Does God Inspire You?

These last three months I have been promising myself that I will get up at 5:00 am, study and worship and do some artwork and then get dressed and ready for the day. I usually crawl out of bed at 6:45 and watch the today show and then get to work at 8:00. I am really going to do it this week....I hope. How much better my artwork is when it is God inspired! I thought I would pose this question to you....Does God inspire you to be creative? Do you include God in your artwork? If God wants to bless us, love us and foster us, then why not include Him when you get creative? I'll make a promise to you....I will get up this week and praise God and worship if you will take some time during your busy day to do so.....deal? Let's see what happens, shall we?

The Artistic Retreat is Growing!!!

Last Sunday, the Artistic Retreat taught Children's church! We had 16 kids participate. We made three sets of artist trading cards (ATC) to send to three well deserving people or groups. All the kids made such pretty cards!!! The first set was cards we made to help cheer Austin in Chicago. Next week he goes into a chemo treatment and we wanted to remind him that his healing was already in the bag. We talked about Austin and healing and the fact that our cards just were meant to remind him that he had a harvest coming. The following are pics of the cards made:

Another group of cards we made are being sent to a lady in Australia who is then sending the cards on to an orphanage in Kenya. Here are the pics of those cards:

Finally we made cards for a girl named Cheyenne. She is featured on the "make a child smile" website

http://www.makeachildsmile.org/

We had a lot of fun! Thanks to the Artistic retreat members and the Children's Church volunteers who helped this Sunday. Next Sunday we are going to make paper dolls that will literally travel the world! The first stop on their world tour is Chicago, Illinois (Austin's Place) and then off to Washington DC. Future trips are already being scheduled to Massachusetts, Minnesota, and the state of Washington. Hope they don't get jet lag!

More and More arts in the News

Maybe I am becoming more aware of the discussion of Art and Christianity or maybe not. Could it be that God has decided to hit a general theme with many of his children? I think this is exciting and refreshing! Here is another article by a Christian organization about the arts.
http://www.breakpoint.org/listingarticle.asp?ID=7620

Great Article

http://www.artsreformation.com/a001/cp-ministry.html
Check out this article! A friend of mine on a Christian artcard trading site posted this link. I really liked the focus on servant based creativity. Let me know what you think.

Childhood Mar 02-09

I belong to a few art discussion sites and there has been a lot of conversation about how the artist's environment during their childhood affected the attitudes toward their art as adults. What I found intriguing was that many of the artists I have talked to have been discouraged by art teachers and that most of them hated their art classes. The classes did not stretch them in their craft but instead imposed rules that had not been previously there. They faced criticism for the first time and did not like it. Another interesting thing that came up was that teachers and parents did not foster real artistic talent in their children because they did not see the value of art in the child's future. The was most common among boys than girls. Our world is changing in that art is becoming more important. People with a Master in Fine Arts are being recruited an paid much more than people with a Master in Business Administration. Why is this so? Many factors explain this but to put it briefly, because of our exposure to so many different varieties of products on the market, the unique stands out. Many companies now see creativity as a great asset and value to product design and marketing. This week consider what mark your childhood left on your art and try to break down some of the negativity that has been holding you back.

Week of Feb. 3-9 I Believe.....

Do you have any strange beliefs that no one knows about? How about wierd superstitions? I truly believe that I will always get into the slowest line at the grocery store or Walmart. I find myself "knocking on wood". Sunday Aaron said that people say that if they are reserved at a football game then they should be reserved in praise and worship....I used to believe that...I am changing that belief. If you look at the word "believe" do you notice a small little word built inside of it? I won't tell you...see if you can guess. This week see if there is any strange beliefs that you intellectually know is untrue but believe it anyway. This is a great exercise for those creative writers out there. The following is a fun link to look at. It is interesting to see how many superstitions are directly linked to religion or the Bible.

http://www.islandnet.com/~luree/silly.html

Jamie's History