Taking a Break

After 300 posts, and almost 3 years, I'm taking a break from this blog. I am pursuing other interests this year, including the CS Lewis Fellows Program, as I've mentioned recently. The Fellows Program is a one-year intensive study program that will allow me to read books and articles by great Christian thinkers, to meet with and discuss the readings with other fellows and mentors, to meditate on and memorize related scripture, and to write about what I'm learning. I've already started the reading and have learned so much already. It's going to be quite a year.

I plan to continue writing my other blog, Beauty and the Beholder, about the beauty around us. I post on Wednesdays and often discuss art as well as creation. Check it out if you haven't already.

I'll also continue writing occasional articles, essays, and devotionals and whatever else God leads me to.

I've enjoyed this blog so much and have met many fascinating people through it. Thank you for reading. Thank you, also, to all the artists, art experts and enthusiasts I've interviewed through the years. Artists, stay true to your gift and your faith. And God's blessings on you all.

In the Name of the Greatest Artist of all,
LeAnne

Christian Wiman: Image's Artist of the Month

Christian Wiman, editor of Poetry, poet and essayist, is Image's Artist of the Month for July. Wiman was raised in a conservative Baptist home but his faith "fell away", he says, in college. He felt its absence, though, and in the past few years has returned to his faith. Read his essay, God's Truth is Life, in Image's 60th issue.

Luci Shaw's Breath for the Bones

I'm reading so many fascinating books this summer--some for the CS Lewis Fellows program and some about creativity and faith. Right now I'm just on chapter two of Luci Shaw's Breath for the Bones: Art, Imagination, and Spirit: Reflections on Creativity and Faith and I have already underlined much of the book. Here are a few favorite passages from the intro and chapter one:

"The artist, then, becomes something of a prophet: the seer, the mouthpiece. The role of the artist is to call to attention."

"The artists--the prophets too--are called to this role: presenting pictures and models, words, and visions. They have a special calling--to recognize God's creating hand, God's storied art, God's order."

"There is another calling for the artist, and that is one of linking earth to heaven, pointing the human to the divine, finding the connections."

"In art and creativity, we make visible to others the beauty and meaning God has first pictured, or introduced, into our imaginations. In that sense we may each think of ourselves as a small extension of the creative mind of God."

"How I Work": Beverly Key, Visual Artist

Today my mind is on my friend, visual artist Beverly Key, who I enjoyed coffee with this morning. This post is from my original interview with her two years ago when she talked about how she works and gave some advice to young artists.

LeAnne: What are your favorite forms or methods of painting?

Beverly: Recently 
I've begun to do large abstract oils, and for many
 years now I have been painting large abstact 
landscapes on paper with watercolor, where I pour
 paint through paper filters using dried beans and peas 
and string for design elements.  I also do collage.

LM: When did you know you wanted to paint?

BK: When I was in first
 grade, I tried to sneak a box of crayons into the 
grocery cart. As I was growing up I always thought of
myself as an artist. I was one of the ones in school
 who was always doing the bulletin boards for the 
teachers. Both my parents painted as a hobby so I grew 
up with the smell of oil and turpentine. I took some classes after school with a wonderful woman,
 Abbott Downing (of course, in south Alabama we called 
her,"Miss Abbott"). However, I graduated from college
 with a degree in special education, and thought that 
would be what I would do. I taught a few years, got
 married, had 2 boys and in 1986 we moved to Atlanta.
 At that time, my husband and I decided to try to have another child 
and I also took some art classes at the Atlanta
 College of Art. Since that time I have been painting
 professionally.    

LM: What advice do you have for young or new artists who are Christians?

BK: I would say "trust yourself". You are the 
only person who will see the world the way you see it.
 Take confidence in that and draw from your own
 experiences. Keep working some every day. Most work
 gets recognized because the artist just kept at it.

Arts Moments Yesterday

Hope you had a great July 4th celebration.

Yesterday was a full day for me. There were three points where the arts particularly touched me:

1. During the worship service at church, our back-up worship singer sang Watermark's "Captivate Us." It's a gorgeous, intimate song, and she sang it beautifully.

2. My family and I watched The Incredibles. The amount of Christian worldview and symbolism in that movie took me by surprise. We loved it.

3. I finished the book, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, a novel about the German Occupation of one of the Channel Islands during World War II. The story was told entirely by letters--the kind that show up in a mailbox. I thoroughly enjoyed that book.

What arts moments have you enjoyed lately? Leave a comment and let me know.

Replay: Barry Morrow, Part 2: Excellence in Our Work

This week I'm replaying my interview with Barry Morrow last year. Today Barry has a few words for artists about excellence.

Hope you have a happy July 4th! God Bless America!

Replay: Barry Morrow: Art & The Extraordinary Goodness of God

A few weeks ago, I was accepted into the CS Lewis Fellows program through the CS Lewis Institute. Since Lewis is on my mind a lot these days, this week I'm doing a replay of an interview with a Lewis and culture expert, Barry Morrow. Enjoy!

Judith Couchman, Part 2: Writer, Art History Teacher, Speaker

Here's the conclusion of my interview with Judith Couchman. She has published more than 40 books, compilations, and Bible studies. Her books cover topics as diverse as art history, discovering your purpose, thriving in difficult times, shaping the soul, body image, flower gardening, and breadmaking. But whatever the topic, Judith leads readers to consider their own spiritual growth and formation in everyday life. In addition to her publishing career, Judith now teaches ancient, early Christian, Byzantine, and medieval art history courses as a part-time instructor for the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs.

Judith has worked as a full-time freelance writer, speaker, and writing coach for 15 years. During this time she created the Write the Vision Retreats, intensive weekend gatherings for female writers, and the Designing a Woman’s Life Seminar, a one- to two-day workshop to help women find their purpose and passion in life. She’s also spoken to professional and women’s groups around the country, and has served as a magazine teacher and consultant to nonprofit organizations overseas. In recent years she’s donated consulting time to Eastern European editors of Christian publications.

Before working as an author, Judith founded and served as editor-in-chief of Clarity, a national magazine for women. She’s held jobs as an editor, journalism teacher, communications director, and public relations practitioner. She’s also received national awards for her work in each of these positions, and for her books. Check out her website and blogs:

http://www.judithcouchman.com
http://www.judithcouchman.blogspot.com
http://www.startingover-judithcouchman.blogspot.com


LeAnne: What three things do you want your students to know when they leave your classroom?

Judith: First, because I teach online classes, I want students to know how to research and study on their own. These skills will serve them for a lifetime. Second, art is an expression of its culture and time period, so we need to understand the culture and era in which artists created it. Third, one era of art isn't "superior" to another. When we understand the context, we can appreciate its contribution to the world.

LeAnne: You're a speaker, too. Your seminar, "The Mystery of the Cross", based on your book by the same title, sounds intriguing. You talk about how early Christians honored the message and image of the cross in their art, worship, and lives. Can you tell me more about that?

Judith: I'll first say that I develop seminars based on some of my books. So currently I have about six seminars I offer to churches and organizations. The Mystery of the Cross seminar helps people understand the work of the Cross, how it transforms them, and influences their everyday lives. I use images and sensory experiences to enhance their understanding.

LeAnne: Is there anything you'd like to add about the topic of Christians and the arts?

Judith: Be yourself. Be true to your creative calling. Take in wisdom, but in the end, don't run your creative life based on what other people think. Pursue your passion. Listen to your soul. Your work will be authentic and meaningful, for you and your audience.

Judith Couchman: Writer, Art History Teacher, Speaker

Judith Couchman has published more than 40 books, compilations, and Bible studies. Her books cover topics as diverse as art history, discovering your purpose, thriving in difficult times, shaping the soul, body image, flower gardening, and breadmaking. But whatever the topic, Judith leads readers to consider their own spiritual growth and formation in everyday life. In addition to her publishing career, Judith now teaches ancient, early Christian, Byzantine, and medieval art history courses as a part-time instructor for the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs.

Judith has worked as a full-time freelance writer, speaker, and writing coach for 15 years. During this time she created the Write the Vision Retreats, intensive weekend gatherings for female writers, and the Designing a Woman’s Life Seminar, a one- to two-day workshop to help women find their purpose and passion in life. She’s also spoken to professional and women’s groups around the country, and has served as a magazine teacher and consultant to nonprofit organizations overseas. In recent years she’s donated consulting time to Eastern European editors of Christian publications.

Before working as an author, Judith founded and served as editor-in-chief of Clarity, a national magazine for women. She’s held jobs as an editor, journalism teacher, communications director, and public relations practitioner. She’s also received national awards for her work in each of these positions, and for her books. Check out her website and blogs:

http://www.judithcouchman.com
http://www.judithcouchman.blogspot.com
http://www.startingover-judithcouchman.blogspot.com



LeAnne: I came to know your writing through your book, Designing a Woman's Life. What draws you to writing?

Judith: From an early age I knew I wanted to be an author. In my sixth-grade journal I wrote, "I want to write a book." I think it's the only sentence I wrote in that journal, so I wasn't off to a good start! But I remember writing poems and stories in grade school and by high school I wrote for the school newspaper. I thought writing would be the coolest job in the world. I considered some other things, but always returned to a deeply embedded desire to write. I spent years teaching journalism and working as an editor, but I knew that eventually I'd write books. At the same time, those jobs prepared me for what I'm doing now. I learned to write by editing other people's work.

Saying I'm "drawn" to writing probably isn't strong enough. I'm compelled. I can't not write. Being an author is my main identity. It's hard to explain, but something about expressing myself through the written word deeply satisfies me. I also consider writing my calling. It's my ministry in the world; something I want to pursue the rest of my life.

LeAnne: What kind of topics do you write about?

Judith: I write nonfiction about a wide variety of topics, but primarily the work encourages readers to integrate faith into their everyday lives. But I don't think of myself as a how-to person--at least not these days. I like to use stories and memoir to create a common ground with readers and make them think. I don't like giving them "answers." I'm especially drawn to helping people pursue their purpose and passion in the world--to use their gifts and be who God created them to be. That's why I wrote Designing a Woman's Life and have taught seminars based on that book. I also write a blog called Starting Over, for people beginning again in any area of their lives. These days the publishing industry stresses author identity, so I've been thinking about this. I've recently learned that I can be an agent's nightmare because I'm interested in so many things. So after creating 40 books and compilations, I'm wrestling with how to define my brand or author identity.

LeAnne: You also teach art history. Why did you pursue a degree in art history? What draws you to it?

Judith: Even though my main identity is "author," I also love art. I think many creative people are interested in more than one artistic endeavor. Often they work in one main field, but dabble in others. I'm not a visual artist, but I've visited museums and gazed at art for years. Whenever I traveled, I found the nearby museums and spent hours walking the galleries. I wasn't formally trained, so my appreciation was from a gut level. I enjoyed or disliked something based on my feelings. That's not a wrong way to approach art, but I eventually wanted to understand what I observed. Even though I already had a master's degree in journalism, I began taking undergraduate courses in art history--one at a time--in the evenings. Then eventually I pursued another master's degree in art history through an online university. I juggled studying art history with writing. I studied Christian art from its inception through the Reformation. Eventually this led to teaching art history part time (online) for the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs. This combines nicely with my writing life.

I've also begun writing about art, combining my two interests together. I recently finished a book for InterVarsity Press called, The Mystery of the Cross. It's about the art, life, and worship of early Christians, based on images of the cross. The book can be described as "art meets spiritual transformation." Readers apply what they've learned to their spiritual lives today. Right now I'm writing The Art of Faith, a handbook about Christian art, for Paraclete Press. I particularly wanted to write about and teach early Christian art. When we explore the art, rituals, and culture of early and medieval Christians, we understand our spiritual roots. When I began studying early Christian art, I was shocked by how I didn't know about my heritage as a believer. The early church and its art was different than I'd envisioned it--more elemental and tied to the Roman culture than I'd thought.

More from Judith on Thursday.

Sound of Music in a Train Station

I came across this YouTube a couple of days ago and just had to pass it on. The video was made in the Antwerp, Belgium Central Train Station on March 23, 2009. At 08:00 am a recording of Julie Andrews singing 'Do, Re, Mi' begins to play on the public address system. As bemused passengers watch in amazement, some 200 dancers begin to appear from the crowd and station entrances. They created this stunt with just two rehearsals. It's so creative and such fun! I wish I had been there.

Coming soon: New feature!

Ruminate Magazine

Do you Ruminate? Check this out (from the website):

"RUMINATE is a quarterly magazine of short stories, poetry, creative nonfiction, and visual art that resonate with the complexity and truth of the Christian faith. Each issue is a themed forum for literature and art that speaks to the existence of our daily lives while nudging us toward a greater hope. Because of this, we strive to publish quality work accounting for the grappling pleas, as well as the quiet assurances of an authentic faith. RUMINATE Magazine was created for every person who has paused over a good word, a real story, a perfect brushstroke— longing for the significance they point us toward. Please join us."

On the site you can get a taste of the current issue and glimpses of past issues. Kudos to Ruminate!

On Reactions to Art

Here's an excellent article written by artist Dayton Castleman called "Can Cy Twombly Be Trusted?". Thanks to my friend Byron Borger of Hearts & Minds Books for bringing it to my attention.

Sacred Harp Singing

I'm a Southern girl with gospel roots, but I've never been to a live performance of sacred harp singing. My knowledge of it is limited but my fascination is growing. If you've never heard of it, you'll want to check out these resources:

1. An article by Paul Harvey titled "Wondrous Love: The living tradition of Sacred Harp singing". Harvey writes about sacred harp singing and discusses two books that deal with it: Kiri Miller’s Traveling Home, an academic study, and Kathryn Easterburn’s A Sacred Feast: Reflections on Sacred Harp Singing and Dinner on the Ground, a collection of essays, reflections, and even recipes.

2.The documentary, “Awake My Soul.” (The website has a clip of the singing as well as a trailer. You can buy the soundtrack and the DVD on the site as well.) Here's the description:

"Awake, My Soul is a feature documentary that explores the history, music, and traditions of Sacred Harp singing, the oldest surviving American music. While often linked only to its history, (e.g. the songs were used in the recent historical films "Cold Mountain" and "Gangs of New York") this haunting music has survived over 200 years tucked away from sight in the rural deep south, where in old wooden country churches, devoted singers break open The Sacred Harp, a shape note hymnal first published in Georgia in 1844. These singers have inherited The Sacred Harp and its traditions from those who came before them and preserved these fierce yet beautiful songs, many of which are much older than the hymnal itself. And so they, like the early singers, begin each song by intoning syllables which are represented by each shaped note in their hymnal: fa, sol, la, and mi. To the casual observer, it is some foreign, unintelligible language, but to these Sacred Harp singers, it is the key that unlocks mysteries: songs of both beauty and sorrow, of life and of death, songs that cause feet to stomp and tears to flow, often at the same time. They are ancient sounds, which are at times disorienting to the modern ear, and yet they are sung with such passion and force that it becomes obvious that these songs are very much alive. Awake My Soul is a film that captures both the history and the vitality of a music that is utterly unlike any music most viewers are likely to have heard.”

Enjoy! And if you're a fan of sacred harp, leave a comment and let me know.

My Guest Post

I'm honored to be the guest blogger on CITA's (Christians in Theater Arts) blog for the month of June. My post is about some of my favorite moments in theater. Here's the link if you'd like to read it:

http://cita.org/site/?p=161

Summer Arts Conferences

School is out and summer is on my mind, so I thought I'd post a couple of summer arts conferences. If you know of any others, please leave a comment with links and contact information.

Two summer conferences sponsored byRedeemer Presbyterian Church in New York:

"This summer, the Redeemer's Arts Ministry will be presenting two Professional and Personal Development Conferences, to use this slower-moving time of the year to think more deeply about our callings, our careers, and our lives."

Redeemer's new professional development series for artists is designed to help artists think through their careers from a Christian perspective, identify their "calling," and approach their careers with information, integrity, and vigor.

Professional Development Workshop
Friday, June 26 - 7:00-9:30pm
Saturday, June 27 - 10:00am-4:00pm
Redeemer offices (1359 Broadway Suite 400)

The Healthy Artist
Friday, July 17 - 7:00pm-9:30pm
Saturday, July 18 - 10:00am-4:00pm
Redeemer offices (1359 Broadway Suite 400)

Questions? Contact Luann Jennings at luann@redeemer.com or (212) 808-4460 x1343.


Another conference is Karitos

Karitos 2009
"He Must Increase"
July 16-18
Living Waters Church
Bolingbrook, IL

"The mission of Karitos is to provide Biblically-based artistic and technical growth experiences to Christian artists." These tracks are offered: Master Classes, Dance/Mime, Literary Arts, Music Biz Track, Theatre, Visual Arts, Worship. Something for everyone!

More new features coming soon!

The Beauty Around You

I have another blog called Beauty and the Beholder. I thought yesterday's post on that blog would be a good exercise here as well. Check it out, and leave a comment about your favorite things of beauty.

Coming soon: more features

Happy Memorial Day

On this holiday and every day of the year, I am grateful for this country. And I'm grateful for the many people who sacrificed their lives for the freedoms we have. What a tremendous gift!

Quotations

I found these quotations in Leonard Sweet's Soul Salsa. I like them and thought I'd pass them along.

“A true artist always puts something of his time in his art, and also his soul.” French sculptor Auguste Rodin

“One ought, every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and if possible, to speak a few reasonable words.” Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“Heav’n above is softer blue
Earth around is sweeter green;
Something lives in every hue
Christless eyes have never seen.” from George Wade Robinson hymn, I am His and He is Mine

“He who has eyes sees something in everything.” Roy Lichtenberg

Wilmer Mills, Part 3: Poet, Teacher, Carpenter

This is the conclusion of my feature with the poet Wilmer Mills.

To hear Wil read two poems, click here.
To read more of the essay he excerpts in our interview, click here.
To see some of his paintings, click here.


LeAnne: In addition to being a poet, you're also a carpenter. Has creating with your hands also helped you create with words and vice versa?

Wil: I have done a lot of carpentry, but I no longer do it professionally. I built my own house and am forever doing projects on it. They never seem to end. Working with my hands is the most important activity for stimulating my creativity. It is what makes me most human and also what puts me closest into contact with my creator. I also believe that working with my hands taps into a separate kind of human intelligence. There is the usual I.Q. kind; I often feel very deficient in that area. But when I work with my hands, I feel a broadening of connection-making ability. I am able to see how things fit together, how things work in a series of steps, almost how a story fits together. Yes, it’s all very narrative. I don’t think, though, that working with words has helped me work better with my hands. I think it only works the other way around. Manual dexterity or activity stimulates mental facility, not the reverse.

LM: You're also a teacher on a fellowship at UNC Chapel Hill. What has teaching students to write taught you?

WM: It has taught me how much I still don’t know. I never wanted to be a teacher. I wanted to work with my hands. But I couldn’t make a living that way and teaching has been my salvation. This has been a great surprise to me, because of how much I love it and for how much I learn by teaching. I’ve learned more about poetry by teaching in two years than I have in fifteen years of writing. Having to explain something forces one to learn the material in a deeper way. I hope to be able to continue teaching poetry.

LM: What would you like for your students to know when they leave your classroom?

WM: I teach my students how to construct a good line of verse both in strict meter and with lively and compelling syntax. Poetry is built out of lines, not feelings. When they learn how to build a good line, when they know the rules, then they can learn how to break them in intelligent ways, something that is essential for formal poetry, but especially for free verse, which, by definition, depends on variation. If you don’t have a grasp of regularity, your variation or “freedom” from a norm has no meaning.

I teach them to develop their ears to pick up the rich musical possibilities of language and how to channel that music through accurate observations of the real world around them. Too often, student poets think that writing a poem is about constructing an elaborate riddle with words, and that their job is to give cryptic clues to what the meaning is. This is at the root of most horrible poetry. If given the choice between the subtlety of mystery and the enigma of the mysterious, they will invariably choose the latter and drip it with oozings from their psyches.

I teach them to get out of their own heads, to stop thinking that poetry is a soapbox for self-expression. Poetry is about expressing the dictionary. Once they catch on, they realize that words are more intelligent than people are, and that words do a much better job of expressing their feelings and thoughts. Let good language do the work. So I teach students to look at what they see right in front of them and to say what they see in the most compelling language. Poets should make sense and make it sing.

Wilmer Mills, Part 2: Poet, Collector of Words

This is the second of three parts of my feature on poet Wilmer Mills. Mills was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He was graduated from The McCallie School in 1988 and The University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee with a B.A. in English Literature in 1992. He received a Masters in Theology from Sewanee in 2005. His first book of poems, a chapbook, Right as Rain, was published by Aralia Press in 1999. His first full-length collection of poems, Light for the Orphans, was published by Story Line Press in 2002.Wilmer Mills has published poems in The New Republic, The Hudson Review, The Southern Review, Poetry, The New Criterion, Shenandoah, Literary Imagination, and others. His poems have been anthologized in Penguin/Longman Anthology of Contemporary American Poets, 2004, and are forthcoming from The Swallow Anthology of New American Poets.Mills has worked as a carpenter, furniture maker, sawmill operator, artisan bread baker, white oak basket weaver, farmer, and a white water raft guide, and poetry teacher among other things. He lives with his wife, Kathryn, and their two children in a bungalow he built himself in Sewanee, Tennessee. But he currently teaches poetry at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where he is their Kenan Visiting Writer.

To hear Wil read two poems, click here.
To read more of the essay he excerpts in our interview, click here.
To see some of his paintings, click here.


LeAnne: Describe your creative process. 

Wil: I’m a linguistic bower bird. I collect words, bits of conversation, road signs, etymologies, etc. I write down what I find in a pocket notebook, and these bits and pieces then germinate in my mind and slowly settle into the lines of my poems. Whole poems grow out of certain images on their own. I don’t go after poems. They come to me as sonic excitement clicking in the syllables. I wait for the idea, the thing, the moment--wait until it appears already packaged in the phonetic music that will make it sing.
Then, ironically, what writes a poem is the syntax. Once I latch onto the right syntactical pattern (a tone, a pacing of clause, subject, and verb), the poem basically writes itself, pulling the subject matter along through the meter, sometimes in rhyme. It is important not to force the language to go where you want it to go, but to listen to it and let it guide you. The word “author” is descended from the same word as “augur,” meaning “seer.” A poet’s job is to see things, to point out the obvious that other people don’t see, not to reinvent reality with some hokus-pokus romantic notion of “inspiration” or creativity. That’s called disappointing the obvious. Once I have a draft of a poem, I sometimes spend years revising it. That’s when the real writing takes place.

LM: Tell me about your book of poems.

WM: In 1999, I published a small chapbook called Right as Rain by Aralia Press. In 2002, my full-length book of poems, Light for the Orphans, was published by Story Line Press. The press is now out of business, and my book is out of print, but used copies can still be found. Many of the poems in that book are narratives, stories about imaginary characters. That means that I am also a fiction writer--only I do it in verse, not prose.

Recently I have begun writing fiction in prose. A short story of mine was in the April issue of Image.

More from Wilmer Mills on Monday.

Wilmer Mills, Poet

Wilmer Mills was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He graduated from The McCallie School in 1988 and The University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee with a B.A. in English Literature in 1992. He received a Masters in Theology from Sewanee in 2005. His first book of poems, a chapbook, Right as Rain, was published by Aralia Press in 1999. His first full-length collection of poems, Light for the Orphans, was published by Story Line Press in 2002. Wilmer Mills has published poems in The New Republic, The Hudson Review, The Southern Review, Poetry, The New Criterion, Shenandoah, Literary Imagination, and others. His poems have been anthologized in Penguin/Longman Anthology of Contemporary American Poets, 2004, and are forthcoming from The Swallow Anthology of New American Poets. Mills has worked as a carpenter, furniture maker, sawmill operator, artisan bread baker, white oak basket weaver, farmer, and a white water raft guide, and poetry teacher among other things. He lives with his wife, Kathryn, and their two children in a bungalow he built himself in Sewanee, Tennessee. But he currently teaches poetry at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where he is their Kenan Visiting Writer.

To hear Wil read two poems, click here.
To read more of the essay he excerpts in our interview, click here.
To see some of his paintings, click here.

LeAnne: How did you get started in poetry?

Wil: The best way to answer this is by using an extract from an essay of mine that already answers this as best as I can.

My youthful epiphany that poetry was to be my major creative direction did not come like St. Paul's on the road to Damascus or like what the French call a coup de foudre, a lightning bolt. It was a gradual unfolding in my life the way that a story is told. I can look back to its beginning and see that a certain seed was planted in my adolescent mind. The sap was rising. The proverbial lights were coming on when, in the tenth grade, I was brought along by my mother and uncle to what would be my first literary event, a reading by Robert Penn Warren at Nichols State University in Thibodaux, Louisiana.

I was likely included because for several years my mother had been pulling wads of paper from the pockets of my dirty laundry. While bored in classes, I had written down thoughts and images, never admitting to myself that their lines about deer hunters and pickup trucks could be considered poems. At the time they were more a means of getting rid of perennial bouts of sadness that overtook me whenever I got a sense of things I didn't understand, feeling, nevertheless, the weight of their presence. It caused me to assume, at the worst, that there existed other territories of thought, places to which I was called, or even entitled, at best, like a young mallard on his first migration. Much later I learned that there were words for such feelings, most of them in foreign languages: Saudade, Sehnsucht, Hiraeth, Ahnung, all sentiments that have led many young writers into the production of copious drivel.

My earliest attempts were already far too much in that vein. To my credit I never expected anyone to read them and actually thought those wads of paper just got ground up in the washer and sent to the septic tank where they belonged. My mother only confessed years later to having saved them. My juvenile writing must have caused her to think that the Warren reading would inspire me or help shape my efforts. She was more right than she could have ever expected. But I had never heard of Robert Penn Warren and had never used the word "literary" to refer to anything. I knew what poetry was and liked it but felt no personal connection to it. My maternal grandfather, whose name was Robert, often recited Robert Service, Robert Frost, and Robert Burns. Not being named Robert myself I didn't feel called to be a poet or lover of poetry, so the presence of Robert Warren did nothing to change my assumption. I went along dutifully.

Unknown to my mother, my dominant creative outlet at the time was not poetry but painting, not so much what I drew or painted on my own but how I thought about art. Whatever interest I had in poetry was purely that it seemed to be a compatible medium to painting. Out of a reflex instilled in me by my grandfather, I had memorized Robert Frost's "The Gift Outright." In doing so I was compelled by the tone of the poem, which carried with it authority and a definitive social message about the land and culture of the United States. What also compelled me was how its tone and message dovetailed with its rhythm, something about the way the lines were put together.

After reading more by Frost, I compared his haunting narrative aesthetic to the texture of paintings by Andrew Wyeth whose works, while structured, dry brushed, and stark, seemed also vibrant with human stories of flesh and feeling. I could tell that in Wyeth's painting and in Frost's poetry the stories were told while following strict rules. I sensed that when such rules were mastered, the artist or poet was able to achieve a measure of freedom that rose above the rules. I wouldn't have been able to articulate this too clearly then, but I thought about it a lot and my early fascination with stylistics was the result of a strange rebelliousness, the likes of which had nothing in common with the "acting out" of my contemporaries. I was looking for ways of embracing submission to stylistic authority and tradition so as to gain artistic freedom from them.

Toward this end I secretly wanted to be a watercolor painter because technique in that medium, when done well, involves getting a thought or response to nature on paper quickly and exactly in a practiced gesture of the hand. The technique takes skill that, after becoming second-nature, releases you from technique. You strive toward realism but to do so must employ significant impressionistic skills, downright abstraction, to suggest reality. So watercolor, to me, promised in an unsuspecting way to be more accurate and true-to-nature than oil painting, which seemed to require much more revision and repainting to get right.

But in one evening Warren changed my field of vision from painting to poetry. It wasn't so much Warren's poetry that initially affected me. I mean no condescension to his talent. It's just that at the time I would have been outright embarrassed to say anything out loud about art, much less poetry, so what moved me was seeing that oak of a man stand up in front of grown people and read poems. It was the equivalent in my mind of the small change in sunlight that causes whole continents of birds to fly somewhere else. Warren's poem, "Audubon: A Vision," particularly moved me. The painter, John James Audubon, had lived and painted birds only minutes from my family's land in Louisiana. I had grown up hearing the name and knew that my ancestors would have almost certainly had dealings with him. The last section of Warren's poem about him made me want to be a poet.


"Long ago, in Kentucky, I, a boy, stood
By a dirt road, in first dark, and heard
The great geese hoot northward.

I could not see them, there being no moon
And the stars sparse. I heard them.

I did not know what was happening in my heart."


These lines didn't strike me as a poem, though I'm certainly not saying they don't constitute one. I just mean that I was mainly aware of them hitting me as powerful writing should: like a truck. The fact that there wasn't an underlying metrical structure in the poem didn't bother me. While I was compelled by the rhythms in Frost I didn't yet know what the word "meter" was, iambic pentameter and such things, and the term "free verse" had no meaning to me. Frost and Warren both had an explosive impact on me, even though I could tell they were not in the same vein, like two oak trees of the same genus but of different species. Warren inspired me to look for the acorn in myself. Frost made it grow. While I cannot claim to be an oak, much less of the same variety and stature of Frost or Warren, I have at least become some kind of sapling. The fact that I have taken root in the forest of Frost does not diminish my awe and respect for Warren in the least. The end of the Audubon poem reads, "Tell me a story of deep delight," and this may be utter silliness but I have taken that as an exhortation as if given to me personally as a charge. It is my motto as a writer. I met Warren that night. He asked me where I was from. When I told him North of Baton Rouge, south of St. Francisville in an area called The Plains he said, “there are good people there.”

More from Wilmer Mills on Thursday.

Secular Music--or Sacred?

On Christianity Today, I came across an article by John J. Thompson, a Christian music insider who has been an artist, critic, retailer, fan and label executive. Thompson discusses the power of music and addresses the oft-asked question: is music secular or sacred or neither? He says, "We should stop trying to define a dividing line, because when it comes to music, it's all spiritual." Check it out.

Imago

Do you know about Imago?

Begun over 30 years ago, Imago is a faith-based organization that seeks "to engage in promoting artistry of high caliber that will be both enrich and carry positive influence on the Canadian cultural landscape." Check out their website here.

"How I Work": Stephanie Tumney, Part Two

Stephanie Tumney is a stone sculptor. At an early age, her creativity and love for art were evident. In kindergarten, her favorite sculptor was Michelangelo, and she is still influenced by his work today, along with others such as Bernini, Picasso and Henri Moore. Stephanie graduated from the Corcoran College of Art and Design in Washington, DC. She also studied marble sculpture in Tinos, Greece. She has shown in museums, galleries, churches and private homes in California, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Virginia, Washington DC, and Cairo, Egypt. She works primarily as a sculptor in both stone and bronze, although she enjoys drawing, painting and photography as well. Many of her paintings have been displayed in churches, used for spiritual direction and reflection. Her sculptural work is often figurative, in poses that depict raw emotion, as well as spiritual and psychological transformation. Stephanie grew up on the East Coast, in Massachusetts, and currently resides in Campbell, California, with her husband Mark who is a pastor. Stephanie is available for commissions in either sculpture or painting.

LeAnne: What are you working on currently?

Stephanie: Last week I finished a large outdoor sculpture project for Saratoga Presbyterian Church in Saratoga, California. My husband has been pastor there for over two years. Our church is re-opening its doors and wanted a guerilla marketing campaign to grab people’s attention and make them wonder what is going on, rather than a typical campaign of just banners and postcards. My proposal of “Opening New Doors” was chosen, which consisted of erecting 24 doors along the two main streets that border the church. Each door has the contour of a person carved out of the middle. I tried to include people of all shapes, sizes and walks of life to show that the church’s doors were open to all types of people. The doors are painted vibrant “Island” colors that catch your eye as you drive by.

Part of the project was to construct the sculptures on site, and over a specific span of time leading up to the launch of Saratoga Pres.’s new post-contemporary service. That way, those who drive by consistently can observe the progress and see what has changed, and it will retain their attention for over a month. My working on site served its purpose and sparked the interest of many. There were many who were curious and asked questions, who honked or yelled out to me as they drove by. It was quite a spectacle.

God really blessed the project from its conception onward. I credit Him with planting such a simple and yet perfect marketing strategy for the situation. Then He brought us a door replacement company that was willing to have me raid their dumpster consistently for appropriate doors. God has used these doors to give the members of the congregation an opportunity to talk to and invite their friends and neighbors to church, something that they were less comfortable doing before. They actually have people asking them about their church now, which is close to preposterous in this area where less than 10% of the population goes to church, and some seem hostile to Christianity. I am grateful that God used my sweat and talent to be a witness for Him, and keep praying that this may open doors for people to come to know Christ, the True Door.

"How I Work": Sculptor Stephanie Tumney

I interviewed Stephanie Tumney last year but wanted to find out more about her creative process and her current projects. Stephanie is a stone sculptor. At an early age, her creativity and love for art were evident. In kindergarten, her favorite sculptor was Michelangelo, and she is still influenced by his work today, along with others such as Bernini, Picasso and Henri Moore. Stephanie graduated from the Corcoran College of Art and Design in Washington, DC. She also studied marble sculpture in Tinos, Greece. She has shown in museums, galleries, churches and private homes in California, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Virginia, Washington DC, and Cairo, Egypt. She works primarily as a sculptor in both stone and bronze, although she enjoys drawing, painting and photography as well. Many of her paintings have been displayed in churches, used for spiritual direction and reflection. Her sculptural work is often figurative, in poses that depict raw emotion, as well as spiritual and psychological transformation. Stephanie grew up on the East Coast, in Massachusetts, and currently resides in Campbell, California, with her husband Mark who is a pastor. Stephanie is available for commissions in either sculpture or painting.


LeAnne: Describe your creative process.

Stephanie: When most people think of a process, they think of a linear process. I’ve found that my creative process is much more of a spherical process. There are many steps, and they may be repeated at various times, or omitted altogether, and their order is not fixed. The basic elements are prayer, scripture study, sketching, research, model making, and the actual sculpting. If each was assigned a point in a sphere, the lines connecting them according to order and frequency of use would gradually fill the sphere like a tangled ball of twine. For instance, sketching is integral, as well as research, and they both happen at different points during the process, usually during the initial idea generation and then when a problem arises. For some work I form a model first, for others sketching is sufficient. Additional key elements in my creative process are prayer and contemplation of the Scriptures. These also are not limited to the beginning stages, but occur throughout, even after completion.

Each artwork takes on its individual order of process, but includes much of the same steps. Sometimes an idea comes to me while praying in church, sometimes while reading the Psalms, sometimes while working on another piece, sometimes while doing something mundane like grocery shopping. Sometimes the idea is almost completely formed in my head at its first inception. Other times it takes hours or weeks of sketching to get the arm placed correctly. Usually I form a model out of clay before I begin any stone work. Psychologically, the toughest part is always the first hit or cut into the raw material. I imagine it is similar to a writer with a blank page in front of them. After there is something on that page, it is a lot easier to proceed, even if it’s just to scratch out that first word. During the actual sculpting, I simultaneously try to pray. I also read the Psalms in the morning before I begin. Often, something will arise so that I do more sketching to change or further develop a particular aspect. When I make a mistake or some other setback occurs, after the initial fury, when I can look objectively at the piece again (which can take hours or months depending on the severity) I try to see how it could be used for the good of the piece. I have seen God turn the largest mistakes of mine into pieces that are better than they would have been before. Usually I am continually researching methods, tools, geology, art history and whatever else I may need to know. I enjoy the fluidity of a spherical process, allowing each piece to progress as it will, and allowing God to direct my work.

More from Stephanie Tumney on Thursday.

Calvin College's Festival of Faith and Music

Are you familiar with Calvin College's biennial Festival of Faith and Music (FFM)? This year's recent festival featured seminars and concerts by bands like The Hold Steady, Over the Rhine, Julie Lee and Pedro the Lion's David Bazan.

Here's a review of FFM from Christianity Today online:

"In its mission to become an 'agent of renewal in the academy, church and society,' Calvin College is making a habit of facilitating deeper discourses in faith. The recently held Festival of Faith & Music (FFM) was no exception."

For the rest of the article, click here.

If you're interested in faith and writing, Calvin College also does a biennial Festival of Faith and Writing, which alternates years with FFM.

Next week, a discussion with sculptor Stephanie Tumney about her creative process.

Dick Staub's The Kindlings Muse

Have you been to Dick Staub's The Kindlings Muse? (Click here to see my interview with Dick.) He has recent podcasts with Nigel Goodwin, Os Guinness, and Earl Palmer, just to name a few. Topics under discussion? Books like Christ and Culture; the theology of music by Dylan, Sufjan Stevens, and Fleet Foxes; the theology of the Academy Award nominees; calling; and more. It's worth your while!

I just got back from a CS Lewis retreat where I met and talked with several people I'll be featuring in coming weeks. Stay tuned!

"Why I Do What I Do": Steve Broyles, Part 2

Many of the artists I interview are teachers as well. Steve Broyles, whom I featured on Monday, teaches middle school drama in addition to being an actor, director, and screenwriter. Last night was opening night of his spring show, Honk!. In honor of that, I thought I'd have him tell us why he teaches.

LeAnne: What made you decide to teach? What do you like most about it?

Steve: Teaching, for me, was an acquired taste. I think I finally got to the point where I understood that teaching was just another form of telling a story—albeit a very structured, organized one in which the student has to learn to tell your story before they tell their own. When I made that transition to telling my own story is when I realized that I wanted to teach. I enjoy the discovery of teaching. To watch a student realize they have a comedic side or to hear a student learn to speak clearly and with power is a rush.

LM: Why do you believe students should be involved in theatre?

SB: I always remind the students that, whether they want to do theatre ever again, a theatre class can change their life. It is a proven fact that a person’s level of success in whatever field they choose bears a direct relationship to their skill in public communication. In theatre we ask students to overcome their stage fright and get on stage. We show them that they communicate with their whole body. We ask them to memorize a script and perform it. We ask them to write a script and perform it on our main stage. All of this prepares our students for times when their performance up front will be for much greater stakes.

"Why I Do What I Do": Steve Broyles, Theater

Steve Broyles wears many hats: actor, teacher, screenwriter, and more. He is currently Director of Middle School Drama for Wesleyan School in Norcross, GA. In addition to directing two shows each year, he teaches music and drama to grades 5-8. Steve graduated from Regent University in 2001 with an MFA in Script and Screenwriting where he received the Outstanding Graduate Student Award of Excellence. Prior to entering graduate school, he managed the Foothills Playhouse in Easley, South Carolina, and directed large scale musicals for Covenant Presbyterian Church in Easley.

Steve was a commissioned writer for Art Within in 2003 and is a graduate of the MTI Broadway Classroom in New York and a member of the Thespians Society and SETC. Steve is also the regional director for the CITA (Christians in Theatre Arts, http://www.cita.org/) south region.

LeAnne: What is your background in acting? Why do you love theatre?

Steve: My theatre background is scattered. My first play was in the 10th grade—I was a sophomore in a senior play. I played Earnest in The Importance of Being Earnest. Theatre, though, for me, didn’t really kick in until after college. I began to make a name for myself in the local community theatre. When we moved to South Carolina in 1989 I began to look for new connections. Eventually I found two. Besides directing large scale musicals for my church, I hooked up with the Foothills Playhouse and soon began managing, directing, designing and acting. It didn’t take long for me to realize a door was opening and that walking through the door was going to be a huge step for me and my family. So, in the spring of 1998, we sold our house and many of our possessions and moved to Virginia Beach, Virginia, where I attended graduate school at Regent University.

In many ways it would be arrogant for me to say I was making conscious decisions all along the way. As a child who grew up with undiagnosed learning disabilities, all I knew was that I, somehow, understood the world from a perspective I couldn’t seem to express scientifically or mathematically. For me, story telling is the oldest art form—when it is done well, it activates all the senses and intellectual faculties to get its meaning across. That is Theatre. Naturally, my Creator didn’t give me an option. One way or the other, I was going to come back to theatre at some point in my life.

"O Sacred Head, Now Wounded"

One of my favorite hymns of all time is "O Sacred Head, Now Wounded." The harmony, written by Bach, haunts and moves me. Holy Week would not be the same without it. Last year for Easter, I wrote an article for The Lookout magazine using "O Sacred Head" as a starting point to write about the cross. If you'd like, you can read it here.

May this Easter weekend be especially meaningful for you, and may the beauty of the cross fill you with gratitude and wonder.

"How I Work": Composer Virginia Pike

If you've been reading this blog for a while, you know that I'm fascinated by how artists work so today I'm focusing on Virginia Hart Pike and her creative process. Virginia is a composer, piano teacher, and musical director living in New York City. She is cofounder and Artistic Director of Music for Skylight Dance Theatre.

LeAnne: What is your composing process like?

Virginia: Well, it always starts with prayer. In fact, the process is similar to praying, because I start out trying to listen to God's still, small voice. From there it depends on what stage of the process I'm at. If I'm just starting a piece, I first have to decide what I'm writing exactly and what I'm trying to convey through each movement, or section.

For instance, in the song cycle I wrote entitled First and Fairest, I knew the overall work was about the journey of a woman who had just come off of a painful rejection by the man she loved, and finds herself in the arms of God by the end. It was told through a setting of six poems by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, set for women's choir. Each movement was a different stage of the woman's healing process. So in beginning writing for a particular movement, once I'd established what the movement's role was in the overall piece, then I'd start out by exploring different sounds on the piano, accompaniment patterns, musical phrases, etc. that might convey the particular emotion I'm after at the start of the movement. Or I might start out by finding a melody first (which is always easier when there are words to set - I prefer writing music for voice for this reason), which I generally do by saying the words out loud to myself and listening to their cadence. This gives me an idea of the shape of the lyric, or poem in this case. 'll often find a part of the poem where I feel like the whole song kind of lands or leads up to, and I'll shape the rest of the melody around that moment.

From there I'll establish a form for the piece - deciding where the music should be repeated, where it should change, and about how often I want the harmony to change. Then I'll start putting together melody and accompaniment patterns and harmonic colors and do a section at a time. In the case of First and Fairest, some movements took a couple of months, and others took a couple of weeks.

To find out more about Virginia Pike, Skylight Dance Theatre, and First and Fairest, click here.

Happy Anniversary, Image!

Image is 20 years old this month! If you don't know about Image, do yourself a favor and find out.

Image is a quarterly print journal that explores the relationship between Judeo-Christian faith and art through contemporary fiction, poetry, painting, sculpture, architecture, film, music, and dance. Each issue also features interviews, memoirs, essays, and reviews. On the website you can get a taste of what the journal is like. This month find out what's in the current issue, listen to Bret Lott read his fiction, read an essay by singer/songwriter Claire Holley, check out Image's events, sign up for the email Update, and more.

Happy Anniversary, Image!

"You Are Not Your Gift": A Review

I recently featured singer, songwriter, author, and teacher, Michael Card. Last week, I came across this review by Aaron Lee at CreateLeVoyage.com of Card's talk at The El-Shaddai Worship Conference in Singapore last month. I found the points about artists, identity, and self-doubt to be interesting. See what you think.

Here's a taste:

The artist necessarily puts so much of himself into his creative work that his sense of self cannot be separated from his identity as an artist. The line between the artist and what he does is a fine one at best, and for so many of us, it often feels like there is no line. For Christians in the creative field, artistic struggles can be even more titanic because, in this field of human endeavor, our counter-culture philosophy and efforts are even more marginalised.

Read the rest of the article here.

On Poetic Language

Here's something I thought might interest you. The post, Deep Calls to Deep: Poetic Language, is written by Catherine Larson of the Point, the blog of BreakPoint Ministries. Here's a snippet:

It's difficult for me to explain how much poetry revives my soul. Sometimes I feel like we are self-deceptive. We try to pretend that our hearts are much shallower than they really are--that life really is just about making it through the day, getting out the door on time, who wins the game, who makes us laugh, what we had for dinner. The frenetic pace that characterizes our lives keeps us distracted from the deep places that sometimes open up like yawning chasms in our souls. Slowing down can mean we have to face those depths--depths which frighten us because we don't know exactly what to do with them.

Read the rest here.

"What's New": G. Carol Bomer

Early on, when I started this blog, I featured visual artist G. Carol Bomer. Carol's work seeks to evoke both image and impression, the tangible world and the spiritual world. Her work has been called "a silent form of poetry." She views her work as "a form of play rejoicing before the face of God" (Rookmaaker). This is reflected in the name of her Asheville studio, SOLI DEO GLORIA STUDIO.

I decided to check in with her recently to see what she's up to now.

LeAnne: What's your latest project?

Carol: Much of my new work is more abstract and minimal. I am still using hints of mixed media and text.

My latest project is several books related to my artwork. Actually it started because my friend and published poet Suzanne Rhodes has inspired many of my paintings--such as her poems titled "Advent", "Sunday Service", and "Banding" (see the paintings on my website). Most recently, Suzanne's poems, "The Gardener" and "Faith" and "Noah Plants a Vineyard", inspired paintings you can see in my New Work gallery.

We are working on a book together right now. Plus my first art book, which includes two of her poems that have influenced my work, is The Paradox of Grace, available from Blurb.

In the past year I have been renting a warehouse studio in the River District of Asheville, where I have a lot more exposure to the public. There are two well advertised Studio Strolls in the spring and fall. I am a lot more involved in my city having this space. I also teach mixed media painting at this studio. The River District artists are having a group show this spring. This fall I have a show in Philadelphia at Whitestone Gallery as well as several local shows, one at Haywood Community College Gallery in Aug-Sept.

What I continue to learn is that God is good and that He provides. He always gives me opportunities for His great name and for His glory. Jehovah Jireh!

Quotes on Art and Creativity

Enjoy, and may you be inspired.


"Art is the signature of man" - J. K. Chesterton

"Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep." --Scott Adams

"Art is collaboration between God and the artist, and the less the artist does the better."--Andre Gide

"Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up." --Pablo Picasso

"There are two ways of being creative. One can sing and dance. Or one can create an environment in which singers and dancers flourish." -- Warren G. Bennis

"What's New": Randall Flinn, Ad Deum Dance

Every so often, I'm going to be checking back in with artists I've already featured to see what is new with them. Last year, I interviewed Randall Flinn of Ad Deum Dance Company. Randall has been carrying the message of the arts to the glory of God with excellence and servitude for over twenty five years. He is a professional dancer/choreographer, directing the premier Christian contemporary/modern dance company in the USA called Ad Deum Dance Company. He also serves on the faculty for Houston Ballet Academy and Houston Metropolitan Dance Company.

LeAnne: What is new with Ad Deum Dance Company?

Randall: We are quite busy preparing for several spring dance performances including our tour to NY to perform for the exciting Project Dance Times Square outreach. We are also working on a piece called The Long Journey Home created by Hope Boykin (another Believer-Artist) from the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre. We will perform this work in conjunction with the Ailey company's end of March performance in Houston, Texas. In the midst of all this, we are also busy preparing for both our spring dance intensive this week (March 16-20th) and our summer dance intensive (Aug. 2-7th) which bring dancers to us from across the globe for a week of integration of professional dance and matters of faith in Christ and spiritual growth.

I stand amazed looking over my own journey as a Believer-Artist/Dancer for 28 years now. The times have truly changed and I believe for the better. Twenty eight years ago it was like finding a needle in a haystack to locate professional dancers that were committed to their Christian faith. Well, we have come a long way from the simplicity of "praise dancing" in the safety of the local churches that would allow it. Now God's dancers are scattered around the world and yet miraculously discovering one another and uniting for visions far greater than themselves. These dancers that love God are being sent out not just into the church or missions but into the world to shine as lights and to be the salt. These are the Daniels in Babylon and Esthers in Persia and they will possess the land with God's grace and favor. I only pray that the Body and the Church will remember them in prayer and support their works and their vocational callings.

Must-Read Books about Art

Byron Borger of Hearts and Minds Books writes excellent book reviews. You've got to check out this collection of his reviews of books about art and see if there are any you have missed along the way. I found a few that are new to me and am going to place an order with Hearts and Minds. Here's a little about them from the website:

Welcome to a bookstore which attempts to create a new space for serious, reflective readers. Unabashedly Christian, we are often told that we are different than most religious bookstores. Our name, we trust, gives a good first clue to what we are about.

What distinguishes us most is our enthusiasm for the development of a uniquely Christian worldview where Christ’s Lordship is honored and lived out in relevant ways in the midst of our highly secularized, post-modern culture. We offer quality books for the sake of faithful Christian living. We serve business folk, scientists, artists, college students, moms, dads (and kids!), pastors, poets and politicos. We believe Biblical faith leads to "thinking Christianly" about every area of life.

Sounds perfect to me!

"How I Work": Poet Jean Janzen

I interviewed Jean Janzen last year and wanted to find out more about how she works. Jean is a poet living in Fresno, California, who has taught at Fresno Pacific University and Eastern Mennonite University in Virginia. She is the author of six poetry collections, the most recent one entitled Paper House (Good Books), and a book of essays on writing entitled Elements of Faithful Writing (Pandora Press). Her work has been included in numerous anthologies and many journals, including Poetry, Gettysburg Review, Christian Century, and Image. Janzen received an NEA grant and other awards. She also has written hymn texts which have appeared in various hymnals, and some of her poems have been set to music, including an oratorio written by Alice Parker. She was interviewed in Stonework, an online magazine from Houghton College, where some of her poems have also appeared. Her poems have also appeared in New Pantagruel.

LeAnne: Jean, I'm fascinated by artists' creative processes. What is yours like?

Jean: The first necessity for me is to be open, a stance I try to keep as I go through my day. To begin writing I need to sit down, to be quiet and open, to receive whatever is willing to rise from the deeper places, the far places. In that position I sense the swirl of chaos--so much milling around from memory, observation and reading. From that disorder I hope to be given a beginning, an image, or an event. Sometimes such gifts arise from the stream of writing in which I have been immersed in recent weeks or months.

The next move often requires my willingness to move into unknown territory, a kind of wilderness. Questions arise for which I won't have answers, but perhaps an understanding of the question will enlarge. I am participating with God in the ongoing creativity of life.

Overarching all is the necessity of humility, the knowledge that I may not discover or be given anything, and that my efforts may not become art. With this position I am willing to start writing a rough draft, short lines that move down, that turn and turn again. Something concrete, a real connectedness to the senses is required. Abstractions float away, do not connect. Will it lead to something? I don't know. If I know the outcome, the poem will not be art. The joy of discovery comes when the poem assumes a direction of its own.

A developing poem is making some order out of chaos. It is finding a shape, a form,in which the wild can be held. It can become a reservoir for grief or for joy, or both. Even then, the necessity of revising and revising again is paramount, for precision and for beauty. I test the meter and the line-breaks. Are they appropriate to this poem? I listen for the music of rhyme and alliteration. I let the poem rest for days, weeks, and sometimes a year and look again. Does it need more revision? This is not about self-expression; it is about giving faithful witness to the grace which is present in the created order, and sometimes finding it.

LM: What is your latest project?

JJ: Currently I am working on memoir essays as well as new poems. My latest book PAPER HOUSE was released in October 2008 by Good Books, Intercourse, PA.

Today is the conclusion of my "How I Work" feature on Corrie Eddleman, who I interviewed last May. Corrie Eddleman is Assistant Professor of Acting at North Greenville University. She holds a BS in Theatre and Speech Communication from Hannibal LaGrange College and an MFA degree in Acting from Illinois State University. Corrie will begin her training as a Certified Alexander Teacher this summer and hopes to complete the program in 2012. A member of Actor’s Equity since 1999, she has worked professionally in New York, Wisconsin, Missouri, Illinois and Texas. Most recently she was seen as Kate in Taming of the Shrew and Tamora in Titus Andronicus at The Illinois Shakespeare Festival in 2008. Corrie has also had the privilege to study acting with the Royal Shakespeare Company (Stratford, England), The National Theatre Institute and the Chautauqua Theatre Conservatory. In addition to teaching, acting and directing on campus she directs the Act Two traveling Drama Ministry Team. She is married to Matthew, a hospice chaplain with Spartanburg Regional.


LeAnne: What are you working on currently?

Corrie: Currently I am in the throws of directing The Miracle Worker at North Greenville University. The play tells the historical story of Annie Sullivan and Helen Keller. It is a story about rising above the difficult circumstances we encounter in our life. It is a story about strength, endurance, hope and redemption. The Christian surely can relate his/her life to Helen Keller’s struggle. As Christians we used to be moving about this earth blind, deaf, and ignorant of an amazing world of light and possibilities. Once we said “yes” to our Redeemer and Savior, we could not imagine living a life back in that darkness.

I am very excited about this production. We have a great cast who all are ready to take on this challenge. As a director, I will be applying Viewpoints, a technique developed by Tina Landau and Anne Bogart. Viewpoints helps develop a common vocabulary between director and actor as well as helps the actors create ensemble. My goal is to help the actors let go of performance anxiety so that their world on stage becomes second nature to them.

"How I Work": Corrie Eddleman

This week, I'm starting another new feature called "How I Work." I'm fascinated by how artists approach their work and would like to learn more so I've asked some of the people I've interviewed to talk about their creative process.

First up is Corrie Eddleman, who I interviewed last May. Corrie Eddleman is Assistant Professor of Acting at North Greenville University. She holds a BS in Theatre and Speech Communication from Hannibal LaGrange College and an MFA degree in Acting from Illinois State University. Corrie will begin her training as a Certified Alexander Teacher this summer and hopes to complete the program in 2012. A member of Actor’s Equity since 1999, she has worked professionally in New York, Wisconsin, Missouri, Illinois and Texas. Most recently she was seen as Kate in Taming of the Shrew and Tamora in Titus Andronicus at The Illinois Shakespeare Festival in 2008. Corrie has also had the privilege to study acting with the Royal Shakespeare Company (Stratford, England), The National Theatre Institute and the Chautauqua Theatre Conservatory. In addition to teaching, acting and directing on campus she directs the Act Two traveling Drama Ministry Team. She is married to Matthew, a hospice chaplain with Spartanburg Regional.


LeAnne: Describe your creative process. How do you work?

Corrie: I always start at the beginning… with the script. First I read for pleasure and to comprehend the story line. Then I will read through the script multiple times, looking for how my character helps move the plot forward, acquiring character clues, and acquiring clues about the world of the play.

Throughout these multiple readings I will also begin my research. I look up the meaning of words, research costumes, music, art, political climate… anything that might be helpful for me to visualize a fully developed world. After I feel like I have a grasp on the world of the play, then I will start digging into the details of my character.

From the character clues, left to me by the playwright, I will play around physically and vocally. How does my character hold herself? How does my character speak? How does my character laugh? Etcetera, Etcetera. This exploration is the most exciting part of the process for me. This is the time I turn off my edit button and just say “yes” to my instinct. I must turn off my head and allow the character to show herself through my movement and through my voice.

I will then walk myself through the five senses. I decide what my character’s favorite sight, sound, smell, touch & taste is and I keep those items in my dressing room for inspiration. Being a visual person, I have this need to put up inspirational pictures of the world of the play and my character around my make-up station.

Lastly and most importantly, I listen to my scene partners. I could develop a very intriguing character but if she doesn’t listen and genuinely interact with her world then all of my work would be in vain and I would have failed the playwright.

This whole process is my ideal way of working, but very rarely do all of these elements fit into a nice neat box. I have to allow flexibility in my creative process so that I stay open to what the Director wants, what the play is calling for, what my cast mates are calling for, and of course the ever practical time restraints. I’m always open and looking for new ways to approach a character.

Daniel Siedell, Part 2: Looking Closely

Daniel A. Siedell is Assistant Professor of Modern and Contemporary Art History, Theory, and Criticism at the University of Nebraska-Omaha. He was previously Curator of the Sheldon Museum of Art at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where for over ten years he organized exhibitions of modern and contemporary art. Siedell has an M.A. from SUNY-Stony Brook and a Ph.D. from The University of Iowa. His most recent book, God in the Gallery: A Christian Embrace of Modern Art, appeared this fall from Baker Academic. He lives in Lincoln, Nebraska with his wife of seventeen years and three children.


LeAnne: Tell me about your book, God in the Gallery.

Dan: It's a very personal attempt to reconcile my professional interest in art with my Christian faith in an honest and authentic way.

LM: What are three or four tips that you can offer Christians viewing a work of contemporary art?

DS: Keep an open mind. Look closely. Don't expect a work of art to 'mean' something to you right away. Look at art first before you read what Christian writers, including me, have to say about it. Be free to dislike anything but also know that looking at art takes work and practice.

LM: Who are some contemporary artists that we should know? Why?

DS: Enrique Martinez Celaya, Robyn O'neil, and Conrad Bakker. These are artists whose work reveals the world to be transcendent, porous.

Daniel Siedell, Part 1: On Contemporary Art

Daniel A. Siedell is Assistant Professor of Modern and Contemporary Art History, Theory, and Criticism at the University of Nebraska-Omaha. He was previously Curator of the Sheldon Museum of Art at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where for over ten years he organized exhibitions of modern and contemporary art. Siedell has an M.A. from SUNY-Stony Brook and a Ph.D. from The University of Iowa. His most recent book, God in the Gallery: A Christian Embrace of Modern Art, appeared this fall from Baker Academic. He lives in Lincoln, Nebraska with his wife of seventeen years and three children.


LeAnne: What draws you to contemporary art?

Dan: I am fascinated by its diversity; it can be quite traditional, it can be quite radical. I'm fascinated with what is or can be art.

LM: For ten years, you served as curator for the Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. What was that like?

DS: It was exhilarating and frustrating. I loved working with a very strong permanent collection of 19th and 20th century American art on a university campus. I also enjoyed working with contemporary artists on projects for the museum, and I enjoyed talked to diverse audience groups about art. I became frustrated with the increased focus on marketing and fundraising.

LM: You are now Assistant Professor of Art and Art History at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. What three things would you like for your students to know or understand before they leave your instruction?

DS: I want students to be able to look closely at art. I want my classes to help students understand the historical and theoretical development of modern art. I also want them to understand that modern and contemporary art are practices that require work to do and to understand.

More from Daniel Siedell on Thursday.

Screwtape a Success in Chicago

It seems that the devil has taken a Chicago stage by storm. The stage adaptation of CS Lewis' Screwtape Letters, produced by and starring Max McLean, is a "scorching" success. Read more about it in this WORLDNETDAILY article:

Devil hits success on Chicago stage
Christians, non-believers flock to see C.S. Lewis' 'Screwtape Letters'

A play about devils has become a "scorching" success in Chicago, where even Christians are flocking to the theater to witness the stage adaptation of C.S. Lewis' "The Screwtape Letters."

Max McLean, producer of the show and the original actor to portray ol' Screwtape himself, says the play's popularity lies in its appeal to both Christian and secular audiences.

"Lewis is huge with both the Catholic and the evangelical Protestant audience," McLean told the Chicago Tribune. "For everybody else, the devil always captures the imagination."

Read the rest at http://worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=88852.

Coming soon: a new feature

Gene Crosby: Arts Enthusiast

Lately, I've been featuring arts enthusiasts and today's post is the last in this series. Arts enthusiast Gene Crosby is Chief Operating Officer of Jackson Spalding, where he is responsible for monitoring and directing all aspects of Jackson Spalding’s operations including general office management, financial operations and human resources.

LeAnne: Tell me why you support the arts.

Gene: When I was growing up, my parents were always supporters of the arts. I now carry on that tradition for my own reasons. I find great joy in watching and even participating in some forms of the arts. It can be a great escape from what can be a crazy world to live in. I also find the arts to be a great educational tool for all. What better way to learn something and have fun at the same time? I think everyone should have that opportunity.

My favorite type of art to support is live theater. I love the theater because it brings me great pleasure to sit down and be taken away to another time and place, even if just for a little while. To watch an actor work his magic, making you feel like you are a part of what is going on up on stage. To laugh, to cry, to learn, to feel uplifted, and to feel convicted in such a short period of time. That's why I love and support live theater.

Glen Jackson, Part 2: Arts Enthusiast

Arts enthusiast Glen Jackson co-founded Jackson Spalding in Atlanta where he provides leadership for the firm and many of its clients, as well as in the community.

LeAnne: You are a big arts supporter. What is your favorite type of art to support and why?

Glen: Well, this is not an easy question to answer. There are so many art forms I respect, admire and appreciate. I just wish I could support them all! Claire (my wife) and I have tried to help Theatrical Outfit here in Atlanta when we can. It is such a marvelous venue for theater in Atlanta; the vision cast by Tom Key is inspiring. Tom has a real gift, and what I love about Tom is he shares his gift so naturally, graciously and professionally.

One area of deep interest for me is poetry. In today's text-message world where the word "you" is now spelled "u", it is important that we not lose sight of how the English language was meant to be written. Poems from Tennyson to Langston Hughes to Sandburg to Frost catch my eye and force me to look at the world with a fresh perspective. I was reading a Sandburg poem over the weekend about fog. It is a simple poem, and the words surfaced in my mind this morning as I was looking out my office window at the thick clouds hovering over Peachtree Street:

"The fog comes on little cat feet.
It sits overlooking harbor and city.
On silent haunches
And then moves on."

Glen Jackson: Arts Enthusiast

Arts enthusiast Glen Jackson co-founded Jackson Spalding in Atlanta where he provides leadership for the firm and many of its clients, as well as in the community.

LeAnne: Why do you support the arts?

Glen: My abiding love for the arts began my sophomore year in college when I spent a semester studying 18th century literature and architecture in London. It was in London, a formidable city culturally, that I first discovered the beauty of a J.M.W. Turner landscape painting, witnessed the wit of a Tom Stoppard play, heard the melodious sounds of the London Symphony and absorbed the architectural brilliance of a Sir Christopher Wren church. These experiences took my breath away and sparked something inside me to learn more about artistic expression --challenging me to see further how God expresses Himself to us in the artistic process.

The cool thing about the arts is God truly speaks to us in sonnet and song and in performance and paintings. What a gift! He changes lives this way and helps people discover their often latent gifts this way. Through it all, He allows us to take in the holy hues of His light and absorb it, learn from it and illuminate it for the rest of the world to see.

When I returned home to Atlanta from London, I decided to stay connected with the arts and support excellence in the medium when I could. This commitment has broadened my mind and emboldened my spirit. Some of the most treasured memories of my life have been related to the arts -- along the way experiencing a soulful closeness to God who created it all.

More from Glen Jackson on Thursday.

Caroline Duffy, Part 2: Arts Enthusiast

Arts enthusiast Caroline Duffy is Director of Marketing at Jackson Spalding in Atlanta
where she tries to inject art into her work on a daily basis.


LeAnne: What is your favorite type of art to support and why?

Caroline: Money is an unfortunate barrier these days, so I spend as much time as I can at local arts festivals where I can stroll through, jot down ideas, meet with artists and begin percolating my own ideas. Even if I buy nothing, I leave happier. Even if I'm alone, I am drawn to it. Artists tend to support one another and I have felt welcomed in that community even though I haven't yet begun to display anything.

Theatre is my first love in the arts and I never tire of studying the actors and the nuances they bring to their roles.

One of my favorite sounds is the orchestra tuning up before a musical performance. In that moment I feel a rush of excitement, a wave of appreciation for their professionalism, and a certain jealousy for the energy that is about to be unleashed on stage.

Caroline Duffy: Arts Enthusiast

Arts enthusiast Caroline Duffy is Director of Marketing at Jackson Spalding in Atlanta
where she tries to inject art into her work on a daily basis.

LeAnne: Why do you support the arts?

Caroline: I support the arts because I honor the gift, the commitment and the
creativity inherent in them. I gravitate to artistic people because they are open and generous with their souls.

I have dabbled in acting, singing, poetry, drawing, crafting and writing and I know the heart that goes into a piece well crafted. I love the exhilaraton of hitting the perfect pitch in an ensemble, making an audience believe in a moment or evoking a smile when an art piece connects with the viewer.

God is the Great Creator and I think he chooses special people to channel His vision. Art inspires me, uplifts me and gives me new perspectives. Artists feel like my friends before I even meet them. They deserve to be appreciated, loved and supported.

"Art and Spirituality": Essay by Luci Shaw

Check out this essay called "Art and Spirituality: Companions in the Way" from Luci Shaw, poet and essayist. It was reprinted in Direction Journal from The Swiftly Tilting Worlds of Madeleine L’Engle, ed. Luci Shaw (Wheaton, IL: Harold Shaw, 1998).

Here's a little snippet to pique your interest:

"Art finds meaning in all of human experience or endeavor, drawing from it strength and surprise by reminding us of what we know but may never have recognized truly before, transcending our particularity with soaring ease."

"How My Faith Affects My Art": Dance, Part 2

Today I'm continuing a collection of responses from dancers I've interviewed about how their faith affects or influences their art.

Randall Flinn, founder and director of Dance Ad Deum: I believe my faith and a true understanding of a Biblical worldview of the arts opens my life to the limitless possibilities of the glorious freedom of the children of God. I have come to understand a relevant and redemptive revelation of a New Testament priestly-artist –one that seeks to bless the Lord and serves the culture around him as the Lord’s servant. No need to be religious here in this position and calling. The freedom comes in resting in the relationship and calling and understanding the cultural mandate and claiming the truth that God’s artists can take up their towels and basins and wash the feet of this world with art that resonates with glory and honor.

Katherine Gant, dancer and instructor: I once danced for my own glory and satisfaction but it left me feeling very empty. When I realized that my gift of dance comes from the Lord and can be used by Him, a whole new world opened up. The burden of perfectionism that comes with this art form vanished and a new freedom to simply dance came. I deeply desire to help all dancers find the freedom that comes from surrendering their gift of dance to be used by Him.

"How My Faith Affects My Art": Dance

If you’re a regular reader, you know that I often ask the people I interview about how their faith affects or impacts or influences their art. I have received some fascinating responses so I’ve decided to collect the answers by art form and post them occasionally. Today we'll hear from two of the dancers.

Steve Rooks, Resident Choreographer and Associate Professor of Dance at Vassar College: Particularly now as a teacher, I feel it is a God-given honor to dance and to serve others (as a mentor/teacher) through dance. I don’t think that I could love the art if the Lord had not given me that love. It is pretty impossible for any dancer not to feel that there is a “heavenly endowment” that he/she has been given to experience the world of dance, and I believe that as one passionately seeks to know the giver of all good gifts, it will ultimately lead that person to the feet of Christ.

Marlene Dickinson, dancer and choreographer: Sadly, I spent the first twenty years of my life completely oblivious to the fact that faith and dance had any relationship whatsoever. Church was Sunday and Wednesday, dance was Tuesday and Saturday, and never the two would meet. Fortunately, dance was not forbidden in my faith culture, as it was for many Christians in generations past. But for me, dance and faith were not adversaries, they were complete strangers.

Sometime around 1982 I began to discover what has been known since the dawn of time: Movement has the power to move us. It is for this reason I name my pick- up performance companies “Moving People.” Dance is our universal, primal language. It transcends all barriers of time, culture, and communication.

Now, we know that all powers can be used for good or evil. I choose good. As dancers, we literally offer our bodies as living sacrifices and our work as fragrant offerings to God. It is His work to transform. So, I see dancers as translators of truth and dances as spaces for God to move—not that He needs us to do so. I am thankful for a host of studios and professionals across the country that are now connecting the dots for young dancers, teaching and mentoring them in these principles.

Kate Campbell at the Balzer Theater

On Saturday night, folk singer Kate Campbell gave a wonderful concert at the Balzer Theater at Herren’s, home of Theatrical Outfit. Not only is Kate a gifted singer and musician, she’s also a gifted songwriter. Her songs are full of heart, humor, and layer upon layer of metaphor and meaning. They touch you when you hear them for the first or the 50th time. I always laugh and cry at her concerts but Saturday was extra special.

My husband and I and a few other friends including Tom Key of Theatrical Outfit and his wife, visual artist Beverly Key, went to dinner with Kate beforehand at a diner across the street. We had a marvelous time talking about Martin Luther King, Eudora Welty (a favorite writer of many of us), our new president, and the South.

Using her beloved American South as a backdrop, Kate tells stories in her songs that touch on the universal themes of race, religion, and history. She often writes about the intersection of the old and the New South, alluding to the way of life before desegregation and using her own experiences as a young girl watching the South change during integration. On Saturday, her second set was devoted to her civil-rights-related songs. It was moving and powerful, especially on the eve of the Martin Luther King holiday and tomorrow’s historic inauguration. The location was fitting: the Balzer Theater, former site of Herren’s, a white-tablecloth restaurant that was the first in Atlanta to voluntarily desegregate.

Kate's first set featured other favorite topics in her music, the three icons of the South--Jesus, Elvis, and Coca-Cola. Her sense of humor and her faith shine through in much of her music.

Kate's latest project is Save the Day, which came to her after reading a quote from Frederick Buechner. If you’re not familiar with Kate Campbell, check out her website and listen to her music.

And watch this blog for a Kate Campbell feature coming soon!

Five Minutes with...William Edgar

Today I’m kicking off another new feature. Called “Five Minutes with...” these features will be shorter than normal and are meant to spark questions and provoke thought rather than provide lengthy answers. My first five-minute interview is with William Edgar, Professor and Coordinator of the Apologetics Department at Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia. He serves on several boards and is a Senior Fellow at the Trinity Forum, a speaker and advisor in the Veritas Forum programs, an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church in America, and more.

Professor William Edgar studied musicology at Harvard and Columbia. He has written about music and he plays in and manages a professional jazz band. “Music is part of my soul, and it’s been in our family for generations,” he says. “I cannot live without it. Plus, it is one of God’s best gifts.”

In Edgar’s essay, “Why is the Light Given to the Miserable?” in the excellent It Was Good: Making Art to the Glory of God (Square Halo Books), he asserts that Romantic composer, Johannes Brahms (1833-1897), was not afraid to address the problem of evil in his music. What might we learn from his courage in facing "the drama of human suffering with passion, but not always with clear answers"? “The same lessons as Job teaches us,” Edgar says. “We know God is good, but we don’t see how and why he allows evil. We know there will be final justice, but we don’t see how the chaos of the present world is fully in his control.”

Still, Edgar urges artists who follow Christ to avoid the extremes of pessimism and optimism and “forge a third way: hopeful realism.” He sees a big difference between joy and happiness. “My aesthetic is moving from deep misery to inextinguishable joy.”

Edgar, author of several books, wrote Taking Note of Music, which he calls “an attempt at a biblical theology of music. It asks where music comes from and what is its purpose.” He takes a “somewhat unusual approach of rooting music in the cultural mandate of Genesis 1:26 ff., and the role of Jubal. I explore such questions as the power of music and its place in the world.”
 
In addition to writing about his love of music Edgar, Apologetics Professor at Westminster Theological Seminary, has written an apologetics book, Reasons of the Heart. When asked how followers of Christ can share and defend their faith in a way that reaches the culture, he says, “I urge them to get over on to the ground of an unbeliever’s heart and world view in order to help him/her to see their inability to live successfully on their basis in God’s world. Culture is not a bridge, but the life we all live. To reach our culture is to reach humanity in the midst of its life.”