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.

Are You in a Christian Artist Group?

Say what? A Christian artist group? You mean, like the St. Peter and Paul Painting and Pancake Club? Sure, why not? (for you adventurous sorts, here's a recipe for Hungarian pancakes).

Ours is called "Lively Arts." Not so much in the pancake department, but there are usually enough sweet snacks to overdo our blood sugar levels.

Essentially, we're a group of artists of all flavors gathering monthly. We are serious about doing our craft well, understanding the greater aspects of art, and integrating our art and our faith.

I'm a writer; my art is poetry. There are a few other writers. Mostly, though, we are visual artists. This includes painting, but also, we have stained glass window folks, photographers, a calligraphy expert, someone making those huge banners you see in churches, and many more.

We cover the gamut of denominations: I attend a Bible church, but we've got Pentecostals, Catholics, Anglicans, Presbyterians and others. The focus is on Jesus Christ, so if that's where the person's at, then great.

As Jim Croce once sang, "If you're walking my way, I'll walk with you." Croce's song otherwise doesn't relate, but I like it.

We'll talk about events in art, like a local gallery showing, discuss hard questions of faith/art (like symbolism and abstraction), pray, and show-and-tell. It isn't Sunday school, nor is meant to be. Rather, we're just trying to learn what it means to be an artist and a Christian without compromising either, with God always at the top.

Sometimes we do a hands-on project. While, as I mentioned, visual arts are not my thing, I could appreciate the glory of God in a deeper way after working on snowflake cutting (serious stuff here -- this isn't what you did in first grade with the dull scissors).

I learned, for example, the creative process Tim Botts followed when developing a large commissioned calligraphic design is much the same as what I follow when writing a 10-line poem for Decision Magazine. I heard that others deal with apathy, discontent and frustrations, and shared in the joy of seeing the published book of one of members.

Tell me about your group. Give me the low-down, with ideas and contact info (if it is an open group).

Christian Art: Does It Exist?

Christian Art: Does It Exist?

Let's deconstruct this pretentious question:

Define

1. Christian
2. Art
3. Existence

Next, put these back together

1. Christian existence
2. Art existence
3. Christian art existence

Semantics? Maybe so, but meaning is part of art, isn't it? If we cannot understand the depth of the question, we will struggle to understand the depth of the answer.

What do you think? No pat, contrived, Hallmark Greeting Card replies: tell what you really think, and why. If you've got examples, Scripture or science to back it, even better.