Category: Art & Faith

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At the UTA Hotshop

 Jon at the furnace.

Art & Faith was at the UTA Glassblowing Hotshop last Saturday evening. We received a very special invitation to watch Jon Reed and friends do what they do with hot glass.  They stretched, formed, textured, blew, shaped, and reheated their glass countless times. The results were 3 gorgeous vessel created from initial blobs of molten glass.  

Watching glass blowers is better than a movie.  It’s a live performance with suspense, plot, drama, choreography, and great characterization. The final reveal can be shocking. We were privileged to watch 3 artists at different stages in their craft form and blow glass.  When one artist was on point, the other two were busy helping behind the scenes with numerous tasks. I’ve watched videos of glassblowing before but did not appreciate the many activities that were happening “off-screen” which were vital to the success of the project.  It is definitely a team sport.

Then we enjoyed some excellent pizza at Old School Pizza and Suds which is its own form of team sport.

Thanks to Emily Reed for these great pics.

The actual blowing of glass.

The final form.

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Blackpowder Self-portrait

Art & Faith met recently for black powder night.  Okay, we didn’t actually use real black powder.  That stuff is even more dangerous than what we used, which was synthetic black powder from the local sporting goods store.  Even so, it’s incredibly difficult to find.  Gun stores don’t carry it.  I called 16 gun stores in the southern Dallas cities looking for any kind of synthetic black powder.  Only one thought she might have some in a warehouse if I could wait a week.  I couldn’t, since it was already Friday, and we had Art & Faith that Saturday evening.

So, we finally located the synthetic black powder – thanks to Veronica.  She’s one of our artists and she loves to use black powder in her artwork.  It’s always handy to be friends with women who know exactly where to get black powder!

It is very therapeutic to use fire.  This technique uses fire to draw.  It felt primal, and earthy, and good.  Plus, there are some real meditative moments when you carefully shape and shift the powder on the board before lighting it up.  There are lots of videos online of folks making amazing drawings with black powder.  Watch them for inspiration.  But, it is definitely a whole lot more fun to do it yourself.  Whatever you do, don’t use the actual black powder if you happen to find any.  My friend Jason, who has done a lot of black powder shooting, tells me that it is very, very dangerous.  What we used was not so much.  But, it’s still fire.  And it’s still cool.  Some day I’ll go back and finish the self-portrait.  But, we had a great time and made some great memories.

As always, be safe.   Don’t ever do this indoors.  Always wear protective eye-wear and gloves!!!

Art & Faith.  We eat, we pray, we make art.

 

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Recent Work May 16 2018

The Confessor (self-portrait)
Oil on canvas,
30″ x 24″

This is my entry into this year’s Southwest Dallas Arts Festival which had the theme “Healed!”.  In connection with spiritual and physical health and healing, I’ve been thinking about James 5, especially the two “one another’s” in verse 16.  This seems to me to be encouraging confession among all of us “one another’s” as opposed to confession to a priestly class.  This work was made thinking about that idea.

The Confessor and The Listener
Both Oil on canvas
Both 30″ x 24″

The painting on the left is a self-portrait, painted in late April.  The painting on the right is my friend Paul and was finished around 20 years ago.  I keep some of my older paintings in the stairwell in our home, so I see them every time I go up or down, which is many times a day.  I have great memories of painting “Paul”, because my first art teacher and mentor was very enthusiastic about the unusual composition and how it turned out.

I think that Paul is listening to something that is very troubling.  I imagine him to be on the receiving end of a confession, so he’s a perfect “Listener”, to my “Confessor”.  That’s why I hung the 2 paintings in the festival exactly like this. It was also interesting since they were done so far apart.  They are speaking to each other in a spiritual way (confession), but also across a couple of decades.  The painting of me turned out pretty intense.  I seem to be staring down my friend Paul, daring him to respond to my confession.  But after I finished I reflected that confession itself, to our chosen “one another“, is a very intense and frightening idea.  Perhaps the withering glare is somehow appropriate.

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Encouragement in Action

Artists need encouragement. One of the things I appreciate most about my artist friends in Art & Faith is how encouraging they are to each other and me personally. One of my favorite evenings is show-n-tell where we bring works that are in progress or possibly finished and get a group critique. I come away from these evenings incredibly encouraged and ready to take my next piece to the next level, or at least finish the piece I’m currently working on! It’s the thoughtful comments, and the creative insight that makes a huge difference in my working habits and my work.