“I have felt joy and witnessed so much beauty. I want to capture it all on canvas or in a journal, with paint, scissors or a pen. It doesn’t matter how. I want to bottle it up in imagery to save for later and to share it with others.” ~ Jeniffer Hutchins, from the artist’s journal. ~
From time to time I’d like to feature other artists or writers who spur us on, creatively. Today please meet Jeniffer Hutchins at JoyfulArts Studio . Even if you’ve never lifted a paint brush, her site - which oozes creativity - will stir something new in you:
Check out:
JoyfulArts Studio
Free Visual Journal Workshop by artist Jeniffer Hutchins:
“Write It Down” Visual Journal Workshop is a workshop designed to cover the basics of keeping a Visual Journal. It is broken down into two short sessions. Jeniffer shares:
“Through video presentations, photographs and printable workshop handouts, I will show you a variety of books and journals that I have worked from, simple materials you can use and a sample of completed journal pages. This will serve as a diving board so you can jump right in. After this tutorial you will be ready to start experimenting on your own, participate in upcoming journal prompts and sign up for future workshops which will focus on more in-depth techniques and themes.”
(The workshops are password protected pages but all you need to do is register - it’s free. Information is at the bottom of Jeniffer’s page ).
~ How to Create a Journal Page
~ Interview with Jeniffer Hutchins about Visual Journaling
Enjoy, and Happy September!
“The artist is not a special kind of person. Every person is a special kind of artist.” ~ Eric Gill
Happy June, all you creative people! Here you’ll find some interesting resources for your perusal. Hope something inspires you to continue down the creative path. The article The Healing Power of Art especially moved me. The photo comes to you from Ann Hamilton’s art studio in Alabama, where she frequently hosts art retreats for the soul. I would love to go there, wouldn’t you?
First stop: The New Renaissance Rising: “The resources, materials and ideas on this site are designed to Equip, Connect and Inspire artists and churches of all denominations for their place in God’s renewal of the arts, and the art’s role in God’s transformation and redemption of the world.”
Other Resources:
Global arts initiative: StoneWorks
CIVA: Christians in the Visual Arts
ACT: Artists in Christian Testimony
Art Retreat: Art for the Soul Retreat
Arts & Media: Art Within
Books on art & imagination: Christian Imagination
Art sites/blogs:
Visual arts community:
Ascribing Artists
Experiencing God through the arts:
Vertical Creativity
Articles:
1. The Healing Power of Art
2. Stirring up Gifts: Christian artists seek place in church ministry
3. Faith Shared on Broadway
“The sweetest thing in all my life has been the longing… to find the place where all the beauty came from” ~ C.S. Lewis
“To learn to work with the Holy Spirit in your creativity, first pursue a relationship with Him.” ~ J. Scott McElroy, author, Finding Divine Inspiration
“Creativity involves a leap of faith and confidence – faith in the creative process: ultimately art is a journey not directed by product but by the passage of thought, vision, intensive observation, time, and commitment.” ~ Albert Pinkham Ryder, American Painter (1847–1917)
To encourage you today, here’s an interview with J. Scott McElroy, author of the book, Finding Divine Inspiration. I want this book! Have you read it yet?
About the book, Finding Divine Inspiration :
“For any Christian in the arts or even remotely interested in the arts, this is a must-read book. The author balances excellent biblical principles with practical applications from his own experience and the experience of others. The church desperately needs to recapture the creativity of true art as a reflection of God’s creativity, and this book will help it do that.” ~ Dr. Timothy Warner
Paintings by Claude Monet, French Impressionist (1840-1926). “It’s on the strength of observation and reflection that one finds a way. So we must dig and delve unceasingly.”
“Painting is just another way of keeping a diary.” ~ Pablo Picasso
“Painting is silent poetry.” ~ Plutarch
“Painting is poetry that is seen rather than felt, and poetry is painting that is felt rather than seen.” ~ Leonardo da Vinci
”Happy are the painters, for they shall not be lonely. Light and colour, peace and hope, will keep them company to the end of the day.” ~ Winston Churchill.
“To send light into the darkness of men’s hearts - such is the duty of the artist.” ~ Schumann
“Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.” ~ Picasso
“The true work of art is but a shadow of the divine perfection.” ~ Michelangelo
“What art offers is space - a certain breathing room for the spirit.” ~John Updike
“Art is a collaboration between God and the artist, and the less the artist does the better.” ~ André Gide
“It always strikes me, and it is very peculiar, that when we see the image of indescribable and unutterable desolation - of loneliness, of poverty and misery, the end of all things, or their extreme - then rises in our mind the thought of God.” ~ Vincent van Gogh
I once laughed at van Gogh’s work. Young, foolish - what did I know? His paintings struck me as unremarkable.
As I grew older, something about his work toyed with me. The vibrant colors maybe? Perhaps it was the sadness behind the brushstroke. His pictures tugged at my heartstrings until finally I read about his life. I cried. Before that point, the artist spoke through swirling emotional colors that life had not taught me. But now I get it.
His paintings seem over-rated to some, but it takes more than a glance to know the man. If we fail to observe, we walk away empty-handed, missing the heart behind the canvas. I invite you to read about the troubled man and learn of his depth. See what you think about his faith. Different authors highlight different aspects of van Gogh’s life, and while he might have pulled away from “organized religion” in latter years, that’s not such a bad thing. Something tells me he never pulled away from Christ.
At Eternity’s Gate
A Living Message
I love Van Gogh. Decades later, I regret my initial impression and sense a sorrow over our tendency to make snap judgments about one another. Beneath all art is story, and we have more in common with Vincent than we realize.
Perhaps we’ll discuss more about his life and faith in another post. For now, the grandpeeps are coming (yay!) so I leave you with some of my favorite van Gogh quotes:
“I feel that there is nothing more truly artistic than to love people.”
“Christ is more of an artist than the artists; he works in the living spirit and the living flesh; he makes men instead of statues.”
“There may be a great fire in our soul, yet no one ever comes to warm himself at it, and the passers-by see only a wisp of smoke coming through the chimney, and go along their way.”
“If you hear a voice within you saying, ‘You are not a painter,’ then by all means paint . . . and that voice will be silenced.”
“Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together.”
“I want to do drawings which touch some people…I want to progress so far that people will say of my work, he feels deeply, he feels tenderly.”
“There may be a time in life when one is tired of everything and feels as if all one does is wrong, and there may be some truth in it. Do you think this is a feeling one must try to forget and to banish, or is it ‘the longing for God,’ which one must not fear, but cherish to see if it may bring us some good? Is it ‘the longing for God’ which leads us to make a choice which we never regret? Let us keep courage and try to be patient and gentle. And not mind being eccentric, and make distinction between good and evil.”
“But one thing true artists should never do is to abandon their calling.” ~ Philip Graham Ryken
With spring on its way, I hope to take us in a fresh direction - a little housekeeping here, a few changes there, maybe some surprises! While my primary focus is to spur us on to good writing, I’ve met many folks whose creative callings include music and various other art expressions. I’ve also discovered a few latent talents myself, and need to bring those to light. As a writer prone to paint with words, I realize that, whether our creative endeavors become our vocation or avocation, a little encouragement goes a long way.
This week I found such encouragement in a little book called Art for God’s Sake, by Philip Graham Ryken. Have you read it yet? Let me whet your appetite:
“Anyone who is called to be an artist should be an artist! God’s gifts are never to be hidden; his calling is never to be denied. And like everything else that we do, our art is to be done “in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him” (Col. 3:17). The life of an artist - like the life of any other Christian - is a life of daily dependence on the grace of God, with constant prayer for his blessing.”
Never think your creative pursuits are a waste of time. If God planted His artistic seed in you, let it grow; nurture it. Let’s encourage one another. “The church can help in this pursuit by serving as a community of encouragement that affirms the calling of artists and nurtures the artistic aspect of every human soul,” Ryken says.
So stay tuned! I might even surprise you!
Art for God’s Sake: A Call to Recover the Arts
