Call for Entries

Deadline to Enter: July 25^th 2010

Designers and Artists are invited to submit a poster design to be used in celebration with Sojourn’s 10^th anniversary.  The design should communicate that Sojourn has been a church for 10 years.  The winning design will be included on the associated Devotional Cover, T-shirts, and Posters and maybe skateboard decks (you never know).

Eligibility

All artists are eligible.  All designs should be original.  All entries should be in a digital, editable file format.

Submissions

Please submit a Full Resolution PDF or JPEG via email to mwinters@sojournchurch.com

Design should fit the dimensions 11x17, yet flexible for multiple formats

Design should not include more than 4 colors

Files must be submitted by Sunday, July 25^th

Awards

10 favorite entries will be chosen for display on sojournvisualarts.com

the corresponding artists will receive a t-shirt showcasing the winning design

1 winning entry will be chosen to represent Sojourn’s Anniversary

the corresponding artist will receive t-shirts for their entire community group

Sojourn Arts Director, Michael Winters, will be selecting the winners

To do this, we need a number of photographers.  You'll be responsible for the shooting and then Michael Winters will be responsible for getting the images edited and to the moms.  It would be good too if you could bring along an assistant to help you keep track of the names and addresses.

Email mwinters@sojournchurch.com if you'd be willing to take one or more of these time slots.

Mothers Day Photography - Sunday, May 9th

Midtown
8:30-9:15 (2) Buck Buchanon with Amy
10:15-11:30 (2) Buck Buchanon with Amy
12:30-1:15 (2) Courtney Crain with Kristin Miller
4:30-5:15 (2)
6:15-7:15 (2)

East
9:15-10:00 Ginny Hobbs, Cody Chaplin
11:15-12:00 Ginny Hobbs, Cody Chaplin

Easter is the high point of the Christian calendar. For this special occasion of celebration, Sojourn Visual Arts is going to renew the look of our worship space by changing the paint color behind the stage and creating new window design for behind the stage. It will be similar to last year's Easter design made entirely of flowers. We'll also be re-painting the canvasses around the worship space to match the new stage color.
If you can help, please come.

Room 310 at the 930

Come join us on Sunday Feb. 21st at 11:15 to make new art for Sojourn Visual Arts' upcoming exhibit "Prayer & Wisdom".  The "Wisdom" portion of the exhibit is open for any one of any age to participate.  Just show up and we'll have the materials and instructions all laid out for you!

If you can't make this time and place, you can still participate. Either pick up the information on the 930 gallery table or just email mwinters@sojournchurch.com and request the info to be mailed to you.  But act quick because the deadline to participate is Feb. 21.

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.

Exhibit opens at the 930 Art Center in Louisville, KY on February 26, 2010.

“Like apples of gold in settings of silver, is a word spoken in right circumstances.”

ACTION: Pick a single proverb from the book of Proverbs and illustrate it.

The biblical book ‘Proverbs’ is not only a collection of sayings and observations for wise living, but it is rich in powerful visual language.  Proverbs offers moving insights that confirm our own observations about the world and call us to clearer vision and action as well.

Sojourn Visual Arts is inviting individual artists, classes, and churches around the country to explore the rich wisdom of the proverbs and respond by making images. Sojourn Visual Arts will be displaying 300 selected entries in an exhibit on the Psalms and Proverbs at the 930 Art Center, a gallery owned by Sojourn Church.  The entries will be displayed together in the gallery to demonstrate the diversity of topics in proverbs and the diversity of responses to its wisdom.  Every entry submitted will be displayed on our website.

Any 2-dimensional method of image making is acceptable.  Everyone will work on the same 4x5” mat boards that we will be happy to send to you in the mail with detailed instructions.  There is no cost to participate and you can contact Sojourn Visual Arts to have mat boards and info sent to you directly.

To request a project packet, email mwinters@sojournchurch.com and just let us know how many blank project panels you would like.

All work must be at the 930 Art Center by Feb 18th to be considered for inclusion in the exhibit.

12:45 p.m. in the Listening Room

RSVP required, email mwinters@sojournchurch.com

By February 26, 2010, we're aiming to complete our most ambitious visual arts project yet. We'll be creating a whole main gallery exhibit installation collaboratively.  The inspiration for the exhibit will come from the books of Psalms and Proverbs, which we'll just be wrapping up in the sermon series.  We'll be getting together to eat pizza, cast vision for the project, show examples of work to emulate, and start the whole process.  Bi-weekly meetings will carry us up through until the time of installation, steadily filling out what aims to be the wildest installation the 930 gallery has yet shown.

We'd be happy for anyone to get involved.  We need idea-generators, fabric crafters, construction-minded folks, etc., etc., so RSVP and join us.

Anybody want to car pool to the Bringing Creation To Praise Conference on Thursday, November 12th?

I know Alan Vales and I will be going, so please join us if you like.  It's a 'two day arts and faith conference' at Asbury (outside of Lexington) College.  Jeremy Begbie is the main speaker, and if you don't know, he's one of the primary thinkers out there when it comes to arts and faith so it should be good.  We'll be leaving the 930 around 2:00 p.m. and be back by midnight.  We're only going for Thursday.

Richard Fudge, from down in Memphis, asked me to take part in a really cool project he's started called 'To Send a Prayer'.  He's mailing three journals around to Christian artists around the country and asking them to make one spread in the journal into a personal expression of prayer.

The picture above is my addition to the project.  I came across a striking song lyric that inspired a prayer in me that inspired me to make this image.  There is a Mount Eerie song 'Lost Wisdom' in which the writer has a mystical experience in nature.  At one point the song sings, 'I open the front door and the back door and let the wind blow through.'  For whatever reason this line really stuck with me.  I didn't even consider that he might be talking about a physical door.  In my mind, the door in this line refers to a door to a human spirit.  The doors are opened and the Wind comes through, the Pure Spirit.  I hope this image conveys both an emptiness of the human spirit and the capacity for God to dwell within us.

I'm sure some people will read it as a t-shirt that doesn't say anything, but that's what I get for not putting any words on this spread.

To see other spreads from the project and to see if you can get involved, check out http://2sendaprayer.blogspot.com/