Shanghai Inspiration

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

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

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

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

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.

© 2010 Genesis+Art Studio

ECVA Justice & Peace Exhibition: Bonfires

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

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

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

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.