amokarts

Wednesday, November 11 through Tuesday November 16, 2009 Catching up the blog
Well I haven't been blogging as much but I have been creating, and I mean creating A LOT! Wednesday was a day off for me and I used it to play catch up. I am working on two presentations that are both pretty labor intensive right now, but man is it fun!

For my one presentation, I am doing a story of an art collector who receives a very special gift. The story transfers to tell us about the greatest gift of all. It will consist of me painting a rather detailed painting live. Because of the detail I have decided to create other paintings on video to carry the message along as I paint my piece live. Because of the nature of the story I decided that rather than create original paintings. I would speed paint paintings that may have been in the collector's collection. Wednesday, I painted a speed painting of Picasso's Three Musicians and part of Monet's Water Lilies. Thursday I finished up Water Lilies and also finished a Van Gogh's Starry Night (which I started a little while ago) while discussing an outreach project with John Brown. (I've also been editing the videos together as I go.) Friday was a half day because I had a Dr.s appointment so I painted a rendition of Vermeer's Girl With Pearl Earring. Saturday was spent writing my sermon. Sunday I wrote a puppet skit, painted a worship painting in church and began working on Matisse's La Vis Paper Cutting piece. I finished the Matisse on Monday. This morning I arose with a great idea for the stage decoration for my friend Bob's Presentation in October. The Lord gave me all these ideas and I have been having a ball executing them. The classics are of course not as great as the masterpieces shown above, (I kind of doubt any of these great artists accomplished their pieces in an hour :D) but they are really helping me to appreciate how great these works really are. Eventually I plan on dividing the video I am making into each of the individual pieces because each one tells a story. I have one more piece to paint, Salvador Dali's Persistence of Memory, I hope to finish that in the next few days, along with a few other things.

What are you creating?

Friday, November 6 through Tuesday, November 10, 2009 Seeking direction
Finally finished the last aspect of the swine flu project that may or may not see the light of day. Went on retreat Friday night and Saturday, sought the Lord with my friend John about the direction for our combined arts ministry. It looks like it will go under the banner of Running AMOK and will be involving live public art creation combined with video to share the Gospel through the arts.
Saturday morning I sketched out a possible project for Running AMOK. Sunday was a great day at church, did some sketching in the afternoon, Monday and Tuesday included a few pieces for Cyberlight Comics for a promo piece for the site, (mine are pictures of the main character of my web comic The Weird World of Weiss...Me!) and another image for my friend Bob's presentation.

Thursday November 5, 2009 Quick image
This morning before work I prepared another portion of my video for my friend Bob's presentation. Here it is. Tonight will be starting my sermon and then tomorrow night off for two days retreat at Camp Swatara seeking the Lord on His path for my ministry with my friend and partner in "crime" John ( gifted artist with some pretty amazing left brain skills, hoping the Lord will help us organize the vision He has given).

Saturday October 31 through Wednesday November 4, 2009 Conviction.
I've been doing this new creation challenge since August, having created at least one thing every day. Saturday evening I came under some conviction that I have gotten a little out of control with it and have just been creating for the sake of creating. While that may seem okay it was not the purpose of the exercise. If you remember everything I was creating was supposed to bring glory to God. Some of the things I've done recently were not really about that. It's called conviction and it's a good thing. so now I'm getting back on track. I'm still creating every day but I am not going to pressure myself as much and instead I am waiting on the Lord and trying to go His way.

Saturday during my down time, I created another New Creaturez mini comic. I got it as far as the inking stage in between my assignments at the Jr. High Retreat I was working on. I had a great time at this event. My duties were pretty limited but that gave me the time to spend some relational time with a couple youth leaders where I got to work out my gift of exhortation. Saturday night I left Michael W. Smith, Phil Stacy, Matt Maher and Meredith Andrews use their gifts of exhortation on me and my wife. What an awesome time of worship. If you get the chance to see this tour, by all means go! Sunday, was friends and family day at New Creation. It was a good time. My project of the day was writing a puppet skit for the service and a few sketches. Monday I finished up another NewCreaturez minicomic and began working on the next promo amokarts.com, a series of "you write the caption" cartoons. I will put these up weekly as soon as I have a cushion. Every entry will receive an arts ministry idea from the AMOKArts collection (or at least that's what I am planning now). Tuesday brought another cartoon for that project and in the evening I met with my friend Mike about building a website for His church. Tonight I plan on putting a few pieces together for that project. I'll probably be blogging a little less, but Lord willing, I'll keep creating.

Thursday October 29, Friday October 30, 2009 A message and a new video
Basically the last two days have been spent on sermon prep and creating the above video. This is my own take on a video I saw on YouTube that will be used as part of a church presentation. I'll be at my district Jr. High retreat Friday and Saturday then off to see Michael W. Smith Saturday Night. Sunday is Friends and Family day at church. Sounds like a great weekend.

Tuesday October 27 and Wednesday October 28, 2009
Planning, Praying, Plotting and Scheming
My main creative project for Tuesday was a planning session where four of us worked out what we would do for the Christmas celebration at Mt Wilson Church of the Brethren. I will be painting along with a dancer and a solo dancer and a dance team. It was a wonderful night of creative collaboration. When I got home from the meeting I sketched out a future issue of the NewCreaturez.com mini comic based on John 3:16. I finished it Wednesday morning and also created a powerpoint background for an upcoming collection, which I am collaborating on with the internet's favorite pastor Bishop James I Feel God Brown. To hear James' internet ministry how-to show, click here.

Friday October 23, through Monday October 26, 2009 Lots O' Stuff
I'm booked to do arts ministry at two churches on back to back days the first week in December so I've been busily planning those days. It started off Thursday evening with the start of a video based on Van Gogh's Starry Night. I am making some speed painting videos of quick interpretations of classic paintings as part of the presentation. It's not finished, but I am hopeful I'd like to do at least six but we'll see. One of the presentations I will be doing is a cartooning presentation/workshop on angels. I created the above character for the drawing teaching portion of the day. I will not be using this one but it was my main Friday project so I am posting it here. Saturday was devoted to sermon prep for my message entitled Fearless: God's Ticked Off at Me from my series based on Max Lucado's book Fearless. Sunday was International Artist Day and also my Birthday, How cool is that? I christened my new sketch book with a few sketches and wrote a puppet skit for church (The puppet skit is usually the last thing to get written because I try to make it fit with the message.) Monday morning I took the sketches inked them and made them into a Tshirt design and a new New Creaturez booklet which will be posted Thursday at NewCreaturez.com.