Lent Devotional Art

Back in December of 2013, Brynn Harrington, one of the pastors at Highrock Northshore, (the church my wife and I attend), contacted several artists and members of the Art Group at the church about the possibility of illustrating a lent devotional booklet. We all thought it was a very interesting idea. Brynn sent us the 40 days of devotionals, a passage for each day of lent. Kerrie James, one of the Art Group leaders and Brynn, divided up the devotionals among the 6 artists: Solomon Kong, Rachel Neikirk, Kerrie James, Ben Ober, Kirsten Borne, and myself.  I was assigned 7 different passages from day 15 to day 21. My passages were all from the book of Matthew. I took a look at the passages, re-reading them and researching representations of what other artists had done with these specific passages. I wanted the images to be familiar and recognizable, without being cliché. I will focus on the first passage which was Matthew 16:21-28. I decided to focus on verse 24:

²⁴ Jesus then said to his disciples, If any man will follow me, let him forsake himself: and take up his cross, and follow me. 

Most of the images I found were similar to the one below. It is a fairly iconic image, but how to make it my own?

 

We were encouraged to do these in any style and medium we wanted, so that the final variety was visually rich and varied. Because the final illustrations in the devotional book were going to be small , (about 2 inches square), and also because I procrastinated on the project until the week before the deadline, I decided to do mine as small, very loose colored-pencil drawings. I wanted them to be as direct and simple as I could make them. I drew them all on one sheet of Bristol board at about a 1 inch by 1 inch size. I sketched in non-photo blue pencil and then inked and colored them with colored pencil.

As you can see from this detai, they are pretty rough.

I scanned the images individually so that they were 300 ppi at 3.5 inches, or about twice the size they would be when finished. I liked the texture and the energy of the sketches, but I also realized that they would need to be refined a bit for reproduction, so I brought the scans into Photoshop, and started to digital "clean-up". In most cases I was deleting the sketch lines, and saturating the color. Sometimes redrawing or clarifying parts of the image, (such as the face). The trick was to clean it up without going too far and losing the gesture and energy of the original sketch. Here is the final version of "Take up your cross".

Here are the final versions of all the artwork. You can see that they  have achieved various levels of success. The least successful is probably #2 "The Transfiguration"and the most,  #7 "the Greatest Commandment", but overall, i was pretty happy with the results.

 The final digital files were sent off to the church office to be placed into the book design.
This is what the illustration looked like printed.

The artwork was also projected as a background image for the  Good Friday service, and prints of the artwork were displayed at the Easter service.

ARTSPEAK: Restore Follow-Up

My wife Amy and I have been attending Highrock NorthShore regularly since the fall of 2012. We’ve lived in Salem for several years and we’re interested in both the visual and performing arts. So, when we first heard about ArtSpeak a few months ago at our Creative Arts Connection Group we knew we wanted to be involved. In preparation, we attended a planning meeting for the show and created pieces to donate.

 

My art piece was a mobile made of wooden spheres painted to look like the Earth in three stages of death, regrowth and restoration.















Amy’s piece was a cross-stitch embroidery sampler based on a design from the early 1800’s featuring a design which included 2 doves, bluebirds, and a basket of flowers.
We also helped with the load-in on Thursday night, and display set up on Friday.

This past Friday night was the main opening event for our Artspeak weekend, and I would say it was a great success. Starting after 6 pm dozens of art lovers from Highrock and the local area arrived. It was gratifying to see so many people enjoying and interacting with the art pieces we had helped create and set up.

For the first part of the evening, we adjourned to the upstairs of the Old Town Hall to hear more about iSanctuary, and to hear reflections from Pastors Brynn and Aaron, hear original songs, a poem, and even two rap songs that supported the theme of the art on display. The theme of the donated artworks was Restore, and was meant to express an unearthing and restoration of beauty, dignity and humanity in all its various forms. If you’re not aware, iSancutary is an organization committed to helping women who have been rescued from the sex-trafficking industry regain their sense of self through learning a useful trade and equipping them to support themselves through creating jewelry and stationary crafts.

Afterwards, we moved back downstairs to enjoy refreshments and to start the silent auction bidding. Over the next hour people looked at artwork, networked, ate cookies, hummus and cheese and drank sparkling lemonade from Trader Joe’s, all while checking in at the bidding table every few moments to see how their bids were performing.

Amy and I decided to bid on two pieces we especially liked. It was exciting to see if you would get the piece you hoped for or not. As the hour progressed, we found ourselves in a small bidding war over a painting titled “Evening Marsh” by Ben Ober, and took out our bid for the second piece we liked so we could focus on this one piece. It’s a lovely piece, and we anticipated that at least one other person might like it as well. However, our dollar limit was a little higher than our competitor’s and we won the bid. We are now the proud owners of an original work by Ben Ober, and are looking forward to giving it a home in our Salem condo.

Besides acquiring a new painting to put in our home, I also gained a new appreciation for how the arts can be used to bring justice and healing to our broken world. Before this event I’ve never used my creative abilities in a way that will so directly impact the lives of others in need. I was greatly encouraged by the enthusiastic turnout and reception of the event, and I believe that God is working and will continue to work in our lives and the lives of those we hope to touch through this and similar events.

Over the course of the evening we showcased 41 pieces of art and raised $3,000 dollars through the silent art auction and through selling jewelry created by iSanctuary artists.   Everyone deserves a big hand for helping to make this donation to iSanctuary possible.

ArtSpeak: Restore Materials

Above are promo materials (poster, flyer and postcard) I designed for  ArtSpeak: Restore, an Artshow and Concert to Fight Human Trafficking being held Friday, March 22 to Sunday, March 24, 2013 at the Old Town Hall, 32 Derby Street, Salem, MA. There will also be an opening silent auction and concert: March 22, 7-9pm
The show is being held to benefit iSanctuary, www.isanctuary.org and is hosted by Highrock North Shore, www.highrocknorthshore.org.
We are surrounded by beauty. That beauty, however, is often neglected and abused, hiding it from our senses, our hearts, and our minds.  Artspeak: Restore is an art show that celebrates the unearthing of forgotten and neglected beauty.  All proceeds from art sold will benefit iSanctuary, a non-profit organization that helps restore the lives of girls and women who have been victimized by human trafficking.

For more information or to get involved, email artspeak@highrocknorthshore.org