Learn to Learn

I'm now a regular blogger for Geek Embassy. Here's my latest post, Learn to Learn: Not the "I love you" song but this most often got stuck in my head.

“I love you, you love me….” These lyrics played in my head for years as I worked with one of my clients, the then music producer for Barney and Friends. (Please don’t hold this against me.) I served both as his publicist and as the “studio mom” who booked kid singers for rehearsals and entertained them during breaks. And if I discovered one thing during that gig, it was this: I needed to revise my stereotypical view of home-schooled kids. Maybe some youngsters end up socially inept due to lack of interpersonal contact from learning at home, but I sure didn’t meet any of them. No, I met kids who could commit to acting and singing and creating because they had flexible class schedules and spent zero time lining up and waiting their turn for bathroom trips. These kids knew storylines from Gulliver’s Travels to Robin Hood (they even knew there was a version of the latter before the one with tights). And the biggest surprise: they had serious social skills like saying “please” and “thank you” to each other and looking grown-ups in the eye while conversing about how Maid Marian roamed through the woods dressed as a page.As part of my job, I also met the brilliant home educators behind the kids, parents deeply committed to teaching their children about botany by taking them to real forests and history by actual walking tours of Boston and panning for gold in California. Before long, I developed radar for super-geek home educators; I always loved asking what they were learning.Although I’ve long since changed careers, I’ve continued to pick the brains of home educators. And one of my favorites is Erin Teske. If I could have attended any schools in the world, I would have gone to Erin Teske Elementary, Erin Teske Middle School, and Erin Teske High School. Her kids did the. coolest. stuff.A few years ago, Rhonda, Erin (mother of Ellie), and I embarked on an Art-geek trip through Italy. From our base in Vicenza, we explored Florence, Padua/Milan, and Venice—with each of us responsible for one city. Rhonda took Milan, I took Venice, and Erin took Florence. And holy cow! Erin found us a hotel on the river’s edge near the city center with a terrace on the roof. (When Rhonda discovered the terrace and announced it with some exuberance, we thought she was saying there was a terrorist on the roof—but that’s another story.) In that city, thanks to Erin’s lesson plan, we “learned by seeing” about the transition from medieval to Renaissance art by observing our way through Giotto in the Brancucci Chapel, the Uffizi, and the Pitti Palace.I give you all this background to say this: when Erin recommends a book about self-education, I listen. And recently she give two thumbs up to one: Teaching How to Learn in a What-to-Learn Culture, by Kathleen Ricards Hopkins. Hopkins draws on up-to-date research about how people learn and provides how-tos for helping students develop as readers, writers, and mathematicians. But it’s not just for people seeking to educate geeklet spawns. Geeks themselves can benefit from learning how to help themselves learn.

The Next Supper

Check out what this painter did with DaVinci's masterpiece. Love it.

Restore My Soul: A Coloring Book Devotional Journey

Meditate using this new coloring book by Ann-Margret Hovsepian.

A couple years ago, my employer sent me to the Frankfurt Book Fair to spot trends. We want to prepare our students for what's coming, not what's been. Frankfurt is the largest book fair in the world, so I spent hours walking the aisles, talking to venders, and scoping out products. And I came home with a couple of coloring books for adults. I had never heard of such a thing! It was like paint by number only using colored pencils instead of paint—and without the numbers. I got to choose what colors I liked best.And sure enough, now they're everywhere, these books. And my friend Ann-Margret Hovsepian has created a nice one especially for helping us think about what matters. She includes a devotional thought with a verse opposite each coloring page. And the pages are thick enough that I could use a small magic marker without having it bleed through. Even non-artists can pull away from the screen and create within boundaries. Check out Restore My Soul.

Art: The 3 Magi Reunited

Botticelli's Mary is "Wow!"

Last month I saw the exquisite Picturing Mary: Woman, Mother, Idea exhibit at the Museum for Women in the Arts in Washington, DC. They must have some amazing funding, because they had works by Botticelli, Michelangelo, and a Rembrandt. Now the National Gallery in DC has an exciting announcement of their own: 

Washington, DC—This spring three paintings of the Magi, or wise men, by the Flemish master Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640) will be reunited at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, for the first time in more than 130 years. On view in the West Building of the Gallery from March 22 through July 5, 2015, Peter Paul Rubens: The Three Magi Reunited also explores the relationship between the artist and Balthasar Moretus the Elder (1574–1641), head of the prestigious Plantin Press, the largest publishing house in 16th- and 17th-century Europe.

Balthasar Moretus, a close childhood friend of Rubens, commissioned these paintings around 1618. Moretus and his two brothers were named after the Three Magi (Balthasar, Melchior, and Gaspar), thus these works had a special personal meaning for both the artist and his patron. Rubens executed these bust-length images with strong colors and vigorous brushstrokes that bring these biblical figures to life.

"At the time, the Adoration of the Magi was a common subject in art, but these intimate paintings take the kings out of their usual narrative setting," said Earl A. Powell III, director, National Gallery of Art. "Rubens conjured them as tangible flesh and blood believers."

About the ExhibitionThe portraits of the old king (Gaspar), owned by the Museo de Arte de Ponce near San Juan, Puerto Rico, and the young king (Balthasar), from the Plantin-Moretus Museum in Antwerp, Belgium, were previously on view at the Museo de Arte de Ponce in Wise Men from East: The Magi Portraits by Rubens (November 3, 2014–March 9, 2015). The painting of the middle-aged king (Melchior) was given to the Gallery in 1943 as part of the Chester Dale Collection. As stipulated in the bequest, the work cannot travel or go on view in any other museum. Therefore, this exhibition marks a rare opportunity for visitors to see all three of Rubens' kings together again.

About the MagiThe Gospel of Matthew is the only gospel to mention the Magi, though it offers few details about them, not even their number. Biblical scholars speculated on their appearance and origins for years until eventually the Magi came to be regarded as three kings hailing from the three then-known continents: Europe, Asia, and Africa. They came to symbolize the three ages of man: youth, middle age, and old age. They were also given names: Balthasar, Melchior, and Gaspar.

For 16th- and 17th-century residents of Antwerp, a harbor town and international center of commerce that imported luxury goods shipped from afar, the story of the Magi and their gifts took on a particular resonance. It was not unusual for residents to bear the names of the kings, as was the case with Balthasar Moretus and his two older brothers, as well as a trio of their paternal uncles. Moretus took his affinity for the kings further, incorporating the star of the Magi into printer's marks for the Plantin Press and adopting the Latin phrase stella duce ("with the star as guide") as his motto. Rubens, a deeply pious Catholic, movingly portrayed these regal visitors, who played an essential role in the manifestation of Christ to the world, in an unusual up-close format suited for the private contemplation of his close friend.

One of the Magi, possibly Balthasar (from the Plantin-Moretus Museum)The African king is typically associated with the gift of myrrh, the aromatic resin used in embalming. Symbolically the presentation of this gift foreshadowed the death of Christ, a motif Rubens further exploited by encapsulating the myrrh in a small chest resembling a sarcophagus, from which a light emanates, alluding to the Resurrection. Rubens based the figure in this painting on his copy after a now-lost 16th-century portrait of a Tunisian king.

One of the Magi, possibly Melchior (from the National Gallery of Art)The middle-aged king opens his vessel to reveal frankincense, an aromatic substance derived from the sap of Boswellia trees found in the Middle East, North Africa, and India. Biblical commentators interpreted the gift as representative of sacrifice, prayer, and the recognition of the Christ child's divinity.

One of the Magi, possibly Gaspar (from the Museo de Arte de Ponce)In most Adoration of the Magi scenes, the eldest king kneels closest to the Christ child offering gold, the most precious of the three gifts. Traditionally, this was interpreted as symbolizing Jesus' kingship. The pensive, aged figure in Rubens' portrait wears no crown, but his eminence radiates in the resplendence of both his gold brocade mantle ringed by soft fur and his costly gold scalloped dish filled with coins—a tribute from one king to another.

View the Peter Paul Rubens: The Three Magi Reunited exhibition page.

"The Great Divorce" on Stage in Dallas

THE GREAT DIVORCE is coming to Dallas!

“WORLD CLASS THEATRE.”  World Magazine

“FASCINATING.” The Arizona Republic

“A JOY TO WATCH” Charleston City Paper

In C.S. Lewis’s THE GREAT DIVORCE, veteran Broadway actors bring some of Lewis’ quirkiest, hopelessly flawed but still worth redeeming characters to life on stage in ninety humorous, witty and enchanting minutes.

"The actors are working magic…a joy to watch,” declares the Charleston City Paper. "If art is meant to stimulate discussion, to make you think, to make you wonder and talk to your neighbor about your doubts and fears, then THE GREAT DIVORCE is certainly art.”

C.S. Lewis’s THE GREAT DIVORCE stars Tom Beckett (Bobby Boland, Epic Proportions and The Father on Broadway and “Elbridge Gerry” in HBO's John Adams), Joel Rainwater (The Lion King, National Tour) and Christa Scott-Reed (The Pitmen Painters on Broadway).

The tour is coming to two sites in the D/FW metroplex:

Eisemann Center for Performing Arts in Richardson, November 1, Saturday 4 PM and 8 PM
Majestic Theater in Dallas November 7 and 8, with performances on Friday at 8 pm and on Saturday at 4 pm. 

For ticket information, go to TicketDFW.org or call 214-871-5000. Tickets range from $29 to $59. 

L'Engle on Sacred and Secular

I'm re-reading Madeleine L'Engle's book, Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art. Here's a thought for the day:

There is nothing so secular that it cannot be sacred, and that is one of the deepest messages of the incarnation.

Art and the Elements

An Art Show for Your Wish List

Picturing Mary: Woman, Mother, Idea
National Museum of Women in the Arts
December 5, 2014–April 12, 2015

Landmark exhibition explores images of Virgin Mary
by renowned Renaissance and Baroque artists
Many works on view for the first time in the United States
 

 
WASHINGTON, D.C.—Appearing throughout the entire world, her image is immediately recognizable. In the history of Western art, she was one of the most popular subjects for centuries. On view Dec. 5, 2014–April 12, 2015, Picturing Mary: Woman, Mother, Idea, is a landmark exhibition at the National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA) in Washington, D.C., bringing together masterworks from major museums, churches and private collections in Europe and the United States. Iconic and devotional, but also laden with social and political meaning, the image of the Virgin Mary has influenced Western sensibility since the sixth century.

Picturing Mary examines how the image of Mary was portrayed by well-known Renaissance and Baroque artists, including Botticelli, Dürer, Michelangelo, Pontormo, Gentileschi and Sirani. More than 60 paintings, sculptures and textiles are on loan from the Vatican Museums, Musée du Louvre, Galleria degli Uffizi, Palazzo Pitti and other public and private collections—many exhibited for the first time in the United States.

“Among the most important subjects in Western art for more than a millennium was a young woman: Mary, the mother of Jesus. Her name was given to cathedrals, her face imagined by painters and her feelings explored by poets,” said exhibition curator and Marian scholar Monsignor Timothy Verdon, director, Museo dell’Opera del Duomo, Florence, Italy. “This exhibition will explore the concept of womanhood as represented by the Virgin Mary, and the power her image has exerted through time, serving both sacred and social functions during the Renaissance and Baroque periods.”

 Picturing Mary presents images of Mary as a daughter, cousin and wife; the mother of an infant; a bereaved parent; and the protagonist in a rich life story developed through the centuries. The exhibition and accompanying catalogue reflect the project’s ecumenical approach, offering new views of Mary through a range of contemporary art-historical perspectives.

Picturing Mary is the newest project in an ongoing program of major historical loan exhibitions organized by NMWA, including An Imperial Collection: Women Artists from the State Hermitage Museum (2003) and Royalists to Romantics: Women Artists from the Louvre, Versailles, and other French National Collections (2012). In addition to illustrating the work of women artists, NMWA also presents exhibitions and programs about feminine identity and women’s broader contributions to culture. Picturing Mary extends, in particular, the humanist focus of Divine and Human: Women in Ancient Mexico and Peru, a large-scale exhibition organized by NMWA in 2006.

Picturing Mary: Woman, Mother, Idea is organized by the National Museum of Women in the Arts with the support of MondoMostre, Rome. The exhibition is made possible with multiple sponsorships including an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities.

Exhibition Highlights
Picturing Mary will offer insight into the manner in which both female and male artists conceptualized their images of Mary. The exhibition features the work of four women artists: Sofonisba Anguissola, Artemisia Gentileschi, Orsola Maddalena Caccia and Elisabetta Sirani.

“Although women artists during the Renaissance and Baroque periods were expected to focus on still life or portraiture, Picturing Mary demonstrates the intriguing ways in which women artists engaged with the narratives and symbolism that developed around the subject of Mary,” said NMWA Director Susan Fisher Sterling. “Both female and male artists contributed to the rich and varied visualization of Mary in these periods.”

In one of the earliest works in the exhibition, Puccio Capanna, a student of Giotto, depicted an enthroned Mary as Queen of Virgins. She is surrounded by female saints, a grouping that alludes to Mary’s position as a model of virtue and faith for all women. Early regal depictions of Mary prevailed until the concept of Mary as an approachable, empathetic persona began to take hold in medieval monastic communities.

Fra Filippo Lippi’s Madonna and Child (1466–69) was made for the influential Medici family, patrons of the arts who helped foster the Italian Renaissance. The artist’s image of Mary reveals wealthy Florentines’ desire for a Madonna who reflected their own lives: the Virgin is dressed in a rich brocade gown and a head scarf trimmed with gold and pearls. The mother and child’s touching cheek-to-cheek pose first appeared in Florentine sculptures of the same period.

Picturing Mary offers the first opportunity to see two mid-15th-century works by northern Italian artist Cosmè Tura side by side. A painting of the Madonna and Child on loan from the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., and a related terracotta relief attributed to Tura from the Grimaldi Fava Collection in Italy both depict the Virgin with elongated fingers and a wide forehand. These deliberate distortions were meant to signify Mary’s spiritual intensity.

Sandro Botticelli’s Madonna and Child (1480–81) depicts Mary and Jesus in a domestic setting as Mary reads from a book of prayers. Her melancholy expression and the darkening sky beyond the window suggest Mary’s premonition of Christ’s death. Botticelli was favored by the leading aristocratic families of Florence and enjoyed the patronage of Pope Sixtus IV.

Considered the most important woman artist before the modern period, Gentileschi was the first woman to run a large studio with many assistants and was also the first woman follower of Caravaggio. Her life story has inspired a number of contemporary novels and films. Gentileschi’s Madonna and Child (1609–10) depicts Mary as a nurturing peasant woman. With Jesus wrapped in a plain cloth and a barefooted Mary wearing simple, everyday clothes, Gentileschi presents a markedly humble conception of the Virgin.

Sirani’s Virgin and Child (1663), part of NMWA’s collection, portrays Mary not as a remote queen of heaven, but rather as a very real young Italian mother. She wears a turban favored by Bolognese peasant women and gazes adoringly at her plump baby. When Sirani died at 27, she had already produced two hundred paintings, drawings and etchings. She became famous for her ability to paint beautifully finished canvases so quickly that art lovers flocked to her studio to watch her work. Her portraits and mythological subjects, especially her images of the Holy Family and of the Virgin and Child, gained her international fame.

Online Exhibition
In conjunction with the physical exhibition, NMWA is presenting an online exhibition, featuring global representations of Mary, including the Virgin of Guadalupe and Black Madonnas from Europe and the Caribbean. In addition, NMWA has partnered with MapHook, a location-based journal and social networking application, on an interactive program that will enable a global audience to trace the route of exhibition works arriving from major international museums and learn more about them.

Publication
A 160-page, full-color catalogue published by NMWA and Scala Arts Publishers will accompany the exhibition; it features four essays and one hundred color images. The essays, by Monsignor Verdon; Melissa R. Katz, Luther Gregg Sullivan Fellow in Art History, Wesleyan University; Amy G. Remensnyder, professor of history, Brown University; and Miri Rubin, professor of medieval and early modern history and head of the School of History at Queen Mary University of London, deepen the ecumenical approach of NMWA’s Picturing Maryproject, offering an expansive view of historical Marian art. The central essay, by Monsignor Verdon, discusses works in the exhibition and provides an incisive view of Mary through both socio-historical and theological lenses. Essays by historians Amy G. Remensnyder and Miri Rubin situate Mary within the broader social context of European history. Remensnyder centers her discussion on the Virgin Mary as a key player in encounters between Christian and Muslim nations in the medieval and Renaissance eras. Rubin surveys Christian traditions of representing Mary (including those developed in monastic communities) and their influence on political and cultural realms. Including discussion of a sculpture type known as Vierge ouvrante, in which the Virgin’s body serves as a set of doors that open to reveal other motifs, art historian Melissa R. Katz considers the devotional function of Marian imagery and the remarkable fluidity of its meaning through time. The catalogue will retail for $45.

National Museum of Women in the Arts 
Founded in 1981 and opened in 1987, NMWA is the only museum solely dedicated to celebrating the achievements of women in the visual, performing and literary arts. The museum’s collection features 4,500 works from the 16th century to the present created by more than 1,000 artists, including Mary Cassatt, Frida Kahlo, Alma Thomas, Lee Krasner, Louise Bourgeois, Chakaia Booker and Nan Goldin, along with special collections of 18th-century silver tableware and botanical prints.

NMWA is located at 1250 New York Avenue, NW, Washington, D.C., in a landmark building near the White House. It is open Monday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–5 p.m. and Sunday, noon–5 p.m. For information, call 202-783-5000 or visit nmwa.org. Admission is $10 for adults, $8 for visitors 65 and over and students, and free for NMWA members and youths 18 and under. Free Community Days take place on the first Sunday of each month. For more information about NMWA, visit nmwa.org, Broad Strokes Blog, Facebook or Twitter.
 

Image Credit Lines
Sandro Botticelli (Alessandro Filipepi), Madonna and Child (Madonna col Bambino), also called Madonna of the Book (Madonna del Libro), 1480–81; Tempera and oil on wood panel, 22 7/8 × 15 5/8 in.; Museo Poldi Pezzoli, Milan; inv. 443

Elisabetta Sirani, Virgin and Child, 1663; Oil on canvas, 34 × 27 1/2 in.; National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C., Gift of Wallace and Wilhelmina Holladay; Conservation funds generously provided by the Southern California State Committee of the National Museum of Women in the Arts

Abstract Art: A Christian Defense

Reporter Brian Nixon with the ASSIST News Service helps patrons consider Modern Art. 

Denver, Colorado (ANS) —I read Francis Schaeffer’s classic and influential book How Shall We Then Live early in my Christian walk. I was in my early 20’s. I was intrigued by Schaeffer’s considerations, and the book helped form my own understanding of the world. I was struck by his insightful look at history and the flow of culture, showing how  philosophy, literature, and artistic expression shape worldviews. His conclusions—on how Christianity answered the questions posed by the various worldviews—made sense to me.

Author Francis Schaeffer

     
This book led me to read others by Schaeffer, notably his small book called Art and the Bible. As with  How Shall We Then Live, I appreciated much of Schaeffer’s thought, gaining understanding and insight into the arts from a Christian perspective. I still welcome his four standards of understanding art: technical excellence, validity, intellectual content (the worldview that comes through), and the integration of content and vehicle.

Yet one thing troubled me. As one who greatly respected and worked in the field of abstract art, I was disappointed in Schaeffer’s opinion concerning the nature and role of abstractionism. Schaeffer insinuated that abstract art somehow fosters a worldview that strips away the humanity of people, highlighting an art form that has distanced itself from a biblical worldview. Further, he suggested that abstract art—both in visual art and written form—didn’t have content. Schaeffer stated, “An art form or style that is no longer able to carry content cannot be used to give the Christian message.” As a young Christian, I interpreted this view that abstract art can’t communicate a Christian worldview.

Art and the Bible  by Francis Schaeffer

Elsewhere Schaeffer wrote, “Totally abstract art stands in an undefiled relationship with the viewer, for the viewer is completely alienated from the painter. There is a huge wall between them.” Again, it appeared that Schaeffer didn’t have room in his understanding of art to include a Christian notion of abstractionism.

With phrases such as “no content,” “a huge wall,” and “alienated,” readers concluded that these strong words were meant to convey something specific: that the nature of abstract art within a Christian worldview was amiss; the two didn’t mix.
But somehow I found myself disagreeing with Schaeffer in his understanding of abstract art.

Why did—and do—I feel this way? 

One, out of respect for Schaeffer, I think he hadn’t yet grasped that abstract art does contain content in both form and substance. Abstract art is ripe with meaning. Because he was living and writing during the time abstract art was rising in prominence, I’m not sure if his keen mind had time to adjust to the ideas and meaning surrounding the new medium.  

Two, his statement that abstract art “alienates” the viewer from the painter may show his lack of comprehension of the language of abstract art, a new and unique voice in the world of culture at the time. Understanding was another possible factor in his rebuke of abstract art.

But what Schaeffer hit upon is the fact that abstract art can divide. It seems people adore it, abhor it, or are oblivious to it. For those fascinated by it, they either loathe it or love it. Why? I would argue that it is because abstract art screams significance, thought, and opinion; it stretches our understanding of art, form, structure, and meaning. Abstract art makes us react.

“Convergence 1952” by Jackson Pollock  (Oil on Canvas. Albright-Knox Art Gallery).

Contrary to Schaeffer, I hold the opinion that abstract art doesn’t alienate; rather, it causes one to contemplate. It forces the human mind to pose questions, make judgments, and form conclusions. Great abstract art can entice one into the work with greater awareness and perception of the technique and style, instilling an awareness of the artist's mind at work.

These ideas recently resonated with me during a quick trip to Denver, Colorado, to visit two museums: The Denver Museum of Art and the Clyfford Still Museum. At the first, the show “Modern Masters” was on display. The exhibit highlighted artwork from diverse modern artist such as Picasso, Matisse, Miro, and Dali to Pollock, Martin, Rothko, Motherwell, Lichtenstein, and Warhol. To say the least, it was marvelous.

The Jackson Pollock (1912–1956) painting, “Convergence 1952,” featured in that show, caused me to stop and ponder. Maybe my fascination occurred because I’m reading a book about two modern painters, Thomas Hart Benton and Jackson Pollock, by Henry Adams. In this book, Tom and Jack, Adams does a marvelous job of helping patrons understand both artists, particularly how Benton, as Pollock’s teacher, infused within his student a sense of design, form, and flow, using abstract concepts picked up from the Syncromist movement.

What I found fascinating is that—contrary to many assessments of Pollock’s work—his art does include figures, albeit deep within the painting. In his work one can find faces, animals, and other unique forms. Pollock’s art is not purely abstract. In one of his first noteworthy paintings, “Mural,” Pollock even used his name (written in large letters across the canvas) to balance the rest of the work. True, it takes concentration to see the signature in “Mural,” but upon study, one can find his name there. Pollock’s work is not void of content.

The second reason I stopped in front of “Convergence 1952” is that it demands that one do so. His work is monumental. It is bold. It draws one in unlike other paintings. The first thing I noticed about the painting was the drips of paint, the technique if you will. Then the color. Then the flow of lines. Then the layers. Had I not been on a schedule, I could have spend an hour following the lines, flow, and display of colors.

One thing I did recognize is that the painting didn’t create a wall between Pollock and me. Nor did it alienate me to his thought. Rather, it caused me—and all who walked by—to stop, asking, “What is this about?” It seemed like Pollock was taking all his influences—Benton, Braught, Krasner, Navajo sand painters—and wrapping them in a new package. Pollack gave the world a gift. Yes, it took a while for some people to unwrap that gift, but as people continue to peel away the packaging, we find that the works of art—like those of many abstract painters—are gifts that continue to delight the senses and mind.

Melanie Nixon sitting in front of a Clyfford Still painting.  (Clyfford Still Museum of Art, Denver)

Then there was the Clyfford Still museum. Still (1904–1980) was the first American abstract expressionist painter (he began abstract painting ten years before his colleagues, in 1938). Still’s work is one of deep contemplation and mood. Though not as visually complex as that of Jackson Pollack, his work moves with meaning and structure, bringing a sense of distance and deliberation to the canvas. 

The Clyfford Still Museum is a marvel in scope and presentation. Denver is fortunate to have won the rights to house his work. According to an online text, “Still specified in his will that his entire estate be given to an American city willing to establish ‘permanent quarters’ dedicated to his work. In August 2004, the city of Denver, Colorado, announced it had been chosen by Still’s wife, Patricia Still, to receive the artworks contained within the Clyfford Still Estate.”

So what is it about abstract art that causes direct and dominating thoughts and words? Why do some dismiss abstract art as work that “my kindergarten kid can do.” The answers are far-reaching, demanding time and attention beyond the scope of this article. But as a means of summarizing its importance, I’ll use Schaeffer’s four standards of art:

Technical excellence. Though people have dismissed abstract art as technically inferior to realism, there is marvelous technicality to abstract art. As mentioned above, it has created its own language of method, style, and substance. One wouldn’t say that Cervantes didn’t create wonderful artwork (in his case, literature) because his language was Spanish. Nonsense. It’s the technical excellence in the use of his language that makes Cervantes’s work great. And like any artist, great abstract art has inherent meaning and technical excellence—a language seen through its use of color, balance, texture, line, and structure. Though knowing the language will help the viewer appreciate the work with greater clarity, knowing the language is not dependent on appreciation of abstract art’s worth. The technical excellence is inherent in its form.

Validity. Abstract art is valid in that it is a product of the human will, a legitimate expression of mood, feeling, and of the human condition. Think of viewing an abstract painting by Clyfford Still as being like viewing the blue sky. Upon first glance, the sky may appear boring blue. But as you look, you notice a splash of clouds, then a bird flying by, then variances in color, unique shades of blue. Just as someone looking at a basic blue sky may appreciate it with greater study, a painting by Still may at first seem basic and lackluster, but upon further study will reveal its ebb, flow, and intricacies. Still imbued meaning, structure, and technique into his work, variances in color, shade, texture, balance, form, and style. Deeper study of an abstract painting will afford the viewer with deeper meaning and appreciation. And just because something seems “simple” doesn’t mean that an object lacks validity. To a certain extent, simplicity is a key factor in helping understand the artwork’s worth, power, and cogency. Validity is innate in the work itself.

Jackson Pollock  (Photo credit: Life Magazine)

Worldview and Intellectual Content. All humans contain a way of seeing reality, a worldview. Abstract art is one means by which people perceive that which is around them (the world) and within them (their mental and spiritual life). Because of this, there is great intellectual content found within abstract art. The fact that both Michelangelo (a representational artist) and Jackson Pollock (an abstractionist) have worldviews is basic to understanding human nature, thereby giving a mindfulness to their work. When we look at either artist's work, we ask, “How did they do this?” and “What did they mean by creating it?” Like representational art, abstract art has great things to say about life and culture. There is a weightiness to the creative act—in all its forms—an understanding of what it means to be human. And because of this, abstract art is heavy with implication and importance.

The question is not "Do abstract artists have a worldview, but what is the essence of that worldview?" And further, does the worldview correspond to reality, either internally (feeling, emotion, etc.) or externally (the nature of the world)? Does the worldview have structure, form, and a sense of being? And from a metaphysical angle, particularly a Christian worldview: does the worldview express a Christian understanding of the world? Put simply, abstract art contains both a worldview and intellectual content. The larger question concerning the content is in how one interprets the content. This leads to the last point.

Clyfford Still

The Integration of Content and Vehicle. Here Schaeffer means how art communicates the worldview of the artist. Though there are direct ways an artist can communicate a message or meaning (think of the painting of Jesus knocking at a door by Warner Sallman), many times artwork lacks a direct meaning or vehicle. In the end, art comes down to the interpretation of the viewer. And because many people (with many worldviews) view art, many interpretations can arise from a single work. 

Someone looking at the Pieta statue by Michelangelo (Mary holding the dead Christ in her lap) may see Christ dying for the world. Others will see a mother’s love for her son. Some will see the death due to rebellion. Still others may simply view the statue as a slab of marble designed with purpose and order, art for art's sake. And, yes, some interpretations are better than others; but the idea is that not that all content has a clear vehicle. Even if Michelangelo had a specific message he wanted to communicate, that doesn’t mean that the content will integrate itself within each person the same way.

So though one may create a work of art with love and devotion for Christ, the Church, and for people, that doesn’t mean that its content will be communicated as thus. The vehicle may be hampered by the worldview of the person viewing the art. To use a cliché, art is in “the eye of the beholder.”

I know Schaeffer understood this. For elsewhere he states that art can’t be, or shouldn’t be, relegated to a tract, a simple understanding of the nature of art. So though content and vehicle are important—especially in helping understand the artist and the artist’s work—they aren't the only factors in determining the worth, understanding, or appreciation of art. 

Abstract art is as viable a means of creating—a form of expression—as any artistic medium, a way to interact with God’s creative self, a way to offer thanksgiving, ask questions, pose problems, and give praise. In other words, abstract art affords humans the chance to respond to God’s creative person by the means of a creative act.

For a full treatment and discussion of Modern Art, I recommend God in the Gallery, by Daniel A. Siedell (Baker Academic).

Brian Nixon is a writer, musician, minister, and family man. You may contact him at www.briannixon.com.

The Monuments Men: In Theaters Today

Because these people did not already have enough Oscars…

Jim Hodges at the DMA: Give More Than You Take

"With a poet’s eye and a devotional attitude toward technical refinement, Jim Hodges remains a signal figure."        —Artforum

Opening today: The Dallas Museum of Art is premiering a major traveling exhibition and the first comprehensive survey to be organized in the United States on the work of contemporary American artist Jim Hodges, a former TWO x TWO for AIDS and Art honoree. Co-organized by the Dallas Museum of Art and the Walker Art Center, Jim Hodges: Give More Than You Take explores the artist’s twenty-five-year career, highlighting the major themes that unify his multilayered and varied practice. The exhibition will present eighty works produced from 1987 through the present, and will feature the DMA’s and still this, 2005–2008, acquired with the DMA/amfAR Benefit Auction Fund, as a highlight of the four-city national tour.

Adults $16  |  DMA Partners & Children 11 and under FREE Discounts for Students and Military

Calling All Dallasites Who Love Art of All Kinds

ALL ticket sales and auction sales will go toward Artist Programming in 2014.

Join Art House Dallas as they celebrate three years in Dallas with an anniversary fundraiser! They will mark the occasion on October 17th with a taste of the creativity they cultivate: live painting and a silent art auction featuring work by Dallas artists, live music by local songwriters on the lakeside patio, plus floral design, a photo booth, and happy hour with delicious food by their culinary artist friends. This will be an evening of hospitality. Dallas local artists, patrons, and creative enthusiasts, along with co-founders Charlie Peacock and Andi Ashworth will be present for the evening.

Is Art Luxury or Necessity?

The Artist Who is a Christian vs. Christian Art

If you want to produce Christian work, be a Christian, and try to make a work of beauty into which you have put your heart; do not adopt a Christian pose. Do not make the absurd attempt to sever in yourself the artist and the Christian. They are one, if you really are a Christian, and if your art is not isolated from your soul by some aesthetic system. But apply only the artist in you to the work in hand; precisely because they are one, the work will be as wholly of the one as of the other. Do not separate your art from your faith. But leave distinct what is distinct. Do not try to blend by force what life unites so well. If you were to make your devotion a rule of artistic operation, or turn the desire to edify into a method of your art, you would spoil your art.  —Jacquest Maritan, Art and Scholasticism (1920)

It is the lifelong body of work that counts. One individual work cannot say everything. There is no Christian or unchristian subject matter. There is no such thing as Christian art.  Your whole lifetime body of work will express something of who you are as a person. If you are a real Christian, this will in some way naturally manifest itself in your work. —Franky Schaeffer quotes from Addicted to Mediocrity (1980)

Infertility News This Week

Infertile Canadians buy frozenhuman eggs from US  Need human eggs? Go with UPS orFed Ex. That’s what Canadian couples are now doing. They can buy frozen eggsover the internet from US egg banks and have them shipped to clinics north ofthe border.  (CBC News) 
 

IVF drugs linked to childhoodcancer
  More than 13,000 babies are born annually thanks toassisted reproductive technologies (ARTs). Now some researchers are seeing a linkbetween ovarian-stimulation drugs and some forms of childhood leukemia.  (Telegraph)

  

The Millennials

On Saturday I finished reading The Millennials, a non-fiction book by the father/son team, Thom S. Rainer and Jess W. Rainer. Most of its contents were the results of painstaking research with a credibly sized test group. But one chapter was devoted specifically to Christianity, as the authors identify themselves as evangelicals. Here is a sampling of all their findings:

• Millennials are more likely to take an international trip than those of any previous generation.
• "Family" is the single greatest motivating factor for them. And they would like to learn from people who have long-term successful marriages, with 91 percent holding up such people as their heroes and life examples.
• Most Boomer parents have good relationships with their children, resulting in a mutual respect between the generations.
• Millennials have turned to more centralized government. This doesn't necessarily mean they see this as the ideal, but there's a sense that nobody's offered any better options.
• They are "the learning generation," but by learning, they don't always envision a classroom. They read, and they appreciate being mentored.
• At work: Professionally they crave feedback, both formal and informal. And it bothers them when bosses fail to keep up with technology.
• Respect is key. They value listening/finding common ground approaches to politics and religion.
• More than personally going green, they want consensus on environmental issues. They loathe the polarization and lack of civility. The tone’s the thing.
• Younger Millennials use texting as a primary form of communication almost 20 percentage points more than older Millennials.
• More than 80 percent of graduate-level Millennials use Facebook.
• One out of four grad-level Millennials use LinkedIn.
• Music is more influential than religious beliefs by three percentage points. The Internet is more influential than a spouse by 30 points. And TV is more influential than a boss by 11%. Few sources of influence compete with the media.
• Brevity is a must for the Millennials (think: Twitter).
• They expect, typically, e-mail responses: within half a day. Facebook: answered in hours. Texts: returned within 30 minutes, though most respond within the first few minutes.
• 75 percent of Millennials define themselves as spiritual.
• Only 13 percent view religion and spiritual matters with any degree of importance.
• 24 percent of Millennials are active in church, attending at least once a week. (Notice that a bunch of them say they go to church but they also say they don't rank it as important.)
• A Millennial typically has a syncretistic belief system, taking portions from various faiths and nonfaiths.
• While 24 percent attend services, only 15 percent say they are Christians. That means a good number of churchgoers do not self-identify as Christians.
• Millennials are largely “anti-institutional church.” Seventy percent of them agree that American churches are irrelevant.
• Many feel organized religion leads to negativity and conflict.
• In most cases where parents showed true commitment to Christ and to their local church, their children have embraced their faith.
• "The Bible Belt has become a Bible string." With the Millennials we can no longer assume demographics give us significant clues about religious affiliation.
• "Humility" (and its synonyms) is the number one virtue of church leaders that Millennials desire.
• Unchurched Americans respond well to an invitation to church, especially if the one inviting takes them to church. (The authors’ application: Invite them.)
• “The good news is that the unchurched Millennials will likely be attracted to churches that demonstrate in deep biblical teaching and preaching what it really means to be followers of Christ.”
• Millennials distrust government and church. But unlike the Boomers, the distrust is not due to lack of respect. They perceive the churches and their leaders to be negative and argumentative.
• Those who will connect best with Millennials in the years ahead will understand these heartfelt desires to be the great reconcilers.

Okay, so that's what the book says. Now, we know this generation is putting off marriage as compared with earlier generations. And sometimes researchers (though not the Rainers) say this means they don't value marriage. I think the opposite is true. I believe many of them value marriage so much that they're hesitating before entering into it; they're taking it seriously.

The big surprise for me after reading this book was that the authors focused much of their application for Christians on inviting Millennials to church and for churches to provide good teaching/preaching. While these are important, they seemed to be lacking something. So allow me to add some possible applications of my own.

But what about calls to “be” the church? What about service projects, short-term ministry trips in the inner city and in the developing world? What about encouraging one-on-one discipleship? Why not urge small accountability groups to include seekers? And shouldn't we train lyricists and musicians to tell truth through oh-so-important high-quality music? And our authors--let's encourage them to get great educations (in and outside of a classroom) and write excellent books for these self-educators. And encourage family ministries that mix Millennials and their parents in the same adult fellowships, rather than always segregating by age.

I found the research interesting and well documented; but the application of inviting seekers to attend a service seemed Boomer-like. Let's have more imagination.

DMA Day

Every year near the end of summer school, my Creative Writing class spends the morning at the Dallas Museum of Art (DMA). Today was that day.

Some years back while taking a Modern Art course there through a partnership they have with UTD (where I’m getting my PhD), I met Sharisse Butler. She has a master’s in Theological Aesthetics, and she also happens to be Manager of Visitor Studies and Evaluation at the DMA.

Sharisse put together a wonderful tour for us consisting of nine pieces that had us thinking about the use of space in art. We use space in writing, too. For example, rather than saying, “Meanwhile, back at the ranch,” we might simply drop down to a new paragraph and then add an extra line of space. Years can pass in two lines. Writing meets visual art.

A highlight today: seeing the DMA’s sole Monet painting, "Water Lilies." I had never noticed that the perspective seems to be drawn from the point of view of someone having fallen in the water. I didn’t even know the DMA had a Monet. We also spent time looking at "Mountain Landscape with Approaching Storm," which I love so much that a copy hangs in my office at DTS. Sharisse had no way of knowing she had selected one of my favorites.

After our tour the students had some free time to work on a writing assignment, so I slipped in to see the exhibit, “Coastlines: Images of Land and Sea,” which is at the DMA till August 22.

Having grown up in the Pacific Northwest, I love a coast. Blue/green/water satisfies me like a bottle to a hungry baby. The exhibit featured works from visual artists of the modern period (1850-now) and included media such as paintings, photos, and paper, incorporating works from the DMA’s repertoire as well as other local collections.

Interestingly enough, though, my favorites were not blue/green but a series of black and white photos by Hiroshi Sugimoto.

If you live in Dallas, set aside a few hours to catch the exhibit and meander. If you have kids, they will love the hands-on Creative Connections center complete with busts made of soap and of chocolate. Grown-ups love it, too. With all the exhibits from which to choose, the Center is where every one of my students ended up.

Reflections about Walking on Water

This year at DTS, Paul Lanum is doing a writing internship with me. Paul got his start at Disney working on "The Lion King," and after involvement in a number of other films was the production manager for "Chicken Little." Recently he read Madeleine L'Engle's non-fiction book, Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art, and with his permission I am copying below his remarks to me about it.

I found Walking on Water delightful. Madeleine L’Engle discusses issues that I have been thinking about recently, including maintaining a proper attitude of humility and what constitutes “Christian” art.

She has such a refreshing sense of humility, both about herself and about the artist’s role in creation. She speaks of the art coming to the artist, with the artist’s responsibility to obey (pg 10) and that the artist must have courage and faith to abandon control (pg 191). When I think back to my time at Disney, both for myself and in my peers, one of the primary motivating factors in creating art, whether it was writing a screenplay, acting in a film or play, or supervising animation on a character, was personal glory. Even in those times when something almost miraculous happened, when we did something or wrote something and weren’t quite sure where it came from, yet it worked, magically, how quickly we credited ourselves and not God.

After watching "Flywheel" for the first time, I watched the “making of” documentary. What a completely different way to make a movie. These two pastors, with no film-making experience, prayed and felt moved by God to make a film. So with $20,000 they embarked on this adventure with no idea how it was going to come together. But one thing they did do was pray each step of the way, ask for guidance on each decision, including the story and the script, and gave God the credit. (Not that this is a recipe for success. How unnerving that God so chooses sometimes to heap vast quantities of talent on the most arrogant ingrates.)

Of course I want to succeed, but if there is that “great American novel” in me, then my Creator put it there, and while there is no excuse for laziness, no matter how hard I work, it still isn’t me. I love how a best-selling, obviously brilliant writer reminds me that, “if we are forced to accept our evident lack of qualification, then there’s no danger that we will confuse God’s work with our own, or God’s glory with our own” (pg 67). “The important thing is to recognize that our gift, no matter the size, is indeed something given us, for which we can take no credit, but which we may humbly serve, and, in serving, learn more wholeness, be offered wondrous news” (pg 237).

The odds of being a successful writer, or artists of any type, are pretty slim. So I think people are often surprised by success, and therefore not prepared for it. Now, I have no idea what God has in store for my future. From a worldly perspective, my past was successful, yet God may decide that the lessons I need to learn and the best path to becoming like His Son is through suffering failure. But, if I wake up one morning and find myself able to support myself writing and making films, may I always remember and acknowledge the true source.

L’Engle throws in some excellent one-liners:

O senseless man who cannot make a worm, and yet makes gods by dozens. - Montaigne (pg 95).

If you think you understand, it isn’t God - St. Augustine (pg 150).

The other line of thought that she keeps coming back to throughout the book is the idea of “Christian” vs. secular art. At one point she writes, “much so-called religious art is in fact bad art, and therefore bad religion” (pg 22). I do recall taking a class where a certain professor stressed the need for Christians to take a moment to ponder if the art that they created was indeed “good.”

There was a bit where she discussed a friend taking her young daughter to a Museum of Modern Art, but the girl didn’t like it because, “she didn’t like chaos untouched by cosmos” (pg 162). What an interesting way to describe the difference between art created by individuals with opposing worldviews. Some create cosmos from chaos, others revel in chaos.

I’ve spent some time debating with myself the best approach to take with writing and film-making. I’ll ask questions like, “Do I pursue overtly Christian material, or do I make it more subtle.” L’Engle clearly feels responsible to reach not just the Christian reader, but a much wider audience, almost in an evangelistic sense, yet without “pushing” Jesus. She is sensitive, kind, and caring towards the unbelieving. “The Christian artist is to be in this world, but not of it…in [it] as healers, as listeners, and as servants” (pg 57). L’Engle has a classic phrase regarding those who write with Jesus “in your face,” in that it shows “like a slip hanging below the hem of a dress” (pg 143). Ultimately L’Engle concludes that the chief difference between the Christian and the secular artist is “the purpose of the work…which is to further the coming of the kingdom, to make us aware of our status as children of God, and to turn our feet toward home” (pg 194).

One of her barometers for content, or what type of art to be involved in, was if they would be okay with their kids reading or seeing it. It reminded me of something John Lasseter said in a story meeting once, that he wouldn’t include anything in a Pixar movie that he didn’t want his mother to see when she went to the movie theater.

I love L’Engle’s profound disappointment with fragmented Christianity. I love her willingness to ponder the impossible, to be fascinated with the Transfiguration, to consider that God is still beyond our understanding, and to love Him for that.

Redemptive Art

Today Heather Goodman concludes part three of her interview with me about Christianity and art. Today we talk about objective and subjective standards for evaluating art.

My Writing affects My Christianity

Heather Goodman shot a four-minute interview with me about art and theology, including how my writing affects my Christianity. You can view it here.