Why I Make Art at Church
If you've been following me for a bit, you have probably seen that I occasionally create art live on stage at my church. We have four services over the weekend and I will be creating artwork for the full length of each ninety minute service, which are all the same. That's not a thing that happens at many churches and whether or not you are familiar with church world, you may have wondered why I do that. There's actually several reasons.
The first reason for creating art at church is to be of service and to share my art with others. It's a form of giving honor to God and an expression of my faith. I have discovered that it can be a real joy and blessing for others to watch the process and also later to see the final result. I have had people who come up to me after a service and tell me how meaningful the artwork is to them and how it really touched them deeply. If this was the only reason to create this way, it would be enough for me. But there's more, too.
Another thing that I love about creating artworks at church is how it can really stretch me creatively. The process for creating these pieces starts with a calendar of titles, scripture references and themes for each week's sermon. I sit down with a team of other artists and we each carefully consider what is speaking to us and then schedule those weekends to create live art on stage as part of the weekend. I then spend some time meditating on what exactly the imagery will be for the artwork(s) I produce. Lately, I've been taking a full weekend to create one piece, and how many pieces I create is up to me to decide. Sometimes this whole process comes relatively easily, but other times it takes me in directions I may have have otherwise gone and I think that's a good thing.
When I create at church for a whole weekend, it is a really intense time of creating that I may not otherwise take the time for. I will do a certain amount of planning before hand, then the week before I go onstage, there is a fairly intense amount of prep and finally, there is six solid hours of easel time and a nearly complete large (36x48") piece at the end. I will generally polish up any rough spots and tend to the edges of it over the next week and then, ta-da! I have a new piece of artwork that will be hung at church at least for a while and is available to view and purchase. It's really a win-win kind of situation for everybody.
Finally, creating artwork this way is really a lot of work and sometimes exhausting, but it is also so much fun. I get to hang out with my church family for a whole weekend and be in a really uplifting and joyful environment the whole time. The music is energizing and the people are all encouraging and appreciative, so it's really an enjoyable thing for me to do.
So now you know all of the reasons that I am going to be spending a whole weekend making artwork at church this weekend. If you want to see it for yourself, you can come to one of the weekend services at Bridgeway Christian Church in person, or you can catch glimpses of me as part of the whole online live production.