Must Art Have a Message?

Must art have a message? Pick your medium. Name the art, any art, any art in the deck.

About that -- only those readers playing with a full-deck can answer this one. No replacing two Jacks with Jokers.

What about it? Can art be messageless? If so, does it become, by the definition of the word, meaningless?

Unrelated, I'm jamming to online radio, WYCE, "Independent Community Radio: WYCE is an independent, community radio station serving the communities of Grand Rapids and West Michigan with its on-air FM programming at 88.1 Mhz, and reaching out to the world through online streaming on the Internet."

Marc Chagall Said That

Will God or someone else give me the strength to breathe the breath of prayer and mourning into my paintings, the breath of prayer for redemption and resurrection?
--Marc Chagall

The answer, I say, only God can give that strength. What do you say?

What's in an Art? What's Your Thing?

I have a survey on the right. It will be posted another week or so, asking, "My art is primarily..."

1. illustration
2. writing
3. dance
4. singing
5. painting
6. sculpture
7. drama
8. other?

OK. Half of you are thinking you cannot choose just one, and the other half cannot choose at all because I left off your medium, that devious, elusive, fantastic number 8. Then, a third half (look, I'm a writer, not a mathematician) is thinking, "Illustration? Do you mean like drawing, calligraphy, cartooning, or napkin sketching?"

Since a complete list is a futile effort, how about telling me. Your art? Name it.

2008 Faculty for the Karitos Festival 2008

2008 Faculty for the Karitos Festival 2008
click for current faculty in each category

• Vocal Performance
• Worship
• Literary Arts
• Music Biz Track
• Dance
• Theatre
• Visual Arts

Celebrate Your Artistic and Religious Freedom

As the fireworks fall, and the residual smoke blows into clouds, remember the freedom we have. While many may grouse at our loss of freedoms, or what Christians cannot do, celebrate freedom.

July 5, 2008 is as free as July 4. A quieter day, but with the same liberties.

Paint, write, sing, dance, sculpt. Our God, as Rich Mullins sang, is a awesome God. Whether you shout or whisper, say it boldly.

Let freedom ring, and His glory reign.