amokarts

Monday August 24, Today a Writing Project and an Illustration.
I wrote a brief article for an upcoming enews letter. It started off as an email to a friend and then I realized these were truths that a lot of people needed to read, so I edited it and made it into an article. You can read the article below. And I also completed another illustration for my swine flu prevention project. Since it is unpublished here is a clip of it.

Too Many Ideas (Is There Such a Thing?) Too Little Time

I was rereading an email from a new friend online, and I thought it spoke to something a lot of us face as artists. She wrote of having a lot of ideas and not always being able to get them completed. I wrestle with that too. It even appears she and I have a similar vision to start a ministry where people from the community can come in and create art, performances, etc to the glory of God and meet Jesus while doing what they love to do.

Here's what I to wrote her. I think it will bless, you, my readers as well. I have a similar vision. I am simply trying to get something going where people can come in, create together and get to know Jesus. I am thinking of things like doing plays, exhibitions and other such things. I'm trying to find a director and some plays that are not cheesy, preachy things but rather something with some meat that will open a door and plant a seed.

As far as having a lot of ideas, and not being able to complete them, here's my word of encouragement: I have a LOT of ideas as well and they are frustrating to no end at times, but here's what I've learned. Be faithful. When you get an idea, write it down. If you don't have everything you need to do it at the time, do what you can do for now and keep it handy. I have sketchbooks that I use and I fill a lot of them. Some things go from concept to completion very quickly, other things take years.

The open studio concept that I am working on developing today was the original concept for A.M.O.K. about ten years ago. I couldn't do it then, every group of people I got together didn't last, etc. Eventually I decided that I would write the ideas I have down and post them to the web and do the things I could do myself, which led to workshops and seminars where I went out and encouraged other artists to use their gifts to serve the Lord. I also went pout and preached and did art on my own. I even felt led to plant a church, which has helped me by giving me a place to try out the things that the Lord lays on my heart. In this way the thing that I post are actually something that's been done and works.

So in effect, the original vision is ten years old and has not yet come to pass but in faithfully doing what I can do, I have been blessed to bless others. People are slowly coming into my life that will be able to help me finally bring the full A.M.O.K vision to fruition, In the mean time, I am trying not to be frustrated and just keep going. Lots of groundwork has been laid that I could not have anticipated when the vision first came to me. I have grown a lot. A man who I believe will be a key leader in this ministry was a teen when it first came to me and we had never even met. When we think we are not making any progress and not getting it done, we need to remember that God is always at work getting things ready. If your vision is of God it will happen at the appointed time. In the mean time, be faithful today, trust and obey.