Monday, September 26, 2005
Who inspires you?
A friend on the art lessons from God list responded to this question with veggie tales creator Phil Vischer. I had to agree and it led to a whole lot of other thoughts on art in general.
You gotta love Phil Vischer. I recommend everyone go to philvischer.com and read what happened to Big Idea. It is so instructive, so honest and so vulnerable and really shows how we can get ourselves into trouble even when we are trying to follow God. It should be mandatory reading for every artist wanting to serve the Lord with his or her gift.
Musicians inspire me, especially great musical storytellers like Mark Schultz. Many of the ideas that I get are born out of a line from a song that touches my heart. Drama and movies can inspire me too. I draw most of my inspiration from prayer walks out in nature, being in touch with the work of the Master. I also really love to view the work of my brothers and sisters in Christ. Artists who have given their gift to the master. I am at the point in life where while I can be really inspired by excellent works of art, I have little patience for some of the weirdness that people try to pass off as art. I am considering going back to school to get my art diploma, but will probably not because that would involve spending too much time with "artists" lol. For example I was at Penn State last weekend and went to their art museum/gallery. They had a faculty art exhibition going on complete with a photo display of drag queens and such. One installation featured a man blowing up paper bags and popping them while rambling on and on. The TV was surrounded by popped paper bags. Another "installation" was human hair thrown against the wall and stuck there with several large balls of hair on the floor. In fairness there was some excellent stuff there too, but the weirdness just gets to me. (This from a person who calls his comic strip the Weird World of Weiss.) Give me a good Tony Snipes piece any time.
Speaking of art, I did Via Colori Italian street painting festival this past weekend in Harrisburg. That is quickly becoming one of my favorite art forms. Some of the people there were so fantastic. I was honored to be in their presence. I had a great time. I do want to apologize to all those who wrote me in response to my poll. I ended up not doingg the Aslan piece I had posted, I didn't have enough brown tones in the provided chalk to pull it off. I was praying about it and ended up doing a third piece on Joshua. The message on the piece said when you face life's "giants" remember, be strong and courageous, do not be afraid. He will never leave you, Joshua 1. The image was joshua facing a huge giant. It was a lot of fun. No sooner did I have the owrds down when a bunch of people came up and thanked me for that message. I didn't even have the art in it yet. I guess I did what someone needed to be reminded of.
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A friend on the art lessons from God list responded to this question with veggie tales creator Phil Vischer. I had to agree and it led to a whole lot of other thoughts on art in general.
You gotta love Phil Vischer. I recommend everyone go to philvischer.com and read what happened to Big Idea. It is so instructive, so honest and so vulnerable and really shows how we can get ourselves into trouble even when we are trying to follow God. It should be mandatory reading for every artist wanting to serve the Lord with his or her gift.
Musicians inspire me, especially great musical storytellers like Mark Schultz. Many of the ideas that I get are born out of a line from a song that touches my heart. Drama and movies can inspire me too. I draw most of my inspiration from prayer walks out in nature, being in touch with the work of the Master. I also really love to view the work of my brothers and sisters in Christ. Artists who have given their gift to the master. I am at the point in life where while I can be really inspired by excellent works of art, I have little patience for some of the weirdness that people try to pass off as art. I am considering going back to school to get my art diploma, but will probably not because that would involve spending too much time with "artists" lol. For example I was at Penn State last weekend and went to their art museum/gallery. They had a faculty art exhibition going on complete with a photo display of drag queens and such. One installation featured a man blowing up paper bags and popping them while rambling on and on. The TV was surrounded by popped paper bags. Another "installation" was human hair thrown against the wall and stuck there with several large balls of hair on the floor. In fairness there was some excellent stuff there too, but the weirdness just gets to me. (This from a person who calls his comic strip the Weird World of Weiss.) Give me a good Tony Snipes piece any time.
Speaking of art, I did Via Colori Italian street painting festival this past weekend in Harrisburg. That is quickly becoming one of my favorite art forms. Some of the people there were so fantastic. I was honored to be in their presence. I had a great time. I do want to apologize to all those who wrote me in response to my poll. I ended up not doingg the Aslan piece I had posted, I didn't have enough brown tones in the provided chalk to pull it off. I was praying about it and ended up doing a third piece on Joshua. The message on the piece said when you face life's "giants" remember, be strong and courageous, do not be afraid. He will never leave you, Joshua 1. The image was joshua facing a huge giant. It was a lot of fun. No sooner did I have the owrds down when a bunch of people came up and thanked me for that message. I didn't even have the art in it yet. I guess I did what someone needed to be reminded of.
