This post has to be the winner for “Longest Title” among all of the entries I’ve made to this blog so far. From Bloomberg, this is an interesting article about American collectors being called on to purchase Muslim art. Most of the writing focuses on the business aspect of a venture by the al-Shroogi family, who owns the Cuadro Fine Art Gallery in Dubai.

More interesting, however, than the article’s discussion about marketing Islamic art to Westerners — and the fact that there are indeed modern Muslim artists — is some very brief commentary about art and culture:

“Imagine, Muslim artwork hanging in Naples [Florida],” al-Shroogi says through a radio headset. “We need to do more of this,” the Bahraini banker adds as the aircraft laden with modern and contemporary Islamic art makes its final approach on a family expedition to convince Americans that the Middle East is more than a terrorist hatchery . . .

It’s an undertaking born from the al-Shroogi clan’s passion for art, the patronage of Bahrain’s royal family and the conviction that the Islamic nation a few miles off the Saudi Arabian coast has the muscle to build a genuine cultural bridge between the U.S. and the Muslim world.

Can art actually bridge cultures, and what exactly does that mean? Will Westerners think differently about the Middle East if they look at a few paintings by Muslim artists? The possibility exists for this; remember my February post regarding a Jewish atheist deeply moved by a 600 year old altarpiece.

Painting by John Torreano exhibited at the Cuadro gallery in Dubai.

The tactile arts are important to culture and communication, despite the anaemic attitude towards serious artistic endeavors in the American Church, generally speaking. Significant new paintings and sculptures created by artists of faith intently pursuing careers as artists, engaging the culture and furthering their craft, are needed in the Church as an intentional witness to culture here and abroad.

I remember hearing a story at conference in Portland a few years ago about a couple who went into the desert of Africa as missionaries. The wife served as a doctor, and the husband worked as an artist. He set up a studio in a shipping crate and made art for a year or so. At the end of the year he held a show for the community. I don’t know how many pieces there were, what the media was or what they looked like. My impression, if I recall correctly, was that they weren’t simple Sunday School drawings. They were more likely contemporary works. Regardless, the media reportedly conveyed the Gospel to that community in an effective way.

Take note, pastors. Take note, Church leadership and parishioners. What can you do to help make the name of God better through the arts? First off, make certain your own attitude is positive toward the arts. Educate yourself as to the importance of art in culture and Christianity. You don’t need a degree to appreciate art. Understand that it is OK if a person wants to create abstract paintings that aren’t about Bible verses; understand that it’s OK if someone wants to be a full-time artist. This is not a cop-out, it’s not laziness. Yes, it’s hard to make a living at times, but if society changes how it thinks about art and artists this won’t so often be the case.

Further, encourage aspiring or practicing artists in your congregation, and make sure they know there are others like them. Organize exhibits of paintings and sculptures; organize small groups so creative people can encourage one another. Allow the artists you know freedom to push your own boundaries. Yes, there are appropriate limits, but creativity begs new ideas and reminds us of how we are created in the Creator’s likeness. Don’t poo-poo something just because it makes you uncomfortable or isn’t your own taste, and feel free to engage in significant and witty critique in order to better understand such works.

I have to laugh every time I glance in the youth room at our church, where a mixed media work I donated hangs. When I first saw it there — instead of in a more public space such as a hallway or foyer — I wasn’t in the least surprised, but I was disappointed. It’s well crafted and blatantly Scriptural. My hope was that it would be hung in a place visible to anyone in the church at any time as something to meditate on.

Moth Mend, 2006. Moth-eaten sweaters, new red silk, paint.

I can laugh at the typographical triptych’s placement within my own church because I expected it, sadly, but I hold no grudge and hope that the kids who see it on a weekly basis are encouraged by it. I also hope, however, that the American Church soon comes to realize that segregating the palpable world from the spiritual world is just bad theology. It is OK to be “in” the world, even if we aren’t supposed to be “of” it. It is OK to be a part of culture in a non-pious context — in fact, it’s good to be involved in this way. How else are we going to show the love of God to the skeptics, to the people averse to church or Christianity?

I originally saw the Bloomberg article on Iconia.

Mission trips.

They seem to become more and more popular every year, although no one really knows how many Americans take part on an annual basis. The more popular they become, the more churches and other religious institutions such as private universities organize and send teams abroad, making any kind of calculation of participants more and more difficult.

My day job is in missions mobilization, as I’ve made note of in the past. I do marketing and graphic design for a very small organization called Mission Data International (M-DAT). We’re known for the mission trip search engine ShortTermMissions.com, thus short-term mission trips are in my mind on a regular basis. I read articles about them from time to time and look at statistics from our website weekly. I’m by no means an expert on the subject, but I’m certainly more immersed in the “field” than most.

M-DAT has a policy (I’m not sure if it’s written or implied) suggesting employees serve on a short-term trip every three years. My wife and I have yet to do this, basically on account of our complicated support situation. We talk about it though, and occasionally we come across opportunities that interest us.

A few things from this Spring have me thinking still more about mission trips, and I thought I’d take some time to sort through my thoughts in a brief post.

What is a mission trip?
The phrase “mission trips” bothers me. It is applied much too broadly in modern Christendom, doing a disservice to all of us in the faith. More basically, the word missions is used in the same way, being thrown around in a manner such that it more or less loses any specific meaning. It’s very popular to say that “Everyone’s a missionary.” I used to, in my infancy so-to-speak, be of this mind. (more…)

I received an email from Urbana today focused solely on the arts. I had been wondering when they’d get back to this topic; it seems like more than a year since I’ve seen any art related content in their correspondence.

I scanned the articles, not having the time to dive into them (and finding the subject matter to be less than novel). The one thing that stood out was in an article titled Worship and the Arts in Ministry and Missions, where the author refers to a challenge he gave in 1999 to “250 Christians in dance, 75 Christians in music, 50 Christians in theatre and drama, and 25 others in visual arts, puppets and a few other artistic expressions.”

Twenty-five others in the visual arts, puppets et al. This small percentage of visual artists — and we don’t know how few of these are actually tactile artists and not digital artists — in comparison to the larger number of dance, music and theatre types is part of why I push so hard for the visual arts in the context of the Church (Other than the fact that my own interests lie, without a doubt, primarily in the visual arts.). I also find it interesting that, at the unidentified gathering, there are more dance than music people; it seems to me this would usually be the other way around, more music than dance or theater.

The three other links in the email are an Artsy Witness, Art and Soul, and Redeeming the Arts.

Just received this letter from MissionaryArts.com:

If you read Tim Anderson’s last newsletter, and have seen the website lately, you have heard a new name: ArtsLink.

As Tim wrote, he has been communicating with us for some time about the possibility of handing off the gallery of MissionaryArts.com, to be incorporated into the ministry of ArtsLink. We all felt that we were uniquely suited to the task, in that ArtsLink is the only mission organization mobilizing artists to take their skills to the international mission field.

ArtsLink, a ministry of Operation Mobilization (www.om.org), is one of an umbrella of creative arts ministries, growing to include all genres of art. You can read about our ministry at www.omartslink.org. Maybe you will join us one day for an outreach?!

But we are also excited to promote YOU, the artists. We have discovered, like Tim, that many artists can’t go overseas, but want to contribute to the effort by donating art to raise funds for missions. Maybe you can’t go, but you are doing what you can, with the gifts God has given you, and we are confident that God will multiply each offering. You are key partners, as we grapple with the financial challenges of going to all the nations, and we are grateful for you. Thank you for your heart.

“God is not unjust to forget your work and labor of love, which you have shown toward His name, in that you ministered to the saints, and do minister.” — Heb. 6:10

We assumed responsibility on schedule, with a great handoff by Tim, who has done an outstanding job. His knowledge and experience will be invaluable as we transition, but it is especially his gracious spirit and Kingdom thinking that we’ve come to appreciate so much. We look forward to a long and fruitful friendship.

Expect to see some site changes as we integrate Missionary ARts into the ArtsLink website, which we are currently updating. But the goal of Missionary Arts will remain the same: to continue to support artists through the sale of their artwork, resulting in an expansion of missions work around the world.

Thank you for staying with us, praying with us, and watching as God takes us all to the next level. Hopefully, the transition will be seamless for you, but please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any concerns, or just to say hello!

Warm regards,

Geinene Carson & Pat Butler

I struggle knowing when to sacrifice my own interests in art for the greater good of Christendom. The struggle comes from acknowledging that my interests and talents in the arts are part of my created being, something that God gave to me for His glory.

It’s easy for me to be caught up in the arts, whether thinking about them or creating, in a way that isn’t overtly pious. My non-representational sculptures won’t immediately remind viewers of my faith. Probably fewer than half of my posts on this blog mention my faith, though I haven’t counted.

Of course, I may be making a comparison to the Fundamentalist lifestyle presented to me as a child, where little if any value seemed to be placed on anything outside of “the Lord’s work.” This point of view arises from the segregation of sacred and secular activities, a worldview that doesn’t believe in being a part of culture. In Biblical terms, this mindset not only avoids being “of” the world, it’s also not “in” the world. Hence the Christian “ghetto.”

It doesn’t bother me that my writing here doesn’t mention God in every post. I don’t feel guilty for not creating kitschy artwork that looks like its supposed to hang in church lobbies. The issues I tackle on The Aesthetic Elevator reflect my life “in” the world. Further, much of culture is amoral, not good or evil but just there, in essence. Even though we live in a fallen world, the rocks still sing praise to God. Creation is still “good;” Jesus affirmed this by His incarnation.

My faith is an integral part of who I am. It will always — consciously or subconsciously — inform how I think (and what I write here) and what I create, even if it isn’t obvious to other people. The struggle arises because I don’t know what it looks like to live as an artist of faith outside of my own experiences. I had no examples growing up in Western Nebraska. I had no one to look up to as a mentor while at the university in a city of 250,000 either, attending a church with a bonafide visual arts ministry. Yes, there were other artists of faith in school and at the church, but we were all stumbling around blindly to a large degree with respect to how our faith and visual gifts actually intermingled.

Should my life choices be more informed by my faith than the arts? Or should my life choices be more informed by the gifts God gave me than my faith? The obligatory answer is that faith is more important. And while I agree that a person’s faith is of utmost importance, I don’t believe said faith should be divorced from one’s natural talents and abilities — particularly when said person attributes all of their giftings to God.

These thoughts rattled around in my brain all weekend after conversing with missionary friends last Friday. Over dinner they asked if we ever considered serving overseas. This short answer to this inquiry is “yes.” Our friends then suggested we consider an artist residency program in their city, at their church. The opportunity, which I have very few details on at this point, is very appealing to me. From what I do know, this sounds like one of the few good examples of mixing missions and the tactile arts; of course, there are very few examples to draw from overall.

When I have more details I’ll give them if it looks like a good option that my wife and I might pursue.

Over the last year or so I’ve come to realize how different our perception of artists is from reality. The film Frida, about the life of painter Frida Kahlo, sparked this revelation. I remember the first time I saw a Kahlo painting, in a poetry writing class during college. I was put off at the time, to say the least, even as an art student in a public university. Had I at the time been given some background information on the artist, her paintings would have made sense. Their visceral nature would have been tempered with the knowledge that she suffered physically in many of the ways she depicted on the canvas.

A week or so ago I wrote briefly about Makoto Fujimura’s recent blog post dealing with Vincent van Gogh. Normally, van Gogh is regarded as a modern artistic genius, afflicted with stereotypical artist-slash-genius afflictions; in other words, he was kinda crazy. And then there’s that bit about him cutting off his ear.

What we don’t know — even me with an art degree — is that he came from a very religious family. He wanted to be a priest, but was denied the priesthood by the Dutch church for being too uneducated (he only knew five languages). He was sent as a missionary to a mining community in Belgium. He likely suffered from some unidentified mental illness, which explains the mood swings that caused people to think of him as crazy. And his style, his application of paint to the canvas, was a reflection of his appreciation for Japanese wood cuts.

I took five art history classes as an undergrad: Art Historty Survey I and II, History of Photography, Roman Art and Archeology and History of Architecture. I never learned details like this, details that significantly influence how a person looks at a work of art. Yes, a painting or sculpture possesses merit in and of itself. We don’t need to know the personal history of the artist in order to say “That’s a good painting.” While such knowledge may not necessarily lend additional meaning to his individual pieces, such details do make a work of art infinitely more interesting.

Some time back I found a Lilias Trotter eBook put online by the Project Gutenburg. Parables of the Cross and Parables of the Christ-life were both available, and I quickly downloaded and printed them for my own collection. I’ve yet to read them, but I wanted to share a few of my favorite images from Parables of the Cross (the image quality in Parables of the Christ-life is lacking). I can see why Ruskin thought her the next best thing in the art world; her craft here is exceptional.

Her handwriting is gorgeous as well.

I like the composition of these three works, as well as a certain softness that seems to be her style. It gives the subjects certain kind of handmade beauty without compromising the rendering, the realism.

A few months ago Tim Anderson, proprietor of MissionaryArts.com, emailed a note to participating artists talking about how he had taken the website as far as he was able. Talk had begun with OM’s ArtsLink to see if Geinene and her staff in Atlanta would be willing to take over and improve MissionaryArts, which has been online since 2003 . I didn’t say anything at the time since nothing was in stone, and speculation on such things is outside of the scope of this blog.

Today I received confirmation that negotiations are complete. An email from Tim Anderson today describes how this was a difficult decision for him — he co-founded the website — but how it is also best for the endeavor to move ahead:

“This decision hasn’t been easy for me. But as you know, my involvement and resources has been limited — especially this past year — and I feel in order for the gallery to grow to its intended potential, someone else has to step in and take it. I believe OM is that someone. They have the personnel, the resources and the vision to really help it grow.”

The transition will take place on the first of January.

The Wikipedia entry on Lilias Trotter, missionary and artist lauded by renowned art critic John Ruskin, is now more than a stub!

This is more of a side-note, more interesting to me in all likelihood than to other readers. This is the only Wikipedia entry I’ve ever started — although I’ve taken the time to edit two or three others. The beginnings of the Trotter entry were very humble; I’m not familiar with Wikipedia’s standards or code. But I thought there should be an entry on this notable woman and created the article with three or four sentences of background information. As I recall, I cited Miriam Huffman Rockness’s A Passion for the Impossible.

It’s fascinating to see how the entry has come along, and I’m thrilled to see that other people have enough interest in her to add and improve on my singular, spontaneous Wikipedia contribution.

From Propel, an article I wrote:

For those of us who’ve heard the Great Commission’s call and are being led into full-time mission work, the ease of getting plugged in varies. For some, the perfect opportunity presents itself in such a way that to say “no” would be like Jonah not going to Nineveh when he was so clearly instructed
to do so.

Other people possess clarity of calling but can’t seem to get plugged in. Reasons for these circumstances vary, from the right opportunity not being out there to, I believe, God keeping some back — who truly desire to go — in order to mobilize.

My wife and I have experienced both of the above scenarios. We were clearly led to be a part of Mission Data International, and we acted on that. Before this, however, I agonized (and still do) over the lack of opportunities created and offered by mission agencies for visual artists, opportunities other than graphic design, illustration and photography.

It seems as though I just don’t fit into the whole missions thing. My own interest lies with the tactile arts of painting, sculpture and ceramics. Very few openings with established sending organizations exist for people who feel led to serve in long-term missions while using their talent as a potter or printmaker.

Existing opportunities
Organizations like PIONEERS give teams and individuals the flexibility to create their own strategies, employing a variety of skillsets in order to create dynamic church planting efforts. Last year I exchanged emails with a PIONEERS team eager to have an artist serving with them in Southeast Asia. This is encouraging and gives me hope things are moving in the right direction. However, job descriptions are often lacking in these circumstances. Someone trying to find their place in such instances must possess an entrepreneurial bent to get involved this way. Not all people led to be missionaries are such self-starters.

Arts Link, a three year old division of Operation Mobilization, is devoted to getting visual artists into missions. In this way artists who want to use their gifts overseas aren’t the ones coming up with the opportunities. Within the current American mission structure, efforts such as Arts Link are a must.

Going for going’s sake
I can imagine some people saying that if you are led to serve overseas, every effort should be made to participate in any way possible. There are needs, all kinds of needs all of the time, among mission projects all over the world. Pious work is pious work, right?

I met a missionary family some years back who arrived in Spain expecting to oversee a camp. When they got to the camp the current director decided he wasn’t ready to retire just yet. The family was reassigned to a nearby church plant, where they felt entirely out of place. After seven years of service at this awkward post, the family learned the camp director would now retire, and they finally took their post at the camp.

Some will argue this was part of God’s bigger plan. Perhaps the family wasn’t ready for certain challenges presented by the camp administration; maybe God was testing their faithfulness as he did with Abraham and Isaac. While time may give us a better idea of the reasons behind certain trials,
we can’t always know the meaning of things like these in the moment. And regardless, such arguments don’t allow us to forgo making appropriate plans before we build our tower — or go to an unreached people group with the Gospel.

Serving for the sake of serving is commendable and sacrificial, but it’s also poor strategy and a waste of God-given resources. Scripture tells us that different members of the Body are given different talents. An eye can’t do what the hand is able to; the Body must work together.

Solutions
So how much patience is required on the part of the missionary candidate? How long should a person planning to go into full-time missions work search and wait for the perfect opportunity? Or is not finding the perfect and most strategic opportunity the same as a closed door?

I’ve been reminded a few times in the last month of how one person cannot rightly judge the circumstances of another. Seeking counsel is Biblical and important, but wise counsel will understand that they aren’t the ones walking in your shoes. No one else can tell you how the Spirit of God might be leading you.

Instead of closing with a true yet cliched proverb, I want to encourage readers who find themselves on the outside (per se) to press on. Oops, I guess that’s a bit of a platitude as well. Still, press on! Press on by supporting existing programs that focus on your calling, even if they aren’t exactly what you’d like to be a part of. Brainstorm new ideas with people of similar passion and research what it would take to get them going. Stay in touch with people who share your ideas. Your work will not be vain.