Truth about Truth

I was driving around town yesterday when I passed a church with one of those signs where you can change the letters and create little messages for everyone driving by– you know the type. Anyway, the sign read something like “Truth has the merit (benefit?) of being simple.” You’d think I could remember the exact [...]

Effective Christians + Effective Artists = Effective Christian Art; or, Perhaps We’re Overthinking This Whole Thing

There has been A TON of talk in the last few years about the connection between art and theology, the decline of effective visual art in the church, or of Christian artists, or the decline of the cultural capitol of Christian themed art in our Western culture…yada yada yada. An interesting post by David Taylor, [...]

“Christianity, Contextualization, and the Arts”–ramblings on this dreaded catch-phrase

I’m a writing this post in response to pNielsen’s post LinkLuv: Art, missions, church, in which he’s looking for more information concerning the “missions” character of the Nagel Institute sponsored seminar in Indonesia.

The rather unwieldy phrase “Christianity, Contextualization, and the Arts” was the the official title of our Indonesia conference, and we spent a [...]

“What was the one thing you learned in Indonesia that has changed your life forever?”

This was a question I received from Megan at Fried Okra from my last post. Actually Lainey received the question for me during a recent visit, but it’s not really important. The point is I should know better than to invite such questions when there are such sharp-minded people out there willing to ask them. [...]

Do you feel like some of this work is about 9/11?

I got this insightful question from Somethingthereis as a comment on my last post. It’s worth considering. Short answer, “No, I don’t think so.” But I want to explore what I think might be going on for my own edification. And to see if any of this makes sense to anyone else out there.
First off, [...]

Artist(s) of the Week: Peter Lenzo and Michel Bayne

Many of you who know me already know Peter. Michel is another potter in South Carolina- a great guy who took his first pottery class as an adult, got hooked, and quit his job to pursue it full time. He is a force.
Peter’s health has been failing him for a while now. He has a [...]

Who hears a Horton?

To appropriate from Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure…
…”Something is afoot at the Cineplex.”

Two movies out this year ask the viewer to consider (and affirm) the existence of God (well, at least two). The Aesthetic Elevator alerted me to a new Ben Stein documentary called Expelled: No intelligence allowed, which is about the rejection of [...]

Dry-erase Board of wisdom

I walked into my office this morning and found this note on the Creative Design/Graphic Design studio dry-erase board. Must have been an interesting discussion! I’ll write it out, because I know you can’t read it from my photo (you would think an art studio would have better lighting!)

Core Beliefs (which can be + or [...]

A Painting for Lent

A Painting for Lent
Originally uploaded by mo_coffee2003

50 x 66 inches
Acrylic, gel transfer, ink, wood ash, stuffed animals
2007
With today being Ash Wednesday, i thought I’d share this piece I made last year. It includes references to our dog, Pow, our beloved companion who had died one year earlier from kidney disease (which kept him from eating), [...]

Annunciation to Go

Annunciation to Go
Originally uploaded by mo_coffee2003
This is a little wall piece I made earlier this year. With today being Christmas Eve Eve, it seemed appropriate to post it. Our pastor, Father Martin, delivered a particularly inspired sermon today on Mary and her role in Advent. It was lovely. You can hear it here.
This piece was [...]