Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Going to Print

Nothing like a deadline to bring a work to completion.  I am finally pleased with it.  I am taking it to print in the morning.   Now it needs a title.  the working title is "sacrifice," but it has spoken so much more than that to me over these last few weeks.  I've got a few days to decide on the title.  I am submitting this painting and Co-Heir in the Bear Valley Visual Arts Show, which will run through the 26th.  I'll let you know how it is received.  

I've was invited to speak at Cherry Hills Community Church.  This image will likely be the centerpiece of that engagement.  We haven't finalized the date yet.  It will be sometime this summer after I am through with finals.

Monday, April 13, 2009

Both And


Have you noticed,
Almost every psalm turns back to God.
Art is an abiding language.  
You can't be in its presence and stray for long.  
It takes you into itself.  
It doesn't just scream truth into the aether.
It always invites you in.

Feel it
Experience it
Know it intimately

abide

This quality makes art profoundly apologetic,
connecting heart and mind.
Didactic teaching cannot be 
the Gospel without words.

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Cracking the Nut

In a past life I found a mathematical metaphor for everything I loved about Architectural Design. It was the Leplace transform. Take calculus and turn it into algebra. You could write an infomercial about this thing.

"It slices , it dices, it makes mounds and mounds of coleslaw!"

What I loved about Architectural Design was solving a complex problem through the means of an artificial conceptual framework. All of the difficulties came together easily once the concept was discerned. Once the nut is cracked in that conceptual world, you can "transform" it back into our world as built form. And it didn't really matter to me if anyone inhabiting the built form ever knew the concept. I knew it. I let it take up residence in my built form. It peaked at you from every corner, because each detail was informed by the concept holding the space together. With great assurance and even pride I knew the built form reverberated with a deep truth, a central kernel that made it beautiful, and right, and maybe even perfect! At least that was the goal.

Jesus Christ was the transform in my life. I let Him take up residence in me. He peaks out at you from every corner because each detail is being informed by the God Man who holds this space together.

Now I am trying to discern the "nut" that needs to be cracked in this painting. This painting is a detail of my life that needs to be informed by Christ. Yet, it isn't for me. I am designing a work of art that every person will possess and assess differently. Truly this is the beauty of art. As each person abides with the work, it somehow unlocks the truths that are within them. I need to see that the painting is more like the transform than the complex puzzle to be solved. We are the complex puzzle to be solved.

She asked me, "Have you asked God what the nut is?"

"Hmmm, No. Let's do that!"

As I drove up Santa Fe yesterday I asked Him. Do you know what He said?

I love you, I love you, I love you.