Orienting ourselves in the world

© Chuck Hoffman / Genesis + Art Studio

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

© Chuck Hoffman / Genesis + Art Studio

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

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

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

© Chuck Hoffman / Genesis + Art Studio

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

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

© Chuck Hoffman / Genesis + Art Studio

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. 

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[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