Published! Party!

To celebrate our feature in 3.1.6. A Journal of Christian Thinking, the SoulPerSuit team is celebrating next week by awarding prizes and doing the funky chicken!

Here's the schedule. Mark your calendars, dust off your keyboard (no lurking!), and get ready to win some very cool prizes.*

July 5 - Sandi has a little something special to give away to our blog readers and SoulPerSuit participants.
Want to win it? Just enter a comment on her post between 7/5 and 7/11.

July 12 - Winner of Sandi's giveaway is announced.
Didn't get your name drawn for Sandi's giveaway? Rhonda starts a new giveaway party today. From 7/12-7/18, comment on her post and toss your name in the hat!

July 19 - Erin announces the winner of Rhonda's giveaway and kicks off a drawing of her own. You can influence the purim a third time from 7/19-7/25 by putting your comment on Erin's entry.

July 26 - Sandi will announce the winner of Erin's giveaway. And put out the welcome mat for our summer SoulPerSuit in the Book of Esther.

*None of the prize awards are funky chickens. Sorry.

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SoulPerSuit is hosting an on-line creative group this summer!
We're diving into the book of Esther
Start date: July 25th
To join the on-line group, click the Yahoo! Groups Button in the right margin.

Create Your Own

Today I want to introduce you to some sites where you can play and create online. Whether you're a kid or a grown-up or a grown-up with kids, you can engage in imaginative play alone or with somebody you love.

Remember Mr. Potatohead? Think same concept, different genre. View my quirky modern art and create your own at Mr. Picassohead.

Next, create your own band complete with sound. I will spare you the link to the one I made. It would annoy you as much as your music used to annoy your parents.

If you follow my blog you already know how to create your own Jackson Pollock and your own Mondrian.

But why not trying a shot at creating your own cartoon character.

Create your own D&D character (you don't have to play the game to have fun making up characters). Mine is Stoaga Fletcher, otherwise known as Stoaga the Shadowdancer, Lady Stoaga, Lady Fletcher, Lady Stoaga Fletcher the Shadowdancer, Lady Stoaga Fletcher the Powerful, or Stoaga Fletcher the Weaver.

Finally, create your own psalm. For this you don't need a web site. Write down the hardest thing you've ever experienced. Then jot down how you felt (or feel). Then write a short prayer that ends with an expression of trust.

Give your left brain a break and tap into the creativity God made you to express.

[Photograph of The Guitar, 1918. Oil on canvas, by Juan Gris. In the public domain.]

500 Years of Female Portraits

My Geek sent me this cool art video. It shows 500 years of female portraits in Western art. Watch the video while looking at the eyes or the mouth only and see how they change or stay similar over time. I was surprised by how many works I didn't recognize.

Auditory Transport

On Father's Day, my husband was finishing a project in the backyard and as I stood there holding his icy glass of lemonade for him (it was the least I could do, it was Father's Day, you know!), I was hit smack in the ears by a memory.
My hubby fired up his circular saw to trim a few pieces of wood for the ramp he was building and all of a sudden, my childhood came flooding back to me. In particular, my childhood with my dad.

I cannot remember a house that we lived in where my father didn't make some kind of addition or major alteration. The sound of the drill and the circular saw hummed through the air every spring, summer and autumn weekend of my childhood. Dad built patios, room additions, rabbit hutches, back decks, gazebos, bookshelves, pantries, even a dining room set.


Standing there last Sunday with my husband's icy lemonade glass dripping in my hand, I became a 9 year old, standing there with my dad's glass of icy lemonade dripping in my hand. Watching with interest how he sawed and drilled. Asking for his leftover scraps of wood to build a fort. Wanting to help him work, but unable to bear the heat. Skipping off to run in the sprinkler and drink some lemonade myself. The sound of the circular saw buzzing in the background of my play.

That night I called my dad to share my memory with him.

Is there a sound that brings back a memory so strong that it transports you to another time or place?

Modern Art, Anyone?

I'm taking a doctoral class in modern art in my program at UTD in conjunction with the Dallas Museum of Art. In the past when people said modern art, I always envisioned Abstract Expressionist stuff, which I disliked. But I do appreciate Grant Wood ("American Gothic") and many of the regional works painted during the Modern Period. (I prefer represtational art in the living room to ginormous chunks of metal outside.)

As part of my class, which consists of about fifteen teachers-as-students, I am learning about a lot of technological resources. So I'm here to share some cookies (not the computer kind):

The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA)'s web site sets the standard for the industry. And they have a cool interactive section, which provides a great intro to modern art so people like me who appreciate it but have a lot to learn can find out more. Check out "Making Sense of Modern Art."

Also, a cool program that's considered the post-PowerPoint ideal for educators is Pachyderm. They work with educators and the arts a lot, so some of the content in their demos is fab. You'll find everything from heaven and earth depicted in art to mummies and madonnas. Enjoy!

3•1•6 Journal coming June 25

SoulperSuit is very proud to announce that they will be featured in the new publication, 3•1•6: A Journal of Christian Thinking, a venture by Founding Editor, Bill Dowis. His mission statement for 3•1•6 is:

"To provide provocative Christian writing and artwork that ignites thought, discussion and a deeper understanding of the Christian faith."

Dowis wants to fill a niche in the periodical genre and "create something that will cause people to think." The Journal plans on doing this through ficiton, non-fiction, art and poetry entries. Did you catch that? He plans to do it through creativity!

Until June 17 you can order the first issue at a discount. You can also find a promotional poster ready to print off and hang at your local art/coffee hang out. Help get the word out! Order lots of copies! Post about it on your blogs.

In recognition of the event we have several exciting things planned:

• We will do the Esther study (posted on our web page) starting July 25’07.
• Leading up to that study we will be giving away several goodies.

So be sure to check back here often and spread the word.

Please Stand By!

It appears we are having some technical difficulty with our blog. To the many of you out there who have been trying to post a comment on our blog but have been unsuccessful, you may give a sign of relief - it's not you. For some reason, it appears that no one can post comments on our blog except the administrators. I don't know how this happened but I'm going to try to get this fixed.

I'm not quite sure how I'm going to fix it considering that I also seem to have removed some administrator privilages from - umm - myself.

It's time to call in My Geek! What we do without superheroes?

Insult or Compliment?

When I think about my first experiences with the fine arts, they didn't come from visiting museums or attending the symphony and the opera. (While that would have been nice, our family had many young children which makes attending cultural events prohibitive. Trust me, everyone enjoyed themselves more when we stayed home.) My exposure to the arts really came through the outlet of mass media. Billboards, commercials, radio programs, children's sing-along records, cereal boxes, movies... marketing and entertainment venues mainly.

I wonder now, if I had not become familiar with some of those sounds and images, would I have understood the works when I encountered them as an adult? If a brilliant musical composition was reworked and mass released to help a company sell me their product, was it insulting to the song's composer or was it simply another way to expose the world to his genius?

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I remember watching Elmer Fudd and Bugs Bunny reenact the Ride of the Valkyries during Saturday morning cartoons, complete with Viking costumes and dramatic, cartoon-y landscapes.

I remember enjoying Disney's Fantasia with ballerina hippos and crocodiles, dancing dandelions and roses, Mickey Mouse as the sorcerer's apprentice... all set to classical music.

Goodness knows how many people have taken DaVinci's Mona Lisa and given her beards, cat faces, sunglasses, fistfuls of dollar bills...

When my grandmother passed away last year, I inherited one of her statuettes- a 10" tall gnome, sitting on a pile of books, chin on his fist, contemplating his gnomish life. It bears striking resemblance to Auguste Rodin's sculpture of The Thinker.

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Have you ever seen the painting, The Scream?
Have you ever seen The Scream superimposed with the words "Give me coffee!!" or "Where's the chocolate?!"

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I have to admit, my kids sometimes hear the strains of Tchaicovsky's Nutcracker ballet and squeal, "Oh, oh, oh, remember when Barbie danced to this part as the evil witch approached on her dragon?!" Sometimes they see a Rembrandt portrait and say, "Gosh, that looks a lot like the cover of my picture book, "Cats and Snails and All Kinds of Tails. Except in my book that painting isn't a man and his dog, its a smiling kitty cat with a bird sitting on his hat."


So... is mimicry the highest form of flattery, or is it the lowest form of insult?
When society takes something deemed to be "high art" and brings it down to the common people, either as an advertisement, a commercial jingle, the soundtrack for a movie, a child's cartoon, or a cutesy sculpture for the living room, is that good or bad?
Would the "high artists" be offended or honored by what we're doing with their creations?

Do You Love a Good Story?

One of my writing profs at UT Dallas recommended that I rent "Stone Reader." So I watched it on Saturday.

In this two-hour documentary, an eighteen-year-old buys The Stones of Summer, a literary novel by a little-known author and starts reading it, but he just can't get into it. Yet twenty-five years later when he gives it another go, he loves the story. Unfortunately, when he tries to secure additional copies, he learns it's out of print. Then when he tries to track down the author, nobody knows where the guy is. The mystery sends the reader, Mark, on a yearlong search for the elusive author. The documentary chronicles his progress.

Along the way, Mark interviews teachers at the Iowa workshop, a New York literary agent, and lots of interesting writing experts who end up talking about what it's like to write a novel. By the end, Mark ends up with a video story that's the equivalent to a pageturner in which he presents a realistic picture of what's involved in writing a novel.

The film is for readers and writers and anyone who likes a good story. I won't spoil the ending for you, but if nothing else, pay attention to how they lay out the chronology for maximum suspense and satisfaction.

Do you know of other films with scenes about the writing process? I know of Factotum, Deathtrap, Adaptation, Barton Fink, Shattered Glass, Freedom Writers, and Finding Forrester. Do you know of others? If you'll help me compile a list, my students will love you for it.

Change of Scenery

There's nothing like a vacation to refresh your mind and body - and creativity! We just returned from a great vacation on the east coast of Florida.

A change of scenery and climate can breathe fresh ideas into your art. It had been too long since I had seen an endless horizon, dug my toes in warm sand, smelled the salty air, tasted lobster and listened to the rhythm of lapping waves.

The colors and life of the tropics are distinct just as the desert of New Mexico and the mountains of North Carolina are - each offering their own palette and textures. With every picture I took, I saw a painting.

Do you have a memorable vacation or location that refreshes your creativity?

Color Collaboration

In 2001, 14 journal artists joined forces in a round-robin journal swap. With a simple theme- COLOR- each artist "hosted" a journal based on a single color scheme. All the artists needed to do was choose a color scheme, create a journal with enough space for the other 13 artists to work in, decorate the front cover and the first couple of pages to get things rolling, and mail it to the next artist on the list. The game was afoot!
Red, Black, White, Blue and Ochre, Aqua, Sepia, Violet and Yellow, Hot Pink and Orange, Sunset, Forest Floor, Metallic... from the get-go, one could tell this was going to be an interesting collaboration.

Every two weeks, artist's completed their contribution and mailed off one journal while anxiously awaiting for the next one to arrive. All mediums were fair game, all interpretations of the color were fair game, all approaches to creating these journals... fair game. It was an opportunity for each artist to show their true colors.

Over the next 16 months, the artists reveled in the journals they received. Some describe ripping open the packages containing their next journal before the postman even left their front walk. Others tell that they would dangle it like a carrot before themselves in order to accomplish some pressing administrative or household task. Still others just wanted to be alone with the newest journal, savoring it with a glass of wine or coffee, curling up with it by the fire to explore every detail of the previous artists' work.

They asked questions like:
How did the previous journal artists interpret "green"? How can I spring board from that idea or offer a counterpoint to it?
What medium lends itself to the boldness of violet? The subtlety of sepia?
How can I incorporate this piece of chicken wire (or roller skate wheel, or old apron tie) into my house design for "white"?

With each journal received, the artists had the challenge to weigh their independent creative vision against that of the entire group. They had to get a feel for the mingling of ideas and concepts within each journal's pages, while still maintaining their personal sense of style. Some artists chose to stick with their favorite media, others felt the need to branch out and try something new.

Karen Michel says, "Each journal truly emanated the spirit and style of the artist who made it, and at first it was quite a challenge to hold strong to my own vision and what I conceived to be my personal style. Working with the spirit of collaboration, I eased myself into the mingling of visions and images, getting my feet wet at first, then diving right into what turned out to be a very animated conversation of colors. I would listen closely to hear and feel what the book was saying to me and do my best as an interpreter."

The community that developed through their art journaling experiment continues on. In 2003, Somerset Studio published the collective works of this art journal community in the book, True Colors: A Palette of Collaborative Art Journals. It is a feast for the eyes, and a vanguard for the altered book and journal industry. Many of the 14 artists have websites featuring their work, as well as tips and ideas for creating altered art.

Michelle Ward, Nina Bagley, Lynne Perella, Anne Bagby, Keely Barham, Sarah Fishburn, Claudine Helmuth, Teesha Moore, Karen Michel, Marylinn Kelly, Lisa Renner, Judi Riesch

Check out the book.
Check out the artist's sites.
Get inspired.

Pray for Our Soldiers...and...

I hear it on the radio. I hear it in church. I read it on bumper stickers. "Pray for our soldiers."

Nothing wrong with that. It's good to pray. My friend's husband is "over there." She's caring for their three kids alone. I definitely don't want anything to happen to him, so I'm glad we pray.

But you know what's missing in such requests, don't you? Yeah--the reminder of our Lord's command to love our enemies.

Recently I was struck anew by the fact that God sent Jonah to Nineveh, which being interpreted was Babylon, which being interpreted was the heart of Iraq. Jonah resented (more like got royally torqued) that God offered his enemies a chance to repent. And they did repent, so God didn't do lightning. Woo-eeee. That did not go over well with the angry Jonah-man.

The year I decorated the card you see here, the U.S. invaded both Afghanistan and Iraq. Those places are under His mercies, and not just because Jonah and Daniel did short stints there. From the desert to the iceberg continent, God's mercies are over all his works.

Okay, so that explains Babylon and Iraq and Afghanistan and even Antarctica. But Italian? Well, a prof in my PhD program was initially negative about my being a Christian, though she softened as the semester went by. Anyway, her speciality was/is Italian.

And she's under the mercies.

So am I. Romans says I used to be God's enemy, too.

So let's pray for our troops. But let's also pray for their troops. We need to pray the same for both: that they might all be translated from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of His Beloved Son--the One who loves His enemies.

Childhood Games

I'm designing a large scale collage using imagery from childhood games. Depending on our ages, these were popular at some point in our household:

Hi-Ho Cherry-O
Rook
Uno
Sorry
Yatzee
Battleship
Monopoly
Rack-O

Help me build a list. What were some of your favorite childhood games?

Starving Artists

Amy Grant has been said to pack away the Lays potato chips during her recording sessions. The grease lines her throat and gives her, well... a greasy, throaty sound, I guess.

James Bond likes his martinis shaken, not stirred.

Back in the days when I made scrapbooks into the wee hours, all the women at the crops brought their favorite snacks to keep them chugging around the clock. Carrot sticks, Diet Coke with ice chips (not cubes, it must be ice chips), peanut M&M's, and Arby's roast beef sandwiches.


So, when you're in the creative groove, what is your favorite munchie to keep at hand?

What Are Your Faves?

Back in January when I was in Marfa, Texas, with a bunch of artsy types, several of my cohorts said I simply must read Twyla Tharp's bestseller, The Creative Habit. Tharp is an Emmy- and Tony-winning American dancer and choreographer (think "Hair," "White Nights," "Movin' Out"). When it comes to the subject of creativity, she's written a kickin' read. The layout is as creative as the prose.

Now, when it comes to creative writing, my fave is the 1983 edition of Writing the Natural Way.

If you want videos, the Catholic Communication Campaign's "Creativity: Touching the Divine" stands at the top of my list.

What is your favorite work(s) relating to art or creativity?

What is (Nude) Art?

WARNING: Links in this post lead to news articles containing artistic photographs of naked people.

It's a highly debated question: What is art? Many approach the answer by saying what art isn't. Is it art simply because it's shocking or disturbing, because it makes you think, or only if it's beautiful?

You may have seen and/or heard about the most recent photo shoot by American photographer Spencer Tunick. He is known for his nude photography. So here's my question to you - is it art?

I'll come right out and say I think it is. It's very provocative and creative. Artistically, the human body becomes an element instead of just the subject. I wonder if this might be a perspective our Creator has.

A definition of art that I use is that it's creating a new perspective on a familiar thing or the exploration of what things are made of by recreating them out of context. For example, drawing or painting a fish using nothing but black lines and still communicating the characteristics and environment of a fish. Or creating a picture of a fish out of macaroni by determining what characteristics macaroni and a fish have in common or in what new ways can you look at macaroni that can make it communicate "fish". Either way, you are either stretching the view of the subject or the medium.

Tunick describes his photographs this way:
"I aim to get a sculptural feel for groups of bodies, as well as create performance art." - Telegraph

He's scupting by exploring the use of a new medium.

So what do you think of his work?

Nudes were very common in works of the great masters. Is it different because Tunick uses photography?

At what point does nude art become pornography?

Has the church played a role in demoralizing art simply because of the nude?

Art Community: Community Art

Art is one of the few things in the world that builds community. Whether it's viewing a piece of sculpture in a sculpture garden, visiting a gallery opening, listening to a symphony at the concert hall, or watching a show in the theatre, art is created to be shared.
Shared in the enjoyment of a completed work. Sometimes even shared throughout the entire creative process.

Art is meant to be shared with others.

A wonderful example of art that is shared in conception, execution and enjoyment of the finished product, is Community Bridge, in Frederick, MD. This piece began as an effort to revitalize and restore a controversial sector of Frederick. The artist, William Cochran, proposed a collaborative art project using a bridge as his canvas. Not just any old bridge though, he wanted this specific bridge that divided the community into a quasi "right and wrong side of the tracks," both racially and economically. Cochran's vision was to use the very thing dividing the city in two and redeem it to become a point of unity, collaboration and community spirit. Hence it's name, Community Bridge.


Cochran asked 174,000 people (both locally and around the world) one question, "What image represents the spirit of community to you?"




In process from 1993-1998, and painted entirely in the trompe l'oeil style (meaning that the bridge surfaces are completely flat. Anything you see that appears to be three-dimensional is an illusion), Cochran and his art team incorporated hundreds of ideas contributed from the world-wide community. In the words of Cochran, "Imagination is the most powerful force available to humankind and everyone without exception has access to that force."

Cochran relied on a community to canvas the public for ideas. Cochran relied on a community of ten painters to assist in making the bridge mural a reality. Cochran now relies on the community of Frederick, and all the out-of-town visitors, to enjoy and experience Community Bridge together. Cochran's vision depends on community collaboration and serves to draw that community closer together. And one could even say that it creates community where there was none.


Cochran hopes to add still more symbols to the bridge. Click here to join the Community Bridge collaboration and submit your answer to the question,
"What symbol represents community to you?"

The Artist's Formative Stage

I think it was Picasso who said that everyone is an artist and the challenge as we grow is to keep from having it trained out of us.

When I was a kid, my mom taught me to make shavings from crayons. Then we'd press them with a hot iron between sheets of wax paper so they melted into a kaleidoscope of color. After that we'd cut out stained glass window frames and put the colored creation inside. Hanging in the window with the sun shining through, our homemade stained-glass windows took our breath away.

My kindergarten teacher taught me to make a turkey by tracing my hand. Did you do that too?

What are some of your first memories about creating something?

New Church: Part 1

Part 2, Part 3

My Geek and I have been getting antsy at church. We want more. We've found some friends who feel the same way. We feel like we're wasting time sitting in pews and going to meetings. Too much time in the building and not enough time with people. We're postmodern in our thinking and lifestyle. Our creativity is bursting at the seams to see what we can do with this passion, energy and possibility. What if..?

So, in January we started a new home small group. (I really see this as a home church.) There is no real plan except to always be moving forward by exploring and experimenting with what it means to be the church of Jesus Christ. Many of our first discussions were about our identity and what we want to accomplish. But as we evolve, there were some simple things we wanted:

• As long as there's at least two of us, we meet.


• We have a starting time but we don't care what time you show, just get there!


• We end when we're done. It's usually late. But it gives us time to build those relationships.


• Since we meet on Friday evening, we decided to brown bag it to make it easier for families to come. No one has to cook, just run through the drive-thru of your choice. Eating together is a great fellowship time.


• Everyone pitches in. This is not a pew sitting church. We got things to do.


• No child care. If the kids run through the room or want to join us, that's fine. They're not made to feel like they're not included. It's important that they hear us discussing spiritual issues, however difficult. They always want to join in on our art projects.

Right now we're building trust and relationships. Although we'd all met previously at church during the "Sunday school hour", meeting in homes has changed things. Church is sterile and restricting. There's a time limit and everybody knows how to act for an hour. When you come into someone's home, you get personal and there's no where to hide. You tend to act more like yourself.

It's mid-April now and we're still learning about who we are and challenging what church and worship really are. We're in training. We've gone rock climbing, created life maps, studied the Sermon on the Mount and even shared cocktail recipes. We're learning to get into each others lives instead of just passing each other with fake smiles on Sunday morning. The same thing we need to do out in the world.

Are you having a revolutionary church experience? Tell us about it.

Mocha Gallery Updated

I know it's taken me long enough, but the Gallery for the Mocha on the Mount study is finished. There's some amazing work out there with cards from all three groups: two live and one on-line Yahoo! group.

Thanks to everyone for participating. Enjoy.