It Was Good: To be a Truth-Seeker

“In Search of Truth” by Joshua Meador

Reading Ways of Finding Truth by Ron Mock and reflecting upon my own experiences, I have identified three ways of knowing that I rely upon the most, but I will be focusing on one for now. As my primary study while attending GFU has been in the visual arts, it comes as no surprise that I prefer to examine truths through the use of Aesthetics. The use of aesthetics as a way of knowing provides a way to place oneself into another person’s subject universe and to see things from their point of view. Visual art, drama, dance, music and literature make up the Arts, and are an effective and useful means of communicating knowledge and understanding. As a visual artist, I find that I learn about myself through creating art and through the examination of art produced by others. I am able to express and communicate ideas in ways that go beyond what words can describe. The saying “A picture is worth a 1,000 words” hits the nail on the head. My goal is to have my art reflect this concept. I have trouble with words but within an image I can express so much.

“We simply cannot reduce art to literal statement without simultaneously robbing it of content. Art seems capable of generating meanings which cannot be attained in any other way. When Robert Schumann was asked to explain a difficult etude he had just performed, he sat down and played it for a second time. Its meaning could only be grasped in performance, by a personal, imaginative fusion of frame and story.”

– Jeremy S. Begbie “Voicing Creation’s Praise: Towards a Theology of Arts”
p. 36 of Ways of Knowing

My show opens a week from Thanksgiving. I’m nervous, anxious, excited, and so much more. The show, This State of Mind, is an exploration and emotion and expression through a series of digital self-portraits. I’ve worked on these pieces for a couple months now, working to embody these emotions into them, capture them in expression of the eyes and facial muscles. And while, yes, I have simple titles for these pieces that I refer to them by, I want them to encompass so much more than words like “happy” and “sad” and “angry.” More often than not I refer to them as “Rain” or “Snow” or “Storm”, alluding to environmental aspects of the work rather than the emotions. For me each piece is far more than what one word or phrase can describe. So my show will be following the example of my Art & Christ class. Each piece will not have a title, but I am encouraging people to contemplate the works and write words or phrases on walls the work is hung on. I am hoping that this will encourage people share their thoughts and insights into the works with each other, creating moments of community that will be savored. As an artist, one of my goals is that my work will inspire community and conversations, even if the words to describe are hard to find.

A self-portrait done in the summer of 2014. This was a piece that helped to inspire the “This State of Mind” show.

There are different reasons why I’m an artist, but one part of it is because art is how I discover. Through the journey of creating, I am able to explore parts of myself, of the world, and of God and His creation. “I am an artist and I don’t believe I merely chose it. God, through his Spirit endows us with gifts – some to make art. …I feel a calling and an enabling to make art that glorifies God. As Christians we are challenged to do everything with our whole being, to the best of our ability as if we’re doing it for God directly” (p. 152 It Was Good). I have mentioned in previous posts that I fear creating for God, because in my heart I struggle to believe that my work could come anywhere close to glorifying Him as He deserves to be glorified. It is intimidating. Yet I cannot stop creating.

I found the following to resonate in my heart as true: “For me, I am learning about “truth” even a I am revising, editing, deleting, abandoning and restarting. For me, it is part of the journey I have been called into by the ultimately Truthful One” (p. 168 It Was Good). The journey of an art piece is important and informs me of the truths it conveys just as much as the finished work does. I learn so much by watching time lapses of artists as they create, and it is something I wish to share in the future. I discover truths as my work develops and evolves. Sometimes it is spoken through my heart, sometimes through the mouth of a visitor, and sometimes the work itself demands that I take it in a direction I never imagined, and it is not limited to the creating of art.

I must be diligent in seeking truths in all things. It is simplistic to be a critical thinker in academia, while only taking things at face value in my day-to-day life. Not only is this a dangerous practice, but it is neglectful and naïve. I have a practical, moral, and spiritual obligation to seek truth. God calls for us to steward our gifts. I am a gifted artist, but that is not the only gift that the Lord has bestowed upon me. It is my responsibility to take care of my body, mind, and soul and then to do my best to improve them.

This is why being a truth-seeker is so important to the daily life. Seeking out truths must be a daily part of my life. I must discern whether I can safely change lanes while driving, or else I risk my life and others. To avoid hurting others and myself on emotional levels, I endeavor to do my best to be deliberate when choosing what words I speak. My soul is always seeking for spiritual truths, if only to take a few steps closer to my Lord and Savior, who is the Truth. I firmly believe that all truths point to the Truth. I recognize that I will never stop learning because “the Christian truth-seeker always recognizes that what he is trying to learn is already known, and that the Knower is on his side and desires that he know it, too” (p. 49 Ways of Knowing). By learning many methods to discern truths and actively practicing them in life I will continue to uncover the glorious Truth of God in my daily life and through my art.

“The arts take us places we have been before and to places we have never been. As we allow ourselves to interact with and experience it, we come to know ourselves.” – Ways of Knowing, p. 34

Sources:

It Was Good: Making Art for the Glory of God text
(Liberal Arts And Critical Issues Core Text) Ways of Finding Truth by Ron Mock: “Arts” by Doug Campbell (pg. 32-37)

Mount Angel Abbey: From Body to Faith

On November 14th, I and my classmates got the opportunity to visit Mount Angel Abbey, a Benedictine monastery in the Willamette Valley of Oregon. Here we had the pleasure of meeting Brother Andre Love. He shared with us a bit about his life story, his decision to join the monastery, and how his faith and art have grown, developed, and interacted with each other through his journey. You can find a great article that covers more about his story here.

Brother Andre creative duties involve creating iconography for the church and on commission (most, if not all, the profit he makes goes to help support the monastery) and curating the growing natural history collection that the monastery houses. It is a wonderful collection, home to mineral collection, NW Native art, and a wide range of NW taxidermy animals. While speaking about the collection, Brother Andre spoke about how, “All of creation points to God… so between all these things, what is the correlation? How do they connect and relate to each other?” With this in mind, Brother Andre curates the museum collection in a way that showcases the beauty of God’s creation, while seeing the connections between the many different creatures, objects, and arts.

Fox, looking alert and ready run if need be. Taxidermy.

The animals were not static, but seemed like they had a touch of life in them. These animals are here because a monk in early 1900s wanted to be able to showcase the natural wildlife of the northwest to visitors. It is also evident that there between the taxidermist and the monks, there was a bit of humor. While the fox pictured above is alert, but lying down, that not the position of all the figures. Wolves are jumping, birds in mid flight, and in one instance a cougar is digging it’s claws and teeth into a deer. The expression of fear and the motion, frozen in time, is something I want to study and be able to emulate in my own work. I would love to come back and observe these animals. To have the ability to study them up close (without them running away or attacking) would be amazing.

Cougar attack on a deer. Taxidermy.

After hearing about Brother Andre’s own artistic practice, I came away with some reflections about myself, my faith, and my art. How does my faith influence my work? What is a major motivator for my work? My inspirations? How does what I create relate to the God’s creation?

My work revolves around people. I love stories, and I try my best to capture that story in a single moment. While I have considered attempting to illustrate biblical stories, I always get intimidated – I want to make it perfect! It’s a direct reflection of God’s word and I always talk myself out of it. After all, how could I, in all my imperfection, illustrate the perfection of God and his character? I don’t entirely know why it scares me. It does though. I wouldn’t even know where to start!

Today I had the amazing opportunity to see the St. Johns illuminated bible. It’s a copy, but it’s no less stunning. I’ve heard of it, seen a documentary, and thinking about that kind of pursuit… the ambition to follow that kind of lead? It is amazing. In particular I am incredibly impressed by the work of the artists. To reimagine the bible and illustrate and illuminate it. It inspires me, yet I don’t know if I could do that kind of work.

But I want to. I so desperately want to. To have work that so obviously glorifies God, but is so inclusive to so many different people… that is the dream. I know I have time, my life is no where near over (as far I can tell)… I guess baby steps are in order. The drive to create work that glorifies Him will always be there. I know I am called to a life of creating, all I can do is trust that I am doing my best.

But seriously, this deer tho~

I can just imagine him thinking, “I’m so fabulous!” I can’t stop giggling about it.

It Was Good: What Art Hangs on My Fridge?

“What art hangs on God’s refrigerator door?” – p. 5 It Was Good

As a child I was always drawing, always coloring. I never expected to become an artist, it was always just something I did. It was fun. I don’t know what about it was so satisfying then, to be able to say to my parents, “Look! I didn’t go outside the lines!” with pride. I’m pretty sure my dad still has an art piece I did in kindergarten, hanging in my parents room, framed and everything. I can look at it and think, “It’s not bad, especially for that age. But I could do much better now.” And I definitely could. But does that mean that the art is ‘bad’ art? If not, is it ‘good’ art? I can’t exactly show you the piece (as I don’t have a digital copy handy), but it really comes down to opinion.

In the book It was Good: Making Art to the Glory of God there is a rather large quote that I wish to focus on. Found on pages 13 and 14, it says,

“Perhaps divine wisdom also invented the humbling contingency that everyone can have opinions about art, regardless of their own ability or training, although some artists bearing the scars of knee jerk responses attribute this condition to the other side. Seriously, though – who among us would attempt to levy medical diagnoses, asses astrophysical formulas, or propose responsible investment strategies on our brothers and sisters without training or preparation? Because art can convey profound or simple truths to nonthinkers and great intellects with potency (or a dismal lack thereof), are poses a huge target to the very audience it hopes to engage. Its very existence simultaneously poses a cultural liability, and a magnificent viability.”

Kind of a hefty quote, I know. But it is something I have had many discussions about in this last year and a half of my schooling, as I prepare to delve into the ‘real’ world. It comes down to this: Everyone has an opinion on art, but not everyone is trained in it. You could replace ‘art’ with almost anything, really. I have an opinion on what type of medical care I receive, but I have no training. Some friends have very strong opinions on how the government should be run, but no one takes them seriously when they say something about it… because they have no training and have done no research (I’m sure that you can think of a couple people from your life who are like this). But for some reason, when it comes to art… it doesn’t seem to matter if you are trained in it. The opinions of the trained and nontrained seem to hold a similar weight.

Part of it comes down to the fact that in our post-modern society (or is post-post modern now?), we have accepted that there is no one ‘Truth’, no right way to do things, especially when it comes to art. As artists and writers and other creatives challenged the academy and challenged the way things were, people began to ask “What is art?”

Fountain, by Duchamp (1917). Dada. This infamous artwork was created to challenge the idea of what is art, but without the story and reasoning behind it, it loses its meaning to the untrained person.

The infamous Fountain (1917) was entered into a show by Duchamp. But it was rejected by the show, despite the rules stating that any art would accepted as long as a fee was paid. Personally, I believe that Duchamp intentionally was challenging the Art Academy’s standard of art using drastic (but effective) measures. However, without knowing the story and the reason why it was created, this artwork becomes nothing more than an upside down urinal with a signature on it.

Sadly, that is exactly what most of the world sees, as they are ignorant of the story, and it applies to the majority of the contemporary art being created today.

As an emerging and contemporary artist, it is a struggle to find relevancy in my own art. Sometimes I am creating because I need to. Other times my art is inspired by ideas and concepts. But, in my experience, the one that is least expected reason to create is simply to explore. The finest example I have is of a drawing I did of a robot, and my mother’s reaction to it.

The initial illustration I created later was used as the inspiration for a final project in a Maya class I took in 2013. It is published in the GFU art magazine “Hagios”, 2014 edition.

To understand a bit of background, my mother is Psychology professor at George Fox University, and before she was teaching she held her clinical practice for 15 years working primarily with teenage girls. And at the time of my robotic illustration, both she and I were aware that I was self-conscious about my skinny body and the fact that I was underweight. My illustration was of a robot that had been broken down, was in a repair shop, but was only of the essential parts. There was no added mass to it, and when my mom first saw my drawing, she freaked out. What she saw was a broken figure, made of skin and bones, and her first thought was “Is this how my little girl sees herself?!” (or something along those lines…) But if my body issues had been apart of that illustration, it was not intended on my part. My goal was to explore the idea of drawing metal, electricity, and have fun with lighting. And since my favorite subject to draw are people, I modeled the robot after a female human. All the drawing meant to me was a fun subject – I had fun with lighting, with experimenting with layout, and it was pure fun. But through my mother’s training, it was something entirely different and darker… which I laugh at her about to this day.

Despite the differences in our views on my art, my experience with my mother’s reaction rang true. I understand where her opinion was coming from, based on what she knew about me. The truth that I learned, however, is that everyone assigns meaning to what they see, based on their own experiences and their own world view. Humans will always make judgements on what is ‘good’ art and what is ‘bad’ art. As a trained artist, I can recognize when something technically good or bad, but those terms are only relative to my own experience. When I evaluate art, I have 3 different ways I evaluate by:
      1) On the technique – How did the process evolve? Is the art technically sound? Were formal academy art rules (such as the principles and elements of art) used, and how so? If they weren’t, how much of that is intentional? How does the technique reinforce the final product?
      2) On the concept – What is the message, if there is one? What are the core ideas in the art?
      3) On the goal – Why was it created? What was the reason, the motivation, for the art? The intention?
Most of my evaluation of art comes down to the 3rd one. I appreciate art that holds meaning, is created to bring awareness, and connects communities. I hope to create technically sound art, but the work I am most proud of are the pieces that inspire questions, conversations and connection between strangers. It is my goal that my art connects people.

At the beginning of this blog there is a picture, captioned with the question, “What would God put on his refrigerator door?” My first thought upon coming across that question was that he would put anything and everything that was created by his creations. He would want to show it (and us) off, because he loves us and loves everything about us, even if it is not technically and conceptually sound or with created with the purest of goals in mind.

I’ll leave you with a final question: What art do you hang on your fridge?

“Art asks questions, it is provocative. It lets people come up with their own answers.” – Chris Skaggs

Resources:
It Was Good: Making Art to the Glory of God (book)
Wikipedia
Interview with Chris Skaggs

Chris Skaggs: On Faith and Games

My first interaction with Chris Skaggs was the spring of 2011, when I walked into the office of Code-Monkeys to interview with him about a summer internship. He surprised me. The work environment at Code-Monkeys is very relaxed, in a way that one of the first things I noticed was that my interviewer was barefoot in the shared office space. Despite my surprise and nerves, Chris Skaggs was a relaxed and thoughtful man to talk to. Three and a half years has not changed that, as I discovered during my more recent discussion with him.

Chris Skaggs, speaking at the Christian Game Developers Conference.

A bit of background: Chris Skaggs grew up in ‘post-christian’ home. Upon seeing my confused expression, he explained that his parents had grown up in christian homes, but were not believers themselves. Due to their own experience, Skaggs grew up in a home that knew of christianity but with parents who did not accept it. Skaggs came into his own faith as a young adult, and now attends the Tualitan Foursquare church. He is the CTO/CCO of Soma Games and Code-Monkeys, two sister companies located in downtown Newberg, Oregon. The sister companies are both mobile app development companies that develop work from the same employees. The difference between the two are the projects and goals, and depending on the project it decides which name the project will be published under. Code-Monkeys works on contract-based jobs, creating and developing a variety of custom apps for iOS, Android, BlackBerry, Kindle Fire and Intel AppUp, as well as the web-based backend software for a wide range of web and mobile apps*. It was founded by Skaggs 14 years ago in 2000, and for him was another job. It was something that he enjoyed doing, but it was a source of income, not necessarily a passion.

In 2005, Skaggs felt a calling, or rather he felt like he was drafted. Well, as he told me, it was more of a dream. And he means a dream – the kind that is experienced over the course of the sleep cycle. From what he remembers of that dream, he discovered the shape and direction of where he was take this company. With this calling sticking in his mind, Soma Games was created almost overnight. Separate from Code-Monkeys business, but working with the same people, Soma Games creates game oriented apps. They have created games such as G: Into the Rain and Wind Up Robots.

Now, Skaggs does not consider himself to be an artist, and I can understand why. He does not create art in a traditional sense – he is not an illustrator or an animator on his team. But I see the work published under Soma Games and Code-Monkeys as his art form. Not only that, but I asked to interview him because he works in the field that I would like to work in. As the primary decision-maker behind Code-Monkeys and Soma Games, I felt like getting the insight into the interaction of the apps, games, clients and their faith would be informative to my growth as an individual and artist who is about to step out into the working world.

My initial step into the that world was when I was an intern. At that time, I remember 2 big projects that the office worked on: Bok Choy Boy and Wind Up Robots. The former was published under Code-Monkeys, the company was approached by a popular vending machine toy manufacturer that wanted to create a game around their toys, the Bok Choy Boy.

Bok Choy Boy selection page from the game app. Each Bok Choy Boy has different powers, and effect different enemies.

When I asked about how faith has influenced decisions made by the company, Skaggs explained that when they received the first proposal, the Bok Choy Boy was described as sorcery-using warriors fighting against the forces of evil. If that had been my project, I wouldn’t have noticed anything off about the wording. Reading stories that included magic, such as Harry Potter (by J.K. Rowling) and Song of the Lioness (by Tamora Pierce) was not a big deal in my household. But Skaggs and his team were thoughtfully aware that some of the audience would be sensitive the initial idea. So they suggested and redirected the story of the game, turning the magical warriors into mystical guardians of the dream world. The game turned into a story about a little girl who is given a Bok Choy Boy toy, who becomes her guardian angel to defend her mind from the evil Numb Skullz while she sleeps. These kind of subtle changes are where the company brings their faith into play. Most of the time, their work and faith do not directly interact, but it shows up in small ways like this.

Other times, Skaggs told me that they will respectfully decline a contract job. When asked about what kind of jobs (as I was having trouble thinking of an exact example of what they might refuse), Skaggs shared they have been asked to create a wet T-shirt app.

The Wind Up Robot app icon.

Talking with Skaggs, I asked him about his own thoughts about art and faith, what it means to artistic, and how their apps interacted with the conversation of art and faith. His response is one that I resonate strongly with. The goal with their products, specifically with their games, is not a desire to teach doctrine or to be religiously educational. Instead, they make sure their games reflect their world view. The worlds they create in these games, they want to make sure they are beautiful. Art is expressive, and Skaggs believes that being made in God’s image is to be creative. Through their art, their games, Skaggs and his team try to focus on creating beauty, and also develop the idea that beauty itself can be good, that beauty can be true force in the world.

And that idea, that by focusing on the beauty and the good, instead of the broken and hurt, is inspiring and a powerful drive for me.

Wind Up Robots game play.

Sources:

Chris Skaggs Interview, November 5, 2014
http://www.code-monkeys.com/

Soma Games