“Be a support and critique resource for the artists at Real Life.”

Every artist wants to be better at what he/she does. Both in process and communication. We all could be more technically excellent and we all can communicate our ideas more effectively. The problem lies in trying to do this by yourself.

Everyone needs someone to bounce ideas off of and get opinions and critiques of their work. Members of the Real Life VAM will be that sounding board and critique for each other. Sometimes it’s hard to keep working and you need some encouragement or you need some fresh eyes to look at a series of photos you’ve been working on. This will be that place for you. Call up another artist in the church and get together to talk about what you’re working on.

I know that I need some artistic encouragement. I haven’t painted in several years and I miss the raw emotion that is expressed in painting. Do clean polished design work on the computer pays the bills but I don’t have a strong emotional attachment to it. I need to do some “fine art” for fun. So just as I hope to be an encouragement and perhaps a thorn in your side, spurring you on to more difficult subject matter or process, I hope you will be the same for me.

I guess I should finish my thought on the Real Life Visual Arts Team. The second goal of the VAM is to “Help educate others about art and how it can be used as a form of worship.”

This is more like a life long pursuit rather than something we can accomplish over a weekend I have a couple concrete ideas to help.

1. We should be in conversation with others often. Not necessarily always about art and beauty but when you see something that you find beautiful don’t keep it to yourself tell someone. Tell them why you find it beautiful and try and engage them in a way that they will respond with a similar example. I think people see moving beauty all the time but they don’t take the time to let it sink in and process what they’ve seen.

2. This blog (or your own blog if you have one). This is a place we can share ideas of beauty and art with the whole world (I don’t have that big of readership) but the potential is there.

3. Arts College. This next year I would like to hold the first ever Real Life Arts College. I don’t know exactly how it will be organized but it would be great to have more of a formal educational experience for those that are interested. In that forum we could talk about art history, painting, drawing, poetry, sculpture, photography and what ever art forms you may be able to teach. I envision some lecture times but mostly hands on times.

This is the second post in a series describing my Vision for the Visual Arts Ministry at Real Life Community Church. I’m still kind of thinking this through and I’m more or less using these posts as a sounding board for my ideas. Hopefully as this team gets up and going we will be able to collaborate on the goals and mission of this ministry.

“1. Integrate Visual Art into our Sunday worship services.”

I do my best to make the services at Real Life visually interesting and beautiful, but I’m just one person and my idea of and capacity for beauty is limited. With a team of people working on visual elements for our Sunday services we can expand our view of beauty and worship in many splendid new ways.

I see this manifesting itself in several different ways:
Live art creation during the service.
Set Building for each sermon series
Photo essays
Art Films
Motions behind the song lyrics
Series artwork for program cover and sermon slides

I’m sure there are more but these are a few that I’ve thought of. Several of which I am currently doing every week. I enjoy it but I think it could be improved by working on these things as a team. I am not against any idea really. I want this to be a team collaboration that we all decided what will work best and present these ideas to the lead pastor.

I have a dream! Don’t all good speeches start with that? But seriously, I am in the process of starting the Real Life Visual Arts Ministry. So far I’ve just been asking for anyone interested in art to let me know they are interested. I have yet to start describing what I want this beast to look like…

I envision the VAM to be and do several things I will list them here now and in future posts dive deeper into what they involve.

1. Integrate Visual Art into our Sunday worship services.

2. Help educate others about art and how it can be used as a form of worship.

3. Be a support and critique resource for the artists at Real Life.

4. Start and run a not for profit art gallery for local artists to show and sell their work.

This week the staff of Real Life Community Church went to Salt Lake City Utah for a retreat. It was a much needed break from the busy pace of day to day operations. We got a lot of planning done and were able share some quality time together. On friday afternoon we visited a non-profit organization called Art Space.

Art Space is a non-profit organization that provides living, studio, and gallery space for artists in the Salt Lake area. This a very cool organization. By building new buildings and remodeling old buildings in a older part of town they have brought awareness and revitalization to that part of town.

Because their organization is for artists they draw patrons of the arts to that part of town, which in turn brings more interest and money. With the artists living in Art Space buildings they can continue to afford to live/work there even though property values are rising because of their artistic influence in the community.

It was very exciting to view the Art Space operation and see what can be done to a forgotten part of town. After our tour the Real Life staff discussed how we could use some of this new knowledge to encourage art and revitalization in Nampa. It will be a slow process and won’t change overnight but we want to open a gallery for local artists. A place where artists can show their work free of charge and hopefully sell some. Right now we don’t know exactly how this will look or where we will do it but our initial thought is in our office building.

Sound off in the comments and let me know what you think. Is this something that Nampa needs? Are there enough artists to support something like this?

As the Visual Architect for Real Life Community Church I am always on the lookout for new and creative ways to use the arts in our weekly services. This more of a challenge than it may seem as our town is not all that art friendly. This means when I do find something inspiring or at least truthful and thought provoking I have to ask myself “Will the rest of people actually understand this?”. Truthfully the answer is usually no but I believe God has a lot for us to see and experience through the arts and over time we all can learn to appreciate them.

Creating is such an intrigal part of the human experience. It is an act and desire that God has instilled into us. Though without proper exercise our “Art Muscles” atrophy and become a hindrance. This world is a vast and beautiful place and we are all on this adventure together. If you open your eyes and your mind just a little then God will reveal Himself in some surprising ways and places. Please join me on this journey of beauty and love for God and His creations and leave your comments and thoughts here as part of the discussion.