She broke open the nard of mystery of our being...
guest posted by Geoff Gentry
What is the creation story if not a creative dialogue between the Trinity? It is dirt, water, plants, animals, sky, humans, and spirit made real through spoken and exchanged words between a community. All existence is shaped by a conversation between the Father, Son and Holy Spirit about how-things-should-be.
When we invite our community to dialogue about how-things-should-be, we are practicing the very first creative process. Conversation, input, action, accountability. We need these things in our communities and we need these things in our art.
By inviting regular readers to submit their questions about the creative process, Japanese American artist Makoto Fujimura is engaging in a deeper dialogue about art and faith. Really, he’s doing something ancient:
Jesus commended Mary of Bethany (in John 11-12) for extravagantly offering perfume valued at a year’s worth of wages to anoint him for his burial…Is our gospel accompanied with just as gratuitous, generous, creative and beautiful acts as Mary’s? Perhaps both the quality and the power of our art would reach a different height and depth if we created from that perspective.
It’s in this sort of dialogue that art becomes a part of the practice of worship and mission. That it becomes a prophetic statement about how-things-should-be in our community and in creation.
If you’ve got questions about what it means to create art that is for the good of the community and encourages the thriving of the church, check it. Bravo to Rachel Held Evans for organizing this interview on her website.
Geoff is a writer, mix-cd maker and San Francisco Giants fan. He lives in the Arizona desert and talks to college students about Jesus. Follow him on Twitter @GeoffreyGentry.
posted by Molly
As an undergrad, my Christian Fellowship encouraged students to get involved with movements that showed people love and respect, whether those movements were Christian or not. One project was tutoring men in a rehab program trying to find jobs or earn GEDs. The other was sorting and sending books to inmates. Both experiences impressed on me how the quality of donations can radically affect the quality of someone’s life.
Without access to modern software, how can a person really prepare to reintegrate into society? What message does it send to a person trying to learn to read when the only books available to them are “easy readers” designed for children?
Print dictionaries were/are always in demand.
My experiences there drew me to gitmobooks’s Tumblr. Each post shows part of the Guantanamo prison library collection available to detainees.
Angry Birds video game
Makoto Fujimura
posted by Hatty
Beautiful paintings by Makoto Fujimura. I am usually pretty critical of Christian art, but I find these absolutely lovely.
From our Founding Editor and former Artistic Director Lana Choi! Beautiful indeed.
Out of the archives | Movements and Moments
posted by Molly
In my other persona, I’m a libraries person with a love of Asian American Studies and the intersections of access, discovery, and technology. So happy Asian American Heritage Month, I combined all my interests into one project, called Out of the Archives.
Out of the Archives highlights digital archival material from collections and archives that focus on Asian America. The project aims to raise the profile of not-terribly-famous Asian Americans doing regular stuff, and the organizations working to preserve that history.
Check it out. Self promotion is just another word for cross pollination.
Paul Williams -- Architect to the people at the Amoeblog
posted by Hatty
Better late than never: a piece of Black History Month and architecture and love for the city of angels all in one post!
Living in and loving cities for me has always meant to see more, wider, longer, higher and deeper— under the surface, behind what people have said and sometimes off the shelves of dusty cupboards in your downstairs neighbor’s overcrowded kitchen. Los Angeles is exactly how I’ve learned to read local history, and actually care about it in this way.
Now that night view of the city from Griffith Observatory will mean so much more than a pretty picture on someone’s Facebook wall.
0 plays
posted by Hatty
A somewhat random chance—I had the pleasure of meeting one of our poet contributors Geoffrey from Flagstaff, Arizona two Fridays ago. He let me read one of his favorite poems by Matthew Dickman, and I happened to find a recording of his reading!
Tis quite beautiful. Enjoy, it’s never too late for National Poetry Month!
posted by Emily
The time comes for dismantling
a unison of chair legs
folds to idle din deflates
eventually to a sense of
exhalation.
empty hall though,
frothing full
of old intonations.
Swiftly,
A twang of epiphany.
The numb weight of a cusp.
and either a premature
or preemptive feeling of aftermath.
but still,
in this hall,
and under this froth,
still,
insistent and amorphous dreaming,
of nothing really
in particular yet,
but some glory
to glory causality
posted by Hatty
The meadows—mine–
The mountains—mine–
All forests—stintless stars–
As much of noon, as I could take–
Between my finite eyes–
Don’t you just love her liberal use of “em dashes?” I remember the first time it dawned on me I could employ this wonderful device to express what made sense only in my unfiltered drafts—the incessant second voice commenting on, editing, positively interrupting my creative process.
And its result, if applied correctly, is genius.
posted by Molly
It’s certainly unexpected, mashing together two stereotyped cultures that are generally considered at odds—the blogger dubs them “thug” and “vegan.” “Thug” is generally stereotyped as threatening and people of color, while “vegan” as nonthreatening, and white.
Is it an appropriation of culture? We don’t have any information about the blogger, although my guess is that he/she is more on the nutritious foodie side of the fence.
I find it entertaining, but feel free to disagree with me.
Gorgeous Cave Paintings and Sculptures from Tens of Thousands of Years Ago - Slate Magazine
posted by Hatty
Speaking of patterns—it’s fascinating that after thousands of years, we still recognize beauty in repetition.
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