The Way to Wilder (Karen Woods, 2020)

Visual Art

Seeing in the rain I first met Karen Woods in May 2006 when Margie and I were invited to lead a weekend retreat at…

Tom Waits (Matt Mahurin, 2019)

Books / Music / Visual Art

Tom Waits by Matt Mahurin This large format, coffee-table art book will be of interest to people who love music album cover art, collaborations…

In Praise of Boredom

Art / Spirituality / Visual Art

Reading the World—by James K. A. Smith In Praise of Boredom In his book The World Beyond Your Head, Matthew Crawford talks about what he…

Say, “Thank you.”

Community / Hospitality / Ordinary Life / Visual Art

“Choose whatever you like!” We were sitting in the Bustard’s living room looking through a stack of original prints and the artist was making…

Nourishing Our Souls

Art / Visual Art

“Beautiful things are a delight to the senses, a pleasure to the mind, and a refreshment for the spirit,” artist Makoto Fujimura writes in…

Culture Care (Makoto Fujimura, 2014)

Books / Maturity and Flourishing / Visual Art / Work and Rest

Beauty in Life An important word for artist Makoto Fujimura is generative, by which he means anything that brings beauty into life to bring…

Serrano’s Piss Christ Reconsidered

Art / Visual Art

I first became aware of Andres Serrano’s Piss Christ in a conversation with Howard Fox, then curator of contemporary art at the L.A. County…

Enlarging Imagination: The Art of Ned Bustard

Art / Visual Art

One of my earliest memories concerning art involved the exquisite woodcut block prints of Albrecht Durer (1471-1528). I’m uncertain where I came upon them,…

The Wonderful Freedom to Fail

Faith / Ordinary Life / Visual Art

Speaking at the 2009 Christians in the Visual Arts (CIVA) conference allowed me to attend some fascinating presentations. New York artist Makoto Fujimura, for…

Reformed Iconography: The Art of James Disney

Art / Visual Art

We were eating lunch when James Disney suddenly said, “I see a landscape.” We were not talking about landscapes at that moment, or about…