Genesis+Art

Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom

2012-02-13T14:58:00.000-08:00

Rocks of Giants Causeway Photo © Chuck Hoffman / Genesis+Art Studio

FROM OUR JOURNAL PAGES:

We have been in our studio working on a painting around the theme of gratitude. It required me to reflect on the virtue of gratitude as a spiritual practice, which brought me to the teaching of John O'Donohue. I have been reflecting on his wisdom and writings for many years and find a newness to his words each time. I discovered this once again as I explored the nature of gratitude.

You have traveled too fast over false ground;
Now your soul has come to take you back.

Take refuge in your senses, open up
To all the small miracles you rushed through.

Become inclined to watch the way of rain
When it falls slow and free.

Imitate the habit of twilight,
Taking time to open the well of color
That fostered the brightness of day.

Draw alongside the silence of stone
Until its calmness can claim you.

― John O'Donohue

Keeping us mindful of God’s abiding presence

2012-01-26T15:03:00.000-08:00

Photo © St. Paul's Monastery

FROM OUR STUDIO:

Our work has been selected to be part of the exhibition Seeing God: A Juried Exhibit of Sacred Art. The exhibition will be up during February at the Benedictine Retreat Center on the campus of St. Paul’s Monastery, St. Paul, Minnesota. We are honored to be part of this art show as the Benedictine community works to sustain and expand the spiritual imagination and deepen a sense of awe. From their call for artists, “Over the centuries, Benedictines have encouraged women and men who use color, form, sound, and word to express the beauty one experiences in the encounter with God’s own creativity. Their "sacred art" contributes to keeping us mindful of God’s abiding presence. This exhibit features contemporary artists who work in that spirit.”

Seeing God: A Juried Exhibit of Sacred Art
1–29 February, 2012 9–5:00pm daily
Benedictine Retreat Center, St. Paul’s Monastery
2675 Benet Road, St. Paul
651.777.8181

The spirit of artistic creation

2012-01-25T10:40:00.000-08:00

FROM OUR STUDIO:

Join us at Ghost Ranch for our workshop Heaven of the Heart: Creating a Space for Sacred Imagination June 25–July 1. Ghost Ranch is situated on 21,000 acres located in northern New Mexico, stands proud as an ecumenical and interfaith education and retreat center of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). For more than half a century people have come for spiritual development, to discuss issues of peace and justice, to work together in creation care, to paint and write, to hike and ride horseback,
to research rich and globally renowned archeological and fossil quarries, to see where Georgia O’Keeffe painted or simply to rest and renew their spirits. For more about our workshop or to register click on Heaven of the Heart. Hope to see you.

Summer in the Washington Cascades

2012-01-25T10:14:00.000-08:00

FROM OUR STUDIO:

Consider joining us this summer at Holden Village in Chelan, Washington. Holden Village is in an isolated mountain retreat center in the Washington Cascades. Holden is a place to come and celebrate Life, Community, and Renewal. We will be on the teaching staff facilitating our art workshops from August 11–25. For more information check out this short film that captures a few days of village life or go to their web site by clicking Holden Village. Hope to see you.

Heaven of the Heart: Creating a Space for Sacred Imagination

2011-12-09T14:31:00.000-08:00

Chimney Rock, Abiquiu, New Mexico Image © Ghost Ranch

FROM OUR STUDIO:

We invite you to join us at Ghost Ranch in Abiquiu, New Mexico for our workshop titled Heaven Of The Heart: Creating A Space For Sacred Imagination. Our workshop will run from 25 June thru 1 July, 2012. For more information and to register click on this link. Ghost Ranch. The course description is included below. Hope to see you!

Heaven of the Heart: Creating Space for Sacred Imagination. What connects our spirituality, creativity and living out our vocation? How might an intentional engagement with our creativity and our spirituality increase our ability to live as people of faith? In this workshop you will push back the boundaries of familiar distractions and enter a Sabbath time in which to explore the intersection between creativity and spirituality. Using hands-on exercises, personal reflection and imagination see how your creativity can form sacred community.

Chiaroscuro

2011-12-07T08:40:00.000-08:00

May this season of Divine mystery,
engage all of our senses anew.
Inspire us to seek peace within
and with each other.

And may our creative fires burn bright,
to help illumine our way. +Amen

Gratitude and Thanksgiving

2011-11-22T14:18:00.000-08:00

FROM OUR STUDIO:

Effortlessly,
Love flows from God
Into man and woman.
Like a bird who rivers the air
Without moving her wings.
Thus we move in this world
One in body and soul,
Though outwardly separate in form.
As the Source strikes the note,
Humanity sings –
The Holy Spirit is our harpist,
And all strings
Which are touched in Love
Must sound.

– MECHTHILD of MAGDEBURG
13th CENTURY MYSTIC

Waves of inspiration

2011-11-07T15:27:00.000-08:00

Photo © Heidi Hoffman Photography

FROM OUR TRAVELS:

Walking the beach along the Oregon coast. Continuing the Sabbath and allowing it all to incubate deep within. It was good to spend time with daughter Heidi. She is an inspiration on so many levels.

A time for Sabbath

2011-11-07T12:01:00.000-08:00

AlexEli Vineyard. Image © Heidi Hoffman Photography

FROM OUR JOURNAL PAGES:

I’m still on the vineyard. After two weeks of being back in Kansas City, my mind and heart are still on the vineyard. Our intension was to help Phil, Heidi and Phil’s mom Anita with the fall harvest at AlexEli. But something else happened in the midst of working. The life of the vineyard showed us a fruitful rhythm of growth and harvest, of life ending and beginning. It also became a Sabbath time. A time of מְנוּחָה menuchah, of tranquility, peace, serenity and the deepest possible sense of fertile, healing stillness. The physical labor of harvesting, pressing and storing the juice that will change to wine mysteriously engaged our spirituality. Through our senses we seemed to become involved in the experience of creation, with the process of grapes turning to wine and it surprised us with unexpected grace. We participated in a potent moment where creation renewed itself, witnessing both the inevitable recession of what is complete and the sacred forces of healing that promises love and life.

Sabbath is meant to change the rhythm of our lives and strengthen our human connections with the Divine. Sabbath creates a sacred time, leads us towards a mindfulness and a destination of experiencing simplicity. I think it is also about time—about slowing down the pace at which we choose to live, and about how quality is as important as quantity. We can’t always live in Sabbath time, which is why it occurs just one day in seven, but our retreat into a different time and space changes the rest of our time and space for the other six days and in our case, two weeks and counting. I have found a similar shifting of time and space occurs during the process of art making. In the mystery of creating, I have a sense of connection to the divine, in the physical making of art and a feeling of rest and spiritual renewal as a gift of the creative harvest.

I have experienced something powerful about intentionally setting apart a time to withdraw from quotidian life and do something that slows my rhythm, restores my creativity and refreshes me in a new beginning . What I most look forward to in a Sabbath experience is stillness. It can be the stillness the psalmist refers to, “be still and know…” and offers a restoring of our soul. I also feel that Sabbath is an incubator for creativity and wisdom.

Time and chemistry will be the guiding forces as the harvest turns to wine. Waiting is not easy for me, but in the process I know that it prepares a place for grace to be born. “Taste and see that the Lord is good.”

In the vineyard feast of All Saints

2011-11-01T12:09:00.000-07:00

Watercolor sketch at AlexEli © Genesis+Art Studio

FROM OUR SKETCHBOOKS:

We returned today from an inspiring trip to AlexEli Vineyard & Winery in Oregon. On our flight home we were reflecting on the ancient wisdom stories around the process of growing, harvesting and turning grapes into wine.

Living in the city has taken us away from the familiar feeling of having hands in the dirt, to be more closely connected to the labor of tending the garden. The earth, the elements that nature brings and the constant nurturing and tending to the vines all lead to this moment of the harvest. We have new appreciation for Phil and daughter Heidi for the hard work and passion that goes into the ongoing process of growing and tending a vineyard.

We offered ourselves as able bodies and hands to help in the process of the fall harvest. Hours mostly swept by in what seemed minutes, not unlike the creative process, transforming the fruit into the juice that will become wine.

We took a break from the work and headed with our sketchbooks down to the lake. This new rhythm of the earth offered an opportunity for the quiet solitude of nature. The more closely I studied the landscape, the sounds and the smells around me, the more beautiful it all became. I realized that haven’t been good at taking the time to observe the things that give life. It was a thin place for reflection and inspiration and we felt the spirit working through the land, wildlife, friends and family in this quiet place.

The thin place of heaven meeting earth inspired and made us look more closely at the saints in our lives.

There's dust in the desert

2011-10-26T09:13:00.000-07:00

FROM OUR JOURNAL PAGES:

Sixteen years in the desert without a roadmap. Dusty roads that have taken us to destinations that we would have never intentionally traveled. In the process we are formed into the newness of the spirit and continue to be forged in the heat of uncertainty. We have found beauty in the desert when we are aware of the gentle wind that blows new meaning and understanding through our beings. The journey has been lead by nothing less than grace.

We believe true wisdom comes from understanding that the universe is balanced on our actions, each and every one of us. Our understanding of the significance of this mystical fact leads us to an awesome conclusion: each one of us is responsible for how the universe will unfold. We each bring something unique to its unfolding. We are reminded of this in our lives and when we design and make art together. The liturgical art we created from words found in the Litanies for All Occasions, continuously reminds us that the Gospel demands that in the Kingdom of God we find a way to care for one another across our differences.

"We remember that your church was born in wind and fire, not to sweep us heavenward like a presumptuous tower, but to guide us down the dusty roads of this world so that we may lift up the downcast, heal the broken, reconcile what is lost, and bring peace amidst unrest." – Litanies for All Occasions, Garth House

Refraction

2011-10-24T13:27:00.000-07:00

FROM OUR JOURNAL PAGES:

chuck + peg: The meaning of refraction is “the fact or phenomenon of light, radio waves, etc., being deflected in passing obliquely through the interface between one medium and another or through a medium of varying density.” I find not only the meaning as it relates to physics interesting but also when I think of the meaning in terms of the spiritual. We were first created by God’s divine intention which created our soul. The deflection or changing of direction occurs when our interior life is touched by the light of the Holy Spirit and when we turn into that light we have the ability to transform what seems to be hopeless situations.

Works of art are the fruit of human creativity

2011-10-24T12:42:00.000-07:00

The progression of our group painting and dialogue. Photos courtesy of Sandie Anderson

FROM OUR TRAVELS:

Reflections from the Art as an Act of Reconciliation workshop

by Sandie Anderson, Bethlehem Lutheran Church

MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA. We met Chuck and Peg at church Friday afternoon and got set up. We decided that since we had a managable group we would have their Keynote presentation and then give everyone a chance to paint on the World Canvas Project. Their presentation went great. I have a new understanding and appreciation about what they do in Northern Ireland and elsewhere and see how this could be really meaningful in the Holy Land. Then it was time to paint. We were to write a prayer on our square and then paint. We could do more than one square. I thought “Fat chance. Lucky if I get one done!” I looked at that square for a long time trying to figure out what sort of prayer I wanted to send out to the world, or at least to the people of Northern Ireland where this was eventually headed. World peace? Hope that their hearts would heal and be full of God’s love? Hope that mine would? Health and peace in our collective souls? Healing for my friends with cancer? I tentatively painted one square. It looked ok. So I painted two more. Driving home I felt relieved and optimistic. Those prayers were already winging their way throughout the world even though I knew the canvas was still drying in the basement at church.

Saturday morning – This was better as I knew Chuck and Peg and the rest of the participants and scarier because we were starting with a big blank sheet. It looked so pristine just lying there. We opened with devotions and a prayer. Then we had some discussion about shapes and color that helped ease the tension. Then we went to the paper to paint. There were 17 of us. Paint quietly until the bell rings. Pass your paint two to the left and move one to the right. Paint again. I was standing next to my friend Darold who is a really good artist. The bell rang and I could hardly pick up the brush. Darold was busy being artistic. I made some symbols on the paper – yikes! The bell rang and we screwed up the directions and finally moved one step to the right. Now I was painting on Darold’s images. There is no way this is going to work and it will be awful. I hate this color. The bell rang…. and rang….. and rang. Soon there was hardly anyplace to paint so we had to paint on top of other colors. Someone across the table was spattering paint. It was getting worse. Every section I painted on had too much going on and was not connected to anything. The bell rang, and it was finally over. Whew. It didn’t look as bad as I thought when it was drying on the table. I was happy I was done and hadn’t made any terrible errors.

Sunday morning – Our painting was hanging in the gallery. It looks terrific. There are themes and wonderful colors. I love it and I helped make it. WOW! World canvas with the 5th and 6th graders – It was very well received. I went there between services and had some kids and one grandfather ask me if they could paint so we set them up. They definitely had more courage than me!

Monday – Looking at it before yoga and a woman asked me if it was for sale. Go figure! Some of the images we painted and the prayers I wrote come into my mind often – proof that they are at work. Would I do it again? YES. Do I want to go to the Holy Land with these people and watch what happens there? Absolutely. Is this project done working on me? I don’t think so, stay tuned.

Welcomed into the Skainos community

2011-10-20T08:48:00.000-07:00

Construction of the Skainos Project will be completed in the Spring of 2012

FROM OUR TRAVELS:

Prayers for Skainos and the East Belfast Mission
by Sara Cook
Director of Family and Community, East Belfast Mission

EAST BELFAST, NORTHERN IRELAND. Inner East Belfast is a place defined, in many ways, by the legacy of its past. It is the home of the shipyards that built the Titanic and was the birthplace of more than its share of famous people such as musician, Van Morrison, and Christian apologist, C.S. Lewis. Sadly, it is also a place deeply scarred by Northern Ireland’s Troubles and by the economic blight that followed in the wake of the conflict. Its proud past sits alongside its current ranking as one of the most socially deprived areas in Northern Ireland.

East Belfast Mission (EBM) is a Methodist church and social service organization right at the heart of Inner East Belfast with a mission to transform and renew the local community. When we think about how to move beyond East Belfast’s past and build toward a new future, among the tools that come to mind in achieving potential change are the creative arts. And, while scores of famous musicians and writers come from East Belfast, the local community that is most impacted by economic blight have very little access to or interaction with the creative and performing arts.

It is into this environment that Chuck and Peg brought their World Canvas and other creative projects during their recent trip to Northern Ireland. During the course of two weeks, Peg and Chuck brought the World canvas to members of the congregation at EBM, local members of the community who regularly participate in EBM’s community-based work, local children and young people, and the staff of EBM. In each case, people were encouraged to express their prayers and hopes, not only for the world, but also for the future of their own community.

Because many people from the local community in East Belfast have not had the opportunity to be exposed to art-making or creative processes, we weren’t exactly sure how people would respond to the workshops. However, not only were people delighted with the World Canvas sessions, they embraced a conversation about how to bring more creative work into the local community.

Based on the warm reception to the World Canvas, EBM hopes to continue to work with Chuck and Peg and the local community to create a special local canvas that will allow the wider community to share their hopes, wishes, and prayers for the future of East Belfast. Big thanks to Peg and Chuck for their awakening of the artistic spirit in East Belfast this summer!

To find out more go to: Skainos Project

Art as an act of reconciliation

2011-09-19T16:04:00.000-07:00

World Canvas Project Photo © Helm Photography

FROM OUR STUDIO:

What stories need telling now?

Telling our story and making art is the essence of being human and how we tell our stories shapes our lives. Join us for a time of art making, storytelling, spiritual exploration and community as we give shape to our stories through image and imagination. By pushing back the boundaries of the familiar and guided into areas of the unknown, we experience that which we did not know was in us – surprised by God. Being artistic is not a pre–requisite for this workshop, all we ask is a willingness to be open to the Holy Spirit.

Join us for our weekend workshop promoting peace and reconciliation, hosted by Bethlehem Lutheran Church, Minneapolis. The focus is on “creating pathways
to God through scripture and art.” It is open to people of all artistic abilities.

Friday evening, September 23, 7:00-8:30 pm
Presentation on Art as an act of reconciliation.
Free and open to the public, registration required.

Saturday, September 24, 9:30 am-Noon
Hands on workshop on Painting as Prayer. Free and open to the public, registration required, space limited.
To register go to: Bethlehem Lutheran Church

Get Inspired

2011-08-05T10:57:00.000-07:00

Weaving at the Van Life Center, Turkey

FROM OUR STUDIO:

Thursday 6 October, 2011 The New Jerusalem Series
A reception and Art Exhibit featuring our work will be part of the Lutheran Mideast Development Musical Gala. Plymouth Congregational Church, Guild Hall 1900 Nicollet Avenue . Minneapolis 55403 7:00pm

Tickets are $45. For more information contact Erica Oswald at 651.457.6541 lutheran-mideast.org

Genesis+Art will be exhibiting their New Jerusalem Series at the Plymouth Congregational Church, Minneapolis and will be part of a fund raising concert. Join us for an evening of music and art to benefit Lutheran Mideast Development. LMD is inseparable from the history of the modern Middle East. Through famine, epidemic, earthquake and war, LMD has stood fast with the Kurdish, Persian, Arab, Turkish, Armenian, Assyrian and Jewish people, who together weave the human tapestry of this troubled region. Through it all, LMD strives to bring peace and wholeness to the communities it serves. LMD has a special emphasis on the Kurds, a nation of more than 20 million people living across the frontiers of the Middle East.

The concert will feature violinist Jennifer Curtis; Brahms, Sonata No. 1 for violin and piano in G major, Op. 78. George Enescu, Airs in Romanian Folk style and original compositions and improvisations. Duo Pianos with Matthew Hand and Vince Phillips; Works for two pianos including Symphonic Dance No. 1, Op. 45 by Sergei Rachmaninoff and the Grieg/Mozart Sonata for two pianos.

Three Gates

2011-08-05T10:16:00.000-07:00

FROM OUR JOURNAL PAGES:

Chuck + Peg: Orange is one of the healing colors and is also thought that it stimulates enthusiasm and creativity. Orange means vitality with endurance. Orange spiritually effects our creativity, harmony, passion, freedom and intuition. Three gates reside on each side of the New Jerusalem and speak to the virtues of faith, hope and love. We’re not sure that we set out on this path when we began painting, but considering it’s meanings and symbols, coming out of a world and culture of uncertain gray, it gives us hope for the future.

Nephesh

2011-07-20T13:12:00.000-07:00

FROM OUR JOURNAL PAGES:

We named our studio Genesis + Art for a number of reasons one of which is the creation story found in the Tanakh. The mysterious creation story connected with our imaginations. I don’t believe that the seven days of Genesis were seven twenty four hour days or even seven isolated periods of time, no matter how long, but rather seven pulses of illumination and darkness, of creation and rest, of knowing and unknowing, of expansion and contraction, all of which continue into the present. In our own creative process, we are reminded of its new beginning in the divine creation.

Prayer is relaxing into the mystery of being loved by God.

2011-07-20T12:35:00.000-07:00

FROM OUR JOURNAL PAGES:

I’m not sure where I first read or heard the thought that prayer is relaxing into the mystery of being loved by God, but the essence of its meaning for me has remained. It gave me a different way to think and feel about prayer. I had always thought prayer was something you recited or petitions for needs, all of which certainly are forms of prayer. But this reflection on prayer seems to ask me just to be present. In this place I come to know that God loves me, even with a veil of uncertain mystery. Relaxing into the presence of the divine creates a space for relationship that God desires from me.

Orienting ourselves in the world

2011-06-15T10:05:00.000-07:00

FROM OUR JOURNAL PAGES:

The visible is how we orient ourselves in the world. It remains our principle source of information about the world. Art reminds us of what is absent. What we don’t see anymore. Art is not only a mnemonic device used to remember events in our time here. Art addresses a larger memory. A memory less topical, art reminds us not only of what we don’t know but what we recognize as familiar.

Chicago inspiration

2011-06-15T09:50:00.000-07:00

FROM OUR JOURNAL PAGES:

We took a trip to Chicago recently and was inspired by the creativity that can be found in this Midwestern city. The architecture danced together in harmony between monolithic, historical and contemporary statements. The art museums, restaurants and their cuisine, theatre, old hotels and people inspired, fed, excited and added ingredients to our creative soup for which we are grateful.

A quote from Frederick Buechner

2011-05-08T15:17:00.000-07:00

FROM OUR JOURNAL PAGES:

I came across Buechner's quote in my journal from long ago and still find his words rich with meaning for me. "I believe that what Genesis suggests is that this original self, with the print of God's thumb still upon it, is the most essential part of who we are and is buried deep in all of us as a source of wisdom and strength and healing which we can draw upon or, with our terrible freedom, not draw upon as we choose. I think that among other things all real art comes from that deepest self - painting, writing music, dance, all of it that in some way nourishes the spirit. " — Frederick Buechner

The art of story telling

2011-05-07T14:09:00.000-07:00

FROM OUR JOURNAL PAGES:

The power of storytelling has always captured my imagination through image and word. Stories make claims on our hearts and minds by making order out of the chaos of life. It gives structure to our human experience and places a narrative in time. We tell stories in order to make meaning of life and what we perceive to be happening in the moment, a single thread in the bigger narrative of life. Stories that reveal something of ourselves and our world rather than conceal connect us with others and help build communities that are authentic, full of meaning and truth. I came across this ancient book that tells a story with images and symbols and wonder what wisdom it might hold. Something of a daily journal or information, something important enough to give it this shape and form and somehow an ancient story finding its way through time into the modern digital age.

A new home for our New Jerusalem Series

2011-04-17T19:34:00.000-07:00

FROM OUR STUDIO:

Three paintings from our New Jerusalem Series have become part of the permanent collection at Bethlehem Lutheran Church, Minneapolis. We couldn't find a better home for our work. Bethlehem has a long history of outreach and missions, both in Minneapolis / Saint Paul and abroad and was a part of the congregation's ministry from its earliest days.

In 1923 Bethlehem's first commissioned missionaries, Pastor Irv and Nora Jacobson, were sent out from the congregation as missionaries to China. Several generations of their descendants are long-time members of Bethlehem. Bethlehem continues to reach out from south Minneapolis and its two daughter congregations to other parts of the city, state and this country to the southern tip of Argentina and to the other side of the world in central Africa, India and Palestine. The ministry of Bethlehem Lutheran congregation began in a rented second-floor hall on Franklin Avenue in the heart of the city's Norwegian-American community on January 1, 1894.

We are grateful for the congregation of Bethlehem Lutheran to be supportive of our work by making it a part of their home.

New Jerusalem Series travels to Dayton Avenue Presbyterian Church

2011-04-17T19:19:00.000-07:00

FROM OUR STUDIO:

Dayton Avenue Presbyterian Church
Saint Paul, Minnesota

Three of our New Jerusalem Series paintings are part of the exhibition titled In Search of Enough, sponsored by A Minnesota Without Poverty. Artists throughout the Minneapolis / Saint Paul area have interpreted the concept of Enough – What is enough? Expressed through the arts, this traveling exhibition is meant to draw attention to poverty and the statewide movement to end poverty in Minnesota by 2020.

A day of contemplation and art at Saint John's Abbey

2011-04-12T18:10:00.000-07:00

FROM OUR TRAVELS:

I spent a contemplative day with word, art, meal and friends while exploring Saint John's Abbey in Collegeville, Minnesota. I tend to think that art and theology are cousins of the same spirit and are drawing back to each other. I also wonder if bringing them together on Holy ground can offer us insights to creativity and our Creator. Sister Joan Chittister, OSB takes this further to compare the artist and monk as one. Monasticism, in fact, cultivates the artistic spirit. The qualities that are basic to art are the qualities demanded of the monastic: immersion, single–mindedness, beauty, praise and creativity. “It is in silence that the artist hears the call to raise to the heights of human consciousness those qualities no definitions can capture. Ecstasies, pain, fluid truth, pass by so quickly or surround us so constantly that the eyes fail to see and the heart ceases to respond. Only by seeing the unseen within can the artist dredge it out of nothingness so that we can touch it, too. Finally, it is humility that enables an artist to risk rejection and failure, disdain and derogation to bring to the heart of the world what the world too easily, too randomly, too callously overlooks.”[1] The making of art, like monasticism, invites us into the sacred realm of contemplation where we listen in silence and await the divine presence in our lives, where the darkness and emptiness becomes the intersection between the outer and inner worlds, where the darkness is transformed into light, revealing the divine.

[1] Sister Joan Chittister: The Artist and Monk Are One://www.huffingtonpost.com/sister-joan-chittister-osb/the-artist-and-monk-are-o_b_691331.html

Creativity and human dignity

2011-03-04T13:37:00.000-08:00

FROM OUR STUDIO:

A Minnesota Without Poverty

The poor may feel invisible to the rest of the world, so with personal stories and community art making the people of Minnesota are making visible the invisible face of poverty.

With squares of paper and markers Minnesotans with words and symbols are expressing THEIR OWN STORY OF ENOUGH and on the other side of the square THEIR COMMITMENT AND WHAT THEY WILL DO TO ENSURE ENOUGH FOR ALL. The questions come from the bigger question of WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO HAVE ENOUGH? The stories that reflect the face of the poor are stitched together into streamers, connecting folks from around the state to make a unified statement. These streamers are seen in this image on the railing
in the rotunda of the State Capital as lawmakers gathered for discussion. A Minnesota Without Poverty invites you into a conversation about the meaning and teh reality of that question. To facilitate this conversation there is a six–week interfaith discussion guide, focusing on six crtitical aspects surrounding the theme of Enough, and how our various faith traditions engage each topic:
Enough of the Basics in Life, Enough Creation and Environment, Enough Economy, Enough Equality and Community, Enough Time and Enough for All.

Click on the link to find out more.

As an artist I believe that Creativity through the arts offer us an opportunity for transformation, both personally and as a community.

Creativity transforming both self and community

2011-01-16T08:07:00.000-08:00

FROM OUR STUDIO:

A Minnesota Without Poverty In Search of Enough
Presentation and Artistic Call to Action delivered by

Chuck Hoffman, Genesis+Art Studio
The University of Minnesota Statewide Gathering, 9 December 2010
And Bethlehem Lutheran Church, Minneapolis, 14 January 2011

"To begin, I would like to share part of my own story. In 1990 I found my life on a very rough and uncertain road with no roof over my head. If not for the love, kindness and generosity of family … hope and faith … my art … and a charitable offer from an elderly widow to sleep on a couch in her basement … I would have been on the street. Poverty, despair and an erosion of our dignity can touch any of us. If it were not for the help of others I may never have gotten back on my feet. So I am forever grateful to those that reached out to me and find this opportunity tonight to offer something back.

As an artist I believe that Creativity through the arts offer us an opportunity for transformation … both personally and as a community. Art can show us both beauty and can illuminate the darker side of life. When our creativity is awakened within us and shared, it can shine out into the world and in that creative process make something new … transforming both self and the community around us.

The arts have the power to transform our mechanical minds and give us a new language that touches the yearning of our soul. When we hear a series of musical notes or lyrics we can be transported through time or when we stand in front of a work of art, we may find it reaching a place in us where words may not be able to go … a divine place … a place that can lift us up and connect us with creation … perhaps even allowing us to see the divine in the face of another.

Music, drama, the literary and the visual arts have a strong place in the culture of Minnesota … just as they have been part of our gathering here at Bethlehem … it evokes something in us.

It has been my experience that creating can be a healing gesture, as sacred as prayer, as essential to the spirit as food for the body. With that, I am now going to ask you to be part of the creative process. The poor may feel invisible to the rest of the world, so with our stories and art we will help make visible the invisible.

In front of you on the table are squares of paper and markers. What I would like you to do is select a color square and on one side … with words or symbol express YOUR OWN STORY OF ENOUGH and on the other side of the square …YOUR COMMITMENT AND WHAT YOU WILL DO TO ENSURE ENOUGH FOR ALL. This can be done with words or symbols. I ask you that in the act of drawing or writing reflect on a person you know who has suffered under poverty… see their face or feel the emotion … or your own lament over poverty if you have been touched by it personally … reflect on this while you are working. You can create more than one if you like … the more the better.

And if you are comfortable, share your stories of ENOUGH and your commitment with others at your tables.

When we are finished we will collect your squares and they will be stitched together with the stories and art of your sisters and brothers from around the state. Our art will continue to grow and be displayed to make visible the faces of poverty and symbolize our commitment to help transform the lives of our neighbors.

The square, by the way, is an archetypal shape and its form has appeared in the art of all cultures throughout time. The square symbolizes stability, solidity, security and permanence. Working with the square indicates your readiness to build, to implement a plan and to manifest your ideas. In many traditions, the square was an emblem of the perfect city, built for eternity.

So I invite you to take this time to reflect, create and act. Allow your art to proclaim with image and word your intensions.

I would like to close with a quote that I find inspiring as an artist. It’s from the artist Marc Chagall… 'If I create from the heart, nearly everything works; if from the head, almost nothing.'

Thank you…may our time together and your work be blessed."

For more information go to A Minnesota Without Poverty
Images Courtesy of Rod Maeker

A Minnesota Without Poverty 2010 Statewide Gathering

2011-01-16T06:27:00.000-08:00

FROM OUR STUDIO:

Two years ago our studio became associated with an organization called A Minnesota Without Poverty and over that time have met people that are struggling to get by and many people who are passionate about changing these conditions and preserving our human dignity. Hearing the stories and putting a human face to poverty makes me realize the ever-increasing amount of pain that exists right under my white middle class nose. It’s frightening to see that anyone of us can fall into the pit and that the current landscape can include educated and uneducated alike. The task of helping the poor seems overwhelming, especially when you consider the vastness of poverty. An ethical conversation without scripture and without Agapé leaves us in a survival mentality and ethic that attempts to recover prosperity at the expense of the poor. Who will give a voice for the poor? With the growing number of poor how can faith organizations alone bare the burden?

As part of the 2010 Statewide gathering our studio was asked to create a call to action for those joining us from 5 cities live via a video feed at the University of Minnesota. We felt the call to action needed to be artistic in nature, form community around creating together and be an ongoing installation around the state. The theme In Search of Enough had been established by the Director, Nancy Maeker and the development team and would be expressed by visual artists, poets, storytellers, dancers and musicians the evening of the event. The artistic expression needed to work within this theme and involve all participants at the various sites.

A Minnesota Without Poverty Statewide Gathering to End Poverty by 2020 took place on December 9, 2010 at the University of Minnesota. The evening highlighted Governor Mark Dayton’s perspective along with Rep. Morrie Lanning, Former Senate Majority Leader John Hottinger and Garry Cunningham. The event also featured the first Art Exhibition of In Search of Enough showcasing performance artists, poets and visual artists from around the state.

Following the Eastern Star

2011-01-04T08:50:00.000-08:00

FROM OUR JOURNAL PAGES:

“Where is he who has been born King of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the East, and have come to worship him.” – Matthew 2:2

The story of Jesus’ birth continues for me to be one of great mystery and of sacrifice. It’s not a warm and fuzzy story, but one that tests our willingness to see something new. It’s a story of courage, overcoming doubt, sensing, seeing and stepping from the known into the unknown. It was this way for both Mary and Joseph, whatever their true circumstances of the time. But they made due with what they had to create a space for their new son. From a cold and uncertain place they loved and enabled Jesus to grow in the light of God.

Wise men journeyed and risked following a star and by not returning to Herod. They had seen something new and glorious, something that put them on their knees and sent them into the unknown to tell what they had seen.

Christmas does that to me, calling me into the unknown with faith, into the mystery that lies in the questions and not absolutes. Recognizing something new and seeing beyond the tired old images that give us a false sense of security. I venture from the star and risk following the story into the mystery and uncertainty of where it will take me. Leaving behind for others, with image and word what I have seen.

This quote by Sir Francis Drake is the inspiration for Carl Laamanen’s blog.

“Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly,

To venture on wider seas

Where storms will show your mastery;

Where losing sight of land,

We shall find the stars.”

Carl writes, “Sometimes we need to lose sight of the land to find the truly remarkable things of this world. I’m embarking on that journey to find the truly moving, the “stars” if you will, of art, whether this art be of the auditory, cinematic or written variety. Of course, there will be wild seas along the way, because most often anything worth finding comes at a price.”

The Mystery of God and Art

2011-01-04T08:35:00.000-08:00

FROM OUR STUDIO:

November 30th, 2010 § From Loosing Sight of Land

“They are the most wonderful mystery, body and blood.”- Gilead, Marilynne Robinson

I remember the first time I took Communion at the Anglican church that I now attend. It was a revelation to me. It was a grave, joyful matter, and as I swallowed my bread dipped in wine I felt blessed by that bread and wine in a way that I never had before. It was more than just a way to remember, but it was charged with a certain energy because it was being taken seriously as a Sacrament.

Why hadn’t I ever experienced this before? Was it because my previous church was so afraid of appearing Catholic that we didn’t ascribe any significance beyond remembrance to Communion or is it a symptom of a deeper problem in many churches? Sometimes it seems as if there is a fear in the Church of using art or symbols that we don’t understand or can’t control because we don’t know what they will reveal to us. It seems to me that a lot of churches and Christians have carved out a canyon between art and symbolic actions and church and Christianity and then burned the bridge that spans this gap.

We have art and symbols to point us to deeper things. We have church and Christianity to point us to deeper things. It seems to me as if they are on the same team. Art, as mystic poet Kahlil Gibran puts it, is “a step in the known toward the unknown.” Good art can transcend the here and now and touch our emotions in ways that words can’t. Art, like God and his ways, is a mystery and that’s why it can show us God. It reveals things hidden and sometimes hides things already revealed forcing us to look deeper.

Another thing art and symbols do for our faith is to ground it in its sometimes forgotten physicality. As the great Creeds and Paul in 1 Corinthians 15 remind us, the Christian’s greatest hope is the bodily resurrection, therefore making the physical presence of the body very important. The symbol of Communion or making the sign of the cross, by involving our body, reminds us that the Christian faith is a faith that radically affirms our physical nature as being a good creation of God. There is no Gnostic split between spirit and flesh in Christianity. This is constantly reaffirmed when we taste the bread and wine and know that they speak of a deeper reality, of Christ’s body and blood. Our physical senses, by means of a physical symbol, are drawn deeper in a spiritual reality.

Artwork is Bonfires by Chuck Hoffman and Peg-Carlson Hoffman.

THE AUTHOR

Carl Laamanen is currently an undergraduate at Grove City College in PA majoring in Communication Studies and Spanish. He has been cultivating a love of film over the past few years and enjoys finding rays of light into the human condition in film, music and literature. He is hopeful of attending grad school and learning more about the art that inspires him. Eventually, he would enjoy teaching others about the things that show him the glory in this world.

Sketchbook Project: The Things That Change Things

2010-12-16T14:22:00.000-08:00

FROM OUR JOURNAL PAGES:

Genesis+Art Studio participated in the Brooklyn Art Library Sketchbook Project and submitted a sketchbook of work that will be on exhibition in Brooklyn, NY; Austin, San Francisco, Portland, ME; Atlanta, Chicago, Washington DC and Winter Park, FL. You can also check out our journal, along with hundreds of other artists by going to the Brooklyn Art Library site and look under our GenesisArtStudio link. arthousecoop.com/library

Saint Paul Snow

2010-12-16T14:13:00.000-08:00

FROM OUR TRAVELS:

The recent snow storm in Minnesoata offered a morning of image making. After 36+ hours and over 17" of snow had fallen, we had a blanket of white that quieted both sight and sound over the Twin Cities.

© Genesis+Art Studio

New Jerusalem Series at the Bigelow Chapel

2010-12-16T13:36:00.000-08:00

FROM OUR STUDIO:

Our New Jerusalem Series will be part of the worship space at the Bigelow Chapel on the campus of United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities through January 2011. The series consists of seven 40 x 40 paintings from our Gensis+Art Studio.

FROM OUR JOURNAL PAGES:

Black and white, left, right, good, evil, conservative, liberal, I have it right, you have it wrong, faith divided by moral and political ideologies, not budging from our sense of beliefs, just waiting for the power structure to change or better yet, move off with our own tribe of like thinkers and wait for the next dividing issue. How can we move towards one another? How can we begin to see God in the color that resides in both the black and white? What could happen? Would life be more rich in celebrating our differences with understanding? Could we have a sudden outbreak of hope? Can changing our lens from seeking differences to finding understanding lead us to new truth? Can our imaginations and creativity lead us to grace margins and a compassionate and faith filled way forward? For those who dare the possibility to become transparent and to interact with one another we think we not only connect with creation, but find out who we are in it, and who we are in relationship to others. Could it help lead us back to our humanity for the love of Christ?

What does art have to do with reconciliation anyway?

2010-10-26T19:48:00.000-07:00

FROM OUR JOURNAL PAGES:

It has been a time of both sacrifice and learning over the last couple of years. My study at Luther Seminary has taken me deeper into the questions for which I don’t have any answers. Perhaps asking and wrestling with sacred questions is what it is suppose to be about. How do you answer the questions of suffering in the world. How do we hold one another up when the weight of the questions press to crush us with despair? Where is God in our suffering? The Book of Job seeks the questions and while not answered directly Job seems to be satisfied with the depths of mystery. When all we seem to want is answers we are given more questions. Questions that make us look deeper into each other and into ourselves. Art helps me bring that internal eternal mystery to the surface and gives me hope.

Let's continue the conversation for peace

2010-10-17T16:58:00.000-07:00

FROM OUR STUDIO:

We hope that if you have spent some time being with our art, either at our Genesis+Art Studio, gallery or on line, that you have reflected on what it might say to you. Our thoughts might be very different from your own or you may have a very point of view from either one of us. We hope that our art has evoked something in you, and that you will become a participant in a dialogue with us.

We would like to hear from you. Let's together start the conversation that can inpsire our imaginations and creativity for a peaceful world. If you are inspired or just want to express your thoughts either in word or image send them to us on email and we will share our responses with all of you. Email us at studio@genesisartstudio.com. Peace be with you. Hope to see you!

Chuck + Peg

Works of Reconciliation at St. Anthony

2010-10-13T19:16:00.000-07:00

FROM OUR JOURNAL PAGES:

chuck: A wall can be defined as a thing perceived as a protective or restrictive barrier either physical or as in a wall of silence. Our experience in Northern Ireland brought us in contact with physical walls that both protected and divided. If you have not experienced this sort of setting, it can be a challenge and a threat to achieving a sense of community. I can't really judge the short-term merits of building a wall, but I know at some point you really can't build them high enough. There is a perception that building walls will either keep others out or keep them in, depending on who controls the power. Perhaps we can learn that listening and creative dialogue can build mutual bridges of trust and hope.

peg: Walls, whether they are built to protect or divide, bring a constant reminder to fear what's on the other side. The walls in Northern Ireland were meant to mitigate violence between the Catholics and the Protestants but the net result is to maintain division. Chuck and I have been working to bring down the walls in Belfast as we watch them being built between Israel and Palestine. This painting was a reminder that the oppressed nearly always become the oppressors.

Our show titled Works of Reconciliation will be up thru November at St. Anthony Lutheran, St. Paul, MN

The New Jerusalem Series at Saint Andrew's

2010-10-13T19:01:00.000-07:00

FROM OUR JOURNAL PAGES:

Black and white, left, right, good, evil, conservative, liberal, I have it right, you have it wrong, faith divided by ideologies, systems of power and privilege and dynamics of domination and hostility by which we seek to judge and control others…

How can we move toward one another? How can we begin to see God in the colors that reside in both the black and the white? What could happen? Would life be richer in celebrating our differences with understanding? Could we have a sudden outbreak of hope? Can changing our lens transform us to new truth? Can our imaginations and creativity lead us to the grace margins and a compassionate faith-filled way forward? Could it help lead us back to our humanity for the love of Christ?

For those who dare the possibility to become transparent and to interact with each other we think that we not only connect with a new creation, but also find out who we are in it, and our relationship to others.

Our new series of work titled The New Jerusalem will be up through November at
St. Andrew's Lutheran Church, Mahtomedi, MN

Reflections of China

2010-10-12T19:13:00.000-07:00

FROM OUR TRAVELS:

We were inspired by the people, culture, architecture and art of China. Our travels took us to Shanghai, Wenjo, the landscape we saw from the bullet train between Shanghai and Beijing which took us to the Great Wall, the Forbidden City and the Summer Palace.

Shanghai Inspiration

2010-09-27T20:01:00.000-07:00

FROM OUR TRAVELS:

We were fortunate to be able to travel to Shanghai and Beijing, China to be with our son John, daughter-in-law Ye and our families to celebrate their marriage. We were inspired by the people, the culture, the architecture and art.

Hobbs Open Studio Event

2010-09-27T06:17:00.000-07:00

FROM OUR JOURNAL PAGES:

Why should we move towards understanding of one another? Can changing our lens from seeking differences to finding understanding lead us to new truth? Can our imaginations and creativity lead us to grace margins and a compassionate and faith filled way forward?

Join us for an evening of art + conversation on Friday October 8 at the Hobbs Open Studio Event from 6 – 10pm. Studio No. 501

Hope to see you.

Hallmark Creative Leadership Symposium

2010-09-27T06:06:00.000-07:00

FROM OUR STUDIO:

We'll be sharing our story and our work at the Hallmark Creative Leadership Symposium September 20 – October 1 at the Starlight Theater in Kansas City. We are part of several presentations over the course of two days. Our story is titled: Living In the Tension and will explore the healing power of art in building community and relationships. We'll be sharing our experiences and art from the time spent with the people of Belfast, Northern Ireland.

New Jerusalem Series at Luther Seminary

2010-09-22T21:04:00.000-07:00

FROM OUR STUDIO:

We are grateful to Luther Seminary for their invitation to give our presentation titled New Jerusalem Series at the Annual Donor Celebration on Sunday 19 September. We shared our story about our art, creativity workshops and our experience working in Belfast, Northern Ireland. We also had seven new paintings in the Olson Community Center that explore the grace margins where the divine dwells and draws us together. Our work will be at Luther Seminary thru September, then will move onto Kansas City and back to Minneapolis for a series of shows in 2011.

New work at Luther Seminary

2010-09-14T17:30:00.000-07:00

FROM OUR STUDIO:

A new body of work from Genesis+Art Studio will be on display at Luther Seminary beginning Sunday September 19, 2010. The work titled The New Jerusalem consists of seven explorations around drawing together to create something new.

ECVA Justice & Peace Exhibition: Bonfires

2010-09-06T19:57:00.000-07:00

FROM OUR JOURNAL PAGES:

Bonfires

40 x 40 acrylic on canvas

peg: Bonfires in Belfast have served as flash points for violence and competition for many years. In the painting, the Bonfire also resembles a storm, dangerous but intriguing. We often watched an incoming storm from behind barbed wire. The gathering storm on the horizon wasn't always a meteorological event.

chuck: Our time spent in Ireland and Northern Ireland has put us in the middle of the ancient Celtic culture. While I have much to learn about its history and intimacies, I find myself drawn to its spirituality and the land that gave birth to it. There is a yearly event in Belfast where they light Bonfires, fires that stretch for two city blocks or more. The fire has its primitive roots embedded in our souls, it was a source of heat for warmth and food and became a gathering place for ancient communities to share stories. Perhaps in the gathering of an ancient ritual a new story of community, living in peace, can rise up.

ECVA Justice & Peace Exhibition

2010-09-06T19:42:00.000-07:00

FROM OUR STUDIO:

Our work is included in the ECVA juried show titled: Justice & Peace. Our work shown here is one of two accepted into the show and was a commission we received from Forthspring Inter Community Center in Belfast, Northern Ireland and is titled: Belfast Peace.

CURATOR'S STATEMENT: In this exhibition, the third in our Baptismal Covenant series, artists were invited to respond to these lines from the covenant:

“Will you strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being? I will, with God’s help.”

The resulting exhibition articulates the inherent tension between care for ourselves, our own families and communities, and a respectful concern for the broader community of faiths, cultures, and the environment. Each image calls us to a broader world view, inviting us to see ourselves as part of a larger whole and to act upon that understanding.

We invite you to sit with these images and see what response awakens within you.

Diane Walker

Curator

Art as a visual language

2010-09-04T12:50:00.000-07:00

FROM OUR TRAVEL SKETCHBOOK:

We stopped along the Great Wall of China to look more closely and try to take in the mystery and magnitude of the mountains and the wall that cut through it for miles. The experience of sharing our art making with those we encountered bridged the language and cultural gaps and brought about smiles and lots of photo taking with complete strangers. Art was the connection point and opened a door and invitation to share something beyond words. A memory that we will not forget.

Great Wall of China

2010-09-04T12:32:00.000-07:00

FROM OUR TRAVEL SKETCHBOOK:

We have just returned from a trip of a life time to be part of our son John and Ye's wedding in Shanghai, China. We were richly blessed by the hospitality of Ye's family and look forward to the unfolding of our new connection. We later traveled to Beijing and onto the Great Wall where we experienced awe and wonder over the sites, sounds, mystery and people we encountered. It was truely an inspiring journey into a new creation.

Springfield Road

2010-08-14T08:49:00.001-07:00

FROM OUR JOURNAL PAGES:

Springfield Road

40 x 40 acrylic on canvas

chuck: This work felt like a journey into the unknown. Perhaps the painting of the lines in the early stages of development is like living your life intentionally and in the moment. When you live on this side of your brain, you fully experience all of creation in that moment. As the painting developed, altered, taking many different turns with its essential story trying to emerge, the invisible structure came back from the history of the painting, to alter and frame the creation. Even in our wonderings into the unknown, there lies a spiritual structure and connection to all time.

Peg: Peeling off the resist and revealing the “fencing” was just like experiencing the barbed wire in Northern Ireland, the wire gets so in between the observer and the “landscape”. It becomes the object and what’s on the other side becomes distant and unreachable unknown.

Blessings

2010-08-13T17:51:00.001-07:00

FROM OUR JOURNAL PAGES:

blessings

30 x 30 acrylic on canvas

chuck + peg: This work has special meaning for us. It speaks to the potential we have as a community when we lift each other up rather than turn away when times are difficult. Reaching out a helping hand, asking nothing in return, can bring many blessings for both the giver and receiver. The light that comes from another’s blessing on our behalf during dark and uncertain times gives rise to new beginnings and blessings in return.

Genesis+Art at 19 Below Gallery

2010-08-09T18:33:00.000-07:00

FROM OUR STUDIO:

Our show Works of Reconciliation opened at 19 Below Gallery in Kansas City's Art District Friday night and will be up thru the end of September.

Many thanks to those of you who stoppped by Friday night and for well wishes and encouragement.

Intruding Upon the Timeless

2010-08-05T13:15:00.000-07:00

FROM OUR JOURNAL PAGES:

Intruding Upon the Timeless

30 x 60 acrylic on canvas

peg: I was thinking about gratitude and wondering why we aren’t walking “gratitude journals.” I think it’s because to be grateful we have to be attentive and aware, and usually we human beings are neither. By focusing and noting all the things for which we are grateful, we flex our “attention muscles” and begin to notice all the little things that bring joy everyday.

chuck: This work began by reflecting on the word gratitude. The spiritual practice of gratitude can be considered a state of mind going even further to being a way of life. Gratitude links us in relationship to the divine in every part of creation. By practicing gratitude in both good and challenging experiences, we bless others and in turn are blessed. This personal and social renewal also opens our imagination – and more specifically, the imaginative intersection where spirit and artistic vision meet. By starting with gratitude, we risk reconnecting beauty to goodness and truth.

New Works of Reconciliation

2010-08-04T14:24:00.000-07:00

FROM OUR STUDIO:

Our Opening in the Kansas City Cross Roads Art District is Friday August 6. Our work and story will be on public display thru the end of September. Dad Hoffman got a preview of our work and offered only slight criticism. 19 Below Gallery is located at 5 w 19th street kcmo.

Luther Seminary Annual Donor Celebration

2010-08-04T13:38:00.000-07:00

FROM OUR STUDIO:

Genesis+Art Studio will be part of Luther Seminary's Annual Donor Celebration. The event Inspiration from God will be held at Luther Seminary, St. Paul, Minnesota on Sunday September 19, 2010 at the Olson Campus Center.

Join us for our conversation titled: Faith and Art. Our World Canvas Project will be part of the community.

Hallmark Creative Leadership Symposium

2010-08-03T14:48:00.000-07:00

FROM OUR STUDIO:

We'll be sharing our story and our work at the Hallmark Creative Symposium this fall at the Starlight Theater in Kansas City. We are part of several presentations over the course of two days. Our story is titled: Living In the Tension and will explore the healing power of art in building community and relationships. We'll be sharing our experiences and art from the time spent with the people of Belfast, Northern Ireland.

Sacred Ties

2010-08-02T15:30:00.001-07:00

FROM OUR JOURNAL PAGES:

Sacred Ties

40 x 40 acrylic on canvas

peg: We wanted to paint something for John and Ye’s wedding that would not only honor two individuals and their uniqueness, but also honor what happens in a successful union of two people. The marriage relationship itself rises with a life all its own. The task becomes how to balance individual, opposing or different needs and still nurture and grow the relationship. If done with care, this third thing rising is not a burden, but a guiding light for both people.

chuck: We’ve painted with this color palette before, but little did we know that the theme would be part of a painting we created for our son John and his wife Ye’s wedding. As we venture to Shanghai, China for the ceremony, we will encounter the connection being made between families as well as cultures. Honoring and nurturing the best in another gives rise to our greatest self. The poetry of John O’Donohue expresses it this way, Awaken your spirit to adventure; Hold nothing back, learn to find ease in risk; Soon you will be home in a new rhythm, For your soul senses the world that awaits you.

Dabar

2010-08-02T08:48:00.000-07:00

FROM OUR JOURNAL PAGES:

Dabar

72 x 72 acrylic on canvas

chuck + peg: Dabar is the Hebrew (Aramaic) word for “word.” The Hebrew concept of ‘word’ is far more dynamic than the Greek conception. Dabar is the word that is the divine creative energy. All of creation contains the living wisdom of Dabar with the creative energy ﬂowing through all things, all time and all space. In Genesis, the story tells us, that God spoke and then the powerful beings of creation – light and darkness, sun and moon–into existence. Dabar, which is translated as ‘word’, implies deeds and actions, not just words. This creative energy or word of God we believe is still active today–it is constantly creating and inviting us (all beings) to participate in this continuous process.

Welcoming Family

2010-07-22T13:55:00.000-07:00

FROM OUR SKETCHBOOK:

We are just finishing a painting we created for our son John and his soon to be wife Ye. Their wedding will be in Shanghai, China in a few weeks and have commemorated their sacred event with this work. These are pieces of sketches and text.

Leadership + Creativity Workshop

2010-07-22T13:22:00.000-07:00

FROM OUR STUDIO:

Last month we facilitated our workshop Leadership + Creativity: Claiming the Artist Within. Twenty two artists gathered at United Theological Seminary's Summer Institute in Spirituality and the Arts. Many thanks for the hidden insights that you shared along with an openness to create some amazing pieces of art. Images © Genesis Art Studio

Imaginative space where faith and artistic vision meet

2010-07-22T10:15:00.000-07:00

FROM OUR STUDIO:

Our work was part of the worship experience in the Bigelow Chapel at United Theological Seminary. Our paintings were also in the gallery at Central Lutheran Church in downtown Minneapolis.

Join us for our opening at 19 Below Gallery in the Kansas City Cross Roads Art District on August 6, 2010. Hope to see you.

Work in the studio

2010-07-15T13:21:00.000-07:00

FROM OUR SKETCHBOOK:

We're working on a new group of paintings for our upcoming opening at 19 Below Gallery. We are working with the Genesis creation story and with the interest on the Hebrew word דָּבָר Join us on Friday evening August 6 in the Kansas City Cross Roads from 6-10:30. Our work will be up at 19 Below Gallery through September. Hope to see you.

Design + Letterpress

2010-07-15T13:08:00.000-07:00

FROM OUR STUDIO:

It was good to have our daughter Hannah spend the week with us in Kansas City. She's a graphic designer and artist. Working in our Genesis+Art Studio and the print shop in the Hobbs, she completed a card series. She's an inspiration in many ways.

Liturgical Arts

2010-06-30T07:07:00.000-07:00

FROM OUR STUDIO:

We wanted to share some of our design and liturgical art. We have worked with congregations to give words to their vision and purpose in ministry. We then work with them to transform the words into images and symbols that are used in altar cloths and banners to help create sacred spaces for worship and prayer. Embracing the sacred ensures that symbols, sacrament, sacramental art and space lead people to encounter God. Shown here is a 20' triptych permanent installation at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, Port Charlotte, Florida and an altar clothe created for the Earth Day Celebration at Luther Seminary, St. Paul, Minnesota. For more information about our workshops and portfolio go to our web site.

Meet Rudy

2010-06-29T10:22:00.000-07:00

FROM OUR STUDIO:

Meet our dog Rudy. He's full of energy, very intuitive, curious and a mix that even the vet puzzles over. Our best guess is that Rudy is a mix of Norwich, Bull, Cairn Terrior with legs of a Corgi. He has a vertical leap five times his height and loves coming to the studio with us for hours on end with little complaint or criticism of our work. Rudy was a great addition to our family two years ago. The boy will be 6 on July 1.

Image courtesy of Heidi Hoffman Photography

Art Opening August 6, 2010

2010-06-29T07:05:00.000-07:00

FROM OUR STUDIO:

We've been busy in the studio preparing for our upcoming show at 19 Below Gallery in Kansas City's Crossroad District on 6th August. Along with a show at Central Lutheran Church, Minneapolis and our work in the Bigelow Chapel at United Theological Seminary, our work will be at Gloria Dei Lutheran in St.Paul. Work continues on Luther Seminary's commission for their Prodigal Son Collection. Hope to see you on the 6th.

Forged

2010-06-29T06:56:00.000-07:00

FROM OUR JOURNAL PAGES:

Peg: When we first went to Northen Ireland, tension in the neighborhood where we worked was high. People were constantly on edge and suspicious of those around them. The hostel where we stayed was locked and gated at dusk and teh IRA and paramilitary were acting as vigilanties. People were divided, yet in the midst of the troubles there ran thin golden strands of hope holding everything together.

Chuck: I don't think that I can put words around this image. It took a long time for it to emerge and continues to immerse me in contemplation.

Borderless World

2010-06-28T09:00:00.000-07:00

FROM OUR JOURNAL PAGES:

This painting had a unique significance for us because we knew for whom it was being birthed before we started. Most often we create paintings together without knowing who will bring it home to their own space.The fact that it was created for Pam Kelley’s birthday has even more meaning. Birthing has been a reoccurring theme for us. We refer to our art as birthing images, so honoring the birth of Pam into the world in a painting, takes on the mystical wonder of creation.

Peg: My vision for the painting centered around the dawn of creation. Symbols, language and possibiity emerge into the darkness, bringing light, carrying the potential for communication and creativity. The cerulean blues cannot contain the energy and strength of the written word and the symbolic languages burst forth with a spirit of their own. Creation truly imagines a borderless world of peace and inclusion.

Chuck: The work brought me to the place of wonder and mystery of ongoing creation. Pam uses language to express and birth her ideas into the world, and all of these thoughts and prayers went into this piece. My thoughts and reflections centered about creation coming out of darkness. This became the birthing of something new. The new being hope for a borderless world, a new world that emerges in God’s continuing creation. Letter forms stream from the light with the hope for new dialogues that bridge differences and change to a healthy, mutual world, celebrating diversity and the harmony that can be created together.

The painting for us has become a contemplation of creation in space and time, visually depicted for all to contemplate the ongoing formation of the universe, our hearts, minds and spirits.

Tension

2010-06-28T08:55:00.000-07:00

FROM OUR JOURNAL PAGES:

PEG: This is the first painting Chuck and I created after he moved to Minneapolis to go to seminary. Somehow I expected us to paint like we had for the last two years, but it was a struggle. We spent weeks trying to get back to our normal painting process, and each other. We didn’t get comfortable until our subject matter matched our emotional state. Finally with the help of the painting we dealt with the reality of the changes we’d experienced. It reminded me that reconciliation is a process and requires tending. Relationships between people, communities or countries need attention.

CHUCK: Tension when managed can lead to new discoveries. When left unattended can spin out of control and can lead to divide. This painting has been a dialogue of working through our tensions of creating together. Our process and each other needed tending and nurturing. Working through our process of listening, responding and creating again confirmed for us that holding in the tension can lead to something new. The risk being that tension left unbalanced can lead to destruction.

Global Missions prayers offered on World Canvas

2010-06-28T06:52:00.000-07:00

The World Canvas Project was part of the Global Missions Institute gathering at Luther Seminary. Students from around the world, faculty and friends of the seminary gathered in community and to hear a presentation from Dr. Guillermo Hansen.

World Canvas Project begins at Luther Seminary

2010-06-27T08:35:00.000-07:00

The World Canvas Project is a prayer canvas where your prayer is first penciled onto the canvas, then select a color to paint your prayer into the canvas. The canvas has been part of the Minnesota Without Poverty gathering, Luther Seminary, Global Missions, United Theological Seminary and the Summer Institute in Spirituality & Art. A second canvas is currently in Iraq. Photo's by Holm Photo.

Exploring light from darkness

2010-06-26T21:55:00.000-07:00

These were a few of the pieces of art created after a lectio divina of the creation story in Genesis. Relecting on the meaning of the word light, brought forth these images using black and white construction paper.

Creative Leadership: Claiming the Artist Within

2010-06-25T14:33:00.000-07:00

22 artists gathered at United Theological Seminary for our workshop in Creative Leadership. Our tribe formed around art and prayer, sharing and inspiring one another. We worked with sacred questions that explored the connection between our spirituality, creativity and living it out in our vocations.

Exploring the Landscape of Art + Reconciliation

2009-04-17T10:35:00.000-07:00

We were honored to share our passion for art and reconciliation with the community at Luther Seminary. It's good for us to have traveling companions as we search for meaning with our art. Art can be a powerful proclamation of who God is in us and in so doing has the ability to touch the heart and soul of others. Our time at Luther inspired the creative spirit in us. Here are a couple of images of the community sharing their creative gifts. Blessings.

Luminae

2009-04-07T14:46:00.000-07:00

Here are some of our thoughts about this painting from our journal pages:

PEG: When I imagine God breaking into creation I am also mindful that God is creation as well. Most often when I think of God, light is the visual in my head. Bringing that light to the canvas, and God's light shining into the four corners of the earth, helps me to remember how God permeates the cosmos. The small white symbols at the center of the light represent "the word" always present with God from the beginning.

CHUCK: I am not sure that this is where I thought this work would go. The layering of the pigment became an exercise of patient contemplation. In the many reside my thoughts, prayers, reflections, hopes and a whole stream of consciousness of the days and time standing before the painting. The color became more soothing with each addition of thin films of color. The light is still revealed in the intersection of teh divine (vertical) and humanity (horizontal). This is the intersection where Peg and I seem to reside. While simple in its form, this was a very complex path to simplicity.

SCRIPTURE: Isaiah 9:2

One Twenty One

2009-01-20T06:41:00.000-08:00

We just completed our painting "One Twenty One" last night. After stepping back to spend some time with our new creation, we realized that it connected for us how we feel about Inauguration Day. It wasn't our intention to make a painting to commemorate the day, but the strong feelings of hope and reconciliation crept up and out of our creative beings. It was as if there was no stopping what is happening in us, our community, our country and the world. We have had many thoughts and prayers from friends around the planet that feel this same sense of newness. So it is fitting for us as we explore our new Genesis+Art. Blessings for a new day.

New Beginnings

2009-01-05T05:38:00.000-08:00

It is a new year for creation and new beginnings at the Genesis Art Studio. Changes abound for us and our work. We are beginning a series of seven paintings, one for each day of creation. The seven paintings are more of a continued fascination with the creation story and how it can become part of our own interior story. We have become increasingly more aware of light and have been pondering the first light of the universe and the connection to the light that is continually shining in one's own heart. We hope that the exploration will draw us closer to the continuing creation.

In the Beginningness, In the time before time begins, In the rest before movement begins, In the space where nothing but Elohim is, was, and will be. It all unfolds and moves like the wings of a bird taking flight, like a spark turning to flame, spreading to fire in all directions. From this center everything travels toward its purpose, somehow moving its own kernel of destiny known only to the Holy One.

Genesis+Art: A new beginning

2008-11-20T09:07:00.000-08:00

Today we launch our new blog with the intent of creating dialogue around art, faith and reconciliaiton. We have been working in this manner for over 8 years and are now formally calling our work Genesis+Art® and working out of our Genesis Art Studio. With this new beginning we hope to build a community of many faiths connected through art and the spirit where conversation can bring us onto Holy ground. We prayerfully look forward to the days ahead and where the Holy spirit might lead us.

The spiritual origins of early art are re-emerging in the 21st Century as a new art genre known as Genesis+Art . For centuries, prayer and spiritual practice have been intimately connected to a sacred story shared in community. Genesis+Art draws from the common elements of the creation story of Jewish, Christian and Islamic traditions. In this genre, the emphasis on the process brings forth the product.