The list begins....
If you have this stuff and can let us have or borrow it, let Michael Winters know (mwinters@sojournchurch.com).  We start installation Feb. 22.

This list will be edited to reflect the current inventory of needs and resources as people turn in their lists and we get stuff in.

NEEDS

For Wings Shelter:

Aluminum wireform rolls
Pvc pipe
Cotton or polyester batting
Feathers (I found a company online for these)
Plaster cloth
Felt (soft blue & gray)
Cardstock (silver & gold)

"Lazy people want much but get little, but those who work hard will prosper." - Proverbs 13:4

I often have people introduce me to others as 'an awesome artist' or some such thing, but the truth is that I haven't made much artwork in the last few years.  I want much to have that reputation, but I haven't been making work in any way that deserves it.  Well, today I'm finalizing 4 new substantial pieces to hang in Quill's coffee shop.  The work might not be awesome, but it's satisfying.

I tell myself that I haven't been lazy about artmaking.  There are always a million excuses - it's expensive, family comes first, and my job is demanding.  Well, under the pressure of a deadline, I'm getting something done and it feels good.  Of course artmaking is real work, but it's not the kind of work that will make you prosper financially if you are just diligent enough.  But today there has been some prospering going on in my soul.  I've been finding a way of making work that's restful and rest that is working.

After studying what Proverbs has to say about work and wealth the last couple weeks, we're now turning to what Proverbs has to say about friendship.  Join us this Sunday for a worship service as we discuss friendship through the wisdom of Proverbs.

For Advent, we put up a new stage background and added eight large canvasses around the room.

The window design is a paper cutout of the same design found in st. vincent de paul (the cathedral sojourn is likely going to purchase on shelby street).

The canvasses going around the room hopefully makes the room a little more unified rather than just being a separated stage and 'audience'.  The same canvasses will be reworked four times a year when we change the stage background.

The design was made by Tyler Deeb, who runs pedale design.  The digital, diamond-shaped design was turned into a silkscreen and printed with metallic gold ink.

This is what the front of the room looks like.  The light pattern on the green wall is created using the existing track lighting shining off of mirrors, which were hot glued to the ceiling.  There are also lights shining from the floor onto tree branches, creating shadow patterns on the wall.  The concept for this was generated by Katherine Groce and was based on the idea that in Christ becoming a human baby, heaven met earth.  The shadows moving up the wall, and the mirrored light are meant to reflect this truth.

A couple weeks ago a middle school class from Christian Academy Southwest came to the 930 for a tour and they completed the Proverbs project.  Their creatively responded to the scriptures in a way that was each unique to them.  I can't wait to see more examples of people illustrating the Proverbs.

If you'd like to participate just email mwinters@sojournchurch.com and we'll mail you as many project panels as you want.  They'll all be displayed in the gallery and online with the verse they relate to.

Right now, we're working hard on two great projects.  The first is called Prayer and is based on the book of Psalms.  The second is called Wisdom and is based on the book of Proverbs.  We're asking people from around the country to take one of these 4x6" panels and illustrate one biblical proverb.

Let us know if we can mail you one, or more.

We need them back to us in about a month, so act quick!

We're going to display about 300, put them all up on our website, and hopefully print a book or catalog further down the road.

photo: dinner at Ramsi's.  Joe is the tall, smiley one in dark blue.

Most people are shorter than me.  But Joe Johnson is not.  He's 6'5''.  He teaches at University of Missouri at Columbia.  Among other awards, he was a runner up for the Aperture Foundation Prize in 2008.  He was an apprenticing assistant for Abelardo Morrell for 3 years (one of my favorite art photographers).  He grew up in Kansas and went to school in San Francisco and New York.  He's been published in a bunch of places and has had fancy exhibits.  In short, he has the whole list of accomplishments I myself dreamed of having while I was studying photography at UofL.

I could have mentioned any of that this past Friday night when I introduced him before his artist talk, but I didn't.  Instead, without thinking really at all, I just stepped up to the mic and blurted out what was essentially a disclaimer about his words being only his own, and not necessarily reflecting the views of the venue or the church.  I had the thought to give that sort of disclaimer earlier in the week only because he was going to be talking about megachurches and if his opinions about megachurches came out I didn't want people to think that those were shared opinions with Sojourn.  Fair enough, but it's not cool to just give a disclaimer and not share a single fact about how awesome Joe's work is, or how swell of a guy he is, or anything.  Anything.

It wouldn't have been extra terrible except that somewhere in the process of giving this stupid introduction, I must have stepped on the power cord for the projector so that the projector needed to be plugged in and restarted, making an awkward introduction more awkward.  In the end though, Joe got up there and gave the best artist talk I think the 930 has ever had.

As soon as my little fiasco occurred, I was embarassed, but that night and the next morning my bafoonery was ringing in my head.  I'm such a moron.  I'm such a moron.  Why do I get to be the director of this awesome arts ministry if I can't even introduce an artist without disgracing him and unplugging his powerpoint?  These are the thoughts I was having.

Now, it's Tuesday and I'm not waking up with those thoughts ringing in my head.  The thought process that stopped the 'voices' went something like this:

Why do I cringe so bad at my own faultiness?  Do I really think I've ever deserved my position at the 930 and Sojourn?  No, of course not.  If I got everything right all the time, where would God's grace be found?  It's grace that anybody would let me get in front of a microphone.  It's grace that I've got the 'job' that I've got.  It's grace that I get to meet artists that are like heros to me.  It's grace that Joe didn't hold such a bad introduction against me.  It's grace that secures a future for me, not my own accomplishments. God's grace is sufficient and maybe it will grow me to not screw up in the same way next time.

After seeing a daguerrotype (one of the very first photo processes), the painter Paul Delaroche declared "Painting is dead."  Of course that was more than 150 years ago, and yet people are still making paintings and painting is still a highly valued art form.  Bruce Linn, who curated this show, is a painter himself and works for UofL.  If you go in the Cressman Center downtown, you're likely to meet him.

There are a lot of good artists in this show, including Denise Burge who will be showing at the 930 in a couple months for the exhibit "Conspiring with Nature".  Letitita Quesenberry is also in this show and she's one of my favorite local artists for sure.  I've never met her though, so I'll try to meet her at the reception thursday.

We’re expanding our 930 Art Center Team to include a Production Manager and Promotions Coordinator.  These are excited opportunities to utilize and build skills in the Live Event field.  These are part-time paid positions, considered as contracted labor. You must be a Sojourn member, at either The 930 campus or the Sojourn East campus.

Get the details here for full job descriptions and how to apply.

Sunday, January 17th

9:15 a.m. in Room 310

Psalms Meeting #4 will be the one where we start dividing up tasks for the 'Prayer & Wisdom' installation that will open at the 930 on Feb. 26th.  So, you don't want to miss this one.  If you don't show up we might just assign you a really tough job nobody wants, like figuring out how to submerge a couch in a large aquarium (Psalms 6:6).

Here's the idea list and notes from our meeting this past Sunday:

PRAYER EXHIBIT IDEAS

IDEAS BASED ON PSALMS CONTENT

A TREE PLANTED BY STREAMS OF WATER (1) – A modified tree, hung with ribbon and fruit.  Covered white maybe.  Make a seat that looks like water so kids can sit there under the tree.

2 PATHS (1) – Two paths made on the floor.  One crumbled, maybe including broken teeth of the wicked.  The other path clean and straight.

THE HIGH AND THE LOW (2) – Depictions of kings, movie stars, politicians.  Somehow show how God is much bigger than them and their plans.

SHIELD + SUN (3, 84, 91, 115) – A shield hung from the ceiling with an inscription: “Thou o Lord are a shield for me, the glory and lifter of my head.” (3).  Have arrows in flight as well.

QUESTIONING CLOCKS (4) – “How long O Lord?”  Hang clocks on the wall, each covered with a question mark.

PROUD CAN’T STAND (5) – Depictions of prideful and powerful people, but with their legs cut off.

OPEN GRAVE THROAT (5) – A mouth with a coffin in it.

I DRENCH MY COUCH WITH TEARS (6) – Submerge a couch in a tank of water.

FINGER-PRINTED STARS (8) Stars imprinted with finger prints.

LION IN WAIT (10) – Nail drawing or photo collage of a lion in wait.  Potentially place in relation to a deer panting for water (42:1)

IT’S RAINING TRAPS (11:6) – A silhoutte figure ducking to get out from under the heavy rain of bear traps falling from a dark cloud overhead.

LIP GRID (12) – Psalms references lips and tongues a ton.  Have a wall full of lips pictures in different expressions.  Alternatively, arrange lips and ears randomly around the space and connect with lines.  Hang written prayers from these lines.

JESUS CAN STAND IN THE SANCTUARY (15) – An interactive puzzle piece making up an image of Jesus.

HEAVENS DECLARE (19) – Stacked televisions all showing cosmic images.

POURED OUT LIKE WATER WITH BONES OUT OF JOINT (22:14) – “I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart has turned to wax; it has melted away within me.” Make a small pool of water.  A cross on the bottom in paint or mosaic.  Bones floating on top, kept moving by a water pump.

HE MAKES ME LIE DOWN IN GREEN PASTURES (23) – A regular bed except the mattress is made of grass.

CUP OVERFLOWS (23) – using a fountain pump, have grape juice continually overflowing a cup.  Label cup salvation (116).

TASTE + SEE (34) – Have a cake made.  With icing write on it, “Taste and see: The Lord is good.”

WHY SO DOWNCAST (42:5) – A looping video with two separate scenes, one showing a soul in difficulty, the other showing the same person happy.

BE STILL AND KNOW THAT I AM GOD (46, 19, – A large suspended cone.  Viewers would need to stoop down to step inside.  Once inside they’d see a view of outer space, possibly backlit paper cutouts or maybe a projection.  On the floor, a print of animals put under feet.

LIST MY TEARS ON YOUR SCROLL, JARS OF TEARS (56) – A scroll with numbered tear drop shapes covering the entire surface. Shelves with tears labeled with names.  Accounting log books too maybe.

REFINED LIKE SILVER (66:10) Place silver pieces on the wall in the shape of a human figure.  Or black pieces that fade into silver, like charcoal to diamond.

FORTRESS (71:13) – On a stack of bricks, spray paint images of a sword and/or shield using stencils.  Alternatively make the image moveable for kids to put together on the floor like a puzzle.

BREAD OF HEAVEN (78)  - Create a plywood cloud from which hang loaves of bread or angel food cake.  People are instructed to ‘take only what you need’.

UNDER THE SHELTER OF GOD’S WINGS (17, 36, 57, 61, 63, and 91) – A plaster of paris wing set with feathers and lit in such a way to cast a large shadow on the floor.

GOD’S FEATHERS (91) – hundreds of feathers hung by strings from the ceiling.

FUTILE THOUGHTS (94) – A headpiece contraption that looks like it might read brain waves, hooked to a monitor.  When someone puts it on the word ‘futility’ scrolls on the monitor over and over again.

TURN YOUR EAR TO ME (102) – A wall-mounted sculptural ear is attached to the wall with pivoting brackets.  There is a hole in the ear.  Visitors are encouraged to write a prayer for their needs and place it through the hole and it’s caught in a fish bowl.

I EAT ASHES (102) – A table with one place setting.  A plate full of ashes.  A cup full of tears.

AS FAR AS EAST FROM WEST (103) – At the furthest spot east, put a small figure labeled ‘me’.  At the furthest point west, put some symbol representing sin, and label ‘my sin’.  Alternatively have a conveyor belt that moves some object representing sin to the farthest part of the room.

WRAPPED IN LIGHT (104) – Make a suit out of lights or weave a blanket out of Christmas lights.  Display the actual thing or just show a photograph.

CALENDARS (118) – “This is the day the Lord has made.  Let us rejoice and be glad in it.”  Have that quote on each block of a March 2010 calendar.  People can take a copy.

HIS LOVE ENDURES FOREVER (136) – Use a heart border around the entire gallery.

LIPS DOORWAY (141:3) Transform the main entrance into a giant set of lips that everyone must walk through.

LET EVERY BREATH ANIMALS (150) – Animals cut out of tin.  The animals heads are turned up towards heaven with mouths open.  The text of Psalms as the background.

LET EVERY BREATH MIRROR (150) - On a mirror, smudge the words ‘praise the lord’.  When someone breaths on the mirror,

IDEAS BASED ON MATERIALS/PROCESSES

STICK FLOW – Like Eric Scholtens has done before, make many sticks available for a tinker toys sort of abstract sculpture that fills a corner of the room.

CABINETS WITH PROJECTIONS – Mount cabinets to the wall and inside have baby projectors customized to project psalms text or themes from the psalms, maybe reflecting the creation psalms.

POWER CORD TEXT – anything that gets plugged in could use an orange extension cord wall mounted and arranged to spell words with the cord.

LIFE SIZE PHOTO COLLAGES – Use the laser printer and recombine to make large photo-based prints.

FRAMES – A large area of wall space full of framed images.

IDEAS BASED ON SOUND

BASKETBALL CHIMES – Make a basketball and goal available.  Instead of a regular net, have chimes.  Possibly connect to the piano underneath the chimes, so that the ball hits the piano.

SING PRAISES KARAOKE PSALMS – Have a karaoke machine show Psalms.  Provide the microphone and a small amp so people can try singing the psalms.

RECORDED AMBIENT - Records lots of different types of drones and ambient styled music without beats or distinct tempo. Record them all in the same key, so that there is harmony between them. Set up speakers in various corners of the gallery. Some can be aggressive. Some can be somber. Some can be tranquil.