Sunday, January 22, 2006

Great Resource for artists


One evening when my Oregonian mother was visiting me in Dallas, we stopped channel surfing when we saw a guy playing "the aquarium section" at a symphony performance. If you've seen Sandra Bullock's character in Miss Congeniality play the musical water glasses, you know the sort of "instrument" I'm talking about. (I have since learned that the musician, Jamey Turner, is called a "glass harpist.") Mom and I stopped and watched what turned out to be a great television program. It was the broadcast of a Catholic Communications production titled, "Creativity: Touching the Divine." We later tracked it down for purchase. Since then I have shown it every time I've taught Christian Journalism at Dallas Seminary (four or five years).

The fim explores "the universal virtue of creativity ranging from the fine arts to daily living." It was my first introduction to Frederick Hart, the sculptor responsible for the creation scene over the doors of the Washington National Cathedral, where I try to go once every holiday seaon. It also includes Madeleine L'Engle, whose book A Wrinkle in Time had a profound impact on my imagation in the sixth grade.

Have a look. If you love the marriage of faith and art, you'll find yourself savoring a feast.

Sunday, January 15, 2006

Science is Art II

Milhouse "Microchip engineers may not seem like creative types, but they've been quietly using silicon as a canvas for decades. When magnified 1,000 to 5,000 times, some semiconductors reveal tiny works of art etched there by their makers." - START, etchings, Todd Jatras, December 2005.

Chipworks is an engineering firm that has collected these disappearing little art forms and put them in a gallery on their web site. There's everything from animals to fictional characters to messages. Ghost in the machine?

RobotI remember back in the 80's typing out an image of the robot from "LOST IN SPACE" in the comment lines of my code (pre emoticon days).

People just can't help but be creative.