Meaningful Work

For some time now I've struggled with how art and the Kingdom could mix without either being watered down. From an eternal standpoint, why do we need artists? Couldn't they just use their creative skills to build a house or their conceptual minds to solve world hunger? One of the more solid reasons I have found goes like this: If art is the visual summation of the culture, shouldn't we, at that very apex, see Jesus glorified?

Art through the centuries has come about through an abundance of time, plain and simple. Cultures who don't have to worry about hunting or buying food have the ability to sit and create. Stability allows for creativity. So, say this idea carries across the board exponentially, so that the more stable the culture is, the more prominent and better the art is. This art is, like all art, a reflection of the culture that produced it. As American Christians we should want to see God in that place. At the summit of the First World we should want to see the Gospel.

I still am honestly somewhat uneasy about saying all the way that I should grab hold of this privilege and not go head first into feeding hungry people with food and the Word. People have NEVER heard of this stuff. But, while I'm in my current situation, this helps me know that while my work my not be of ultimate importance, it is meaningful and not done in vain.

Bandsaw Boxes

I saw a video on how to make a bandsaw box. So I made a couple. Easy enough to make a bunch, but versatile enough to make them all different.

Ark of the New Covenant

My church is having an art show (which might be one of the best sentences ever) about the book of Leviticus and its conjunction with Hebrews and the Gospel. Despite it's strangeness sometimes, it's themes are beautiful. Sacrifice, atonement, purity, cleanliness, and holiness are all major facets that transfer over to the New Testament with even greater vigor. There is an action of moving from God's presence in one tiny place to being dispersed among His billions of people. Symbols like the lambs, doves, and bulls overtake redemptive imagery. So naturally it was difficult to arrange both predetermined symbols and a progressive, historical action into one stagnant image.

One idea was to make a priest's ceremonial garb out of NT themed material. A thorny head covering, an ephod without stones but instead nails, sandals with Hebrew tefillin filled with bread and wine. These are still great I think, but I had neither resources nor time at the given moment. I may work on it at a later date. Also I thought of doing little sculptural sketches of every book in the Bible, more of as an exercise.

What I landed on, though, was the image of the Ark of the Covenant. It's twin poles could be taken out and turned into a cross, but that simplistic in thought and sight. I saw a work by my internship-boss, Tylur French that had a carved wood flame coming out of a rock. The multimedia connection was awesome, so I started there, thinking first of the Ark as a heavy, dense block of stone. Eventually everything came together and the poles instead became steel nails that were being driven into two cross beams by the weight of the Ark. The Law required a sacrifice, and it was given in Jesus.

It looks a little more wobbly-war-of-the-worlds-tripod than I wanted it to, but I think it still retains the visual weight I was after. I turned it in with Jezreel IV and both got accepted!

Here's a sermon by Drew Haltom on purity in Leviticus.

Here's a song by Katherine Kramer on Leviticus.

Here's an epic video about holiness by The Bible Project.

Jezreel IV

It only took six months...
Granted I learned how to woodcarve, sharpen chisels, tap/die, and a million other things, so think the time was proved necessary.
I was rolling off of Jezreel III initially...

It started at a slab of soft maple that went through the bandsaw, then router (first time!), angle grinder with wood attachment, and finally chisels.

It was going for more of a gilt/bejeweled vibe first. There were several issues with this. I was having a hard time finding places on the gun to put all these different components of gold and black and red. Traditional relics have almost a cannon of material and application that I had neither the ability, desire, or wealth to recreate. So when I tried, it looked inexperienced, lazy, and cheap.

I needed some other way of showing the idea of a sacred artifact (staying within Christian history). I love black- or white-washing things to bring out texture and shape, so when I saw this, my jaw hit the floor. Beautifully contrasting Gothic carved ivory boxes.

The black iron adds visual weight to the soft white, and it still retains a religious feel. So I covered over the gold leaf and black paint, added metal in strategic places, and coated everything in white with dust from our limestone projects.\

I have to say, too, that I'm real proud of that movable bolt-action component...

Le finished product..

("Emmanuel"...)

The Libyan II

Made the limestone version of the wood version of Michaelangelo's "The Libyan."

The wide, slightly rounded, central part is about as smooth as the screen you're looking at, thanks to some diamond sponges soaked in water. Primary working was with various angle grinders in the ice outside. Brr. Also here's my initial stab at stonework...