"i want to be indiana jones when i grow up."

this is exactly what i said when i was 8.
it's still true today. i'm stoked for this film!

orphans and art

african collaborative pieces from november 07

these are pictures of a series of collaborative paintings i did for a show at the urban artworks gallery in alpharetta, GA back in november of 07. the whole show was a benefit for heart for africa and the show was called "faces of hope."

my wife and i got to go to kenya with heart for africa in july of 07 and we headed up art education programs with the orphans. one of the things we wanted to do from this trip was to bring back some art from the children and be able to sell them at the show in order to raise more money for them.

now i've been in some conversations with worldvision and other organizations about selling art made by children. it's a good idea... i think it hits the heart... but i just don't think it works. why? well because i don't think people wanting to buy art are going to fork out a lot of money on something that looks similar to the work in their kids classroom. maybe i'm wrong... but i don't think i am.

so how do we solve this?

i was showing a bunch of other pieces at this show. these panels that these kids had painted on were just sitting around my studio as i was making other work for the show. in this process of just being there, i had this idea. if people were going to buy my work because they liked it (along with a number of other reasons), then what if i could add my purchasing momentum to their work? i was there. i had them make these pieces and i took their picture. i'm wrapped up in this story as it is.... so why not add my interpretation to these kids and their story?



so i matched up the paintings and their pictures, and i painted on them. an instant collaboration.... from over 10,000 miles apart.

and that's where these paintings came from.

we would like to do more of this someday. get more artists involved and do a giant collaborative show with the orphans. we'll see what transpires.....

surf the puget sound!

If you are a surfer and you live in seattle, you have to drive 2 1/2 hours to get to the nearest break.
but.... on really windy days in the puget sound, you can find places that have a small little break.
and just to ease the itch, you might find tim wicks and myself frolicking in the small waves of edmonds in our own "secret" spot.
here's a little video.....

Church Art

My dad, who is great but sends trying not to be lame forwards, sent me this article by Chuck Colson... which is a really great comment. Thanks Dad!

Made for Beauty | January 31, 2008
Art, Worship, and the Bible

The neighbors watched the new church building go up in just one month—and what a sight it was! The church was a squat, square building made of unrelieved concrete. On the inside was garish red carpeting. A massive parking lot surrounded the church.
Nothing could possibly have been uglier—and the fact that so many Christians build church structures like this reveals how far Christians have strayed from the place beauty and art are meant to have in our lives.
As the late Francis Schaeffer notes in his book, Art and the Bible, we evangelicals tend to relegate art to the fringes of life. Despite our talk about the lordship of God in every aspect of life, we have narrowed its scope to a very small part of reality. But the arts are also supposed to be under the lordship of Christ, Schaeffer reminds us. Christians ought to use the arts "as things of beauty to the praise of God."
This is exactly what God commanded regarding the building of His Tabernacle. As Schaeffer says, "God commanded Moses to fashion a tabernacle in a way [that] would involve almost every form of representational art that men have ever known." In Exodus 25, for example, God instructs Moses to make for the Holy of Holies "two cherubim of gold; of beaten work shalt thou make them."
In other words, God was commanding that works of art be made: a statuary representation of angels.
Outside the Holy of Holies, lampstands were to be placed—that is, candlesticks of pure gold, decorated with representations of nature: almond blossoms and flowers.
And then we have the descriptions of the priestly garments. Upon their skirts were to be designed pomegranates of blue, purple, and scarlet.
Does God value beauty for beauty's sake? It seems He does. Consider the two columns Solomon set up before the Temple. He decorated them with a hundred pomegranates fastened upon chains, as God commanded. These two free-standing columns supported no architectural weight and had no engineering significance, Schaeffer writes. "They were there only because God said they should be there as a thing of beauty."
And this brings us back to those ugly church buildings we often build. No wonder non-Christians often remark on the ugliness of our churches—an ugliness that is off-putting to anyone sensitive to beauty. We have forgotten that beauty is not achieved, as some argue, just to draw people into the church, but because it is a form of praise to the God who designed and created magnificent mountains, delicate flowers, and our beautiful children.
No doubt you have seen churches that have crossed the line from beautiful to garish, where opulence is more valued than true beauty. Indeed, historically, the Protestant reaction to opulent church furnishings was to seek beauty in simplicity. And that is fine too. But every congregation, no matter how small its budget, should ensure that its facilities, humble though they may be—and in some parts of the world, they are very, very primitive—nonetheless, are tasteful and reflect the beauty of the Creator.
The God we worship glories in beauty.