Mar
23
Last year’s Bridge Songs event raised around $900 for ACE, a community initiative from Big Brothers and Sisters in Edmonton co-led by Jennifer Wilde, one of the “Part Time Lovers” (leaders of iLoveArtists). ACE is an after school arts program working at Delton School near the Alberta Avenue area of Edmonton. Jennifer and her team asked the students to contemplate Hope, and create a work of art about what Hope is to them. The results are beautiful, if a little heart-breaking at times. Thanks to Jennifer and her crew at ACE for sharing this book with us.
ACE Book 2010 – Hope Is
Tags: ACE, Big Brothers and Sisters, community arts, Hope, Jennifer Wilde
Posted in Alberta Avenue, Book Reviews, Hope, Illustration | Comments Off
Sep
20
Good Christian Books for Christian Artists.
Blogger Ben Guthrie compiles a good starter list of books for Christian artists here. I have read three of his five suggestions, and would highly recommend all that I have read (Walking on Water, Scribbling in the Sand and For The Beauty of The Church).
The nice thing about Ben Guthrie’s list is that he gives a short, concise summary of what the book is about and why we would want to read it. I appreciate the time taken to do that, and look forward to getting into the other two books on this list.
Read Ben Guthrie’s list here.
Visit Ben Guthrie’s own blog here
Tags: art and faith, book list
Posted in Book Reviews, Resources, Writing | 3 Comments »
Mar
25
Refractions
A Journey of Faith, Art and Culture
Book Review by Dave Von Bieker, 2009
Grab this as a PDF to read with a coffee in a nice chair
I have often been taught that as followers of Christ our gifts and talents should reflect the glory of God. We are to be reflections of His image. With our little mirrors, our little talents, we may hope to catch some radiant light and focus, illuminating the dark corners of our world. This is a noble goal; and a difficult one. Perhaps, in its’ perfection, it is unattainable because the more perfect the reflection, the more perfect the mirror must be. Free from blemishes. Free from cracks.
But what if our mirrors are broken?
As a mirror, I am no a perfect pane. I am fractures and lost pieces. I am fallen and filthy. I am broken. In my brokenness, I have learned through Makoto Fujimura’s beautiful essays on art and faith that I can refract. And a refraction is perhaps even more beautiful than a reflection.
Whereas a reflection is a mere reproduction of the source light, a refraction breaks that light up and paints it prismatically in every direction. It transforms that light through warped surfaces and fractured fragments, adding color and new forms. Each imperfection gains purpose through refraction. Broken becomes beautiful.
Refractions, the new book by Makoto Fujimura, has left me these thoughts. In reading Fujimura’s collection of essays, I refrained from marking passages and sections for reference and review, choosing instead to let the entire work wash over me. What emerged are themes and impressions, rather than outlines and quotations (though there are certainly words worth quoting, and I may do so still). … Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: blogs, book, books, literature, Makoto Fujimura, Refractions, review
Posted in Art, Book Reviews, books | 3 Comments »
May
15
Back to the Bible – Books & Culture
An intersting article on a new book about the Bible and how in a different world, it’s a whole new book.
Jenkins uses the Anglican controversy over sexual morality to enter into the Bible as read by southern Christians. Their biblicism has been called traditional, literalistic, conservative, and fundamentalist, but Jenkins concludes that none of these labels really fits. Rather, the southern Christians Bible is more immediate in its address to their realities. African and Asian Christians revere the Bible and identify with its cultural setting and worldview. They see it as sacred text, with words of power, to an extent that has been lost to much of northern Christianity.
Posted in Art, Book Reviews, Resources | Comments Off
