with @blainehogan
// Art happens in DARK PLACES. Movies, plays, concert venues, and the sort. And it is in DARK PLACES where God wants to enter, and work on peoples hearts. Now, I'm not sure if I heard something that wasn't implied, but with that opening from Blain Hogan I KNEW that I hadn't chosen the right break out to come to, God had guided me here.
"Most Christian Art feels more like Propaganda than Art." (#drool) – Blain said.
Then he emphatically went on, "If you (I) want more out of your (my) art …you (I) must work on yourself (myself)!"
So here's the gist: As an artist, I make art, every week, that asks my audience to reflect on their own pasts, their own stories, and yet … I can't remember that last time I reflected on my own. …. (insert bombshell here)
Blaine quoted a famous person, and I'm paraphrasing [we are a society that is over-informed and under-reflective]
And by ignoring myself, my story, what God is sojourning along with me through, I am stumbling into the beginnings of my "art" becoming mere propaganda (a story I have not passion or belief in). Because I will never take my audience any further than I, myself, have journeyed.
In creating my or other's story:
step 1. CUT a hole in the box
step 2. LISTEN – What's going on in my community?
-be sure to inside and outside the church.
-find the themes that move me the most.
-if you find resistance with your pastor or producer, sit down and ask for the trust to lead creatively every 6 wks. …otherwise, contact Blaine, and he'll apologize.
step 3. SCRATCH, even when I don't Itch.
-always capture what you experience, always! Every song, movie, every experience, capture it for your creative ideas.
-and when you're stuck, go analog. Drop the iPod, the laptop, even the iPhone and grab a pad of paper and pen …just not at the Westin ($40 charges paper)
step 4. CREATIVITY and disorganization are NOT badges of honor!
-chaos actually undermines creativity
step 5. #FAIL! and #fail often!
-okay, just go read "Art & Fear"
So a few tools in understanding yourself, in order to create better art that tells the stories of those around us:
1. Therapy
2. Mars Hill Graduate School
3. Prayer
4. Journaling
5. Read
6. Ask
// So I wish I could do Blaine's lecture justice, but he ended it so well …"Our Sacred Spaces were not meant to be occupied by propaganda. They were meant for our stories!"
All of his notes and content later on his
blog.
// Now I can explain why this is "#echo09 redeemed". If you saw my
post on
thunkt.com about last year's walk-away from #ECHO09, then you know I was at discord with the lack of "WHY?" in conversation. And Blaine hit my issue directly on the head with his focus on propaganda. That was the tension I had been feeling. So much of the "C"hurch's focus seems to be on "shocking & awing" (as Vince Antonucci describes in his book
Guerilla Lovers) our audiences back into a solace of comfort. As if to say, "This service is so high, so energetic, aren't you glad you're a Christian today? Come see us in 7, when you need reassurance! Peace!" (propaganda much?) I desire in my core to make Art that reaches not just my friends, but my culture as well! And hearing Blaine talk …well, I thanked him after the session, and told him I felt so much tension about my church, your church, our big-C "C"hurch blasting propaganda instead of art, and Blaine completely validated me! (again, see my
post, it'll explain my need for validation on this topic) "I felt the same way last year, so when I was asked to speak this year, I thought, 'What can I add to the ECHO conversation?'" Well Blaine, I'm so glad you did sir!
// Can't wait to continue dialoguing online!
@just_g
