This is a thought that has cropped up in a couple conversations that sort of converged with other ideas running in my head—Christians and mystery, commands vs invitations, and why bad art is bad, be it Christian or otherwise.

Maybe all those things are just analogous and don’t share as much as I think they do. Anyway, if you have a chance to read, please do. I would love to hear your own thoughts. Hopefully that will help me sharpen mine.

“We say:
‘The knot was a pattern integrity.’
It wasn’t manila,
it wasn’t cotton,
it wasn’t nylon.
Nylon, cotton, and manila —
Any one of them is good to let us know the knot’s shape —
its pattern —
but the knot wasn’t any one of them:
it had an integrity of its own.
A human life is like that knot moving along the rope.”
(Bucky in R. Buckminster Fuller: The History (and Mystery) of the Universe.)

This post was inspired by two people. Glenn Kaiser at...

I’ve written a post—inspired from this article about faith based films—on another blogging platform that has a comments section, which is something I really do want.

It is on Medium here Creating your art or someone else’s?.

Let me know your thoughts, not just on the article but on the Medium blogging platform, too.

Thanks,
Joe

It takes a lot of trust to talk about truth honestly. I have to trust you, you have to trust me. We each have to trust in a lot of things. I have to trust that the other is not out to hurt me, to undermine me, to exert power or control over me, to belittle me, to lie to me, to deceive me, to manipulate me, etc. We both have to trust that the discussion is about making things, understanding, or action better. I need to know you care about me. Only when that level of trust exists can truth be discussed with any level of honesty.

The Church has largely lost that trust. That trust, as the basis of any good relationship, has been squandered. No wonder any time we want to talk about truth it becomes a battle. Our ideas and intentions are immediately questioned. It really isn’t even a question of what is or how we know truth. The question is what have we done with truth?

Sure, people are...

Sometimes, the truth hurts

One of the funniest comments from the judges on American Idol is when they tell the contestants something like “We want to hear you, we want to hear what you sound like and what you bring to the table, your voice”. When the contestant does that, the judges then rough them up for changing the song! WTH?! I’m about to do the same thing here.

I’m just going to say it straight up and up front. If you being a Christian is the most interesting thing you can offer with your art you should decide to flip burgers instead. Or make bird houses. I don’t just mean in terms of whether you should make a living as an artist, I mean in terms of whether you should be an artist, period.

Okay, here’s what I mean. Of course, this could be said about a lot of people, not just Christians. But for right now I am talking to Christians who make or want to make art. If this is not...

This is actually the second half of my previous article, Really? Is that all you got?. So, I continue the thought and idea of a Christian making Christian art and what that can honestly and authentically look like, which may or may not be what everyone’s or even the artist’s prescribed notions say it should look like.

Not everyone who says to me “Lord, lord”

Let’s push ourselves even further here. Just because you are a Christian does not mean everything you make has to be Christian or biblically themed. Or another way, just because you make art as a Christian does not automatically mean you make or even should make “Christian” art or art about being a Christian.

You can paint a flower simply because the flower moves you, or as Suzy Schultz says it, “puts a lump in your throat”. You don’t need to make it “shine like the glory of God!”, or hide a cross in the petals, or look like...

I often say that the essence of creativity and art is relationship. Since that can be a difficult concept to grasp, I’m going to give a shot at fleshing that out some more. I am working on a show right now titled R. Buckminster Fuller: The History (and Mystery) of the Universe that has some thoughts from Mr. Buckminster Fuller that have helped me articulate a bit more of what I mean. The quotes I use are from that play.

Just so you don’t have to read my whole thought process if you don’t want to, here is my conclusion. God’s eternal relationship, as the eternal realization of love, generated an increase in the capacity for love. In creation, love did what love does, it generated more love. As much as Love is God’s nature, creativity is also God’s nature. Christianity says the universe exists for God’s glory. What is more glorious than God’s love? What is more glorious than God’s love...

I don’t know if anyone has heard me talk about art being based in intent. For me, thinking like this opens up whole new ways of seeing and experiencing art as well as creating art. Here is a video where a curator, I believe, explains this quite well.

Happy Sunday!

Joe

While it might seem I am preaching doom and gloom for artists making a living making art, this is far from the case. If anything this highlights exactly what art one should make. What should an artist make? They should make their art, whatever that is. Your voice is exactly what people will want and exactly what you should wrestle for.

A voice, crying in the wilderness! Sometimes that wilderness is quite crowded.

For all the grief Modern art has flung in its direction, the point isn’t really novelty for novelty’s sake. The point is something that has not been seen before, a voice no one has heard before. While a lot of great songs have been written in the key of ‘C’ in common time with a I-IV-V progression with a pentatonic based melody, that is exactly the difficulty. There are a lot of songs written in ‘C’ in common time with a I-IV-V progression with a pentatonic based melody. If...

This question was posed to me a few weeks ago and I admit, at the time, it caught me a little off guard. At first I wanted to get out of the economic mindset of “consumer”. I believe it is necessary first and foremost to come to art of any kind on a humanistic basis, not economic. As I continued to ponder the question I asked my family their thoughts. They went straight into economic mode as the definition of ‘consumer'—how to financially support and purchase work, “pay what you can” models and such.

Even as I objected to this approach initially, as I think about it, I can’t ignore it. When we talk about supporting the arts, in the U. S., we do at least imply creating an environment for an artist to make a sustainable career as an art maker. While we have these high ideals of art and how art is more important than any economic transaction, we still live in a monetary economy. Artists...

Today, I have a guest poster!

Well, sort of. A very good friend and talented costume designer posted this on her Facebook status. I loved what she wrote so much I asked her permission to repost it here, as part of my long term goal of presenting the voices of many, not just me. It is a worthwhile read and a point I often make in discussions with artists. If you have seen a ballet, opera or play in Madison, WI, there is a good chance you have seen her work. If you have seen Hubbard Street Dance Chicago perform, you have definitely seen her handy work as she keeps the dancers’ costumes from imploding onstage. Without further adieu I present the latest blog post from guest commenter, Jennifer Schwaner Ladd. Many thanks to Jenni for her permission to republish her thoughts.

Making Art: Process Vs. Goal

A couple months ago I was in Dublin having many pints and a lengthy conversation with...