Theological Sketches

Destiny Drops Tonight

2009-07-03T14:47:00.002-05:00

So long as all goes as planned, tonight will be the third "gift" drop in my current art series "Given Presence." I have doubled the amount of works (16 gifts) and have added a little flair (little painted stars) to create a larger impact. As usual, the drop will be in the arts district of Kansas City during First Fridays. If you would like to check out this new work which contains the poetic summation of my thoughts on Destiny then check it out here. Peace and enjoy the Fourth!

Tillich’s Creative Destiny

2009-06-25T21:20:00.004-05:00

”Providence is a permanent activity of God. He never is a spectator; he always directs everything toward its fulfillment. Yet God’s directing creativity always creates through the spontaneity and structural wholeness of all creatures . . . It works through the conditions of individual, social, and universal existence, through finitude, non-being and anxiety, through the interdependence of all finite things, through their resistance against the divine activity and through the destructive consequences of this resistance. All existential conditions are included in God’s directing creativity. They are not increased or decreased in power, nor are they cancelled. Providence is not interference, it is creation. It uses all factors, both those given by freedom and those given by destiny, in creatively directing everything toward its fulfillment."
- Paul Tillich, Systematic Theology, Vol 1

Barth's (pre)Destiny

2009-06-20T18:27:00.009-05:00

“Predestination means that from all eternity God has determined upon man’s acquital at His own cost.”
- Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics

“Barth wants to eliminate any sense that God’s love for us is somehow conditional upon or determined by us. Though the reformers affirmed salvation by God’s grace alone, many of their heirs came to speak of salvation as a result of something we did, thought or felt:“If you repent and believe, then you will be saved. If not, you will not be saved.” We like that message because we live in a culture in which our subjectivity and our actions tend to be everything. . . [However] Barth’s view of salvation is strongly “objective” --our feelings and response have little to do with it. Barth means to say, in effect, Jesus Christ has accomplished your salvation. This is [the] undeniable,ultimately irrstable fact. (49)“
- Will Willimon, Who will be Saved?

The Destiny of All Things

2009-06-14T12:37:00.011-05:00

“Who knows, maybe there isn’t a vain of stars calling out my name.“

- The Flamming Lips

As a christian concerned with the overarching narrative dimensions of the Gospel, it is not so much the individual as it is the communal aspects which tend to rule my theological thinking. Hence when considering something like Destiny, I tend to think not of an individual’s role in the Kingdom of God so much as its eventual and unavoidable arrival and full fruition. Destiny thus strikes me with comforting assurance. The Rule of God will one day come to its full and unfettered expression and because God is who God is, all will be well.

"Scribe"

2009-06-06T12:57:00.006-05:00

If you live in the KC area and are into graffiti “Scribe” is the name you will come to know. A bit of a local celebrity, now going international, Scribe (aka Don Ross) is widely known for his cute and whimsical aerosol characters which appear in most (if not all) of Kansas City’s most well known productions (murals). Member of the famed DF Crew whose members consist of some of the best writers (graff artists) in the world, Scribe’s mark is as ubiquitous as it is deft; the quality of his work equal to its quantity. His work can be seen on local walls, buses, flyers, t-shirts, advertisements, billboards and in art galleries. Last year Scribe even co-authored his first children’s book, There’s An Octopus Under My Bed (you should purchase one for your kids, we bought one and we don’t’ even have kids!)

Beyond all this activity Scribe is a super nice guy. My wife and I finally had the privilege to meet him at a recent show where we purchased the piece shown on the left. For us this makes the second piece we have purchased from Scribe and will make a happy edition to our home. His work is a reminder of life’s wonder, wit and beauty. We will enjoy it.

Finally I have added a more permanent link to Scribe's site under my Kansas City artist's links. Make sure you check it out. Also i would like to thank Scribe for your continuing to share your talent with Kansas City. You and your crews make Kansas City an awesome scene to be a part of.

Going (Returning)

2009-05-31T19:54:00.001-05:00

After a few months of obsessing over my new job I think I am ready to return to the blogosphere. In this short time away several things have taken place intentionally as well as incidentally. First we put a new floor in my studio space downstairs, which looks outstanding (While installing this snap-in-place vinyl flooring the best “That’s what she said” occurred upon my father-in-law’s insistent declaration “Its in. Now pound it!” I could hardly swing the hammer I laughed so hard). Next, I got a new Playstation 3 to help me stop obsessing about work (I needed something mindless to pursue so I started playing Little Big Planet which is ironically artistic). Also my wife landed a new job which starts next week and has also purchased a Mini which is currently in Oxford being built (Her car is 10 years plus and has been breaking down a lot the last few months so we figured, what the hell). Yesterday I preached my first funeral for a person of no particular faith to which I applied a more universalistic hermeneutic (My father would not approve). Finally today I returned to making some art for the first time since starting my new job (which I love by the way).
And so dear friends I hope to resume an artistic conversation. Thanks to all who kept checking in or who at least kept my link on their blogs. I hope to be posting here with more frequency but be patient with me. This job of my still weighs heavy on my heart and mind.

Make Me

2009-03-23T17:48:00.006-05:00

I have been busy reading, thinking, praying, searching . . . and finding. I have found (or perhaps I have been found) a new job as a hospice bereavement coordinator which starts in exactly one week . I am excited and nervous. This is a big step for me since graduating with my pastoral ministry degree in 06 and I hope to do well as I put so much of that knowledge and experience to work. My somewhat obsessive personality has me turning the possibilities over and over in my mind. And for at least awhile dear friends the art of blogging will be somewhat sparse for me as a new ministry begins.

“Lord make me an instrument of Thy peace.”
- Saint Francis

Three... two... one

2009-03-09T20:22:00.003-05:00

Last friday, March 6 (my birthday of all days) during the downtown First Friday art-walk, I launched my public art project. I went downtown about 4 o’clock to place the “gifts” both outside and in corridors between the main galleries of the walk. It was hard to leave them for fear of rejection but nevertheless, I did. I then left. To my surprise and satisfaction, when I returned about 8 pm all the “gifts” were gone. While there has been no response via the internet all the gifts were in fact placed and taken so to that extent the project launch was a success. Next month I plan on doing this again.

Can I get a witness? (Motivations, Part 2)

2009-03-03T20:03:00.005-06:00

Perhaps one of the most annoying aspects of conservative theology for me is its soteriology, in particular its views of conversion and witnessing. In total I find conservative soteriology to be short sighted and attenuated at best, dualistic and apolitical at worst. in this context witnessing amounts to an us verses them mentality, an impartation of knowledge to the ignorant and stubborn, as conversion amounts to a momentary, decisive, “accurate” assent to a certain set of propositions for salvation in the afterlife. Hence when someone asked me if my new public art project was a form of witnessing, I cringed and resolutely responded:

Witnessing? In the sense that any artistic expression is a witness to some way of life or ideology, sure. but not in the conservative sense.

In short, the goal my art is to “do” artistic theology. It is to dialogue and exchange thought. It is to edify, build and question. It is directed at no one in particular, believer or non-believer, and is constructed under the premise that the need for conversion is ubiquitous and perennial for both. Though the content of my art is theological it is not meant to be reduced to the function of a religious tract or sales pitch. I hope it is not perceived that way.

Motivations: Purity

2009-03-01T14:22:00.004-06:00

Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this . . . and to keep oneself unstained by the world.
- James 1:27

During the brief stint I spent in California I painted a lot while frequenting galleries and museums on a monthly basis. It gave me an itch. For the first time I decided I wanted to show my work in the galleries. I wanted to be part of that system. And so one day I approached a local gallery, which I frequented, in an attempt to land a showing. I met with one of the owners of the gallery to talk it over and in the process he critiqued my work and told me what he felt was missing from it. I returned home a little discouraged but intent on showing my work. I applied his advice, changing my methods and aesthetic however minutely, and returned. It didn’t seem right but upon returning to the gallery the owner was impressed with my efforts. He put my work in a show the very same month. I was successfully torn.

The gallery is filled with politics. Everyone is a critic. Galleries exist to make money while building their own reputation. Patrons buy what sells in hopes of historic return and, as an artist, I . . . am soiled by it. And that is what this experience taught me.

I want to be free and unfettered in my expression. I want to make art that seems right. I want people to see my expression without the filter of the art institution’s politics or monetary considerations. I want to show my work beyond the walls of the gallery, therefore, I choose the street. I choose the street because I believe art is best when it is free and accessible to all, pure and undefiled by the politics of the [art] world. I choose the street because, for whatever it means in all honesty, my art is the truest active expression of my religion.

Given Presence

2009-02-22T20:16:00.005-06:00

After months of experimenting and deliberating I have finally come close to launching my very own public arts project. In short my idea is to make small digital pieces of art, print them out, place them in public as gifts in gift wrapped boxes in order to have them taken away by anyone who so desires. Sounds simple I know but the process of coming up with the right bulk materials, packaging and manufacturing like process has been a chore, which happily I am near the end of. So here is the process, as follows:

First,I construct a piece of art digitally. During this stage I make several editions of the same image and print each edition in limited runs (some more limited than others) Next I print these pieces out and laminate them.Then I randomly place each piece into a small box filled only with shredded paper.( This however is not just any shredded paper but significant works which have been influential to me such as the gospel of John and various writings from Plato, C.S. Lewis, Nietzsche, Rosemary Ruether, and William Barclay. Yes I actually shredded these, some in their entirety!) Next I gift wrap the box and tag it with a blog address. Finally I place the “gift” in public and post it onto a specific blog built just for this project as a component of it, then I start the process all over again.

And thats it, at least in theory. Time will tell how it actually works as I am hoping to actually get this off the ground within a few weeks.

Chia Pets and Flower Fits

2009-02-20T15:02:00.005-06:00

As I have been following the designer toy movement for sometime and am myself a collector of these toys I thought I would share this little video Enjoy MUNNY Sprouts! from Kidrobot on Vimeo

Lots Hell Bent: Take two

2009-02-17T20:27:00.003-06:00

Well I rewrote the writing for this piece of art tonight. I always struggle with this notion of whether to rhyme or not to rhyme. Whatever the case I think I like the rhythm better. Let me know what you all think.

Assuming a place where our time never ends, us with our family and all of our friends, but without pain or death or undesirable change, this it seems, is paradise, no lives rearrange. And we are on Holiday, the feast of our famine, the Will to Power, Thanksgiving Heaven. But considering the nature of our depravity, how between our action and will lies great disparity, this eternity of changeless now must be known, not as the heaven above but the hell below. Salvation from without must thus be sent, because sad as it is, we together, all and alone are a little less than God but Lot’s hell bent.

Lot's Hell Bent

2009-02-16T12:23:00.005-06:00

"Assuming a place where our time never ends, us with our family and all of our friends, but without pain or death or undesirable change, this, it seems, is paradise, everyone is happy. We are on Holiday, the feast of our famine, the Will to Power, Thanksgiving Heaven. But considering the nature of our depravity, how the good we will we do not: but the evil which we do not will, that we do, this eternity of changeless now is not the heaven above but the hell below. The only hope we have is necessarily salvific, because sad as it is, we together, all and alone are a little less than God but Lot’s hell bent."

Heaven

2009-02-08T18:49:00.004-06:00

“But endless future is without final aim: It repeats itself and could well be described as an image of hell.”

- Paul Tillich, The Eternal Now. 125.

“I don’t believe in the afterlife“ I told a fellow worker weeks ago, ”I believe in resurrection.“ The point may seem mute to some but to me it is significant. I find the way people talk about life after death to be strangely self-indulgent, familiar and vapid. Most people talk as if heaven were a place of endless [T]hanksgiving. They talk as if eternity were a holiday in which they get together with their immediate family, stuff themselves with turkey and watch football forever. This, it seems, is paradise. An extended, cyclical vacation where things basically go on being the same but without pain or death. Everyone is happy. No one has to change in this “endless future.” But the thanksgiving of eternity is an action in which the inhabitants of God’s presence are forever changed by a great mystical sacrifice, brought from death into life anew and are delighted in his Glory. And in this thanksgiving there is no room for the merely familiar. But only as of yet unknown abandonment to the other. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sounds like a new piece of art in the making.

A New "Type" of Work

2009-01-25T21:53:00.005-06:00

After engaging in some “little experiments” and considering the shape future projects, I took to constructing a new type of work based on some old digital works I created long ago. These works are necessarily more cerebral, symbolic and typographic. The possible meanings and interpretations are thereby more constrained than my former paintings but then I tend to oscillate between more subjective and objective forms of expression. Anyhow this work is part of a public arts project that I hope to start in the coming months (more on that soon). For now here is the first unofficial work. As usual the writing in the work is reprinted below in block quote.

National insecurity reinforces the mythic frame: We are God’s holy city on the hill and our manifest destiny is of covenantal proportions, even to the ends of the earth. But God is not an American. We are not his people. This is not the promised land. A Halo Sin Nation. Yet our fortune has been to live rather than to die if only for a season in Rome. And in this way a juxtaposition of gifted grace and assumed fate mark the making a hallucination.

"This is my body, broken for you"

2009-01-12T20:11:00.004-06:00

Earlier this week I found some art work which has some interesting (unintended?) theological implications. Check out the Body Bakery.

Process: Identity

2009-01-05T15:40:00.009-06:00

“Life should be lived on the edge of life. You have to exercise rebellion. To refuse to taper yourself to rules . . . and then you [are able to] live your life on the tight rope.“

- Philippe Petit, Man on Wire. Magnolia Pictures, 2008.

Once, on vacation, when I was about twelve years old I saw a skateboarder doing tricks at a gas station. His strange hair and apparel matched his attitude of carefree indifference. He didn’t belong at the gas station or really anywhere yet he made it seem as if everyone else were out of place. It was inspirational. It was artistic. Then and there I knew I wanted to do what he was doing. As a result I skateboarded for 6 solid years and in that time I found myself. I knew myself. I knew where I belonged and what I was. I felt comfortable in my skin.

Years later, however, my artistic expression shifted away from the 7 ply world of asphalt and urethane toward more traditional avenues. Paint and canvas became the medium of my expression and, appropriately, the world of graffiti and street art became the locus of my inspiration. My new home strangely connected to the backdoor of my old one. Subcultures which fed off each other, born together of youthful rebellion.

So the other day I went out among the trash of the industrial complex in the streets of Kansas City to take some pics of the local graffiti scene. I trespassed and briefly considered the consequence but in the process I found myself drawing nearer to the unsanctioned typographical masterpieces of a young and disaffected generation, fanning the flames of my own inspiration. And this made me feel alive and . . . comfortable in my own skin. And when I when I am out there in it or at home in emulation I know I am right where I am destined to be. Like the Man on the Wire, this is who I am.

Beauty's Eschatalogical Dimensions and Ramifications

2008-12-28T20:11:00.005-06:00

To experience beauty is to experience a deep-seated “yes” to being---even in its finitude and its moments of tragedy; and such an affirmation is possible only if being is grounded, borne by a reality that is absolute in value and meaning . . . The fact that God is the ‘horizon’ of every experience of beauty explains why even the tragic emotions can be experienced in art as beautiful, and why there is at the heart of every deep aesthetic experience . . . an intense feeling of striving toward something beyond the moment. . . This longing is intrinsic to the experience of finite beauty, for the joy of existence in any finite being can never be complete or ultimate but must point beyond itself to a final and infinite goal.

- Richard Valadesau, Theology and The Arts: Encountering God Through Music, Art and Rhetoric, pgs. 42-43.

The above quotation makes several interesting observations. First, because beauty is grounded in God the experience of it produces an emphatic “yes” to being itself even in the face of tragedy and death. Life is thereby affirmed in a way that transcends our immediate condition. Secondly, beauty’s grounding in God further produces an “intense feeling of striving toward something beyond the moment.” That is to say that beauty reveals a dimension of existence beyond our present moment and circumstance, for beauty itself cannot be contained in the moment of our apprehension of it. It captivates us while escaping us creating the desire for something more which is ultimately found in God’s self who is the “final and infinite goal.”

In short, both of the proceeding points illustrate something about beauty’s substantial role in eschatology. First, the role of art in the Church as the eschatalogically-oriented community of God should thereby be one of support for the Arts rather than the diminishment of them. It should be a place where Art, in every form, flourishes. Secondly, the Church’s responsibility to beauty also includes its responsibility to protect the natural environment. It should be the place where environmental beauty is ecologically prized and preserved as the supreme art of God.

More or Less . . .

2008-12-22T17:54:00.004-06:00

I have been more busy with work and have had less time to think and create. Things are pretty hectic right now but I promise to post something more substantial relatively soon. In the mean time I have added a few links to this blog that I have found recently. Mostly episcopal. Good stuff. I especially like The Image and Spirit Blog of the ECVA. Check it out.

Little Experiments #2: Already Not Yet

2008-12-15T11:05:00.008-06:00

So this is the second piece in the Little Experiments arena. I added a few more filters to this one going for a more fuzzy look. (I dont know if I like that) Like last time, the writing in the piece is given below only this time I have attempted to mimic the color scheme of the writing in the piece so that you can tell which words are highlighted. The highlighted words indicate may own interpretation of the form at the bottom of the (to me when I painted it I thought of it as an "r") but not everyone would interpret it as such. This painting is purposely more subjective than others. Nevertheless in naming the world the letter r reminds me of redemption and resurrection and our own attenuated grasp of these realities. Thus:

Rolling away the stone is a matter of life or death. For without this Life there is no life, the start that reignites. And while death yields a massive production whose ramifications spread far and wide, the power to heal the rupture is found, dependably intruding, redemption resounds. But we have ceased to begin, looking only to the end, forgetting the nature of the gift received. Because the kingdom of God has been inaugurated, the resurrection has begun, the power of life has been given and the end of death has become, we ought not to go on living as if we’re still in debt, but live asthough we have died already, even if not yet.

Little Experiments: Being the Form

2008-12-08T18:29:00.006-06:00

Sometimes I tire of painting and so I fool around in some other medium as a way of expressing myself. Today I wrote a little, cut up one of my old paintings into a digital collage and made a small piece of art. (3x4 inches). One of my favorite things to do in these tiny experiments is to incorporate my writtings into their composition in such a way that legibility is compromised. To read this one you would need a magnifying glass but for you I will post the writing here:

Escapist forms of eschatology encourage us to live anywhere but here. But forever cannot be thought. Its source is not the mind. Our meaning may be projected, but is functionally experienced where we are. Now is what we know. Life is always lived at the center. Like something that is that has always been, faithfullness has the from of presence. And unlike our fleeing we were made to be present. Not because there is nothing beyond ourselves in this moment of space and time. But because by being present we transcend the limitations of life lived alone. So we should think of staying more than leaving as a matter of freedom from abndoned being.

In the Darks#3: Babies, Blackwater, Blood Brothers, Jaguar Love and Difference

2008-12-03T18:07:00.008-06:00

For whatever reason, I love the music of the Blood Brothers. It could be their apocalyptic punk rock aesthetic, their subversive political lyrics or the strange and melodic yet dissonant changes in their music but whatever the case they are one of my favorite bands. Yet with the Blood Brothers passing the subsequent creation of Jaguar Love has me listening to Jaguar’s latest album and well . . . loving it.

Like the Blood Brothers, Jaguar’s album is filled with all same elements of disaffection though it strikes the listener as somewhat more palatable (read harmonious). Still, the lyrics are filled with dark and disturbing images and the screeching voice of Johnny Whitney is beautifully unsettling. It makes you want to “take back the rad world” but it also makes you wonder exactly which actions might achieve this end. Although we may agree on the necessity and goodness of some singular political actions or attitudes, as a Christian my worldview is somewhat in opposition to certain solutions and sentiments of Jaguar Love.

Whatever our disagreements Jaguar Love portrays a dark and desperate picture of human realities and situations which are fuel for reflection. Take for instance the following lyrics from track 11, Videotape Seascape:

Oh Townes Van Zandt haunts your headphones
the streetlights sway
You left your pregnant girlfriend in a train station in Spain.
Parades burst from your brain, plaid haired girls call your name
Fireflies weave resorts, built of light on perfect shores,
Knife thrust, lust, angel dust, purple sky’s before dusk
In the back of a pick up truck, racing from your shitty luck,

Oh Townes Van Zandt haunts your headphones
the street lights groan
That piece of shit left you at this train station all alone,,
You steal somebody’s purse, ravens rip through your skirt,
Babies in TV screens chase you out into the street,
Madrid’s finest hotel, whisky and painkillers.
If stolen master cards could pay off all this shitty luck

Black water in a crystal skull
Drink deep and hallucinate an ancient ocean
Black water pouring out your mouth
Time travel to worlds composed of ice fields and sound
When all your friends would call you they’d say it’s for the best
You can’t force a man to love you. He’d be a shitty dad.

They started the trip in the city of Cannes
They drank in streets under Cubist mansions
And when she told him that she was knocked up with thier baby you should have seen his face
And when she told him that she was knocked up you should have seen his face

Black water in a crystal skull
Black water filling up your lungs
Black water in the south of France
Black water changing all your plans

As a Christian reflecting on the subject of darkness, the lyrics above illustrate the oddity of sin and darkness in our lives. Things intended to be good so often become perverse. Something such as the gift of life, here becomes an “unwanted pregnancy.” Something meant to strengthen the bonds of familial love, reveals the lack thereof. Our deficient desires are unmasked - we desire love without commitment, community without sacrifice, action without consequence and hence the life of another becomes intrusive to our selfish desire. Life is as death, light is as darkness: “Black water in a crystal skull.” This is the bleak reality of the world in chaos. It is the world without a proper proportion for love of God and nieghbor. Sadly it is not just the lyrics of a song but an accurate and telling portrayal of one facet of the world in which we live. Jaguare Love challenges us, ”Is this what you want?,“ and the God who is seemingly absent in their songs is ironically asking the same thing. But their solutions to the darkness are not the same and that makes all the difference.

A Place for Faithfulness

2008-11-30T13:55:00.003-06:00

About a week ago fellow blogger Ryan Stander blogged about the art of Alexey Titarenko here and his lifelong commitment to photographing one place. As a result of contemplating this Ryan asked, “How many people commit themselves to living in one place, pursuing one thing for their entire life?” This then got me thinking about the responsibility of the artist to his community and the subject of faithfulness. But over the holidays the thought took a back seat to the frenzy of work and travel. On the conscious level I had forgotten about it.

But leaving home to spend thanksgiving with family and friends in Oklahoma has me traveling back to Kansas City and thinking again . . . of place. We are creatures given to the realities of time and space. We live and breathe in certain places at certain times. This is the gift of our existence and its limitation. As stewards of this life we are thus in position to ask “What is my responsibility in this reality?, How should I live and . . . where?”

My family has always been somewhat nomadic. My parents were raised in Carolina, moved to the Philippines and finally landed in Oklahoma where they have spent their remaining lives, but not in one place. While growing up my dad was a pastor and our family moved from town to town and church to church. From Lawton to Hollis, Binger to Oklahoma City the communities in which we were rooted so often changed. Our homes were mostly parsonages, temporarily given. Perhaps this is why movement has always seemed natural to me. I have always wanted to move. I like to move. I like to discover new places and things. So my wife and I moved from Oklahoma to California, from California to Kansas, from Kansas to . . .itching. My mind is wandering.

But I am considering the notion of faithfulness to place, and I am contemplating rooting myself in this community as a matter of fully being. So I think of staying more than leaving and making Kansas City my home as I consider what it will mean to faithfully contribute to this community as an artist.

Process: Signatures

2008-11-23T15:08:00.011-06:00

Ever since I started painting some 13 years ago I have always felt uncomfortable signing my name to a piece of finished art . To me it seemed to be a compositional distraction which took away from the artwork itself. It was no surprise then to find myself as a an enthusiast and moderate practitioner of street art to eventually adopt a logo in place of a signature. Given my history and place in time, it simply made the most sense. I was born into the culture of the brand. But the history of the design of my personal logo has been one of constant change and progression.

I began designing a logo for myself at the peek of my interest in theology and digital media. At the time, I was obsessed with questions about my faith and the pursuit of knowledge. I read theology and apologetics and produced graphic design. I thus designed a digital logo around these themes in the form of a “K” with an inset question mark which symbolized my efforts and frustrations. This, it seemed to me, represented the largest part of my identity at that time.

Years later, as academic pursuits of knowledge failed to supply the comfort I had sought and my faith gave way to more mystical notions, my logo changed to represent the idea of new birth. At this time I attempted to balance the cerebral aspects of my faith with its effect and praxis. My academic pursuits had lead me to a focus on language while the practice of my faith had become immersed in the liturgical grammar of faith. I then represented myself with a logo shaped as the letter “B” as in “birth” or “Born”. Yet in this logo the dialogue balloon itself had first appeared, and it would come to define my present artistic identity.

Moving away from digital media, as I began to produce paintings concerning language, linguistics and the practice of interpretation, it became natural and easy to simplify the “B” logo and paint only the dialogue bubble which came to represent the act of speech itself. Before long I became attached to the dialogue balloon and slowly came to represent me and my art. Even now however, this logo is still in progression. As I come to further consider the meaning of speech and its use in our world, and most particularly the christian faith, the logo itself has continued to morph into a dialogical mode representing a dialogue between God and humanity. What it will become yet remains, but the form has been given as I continue to name what has already been named. - Name[d].

Kandinsky and In the Darks #2

2008-11-17T14:03:00.013-06:00

A totally dead silence . . . a silence with no possibilities , has the inner harmony of black. In music it is represented by one of those profound and final pauses, after which any continuation of the melody seems to dawn another world. Black is something burt out, like the ashes of the funeral pyre, something motionless like a corpse. The silence of black is the silence of death.

- Wassily Kandisky, Concerning the Spiritual in Art (trans. M.T.H. Sadler; Dover Publications, 1977 [1914]), 39.

New Works: In the Darks

2008-11-10T13:30:00.008-06:00

Perhaps it was the political climate of bleak contrast and polarization or perhaps it was the recognition of my own inability to simply say “I am sorry” but whatever the case I have been reflecting on the vast chasm in the human heart and conversely, the light of God. Sounds depressing, I know, but my painting black is actually a positive affirmation concerning my/our need for the grace of God, So all apologies if the darkness seems too much but this is the point of departure for my latest work. So I will be reflecting on black and the actions of a God who is for us in the darkness, calling us into the light of his love beyond the boarders of politics or pride, difference or indifference.

Painting Black

2008-11-02T13:41:00.009-06:00

In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. Then God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light. And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day. Genesis 1:1-5

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness will not overcome it. - John 1:1-5

Black is a color I rarely use. Its presence to me is so vacant and disturbing. For me, as a Christian, black represents biblical darkness. A reality that threatens creation. A reality that humanity too often embraces. A reality that God has willed to overcome. In black there is deep silence and longing, frustration and hope. And the longing is for God to utter again a colorful, transformative, light giving word - that is the prayer that I paint. And the silence is the sound that I make, and make, and make. So in hope, we wait . . . for the first day.

Show Me the MUNNY

2008-10-28T16:02:00.010-05:00

A while back my friend Robbie bought me a blank MUNNY doll out of the kindness of his toy loving heart. After recieving it, I first considered leaving it blank. It was so white,clean and formed as if it were meant to stay that way - not like mere canvas - not intimidating - just simple, seemingly complete and without need. However, while attending a local vinyl customs show I got the bug. So I started painting my MUNNY the next day, as a sort of side project in between others. I painted it as I would any other canvas, starting with red as a base I applied solid layers of color over top. In the beginning it was strange painting on its curved surface, taking its head and arms off along the way to assure better coverage, putting it all back together to assess progress. But in the end I achieved the more painterly effect I had intended and it seemed to turn out fine. So without further delay, meet my first MUNNY.

On my Desk: Three Projects

2008-10-26T13:44:00.009-05:00

Inspired by artist Jimmy Pickering, I have decided to do a post over my current projects. Right now I am working on three projects (A custom Munny, a skateboard and a small canvas painting). In addition to this I am writing a business plan, shopping for my wife's birthday, mapping graffiti for a project I am doing here in KC designing a business card for myself as an artist, and happily memorizing the lyrics of Jaguar Love. This is unusual for me since normally I only work on one thing at a time but I think I am becoming a bit of a multi-tasker ( we shall see). i just hope something actually gets done.

Creation Creates

2008-10-23T16:08:00.005-05:00

Creation is perhaps one of the most misunderstood doctrines of Judeo Christianity. In the eyes of moderners it is almost always used to refer to the initial act of creation by God. With this, it is usually reduced to a debate of false alternatives between faith or reason, religion or science, seven days of creation or billions of years of evolution. And it is in this reductive dichotomy of false alternatives whereby creation itself becomes a bastardized concept used by those of oppositional faiths to hurl stones at their opposition.

Yet creation is really a multifaceted concept, so much more than the modern debate which caricatures it. To be sure, it is the first act in the Christian drama that precedes all others. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” Yet it also extends beyond this declaration in that creation is an ongoing process. That is to say that, within the sweep of the biblical narrative, our God is a God who continues to both create and sustain the created order. Simply put, creation is not merely something God has done in the past but is a way of constantly being. We worship a God who creates.

What then does this say about us? As humans we are made in the image of this creator (creating) God who thereby invites us into his creative act. We are thus given to persistent creation. As such we are never settled, and are always looking to create anew. We long for artistic growth, which causes us to continually, push our creative endeavors to the next level. Furthermore, we do so because in creating we are both sustaining and contributing to life’s abundance as co-creators. In short, as creatures and co-creators we create to live because creation is also our way of being.

Protestant Play Ethic

2008-10-19T18:59:00.003-05:00

This week I have been sick and it has been a real drag. Constant fever and a sore throat have kept my more spunky side at bay which also makes work into dread. Quiet. Long. Those ovens never bake so hot and slow. Because when I am down no one takes over for me. My role as their co-worker is to insight a little fun and laughter through jokes, funny voices and the like. I am, as you might say, the class clown who makes the working hours a little more tolerable. I like to insight others to color a little outside the corporate lines so that we will all have a good story to tell. Some people in the business world however object to this kind of “frivolous behavior” but to me it is essential so I ignore “the rules” of the officially sanctioned narrative.

While thinking about this, reading, recovering from sickness, I spotted a quote that sums up much of what I think about the connection between myself as an artist and being positive, playful worker. On speaking against the false dichotomy between work and play William Dryness writes:

“One of the critical functions art may perform is to bring the notion of play back into the center of our lives where it belongs. After all, the morning stars sang together at creation, and the sea monsters played in the sea. Perhaps humans are meant to see their lives as more of a playtime, a dance, or at least a drama. Indeed it is likely we would be more productive in our work if we brought a playful spirit into it.”

Amen

Drawing Larger Introspections

2008-10-12T21:12:00.001-05:00

When a painting turns sour I feel an ache inside as a sense of fear and self doubt sets in. Perhaps I should quit while I am ahead. Perhaps I should flee the scene. Perhaps I should turn a blind eye toward any mistake or pretend that it is a virtue. I want to ignore the blemishes of my history. All my failures and mistakes.

So telling is this reality about me, my god, others and the world. To take responsibility, repent, apologize and cease to defend myself because deep inside I know everyone is just as mucked up as I am is . . . so hard to do. But everyone else is not my judge despite all self-appointment so I need more grace than I thought to repent and believe. So that I will paint again, try again, hope again, pray again.

Feast Your Eyes

2008-10-06T14:04:00.001-05:00

A couple of months ago I painted a skateboard for myself to ride around on. The painting turned out so well that I decided to reproduce it on canvas. I intended to document the whole process and to create a blog about my process. However, upon uploading the pictures I conjured up a better way to visually explore this subject matter. As a result a blog over my process will hopefully be coming soon but for now this will have to do. So here it is, the first painting I have painted on canvas in a while. It is sure to give me an itch.

Bookmark:Artcrimes

2008-10-02T21:06:00.002-05:00

It is no secret among those who know me that I love graffiti. I read and collect books about it. I take pictures of it. I construct my own artistic expression on the basis of its form. It is in short, my favorite form of art.

While surfing the web In 1998 I discovered Artcrimes and ever since I have visited the site religiously. Founded in 1994, Artcrimes is a website solely devoted to graffiti art and culture. Since its inception it has established itself as the most well respected site in the graff community. The site is updated on a monthly basis and has the most extensive, ongoing collection of graffiti on the web. Furthermore Artcrimes has an online store which carries all the latest graff supplies and media. (I have personally ordered many products from their online store and despite the minimal money I have spent, I have always received professional and timely service.) So if you like graffiti or would like to know more about it check out Artcrimes. It is a great source of inspiration.

My Art Womb

2008-09-25T21:17:00.001-05:00

After moving into our house last November I finally have a room to call my own. The room was always mine but carpeting, wainscoting, and lack of a working surface kept me from being able to use it. That was until I ripped out the carpet and wainscoting and made myself a table from two shelves I purchased at Ikea and a peice of plywood from home depot. The result was a space I can now work in. Though I will eventually put some flooring in and paint the walls the space is at least workable. No more kitchen table painting.

Postmodern Iconoclasm

2008-09-18T17:31:00.001-05:00

As an armchair theologian who also enjoys making visual art, I have sometimes combined these disciplines. About two years ago, while studying post modernity and symbolism it thus occured to me to create a series of work on the basis of these studies. The works themselves were all electronically produced and were less of an expression of what I was learning and more of a continuation of learning through artistic experimentation. Since post modern relativists hold that all symbolism is finally vacouse and bereft of any ultimate meaning I decided to produce a series of works which would explore this notion.

In order to produce these works I chose symbols at random, from a bank images in photoshop or from dingbats and other fonts, and assembled them into a pleasing arrangement onto an electronic canvas (I could think of nothing more postmodern that computer generated reality). Then, in the fashion of a “freewrite” I wrote whatever came to mind. The object of the freewrite was to sound like I was saying something while not ever really saying anything at all. Within this freewrite I would later insert references to the symbols I had created on the canvas. In the final step I then inserted this writing into the design of the e-canvas giving the impression that the writing was somehow the interpretation of the symbols themselves.

Now what struck me as interesting in doing this experiment was that meaning could never really be escaped. No matter how hard I tried it seemed that the symbols of language, the visual symbols and the rules of gramer made it impossible to really say nothing at all while appearing to say something. As it turned out the images and writings always did in fact communicate something real and identifiable even if not singular. Even more interesting than this was the fact that my own writings revealed layers of subconcius thought that were previously unknown. Hence the process that was meant to conceal and obfuscate if not obliterate true meaning, turned out to be revelatory.

As an extension of these works i would like to share them with the viewers of this blog This then promises to be the first of many posts of its kind. The writing within the piece is reprinted below so that it may be deciphered if you so desire.

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"Repentance is never within certain proximity, even though God’s pertinacious gravity greatly reduces mere recapitulation. However, in such a time as this a full turn was unnecessary and would have initiated a rapid succession of obtuse effects as would be demonstrated by a later repulsion to ‘domesticated transcendence.’ What then kindled the desire of the new man and his was a new form of less-extreme unction. In an attempt to abandon the allure of former ratiocinations, ineffability was demonstrated as the highest discourse. Thus crossing the t and dotting the i of particularity became impossible impoverishing the universal significance of individual life while ambiguity itself became ineluctable."

Fides Quaerens Intellectum

2008-09-13T17:00:00.002-05:00

Perhaps it is my love for sketching that increases and informs my love for theology (for me, art came before theology). For in theology one finds not a slew of dogmatic statements to be universalised but a pleathora of rough ideas to be scrutinized, changed and adapted. Theology provides more difference than agreement, more ideology than completed works. Furthermore theology is always contextual and the context of life is always changing. Theology thus follows the contours of the context in which it is created for better or worse. In practice, theology thus procliams that notions of God are always open to discussion and that dogma, while revered, remains refutable. The canon is viewed as essentially open. Theologians thus see the theological task as creative and essentially incomplete. Faith constantly seeks to further understand that which cannot be fully understood, to know again that which cannot be fully known, by continually sketching and re-sketching the face of God.

Sketchy

2008-09-12T17:08:00.001-05:00

I once heard that Leonardo De Vinci burned all his sketches before he died and in my teenage years this seemed, to me, ideal even if untrue. I myself hated sketching. I hated the reality of failure and I abhorred the idea of collecting my sketches in a book which would serve as a constant reminder of my own lack of “natural” talent. I wanted my art to be flawless and magical. I wanted it to seem easy. Because of this I sketched on loose paper for many years. Failures were always discarded.
Then in high school I met Beau Sia and all this changed for me because he was a great artist who seemed to thrive from sketching. I remember going to his house and seeing a stack of 5 or so sketchbooks sitting in the corner full of success and failure, process and progression. I was impressed. For Beau good art was not the product of magic but simply hard work. It was at that exact moment that art changed for me. I bought my first sketchbook and slowly broke the habit of tearing my failed efforts from it.
Today I love to sketch. The pile of sketches I have now collected resembles the stack of Beau’s work that initially inspired me. In fact through the years, as I have struggled with style, composition, subject and color, sketching has remained my constant love. Although I have gone for long periods of time without producing artworks I have never stopped sketching. To this i believe I owe my current success: a greater satisfaction in the art works I produce.

The Real Postmodern Art

2008-09-04T16:30:00.001-05:00

As an artist there are certain sites which I visit regularly to feed my brain. One such site is Wooster Collective - a blog which contains daily posts covering the vast expanse of what is known as "street art". Street art is a loosely defined form of art that takes place in the street, most of it illegal. It is closely related to graffiti but its aesthetic and mediums span a much broader range from stickers to stencils, posters to murals, found object to performance art. its ethos is thoroughly postmodern as its theory, aesthetic and practice is urban, lowbrow, subversive and anti-elitist. (Something the high art community can never truly be, making their form of postmodern expression a truly bastardized version. Its like socialism as practiced by fat capitalists.) So check out Wooster Collective. You will thank them later.

Buffer Zone

2008-08-29T21:15:00.001-05:00

Melissa and I just got back from our trip to LA. We had a great time. Went to the beach, hung out with friends and went to a few gallery shows. The best show we went to was the Buff Monster’s solo show entitled “The Sweetest Thing.” It was sweet. In fact Melissa and I bought a piece from the show (seen here). We even got to take our pic with the Buff himself. Anyhow we had a great time. Also If you check out the Buff Monster’s site there is a picture of Melissa and I in Buff’‘s pics from the show under “The Corey Helford Opening.” (2nd pic). Well, at least our backsides.