Monday, October 01, 2007
This weekend.
This weekend was a great one for me artistically. I went to a coffeehouse with my friend Tom on Friday night. http://www.tompostjr.com/musicpics.htm for a photo of me working with him. Tom is a former youth pastor and a singer songwriter. Tom plays a lot of secular venues and I go with him about once a month to paint while he sings songs about His journey through life. They are tales of struggle and redemption, and so I paint images to go along with that set of songs. Afterwards I get to share a short message about the painting which always has some scripture. The picture on the link becomes a man walking on a road in the darkness carrying a lantern and heading toward the sunrise. The message behind it is thy Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.
The one I did on Friday night was a butterfly that had just emerged from his Chrysalis I call it ready to fly. In the message I tell the story of a man who found a butterfly that was struggling to emerge from his chrysalis so he slit the chrysalis to help the butterfly. The butterfly came out easily but his wings were under developed and his body was bloated and so he was unable to fly and died. The struggle made him able to fly. I then spoke about 2 Corinthians 5:17. It was a great night.
Then last night I did something quite "scary." I call it art without a net. One of my friends has a small worship gathering that he holds in a coffee house. The subject of his evening was creativity. I placed a canvas on the easel with a palette with black paint and a few brushes. Every person was invited to add a brush stroke or two to the blank canvas, however they saw fit. Then while the rest of their service was going on I took their lines and painted a painting with them. I hadn't intended to do a painting of Jesus, but as I began to look at their collection of lines that was what popped out. The point of this exercise...Sometimes in life we have the luxury or having a plan to follow, we can take our time, plan things out, etc. But many times in life, God asks us to "play the cards we're dealt." To take the circumstances that occur in our lives and make something out of them. To not live out of our plan but rather to work with what we get. What emerged from this exercise was a slightly abstract painting of Jesus. wearing the crown of thorns. When I say slightly abstract, it's because I tried to use the lines everyone contributed. The verse backing this painting is Romans 8:28. I will do this again.
This weekend was a great one for me artistically. I went to a coffeehouse with my friend Tom on Friday night. http://www.tompostjr.com/musicpics.htm for a photo of me working with him. Tom is a former youth pastor and a singer songwriter. Tom plays a lot of secular venues and I go with him about once a month to paint while he sings songs about His journey through life. They are tales of struggle and redemption, and so I paint images to go along with that set of songs. Afterwards I get to share a short message about the painting which always has some scripture. The picture on the link becomes a man walking on a road in the darkness carrying a lantern and heading toward the sunrise. The message behind it is thy Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.
The one I did on Friday night was a butterfly that had just emerged from his Chrysalis I call it ready to fly. In the message I tell the story of a man who found a butterfly that was struggling to emerge from his chrysalis so he slit the chrysalis to help the butterfly. The butterfly came out easily but his wings were under developed and his body was bloated and so he was unable to fly and died. The struggle made him able to fly. I then spoke about 2 Corinthians 5:17. It was a great night.
Then last night I did something quite "scary." I call it art without a net. One of my friends has a small worship gathering that he holds in a coffee house. The subject of his evening was creativity. I placed a canvas on the easel with a palette with black paint and a few brushes. Every person was invited to add a brush stroke or two to the blank canvas, however they saw fit. Then while the rest of their service was going on I took their lines and painted a painting with them. I hadn't intended to do a painting of Jesus, but as I began to look at their collection of lines that was what popped out. The point of this exercise...Sometimes in life we have the luxury or having a plan to follow, we can take our time, plan things out, etc. But many times in life, God asks us to "play the cards we're dealt." To take the circumstances that occur in our lives and make something out of them. To not live out of our plan but rather to work with what we get. What emerged from this exercise was a slightly abstract painting of Jesus. wearing the crown of thorns. When I say slightly abstract, it's because I tried to use the lines everyone contributed. The verse backing this painting is Romans 8:28. I will do this again.
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