the first speech Drew wrote for his Public Speaking class.


"Baseball game are rarely fun when you're sitting near drunks. That was the situation I was put in about five years ago at a Binghamton Mets game. Behind us where the drunks; in front of us were the smokers.


The drunks were mad at the smokers for smoking. They said their kids -- John, Ashley, and you know, what's-her-face (they couldn't remember because they were so drunk) -- were crying and scared because the smoke from their cigarettes were drifting upwards towards their row.


This was obnoxious to me because the drunks were obviously looking for controversy for controversy's sake. It was also obnoxious that the smokers were fighting back. They weren't drunk, and they should've had the common sense to just move up to the dozens of empty rows in front of them. It's a B-Mets game, after all. There are going to be empty seats.


The person who broke up the tiring feud was my mother. She looked back, and I swear the second before her mouth opened I could see lightning strike behind her profile. She screamed 'Shut Up!' at the drunk parents, whose little kids were now crying only because the adults were so angry at each other. She was so scary that the two rows ceased their arguments.


A couple of fighters on each side ended up speaking to each other, just stubbornly apologizing for their pointless fight. My brother and I actually spoke to each other because we could finally hear each other without all the shouting. And no one, absolutely NO ONE, spoke to my mother. And I have a feeling she was okay with that."

Refractions: Refractions 33: Georges Rouault - the First 21st Century Artist

Refractions: Refractions 33: Georges Rouault - the First 21st Century Artist

Exhibit Opening: a photo diary [the workshops]

Art Show on Main Opening

part 1: the workshops


Songwriting Workshop

the description:  two hours of both lecture, demonstration and 'workshopping' original music for anyone interested in learning and developing the skill of songwriting

the featured artists:  Brian Moss and Jason Harrod

the stats:  10 workshop participants ranging in age from 15 - [? who wants to claim to be the oldest in the room?]

Writing Workshop

the description:  an opportunity to talk with published authors about the technique of writing and being published; an opportunity to have an author read a writing sample for anyone interested in learning and developing the skill of writing fiction, non-fiction,  poetry

the featured artists: Dan Keohane and Kevin Lucia

the stats:  these two gracious men were busy for two hours talking with approximately 5 aspiring writers, answering questions and critiquing writing samples (including one of yours truly!)

excerpts that inform Art Show on Main:  David Taylor, Diary of An Arts Pastor,  March 29,  2006 

[he is speaking about his ministry at Hope Chapel, Austin, TX] "Why do we care so much about the arts? Is it just a personality quirk of Hope's--that because we're a creative bunch we do what we like most, artsy-fartsy stuff? Is it our way of reaching Austin? Is it a way to keep up with a media-saturated culture? It's a strange ministry to sustain, I confess, for such a small church. So why? Why do we do this? 

Well all of us live with an old intuition about the way our world ought really to be. We have an old memory, a memory that gnaws at our subconscience. It's a memory of our first home, the Garden of Eden. Our forefather and mother were born into a home that none of us can accurately imagine. We can approximate it with metaphors and inventive analogies. But this side of eternity we cannot fully appreciate how absolutely beautiful it was. We can simply feel, deeply, achingly, frustratingly, the longing for that beauty.

So one of the things that we as a church can do is to release the artists among to serve us with artistic offerings that cultivate in us a habit of beauty. Such art keeps our souls alive to the Beauty of God. Such art, more to the point, brings us into an intimateknowledge of God. It simultaneously awakens hunger and nourishes us with the deep things of heaven. Such art requires no justification. For by inviting us to savor the presence of God artists perform a service which is an end in itself: the joy of Beauty and the desire for God.

By beauty of course I don't necessarily mean pretty or lovely or pleasant, although they can be this. By beauty I include things that can be disturbing and controversial. Is not the cross of Christ both beautiful and scandalous? Beautiful things can be strange, like the sounds of a sitar. Beautiful things can be terrible, like the leviathan or the Venus Flytrap. And they can also be enrapturing and too much for our small souls to absorb, like Beethoven's masterful 9th symphony.

But back to Hope. By producing works of art for the community artists can rouse within us this old memory of great beauty. And the arousing is not just of feelings, it is an arousing that builds and strengthens and releases the community to become more fully the people of God: more humble, more alive, more generous and just and fearless in the face of evil. By hanging art on the walls or by interpreting the Gospel through dance or architecture or film, we're not simply entertaining ourselves. We're not simply being "relevant." We're being what we're supposed to be apart from any secondary utility or benefit.

And it is when we are this way, beauty-filled, beauty-overflowing, that we will become most attractive! Because it is then that we will become most like our true selves--persons created in the image of a beautiful God who makes for us a beautiful home, "good for food and pleasant to the eyes," for which all human beings are looking for a way to return to, the return to paradise."


Did you participate in the writing or songwriting workshop?  Post your thoughts and learnings and experience in the comment section.

*Thanks to Hope Spicer for all of her hard work archiving the event through photographs and for so graciously sharing them with us!*

Exhibit Opening: a photo diary [the workshops]

Art Show on Main Opening

part 1:  the workshops

Visual Art Critique Sessions

the description: Jury panel of featured artists meet with the juried show entrants to look at their submissions, give feedback and encouragement on the work

the jury: Andy Palmer, Erin L. McMahon, Julia Dean

2009 stats: 25 entrants, 60 submissions (textile, sculpture, photography, painting, charcoal), 40 selected pieces

excerpts that inform Art Show on Main: 

“The first step in our creative journey is to discover not whether we are creative, but how we are creative…What is our personal brand of originality – as individuals and as a community.”  -- Alice Bass, The Creative Life

“Since much of the Christian community has ignored the arts in our recent history, the Christian who wishes to learn about art must, by necessity, learn in the larger world, outside of the Christian ghetto – a ghetto that some Christians have created in a misbegotten attempt to find a sort of heaven on earth.” – Schaeffer, Sham Pearls

"Nothing begets nothing; something begets something." -- David Taylor, Union Center Artist Retreat, May 2009

Did you participate in the visual art critique session?  Post your thoughts and experience in the comment section.


*Thanks to Hope Spicer for all of her hard work archiving the event through photographs and for so graciously sharing them with us!*

in the meantime

I have been spending the week trying to kick a terrible cold that hit me like a heavyweight champ just before the exhibit opened last week.  It was a beautiful weekend and I'm working on a post to recap.  In the meantime read  Kevin Lucia's review of the event here and Dan Keohane's review here and here.  Brian Moss has a post here.

Kevin and Dan and Brian, I couldn't have said it better myself.  Thank goodness for writers to help us remember with their words.

art-making for the children's sake

So last night I had a dream that I was walking around naked.  This is what happens to me shortly before any event that may prove me to be a complete failure.  My conscious knows that is not going to happen this weekend, but my subconcious is apparently concerned.

Oddly enough, in the dream my thought was not, "Oh, no!  Where are my clothes?  Someone get me some clothes!"  Rather, "All you people walking around wearing clothes don't know what you're missing."  Hmmmm....analyze that.

Today I wanted to share a note I wrote to a young artist a couple of weeks ago.  Her mom is a beautiful example of a disciplined disciple artist.  Juliana had spent that particular morning in her kitchen painting new pictures and asked, through her mom, why people her age couldn't enter artwork into the show this weekend.

This was my reply:

Dear Juliana,
Your mother told me that you are busy doing the work of creating paintings. I want you to know that I think that you are so wise to spend time creating. I think it makes Jesus happy when we use our imagination and skill that He has given us. Keep up the good work!
It makes me sad that so many grown ups have forgotten how to do what you are doing right now – making a new painting in your kitchen on a sunny fall day. One of the reasons we have an art show at Union Center Christian Church is to help all the grown up people remember how to use their imagination and skill. That’s why the art show is for people who are in ninth grade and older. Your mom is a good example of a grown up who is working hard to make art and I’m excited to see what she has been painting lately.
Maybe sometime we’ll be able to have a place for people younger than ninth grade to show their artwork. For right now, I hope you know how happy I feel that you are painting lots and lots of pictures. : )


Love,
Mrs. Murphy

A couple of days ago I was emailing with a mentor who's primary calling in life is to pastor artists.  He was encouraging me to not give up.  To press on.  I wrote him back about the four children who live in my house and spend pretty much every day of their lives as creators, thinkers and culture-makers. 

This is what I said:

See? I can’t give up. God has filled my home with artists and thinkers and culture-makers. I give up at their expense. I’m in this for the long obedience.

Children's special during a Sunday this September.