Three Part Canvas

This piece was created to go along with a message on Luke 8. It was a three part canvas painted on plywood. The imagery in the piece goes along with the images in the passage, much more subtly. There are seeds being scattered, birds of the air eating them up, a lamp on a stand, a mother and her son, etc.

Here is a preliminary sketch:



Each piece represents a different part of the trinity. The bottom represents the Father in it's antiquity and wisdom and bold lines. The middle represents the Holy Spirit ith it's free flowing lines and bright colors. Finally, the top represents the Son with it's physical characteristics and vivid imagery.

Here is a photo of the final piece:

Resurrected

For this project we created an image to go along with a message on the resurrection. A box was constructed of plywood and 2x4s to hold sand as the base. Lights and 'blood' stained linens were placed on top of the sand.

Here are some photos:

NOW Baptism

For this project we took our baptismal and decorated it and prepared it for this giving project. The church is in the process of building a larger facility as part of the NOW project. People were given an opportunity to give and put their gifts into the baptismal as a symbolic act.

Here are some photos:

Luke Doves

The beginning of our Luke series started off with this project that featured hundreds of folded doves, hanging from the ceiling in the hall and some scattered on the stage in the sanctuary. A large doves was painted and cut out of plywood and hung center stage. The idea was the dove representing the holy spirit and how it descended on Jesus during his baptism.

Here are some photos:

Light Box

For this series we used a light box and displayed it in the foyer outside the sanctuary. Each week the images would change according to that week's message.

Here are some images:

Jesus Sheet

This project was done to go with a message of Jesus' return and carrying your own cross. The overall idea was seeing Jesus in a new way.

A large frame was constructed out of 2x4's and a white bed sheet was stretched across it and stapled to the sides, like a large mock canvas.

The images were sketched on the back with chalk and then during the performance were painted from the back as the paint bled through the sheet and appeared on the canvas before the audience. For the first two images, the canvas was on it's side, after a while the rest of the canvas was filled in and then turned 90 degrees to reveal the face of Jesus.

3-4 artists painted from behind as the sermon was being preached.

Here are some preliminary images:





Here is a short time-lapse video from YouTube:

Hypocrisy

This project was created to go together with a message on hypocrisy.

Luke 11:46 - And he said, "Woe to you lawyers also! For you load people with burdens hard to bear, and you yourselves do not touch the burdens with one of your fingers.

An action figure was purchased and painted and given a large ball of 'burdens' with ropes and chains. He was attached to a base and given a small plaque with the verse.

Here are some images:

Glow in the Dark

For the 2007 Christmas Services at Grace Church this project was created. It shows the story of Jesus and the journey up to his birth and ends with a surprise.

Here is a concept sketch:



Preparation:
Two pieces of 3' x 6' plywood were primed with white enamel and then the face of Jesus was painted on to the boards with Glow in the Dark paint. The paint is essentially invisible, so the image had to be painted in the dark, under UV light. Stencils were cut from black card stock paper of Mary and Joseph, the three wise men, shepherds in a field, and the manger scene. Hooks were attached to the back of the boards so that they could hang from the framework under the projection screen on stage. The boards were covered in thick black fabric during the service to keep them from collecting a charge from the lights.

Here is a mock-up of what the boards would have looked like on their sides:



Performance:

The 'light' areas of Jesus' face acted as areas of sky and the dark areas as ground, essentially creating a landscape for the story. There are four large areas of 'light' on the face which the stencils were placed one by one and a high powered flashlight to activate the area around them. Telling the story of the Nativity. After the story was finished, the boards were flipped right side up one at a time and then blasted with a spotlight for one final charge and also as a surprise to the audience, the boards are solid white. Then the spotlight turns off and a UV light is activated to illuminate the face of Jesus.

Here is a YouTube video of the performance:

Core Values

We painted a number of large canvases to represent our core values. Each week they are displayed on the walls of the sanctuary to remind us of what we're about.

Here are the values:

Community



Mission



Truth



Worship

Chalk Feet

Luke 7:37-39

The story of the woman who sat at the feet of Jesus and wept. She poured both her perfume and her tears onto his feet and wiped them with her hair.

This project was done on the walkway leading to the doors of the church. It was done entirely in chalk and remained for weeks as a reminder.

Here are some preliminary sketches:



Here are some photos of the final result:

Adam vs Jesus

For this project, we cut and painted two basic shapes of men out of plywood.



We then covered each cutout with images corresponding to each. For Adam, a heart of stone and images of death and destruction. For Jesus, a heart of flesh and pictures of life and joy.

2009 Teaching Topics

Well, I think I figured out what the rough plan is for sermon topics for 2009. It looks like Pastor Dan will be leading the Grace Community through an in-depth series on the book of Ephesians. This should be really good. On the Living Stones side, 2009 will see the beginning of an extended trip through the book of Genesis. If you've been around in the past for the chapter-by-chapter studies in Colossians or Revelation, you know we're in for a great series.

I think there's plenty for all you creative geniuses to sink your teeth into with these two books. My suggestion is that in the coming weeks you take some time to read through and study these books. If you have any brilliant ways to communicate any of the truths contained in these books, please email me. I'd love to share them with the creative staff.

Here are some questions you might consider:

• What is the author trying to communicate in a broad sense?
• What focused points are the author trying to communicate?
• What words or phrases particularly stand out?
• Are there any words or phrases that don't make sense to you?
• What contextual difficulties stand in the way of understanding these passages?
• How can we re-contextualize the passage to communicate it to a modern audience?
• If you were directing a movie about this passage, who would you cast in the lead role?
• Do any of these verses bring to mind another scripture passage, or a story, illustration, movie scene, television commercial, song, or poem?
• Try to imagine that you are reading these verses for the very first time. How does that change your impression of them?

I think the type of process I'm describing would be beneficial to you personally on a spiritual level. Even if it doesn't lead to a creative breakthrough, asking these types of questions can help you become a more thorough student of scripture. And that is never a bad thing.

So, engage with God's word!

"Heart of the Artist", part III: Chapter Two

Humility is a concept that I have always found fascinating. Like many, I have often admired it from afar. Very rarely have I had what I would call a true taste of it. But sometimes I catch fleeting glimpses.

Pride – or a desire to be exalted by others – isn’t always the primary enemy of humility for me. In my life, humility has more often been warded off by a simple preoccupation with self. Self-concern. Self-centeredness. Sure, I get overly concerned with others’ opinions of me. But more often I’m just overly concerned that I get what I want.

So what is humility? In Noland’s quote of C.S. Lewis on page 59, humility is equated with “self-forgetfulness”. Where does self-awareness fit in relation to humility? Is humility a lack of self-awareness? Or is it simply a proper view of self?

Is it that I find the truest and best Jeff when I take my eyes off Jeff and focus instead on Christ? If this is the case, then taking eyes off self (or fighting self-absorption) doesn’t equal “self-forgetfulness”, but rather a true and appropriate self-awareness. Truly this is a topic of great subtlety and nuance, but I find it reassuring that Moses’ prayer in Psalm 90:17 (and on pg. 70) – “Lord, give permanence to the works of my hands” – is counted an appropriate and faithful expression of self which is self-aware, yet fully humble.

Changing gears:
I thought Noland’s discussion on volunteering versus being called of God (pp. 70-74) was very insightful and keen. In my experience, some people just get this and some just don’t. I don’t know how to effectively turn a volunteer into someone called by God. Just a guess, though: Maybe it’s because I’m not God! So any level of exhortation or challenges to “step up” that I may issue only make somebody called by Jeff. The harvest is plenty, but the workers are few.

Lord, call your servants to the work of the harvest!

Right Brain Left Brain

Typing w/ a fractured elbow is really fun.

Just read a great article by Mark Batterson entitled Right Brain Preaching. It's not just about preaching, but about the creative communication of the Gospel in general.

Here's a tease...

I think the greatest threat to the future of the Church is a failure of our
God-given imaginations.

Enjoy.

Artown 2009?

This article got me to thinking...

What if Grace Church was somehow a presence next summer amongst all the Artown festivities in our community? What if the community saw us as a beacon of creativity?

Any ideas?

Butterfly Happy

We are wrapping up the Ecclessia series and we just tie up the creative side of it by posting some more of the creative elements used over the last couple weeks.

For week 4, we constructed a mobile of an alien butterfly galaxy- I mean, of the elements that make up Ecclessia:

The center unit is the church, and the outside forms represent Mission, Gospel, Leadership, Sacraments (baptism and communion), Preaching, and Relationship (including church discipline). These 6 elements are essential to the definition of the church; any element missing and one risks intergalactic imbalance of the universe, at least for the butterflies anyway...

The entire mobile was placed in the hands of Christ who presents the church as his bride for he is at the head. The hands were sculpted separately by Cassandra Star.

The final week of Ecclessia we used a video made by Gina Peraldo:

(to be posted soon)

"Heart of the Artist", part II: Chapter One

Just a couple thoughts on Chapter One of Noland's Heart of the Artist...

On page 39, he says,

Any growth that we experience in character will be an asset in everything we do.

Do you believe that? Do you believe, for instance, that growth in honesty will not only help you relationally, but creatively? Do you think that growth in discipline will help you not only vocationally, but artistically? Can an increase in kindness make you a better
designer? Can growth in tact make you a better videographer? Can more courage make you a beter writer?

I actually believe the answer to all these questions is "yes". The reason it is called integrity is that it has to do with everything in your life being integrated. What lack of integrity (or integration) in your character is holding you back?

One more question. The first "Personal Action Step" on page 49 asks you to choose a personal ministry verse. Do you have one?

I don't know that I have one specific verse. But I am reminded often of Philippians 2:3-4.

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.

I look forward to the day that I can truly exemplify these words.

HELVETICA

Thanks to good old Netflix, I watched a great little documentary last night. Helvetica is about – you guessed it – the ubiquitous typeface. How could a documentary about a font not be great?

Call it “corporate”, or “boring” if you must, but Helvetica is everywhere. (It’s also described in the film with any of the following adjectives: democratic, socialist, inscrutable, brilliant, legible, limited, unlimited. Oh yeah, and let’s not forget that according to one interviewee in the film, Helvetica is responsible for both the Vietnam and Iraq wars!)

The documentary is packed with literally hundreds of cut shots of Helvetica in action. I bet you didn’t realize how many logos and storefronts use the font. But probably more interesting is the film’s investigation of its status as the apex of “modern” fonts. If you don’t quite understand the difference between modern and post-modern, this film will make you think you understand. (Perhaps this might be helpful if you’re not sure why Grace Church has two “expressions”.)

But then you will inevitably ask the question, “What is post-modern?” Is the proliferation of more expressive, more curvy, more avant garde typefaces the post-modern reaction to Helvetica? But what about all the designers who now flock back to Helvetica in reaction to these expressive post-modern fonts? Does that make them post-post-modern? Or is there room within post-modernism to react against oneself? Can Helvetica be both modern and post-modern?

If you are a designer - or even just a student of culture - I would recommend a viewing of Helvetica.

New Series; New Creative Theme

Our new series entitled "Ecclesia" explores how the church operates, how it is structured, what it functions as, and its relationship with heaven and earth. Because we are basically laying out the "blueprints" for the global and local church we decided that blueprints/schematics were a perfect creative motif to flow through the mediums, and design concepts for the next few weeks. Below are some of the examples of blueprint art from the creative team.

The words in the blueprints below were done with stencils and spray paint, and the butterflies drawn with colored pencils.

The following blueprints are by Layton Diament with pen and ink:

“Heart of the Artist”, part I: Preface and Introduction

Here it is… the first installment of our “online book club”. I want to share a few thoughts on the opening of Rory Noland’s The Heart of the Artist, and see if any of you had some thoughts to share.

The first thing that jumped out to me was the quote from Irving Stone’s biography of Van Gogh, Lust for Life…

But then, no artist is normal; if he were he wouldn’t be an artist. Normal men don’t create works of art. They eat, sleep, hold down routine jobs, and die. You are hypersensitive to life and nature; that’s why you are able to interpret it for the rest of us…

So insightful. Along those same lines, this quote of Noland from page 17…

Artists look at things differently than nonartists do. We notice detail; we appreciate nuance and beauty.

And this from page 18…

The world doesn’t need more thick-skinned people. It needs more people who are sensitive and tender.

I hope you appreciated these nuggets of encouragement as I did; and not just as proof texts which justify you thinking more highly of yourself than you ought because of your artistic nature, but instead as humble validations of your God-given identity.

As further validation, I hope you appreciated Noland’s citations on pages 20-21 of artists in the Bible. Did you know that Bezalel (mentioned on page 21, and of course in Exodus 35:31-32) is the first person in all of Scripture described as having the Holy Spirit?

…He has filled him with the Spirit of God, with skill, with intelligence, with knowledge, and with all craftsmanship, to devise artistic designs…

Wow. Could I be so bold as to pray that God would fill us in the same way?

Notice the context of that passage. Bezalel was called to use all of this skill and intelligence for Kingdom purposes. Noland is right in saying (on page 23) that, “[s]erving God in the local church is a high and noble calling.”

What do you think?