Exploring trends in all the arts
Art washes away from the soul
the dust of everyday life
~Pablo Picasso
IN THIS ISSUE:
Lausanne Statement on the Arts
Composer Ola Gjeilo
Pathway Cards: Artist Carl Ealy and Poet Philip Martz
Reader resources and subscriber premiums
Girl with Mandolin, 1910 Pablo Picasso
The Lausanne Statement on the Arts
Redeeming the Arts: The Restoration of the Arts to God’s Creational Intention.
Composed and published in 2004, presented at the Lausanne Conference on Evangelism.
PROLOGUE For an established and respected mission organization to recognize the arts as strategic to the life and mission of the church, and to commission a paper about the arts in the context of faith and redemption, is both visionary and long overdue. Apart from a small number of important voices, the church as a whole has been virtually silent on the topic for generations. There is an evident need to find ways to speak of the intrinsic value of the arts, what they are able to contribute to our faith communities and the cultures in which we live, and the unique ways in which they are able to move our spirit and shape our thinking. Evangelical communities have been inclined to neglect the arts. There are of course many reasons for this tendency; it will be suggested that those reasons include common theological understandings and ways of thinking about spiritual life. However, in recent years a growing number of these same communities have begun to manifest a new interest in the arts and have made significant moves forward in engaging the arts in the life of the church. To be sure, it has not been a total transformation, but the signs are clear that a renaissance in the arts is taking place among churches in the west. Though non-western cultures integrate the arts more effectively, many of their faith communities have been westernized, and so follow similar patterns regarding the arts. The task of global evangelism is a task of communication. It is evident that art, too, is about communication. The way in which art communicates is of course unique to the medium, but the power of the arts to move us, engage us, and help us to see with fresh eyes is indisputable. But we will want to suggest that art is not simply a tool or a piece of technology to be used for a predetermined purpose. The integrity of both art and the artist require something more.
Education The task undertaken in Act I is to provide perspective on the biblical and theological foundations for understanding the creative gift as manifest in human artistry. Imagination has been neglected as a resource for helping us to think more clearly about the world. As a result, we have impoverished Christian thinking and understanding. The time has come for Christians to recover the imagination and to discern its value for faith and life. The arts are one of the key areas where the imagination does its work, and as we will point out later, faith is another area where imagination plays a significant role. As we explore the arts, looking particularly at the need for education, we will consider biblical foundations and strategies for developing our understanding of these gifts. There is a need for a paradigm shift in how we view the arts—a fresh vision to help us understand how the recovery of the imagination and the affirmation of the gift of artistic creativity can be both celebrative and significant for the church. The biblical narrative serves as the context for the shaping of our theological understanding, and the resulting theology will have implications for all aspects of human life, including the arts. In setting out biblical and theological foundations, we are concerned to do so in a way that provides not only fresh thinking, but also new practice. What we seek here is not simply a set of ideas, but a living word with the power to change and transform. We will explore how our understanding of scripture and of theology profoundly influences how we engage in the practice of our faith. Our concern will be about our practice as it relates to the arts.
[for the complete statement, go to www.lausanne.org –the complete statement will appear over the next several issues of MBJournal—Ed.]
Produced by the Issue Group on this topic at the 2004 Forum for World Evangelization hosted by the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization in Pattaya, Thailand, September 29 to October 5, 2004
Ola Gjeilo: Norwegian Roots and ‘evocative…lush’ sound
Quoted from www.OlaGjeilo.com:
“Ola Gjeilo is one of the most frequently performed composers in the choral world. An accomplished pianist, improvisations over his own published choral pieces have become a trademark of his collaborations. Although Norwegian by birth, it is perhaps Ola’s adopted country of America that has influenced the composer’s distinctive soundworld the most, evolving a style that is often described as cinematic and evocative, with a lush, harmonious sound"
Ola grew up in a musically eclectic home listening to classical, jazz, pop and folk, a broad background he later incorporated into his classical composition studies at The Juilliard School, the Royal College of Music in London, and currently as a New York City-based freelance composer. He is especially inspired by the improvisational art of film composer Thomas Newman, jazz legends Keith Jarrett and Pat Metheny, glass artist Dale Chihuly and architect Frank Gehry.
Ola is an exclusive Decca Classics artist, and his Decca albums include Ola Gjeilo and Winter Songs, also featuring Tenebrae, Voces8 and the Choir of Royal Holloway, as well as the solo piano albums Night & Dawn. For more information, please visit olagjeilo.com, or find Ola on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Artist Carl Ealy and Poet Philip Martz
Pathway Art Cards recently drew my attention. This partnership in the greeting card world has created a niche market. Based in Charlotte, North Carolina, painter Carl Ealy and poet Philip Martz create ‘art cards’
--watercolor images of hummingbirds, and seashells with evocative lyric poetry that rises above the typical Hallmark fair. Ealy and Martz teamed up to create Pathway Art Cards in 1995, “marketed primarily in exclusive boutiques, museum shops, resorts, and botanical gardens. The Whitney Museum of Art’s Store Next Door, the New York Botanical Garden, the Palm Springs Art Museum, and the Plaza Hotel are just a few revered cultural institutions that carried Pathway Art Cards early on.” Ealy offers encouragement for fellow artists entering the commercial market. “I have several suggestions for artists: Don’t be afraid to take repeated chances, change what you’re doing to get different results, and be committed to improving one’s art. Most important, don’t be afraid to overcome repeated rejections from those who will tell you it can’t be done.” On the Pathway Art Cards website there is much to choose from. One of my favorites is this poem by Philip Martz on the back of one birthday card:
Faces Given to Love
Searching for your reflected beauty in
Logical places. I find it rather
In smiling, loving faces.
Reflected beauty, being a finely drawn line
Between youth and agelessness.
Burning bright and steady. Lengthened by
Smile and laugh lines that keep the heart
Beating strong and free of duress.
Racing to generate blood flow to the tips
Of your beating wings.
So that beauty is found in small places.
In small gestures, narrow spaces
Between rib and clavicle that house the heart
In its cage. Even as youthful desire
Meets face to face with the turn of the screw.
The knotted muscle, new smile lines.
Securing lifelines of your reflected beauty
In every heart. Beauty finds its closest companion
In the faces given to love.
Mirroring nature’s best intentions.
--Philip Martz
Resources for Further Exploration
Awe Inspiring Photos in "Bright" published by The Epoch Times:
"Beauty and the Gospel" an article published in Ligonier Tabletalk
Podcast episode by Timothy Ward:
A Word from Terry Yount
Executive Creator, Mere Beauty
Beginning November 1, 2022 and continuing forward, subscribers to the website and journal issues will have access to archives, sound and video files, and exciting resources for arts advocacy and support. Your feedback, as always, is welcome.
In all the confusion of the modern world, Mere Beauty is your place to stop, to observe, to listen, to become part of the beauty all around us.
MBJournal
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