Winter Youth, Portland OR

Along with all the festivities that go on during this time of year, for the third year in a row i was invited to be the artist in residence at the WinterYouth Conference down in Portland, or PDX as her friends know her. What does this mean? Basically, I paint with all the speakers, creating visual memorials of what is being discussed and helping us remember the journey we are on. and i'm just around to encourage all the would be artists who need encouraging.

it was an encouraging weekend. i did about 7 paintings in all... and had fantastic feedback from everyone. those conferences wipe me out though. by the second day i had bags under my eyes even though i was sleeping 7 hours a night. i guess i'm not as young as i use to be.

the best part of this conference was who i go to work with.

Rick
The speaker for the first two days was Rick McKinley. a great down to earth pastor who would make the lutheran pastors of my upbringing cringe.... because he's not the slick suit wearing guy we all imagine. he's short, stalky.. big guy with a huge chin gotee. He's very genuine and a delight to listen too. Rick is the pastor of Imago Dei church in Portland, where also his good friend Donald Miller hangs as well. I get the churches podcast as well. i think the things that they are saying are just awesome... and something that we really need to hear in this part of the world.

www.imagodeicommunity.com

http://www.imagodeicommunity.com/ricks-blog/

Chris
The other guy who spoke was Chris Seay, who i had never heard of, but turns out he is an awesome guy doing very creative work with poverty, changing the way we think about money, and helping us understand the Bible in new ways. He's all over the place so i'll just put down links to all the stuff he is doing.

http://www.hearthevoice.com/

http://www.2115taft.org/

http://www.xnil.org/

http://www.theworkofthepeople.com/index.php?ct=store.details&pid=V00463


Joel
and last but not least, was the music worship leader. Joel West is a great musician and an even better designer down in San Diego. He came into this whole conference doing nothing but hymns in a kind of decemberists/josh ritter style that was so right on. i think kids were a little not into at first, but by the end they had owned it. it was refreshing in a culture that can be fairly autonomous in all that it does.

www.joelpwest.com

so that's that. i had a great time and i hope to be around next year!

also
here is a video that the media guy made during the conference....