axis of access

New Website

2011-08-14T16:59:00.002-05:00

So I am trying out a new free website hosted by Weebly. Please check it out and let me know what you think. I am slowly uploading some photos and getting text in the right places. Im finding that I will need to shrink most of my photos so as not to bog the site down too much. Thanks

When God Chooses Your Logo

2011-07-25T12:02:00.000-05:00

When God Chooses Your Logo

It seems that I have been running into this idea a lot lately in various conversations about answers to prayer and the inspiration of art. I feel like she does a fine job of teasing out the two distinct positions in a very general way that can be extrapolated to the other 2 questions that I have run into lately. Thoughts?

Cyanotype Landscapes

2011-06-27T10:25:00.008-05:00

Over the past year or so, I have been experimenting with large scale landscape images printed out on Pictorico film and then printed through the cyanotype process. Ive endeavored to take these images out of traditional matting and framing formats and instead, hang them in the "natural environment" of the gallery space. While the images are stunning hung like that, as they embody a beautiful kinetic aspect as well as a remarkable translucence, they are decidedly harder to sell given their exposure. I decided to enter the images in a local show at Pekin here in North Dakota so I was forced to find an alternative display method that would protect the images while still evoking aspects of the kinetic and translucent natures that I love.

The result is a large shadow box that allows the image to hang on a steel rod that spans the width of the frame. I sewed a sleeve made of asian paper to the back of the image on both top and bottom, with the top of course as the hanging device and the bottom as a weight to keep the image off of the plexi.

Artist Statement from The Archival Turn

2011-06-24T07:33:00.001-05:00

The Archival Turn

Emerging from my interests in memory and vernacular photography this collection of work intends to explore several related questions:

What guides our thinking about historical artifacts?

How are these ideas at play in the curation of an archive?

What role does the archive play in the formation of memory and history?

Traditionally, an archive has been regarded as a repository of objects and information essential to human history. However, in the last half of the 20^th Century it underwent a profound conceptual change shifting its emphases from the objects to the archivist, and from place to process. At the heart of this archival turn is a fundamental skepticism of Modernity’s scientific methodologies.

Research has shifted from the objective recording of static and isolated objects to focus instead upon the curatorial power, and the cultural and historical embeddedness of the archivist. This turn has illuminated the inescapable fingerprint of archivist in the formation of the archive, human memory and ultimately history itself. As a result, layers of contexts, presuppositions, and the embedded power relationships between the archivist and archive come to the fore.

With two trajectories in mind, I have created an archive to explore the subjectivity of human engagement with objects while emphasizing the often-overlooked physical nature of the photographic object. I have utilized traditional archive forms of drawers and artifact trays, accession numbers and acid free enclosures to both suggest Modernity’s curatorial processes of empiricism, isolation, and limited access. These methods also intend to re-establish the viewer’s awareness of the photograph’s physicality. By modifying these forms, viewers may explore the perceived stability and instability of the relationships among the artist as curator and the objects themselves. Additionally, strategies of translucent layers, white-on-white printing, and the imaging of culturally shared symbols and collective memories, allows me to create a variety of contextual lenses through which we may explore the subjectivity of our engagements with historical objects.

Book Shots

2011-06-23T12:37:00.004-05:00

I realized a week or so ago that I had never photographed the covers and bindings of my handmade books. So, while I still had access to them, I thought I should get that done. Besides my own records, I hope to enter them into some shows as well.

Other than the dust that inevitably clings to this sort of fabric, I love the shots with the shallow depth of field.

Theology & the Arts Reading Lists

2011-06-23T07:36:00.000-05:00

The other day I was surfing through Duke's DITA program webpages and ran across a helpful reading list helpfully broken out into reading levels. As I looked over the two lists, I found several new texts that I was unaware of before. Over-all, its a great list...check it out.

Here is a link to it.

Two Person Show at Third Street Gallery

2011-06-21T10:29:00.003-05:00

Friday, Jessica Christy and I hung our work down at the Third Street Gallery here in Grand Forks. We will be having a reception on June 30th from 7-9. Please come and check out the work.

Much of the work will be from our MFA exhibitions but I do have 9 new pieces (which I will show a few of when I get them shot).

New ideas, musings, and what-if's

2011-06-20T07:20:00.000-05:00

So I have been thinking a lot lately about what I want to explore in the coming year and how it might be a good time to do some research for Ph.D apps. One of the ideas I keep coming back to comes out of my MFA work with vernacular photography. Ideas of its memorial nature, its narrativity and physicality come to the fore. While photo theory is dense and difficult, vernacular photography is often an estranged cousin of most photo histories. But what potentials lie in this oft dismissed realm of photography?

While I have been aware of photography's contentious relationship with memory for some time, its narrative and material nature are more recent for me. What connections might I be able to make to a theological approach toward vernacular photography? Could there be potent connections between the narrative interpretations of photo albums and narrative theology, biography, etc? What about portrait photography as iconography? Could either or both be pared with some sort of priesthood of believers? What does a sacramental theology and approach toward the arts have to offer in an engagement with vernacular photography? Given the digital revolution as, what seems to me another step away from the physical and material nature of the photographic object, could a sacramental theology help us re-engage the physicality and materiality of photographic objects. Are there historical arguments in the iconography debates that might lend direction on these ideas?

While these questions are incredibly broad at this point, my hope is to begin to draw a few threads together to refine a better set of questions.

NYC and Barton Benes

2011-06-18T15:56:00.004-05:00

During our brief visit to NYC I had to the remarkable opportunity to meet with the artist Barton Liddes Benes. I came to know his work through the UND art department and his connection to the North Dakota Museum of Art. While his work is somewhat transitioning, Barton is widely known celebrity relic pieces. Using traditional religious relic motifs, Benes transforms them with our cultures religious-like worship of celebrity. Bits of celebrity trash and other cultural oddities make their way to Barton through a vast network of friends and into his work. The diversity of relics is astounding from Frank Sinatra's fingernail to Madonna's panties, these little bits of ephemera gain importance via their provenance.

Barton has also done significant artwork on AIDS using his own blood in some pieces, failed AIDS medications, and even curing potion from an African healer complete with text for recitation.

While Barton may be taking a break from some of the relic work, he is still prolific in his work. His current work involves making mandalas out of the world currencies and prayer rugs out of varieties of stamps. UND recently completed a prayer rug edition of 27 for Barton...it is beautiful and bright.

If you are not familiar with Barton's work, a great place to start is his book, Curiosa.

This was my second visit to Barton's home and his hospitality is remarkable. I am thankful for the time I had to spend with him and for his willingness to spend some time with a few North Dakotan fans.

Summer...

2011-06-11T07:48:00.003-05:00

Its summer. Finally. But somehow I seemed to have missed spring. I know how I missed it too. And my profound lack in posting shows it as well. Once I finished the MFA show, I jumped into a conference paper that I presented just last week at the College Theology Society. While I knew what I was going to write about, no words had actually been written at the beginning of May. I spent hours reading and writing during that short window between the beginning of the month and when we left for a brief pre-conference holiday in NYC. That which normally takes me a 3-4 months to write, I completed in just under 4 weeks. I will post more on the paper later.

For now, I am busy readying work for a 2 person show at Third Street Gallery that will go up sometime next week. Jessica Christy, my former office and studio mate at UND, and I will be putting up the remnants of our MFA show and some new work as well. So I have been working in the studio since my return from NYC printing a new series of work to be integrated into the show and a new series of small trays. The work will take the form of the small trays but will have prints behind like the larger lots of photos printed in white on white. Originally I printed them in color as a means of replacing the 2 books which I have sold, but I felt they were largely unsuccessful. So, I returned to the white-on-white printing and I am much happier about them. I am also adding plexi to this series of trays. Ive cut the front 1/3 of the top of the tray off and will attach it to the plexi so that the plexi might slide out, thus keeping a sense of functionality and access to the object rather than simple framing, while adding a level of protection not in the others. Ive not yet assembled the new pieces...hopefully today. I will post picts when I get them done.

The Archival Turn...reflections on closing out the MFA

2011-04-28T13:41:00.004-05:00

Well, the show has opened and the reception went off well. If you want to see pictures check out the link below.

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/fbx/?set=a.10150164939866574.301637.555701573&l=a16aeaefaa

The past week has been a little surreal. Going through this process as a culmination to a degree program is certain to make me reflect not only on this degree, but also to my BA reception back in 1998. Last week as I was putting the final touches on the show, I was listening to Toad the Wet Sprocket, one of my favorite bands from my time in college. I dont listen to them as much these days but would still list them among my favorites. It struck me as one particular album came up in the rotation that I was listening to the same album as I prepared my BA exhibition some 13 years later (how can it be 13 years ago?).

I have also been thinking about the ephemerality of art and the art show. UND has but one gallery and this time of year...really for the past 2 months, shows are churned through weekly. Roughly 2 BFA shows share a week and ideally MFA grads get one week to themselves which generally means you install the show on Friday afternoon or over the weekend after the last person has torn theirs down. While setting up the show is stressful and time consuming, it is a tremendous relief to see, in my case, the piles of work, transform the space and begin to embody your ideas. The review came and went without a hitch as did the reception. But already I see Monday, the end to this show coming all too quickly. The show represents the culmination of 3 years of work. For many artists, the work spans their last year or two in the program depending upon the speed with which they work and their medium. For me, this body of work was not begun in earnest until January...41 pieces made in 4.5 months. While many have are more minimal I still had to learn significant skills to reach my vision...namely frame-making and book binding. The center pieces to the show were 2 handmade books...something I had never made before.

I've also been thinking about what pushed me down this avenue of work. While there are many reasons, I've come to see the impact of my time in Cyprus with PKAP upon my work. The whole of the archive idea comes my time in the back of museum in Larnaca washing and photographing pottery. Their methods of cataloging and forms of storage (in what in my memory is simple pine trays) became the fundamental construction pieces for the show. My time in those off-limit areas re-affirmed the exclusivity of archives for the trained experts...Something that I tried to bring into the work...and by my own observance in the gallery, it seems to have worked.

Down to the Wire

2011-04-19T19:30:00.002-05:00

The title says it all. One week from now I will be at a BFA opening downtown having just escaped my final review and oral examination. Yesterday I fought with wood to make shelves for nearly 8 hours...im still not sure if they will hang. I will find out tomorrow. After that marathon session, I didn't want to think of spending another night in the studio. So I am at home, working on title card formatting (fun) and planning a menu for the reception next Wednesday (actual fun).

Tomorrow I hope to test the hanging capability of the shelves, print my show posters, and finish my last two pieces. Sounds like an ambitious day...but with less than a week to go...they must all be ambitious.

I've attached a copy of the show poster.

Some Wild Ideas from Geoffrey Batchen

2011-04-14T08:43:00.000-05:00

One of my favorite books on photography is Geoffry Batchen's Each Wild Idea. The book contains 9 essays wrestling with the histories of photography. My favorite chapter, not surprisingly, is on vernacular photography. Batchen's work attempts to elucidate the "complex matter of photography's conceptual, historical, and physical identity." He continues,

"Morphology is another of those issues that most histories of photography ignore. Indeed, the invisibility of the photograph, its transparency to its referent, has long been one of its most cherished features. All of us tend to look at photographs as if we are simply gazing through a two-dimensional window onto some outside world. This is almost a perceptual necessity; in order to see what the photograph is of, we must first repress our consciousness of what the photograph is. As a consequence, in even the most sophisticated discussions, the photograph itself--the actual thing being examined--is usually left out of the analysis. Vernacular photographies tend to go the other way, so frequently do they exploit the fact that the photograph is something that can also have volume, opacity, tactility, and a physical presence in the world. In many cases, the exploitation involves the the subject of the photograph's intervening within or across the photographic act. These subjects make us attend to their photography's morphologies, and thus to look right at rather than only through the photograph. In this sense, vernacular photo objects can be read not only as sensual and creative artifacts but also as thoughtful, even provocative meditations on the nature of photography itself" (Pages 59-60).

One of the trajectories of this show means to highlight is the physical nature of the photograph. Batchen's text was released in 2001, and since then the digital revolution has only picked up speed further minimizing the physicality of photographic objects. The vernacular photographic objects that I have collected over the past few months and will show intend to highlight the diversity from this relatively young medium. Varying in sizes and processes, the objects mounted in artifact trays, encapsulated in drawers, bins etc intend to suggest the physicality of the photo object. It has been interesting to me in this process the varying sizes, papers, and processes that were quickly cast away as the technology of photography advanced. Fewer and fewer sizes of film and prints were available over time to where we are now, if we print our images at all, have the options of 3.5x5, 4x6, 5x7 etc. Some of my favorite photos that I have collected are the smallest ones that are 2x3ish.

MFA Exhibition

2011-04-12T20:28:00.004-05:00

Well it has been some time since my last post on Valentines Day. I have been busy nearly every day since working on pulling this show together. I am now less than 2 weeks from my oral defense (Tuesday 26th) and reception on Wednesday the 27th.

Above is mock-up of my postcard which should arrive tomorrow and hopefully get turned right back around into the mail.

Pictured is one of 10 drawers of thematically grouped photos designed to draw attention toward Modernity's archive methodology.

New Print

2011-02-13T17:15:00.003-06:00

So this past month 3rd Street Gallery here in Grand Forks had their annual show. Each year invite people to submit ideas for a theme for the show. The person who submitted the chosen theme gets to be on the postcard. This year the theme was Imitation. This is one of the two pieces that I submitted.

MFA Exhibit

2011-01-31T08:17:00.000-06:00

In April, I will be presenting my MFA exhibit here at UND. It is the culmination of 3 years of work and research narrowed down into a cohesive show and theme, defended to ones chosen committee, and then (assuming you pass your final review) opened to the public. Well, I have taken a route I do not recommend. As of days a week before Thanksgiving last year, I changed my topic anddirection for the show from large cyanotype landscapes to considerations of the archive and vernacular photography. While I still love the large scale landscapes, I was unmotivated by the work and I wanted to push on something more conceptual...and it ended up on the idea of the archive. Essentially it will explore the way we think about objects...any historical object really, but I am using the vernacular photograph as an expression of this. The show will illustrate...exhibit...suggest (not finding the right word right now) the different approaches towards said objects between modernity and postmodernity. Over the past few months I have built an archive of vernacular photos with the help of Ebay...2 venders in particular have been of immense help selling their wares to me at decent prices.

For the past week and half I have been making frames...21 to be exact. These function as frames, but are meant to recall less framing and more specimen trays. Inside, I will mount a singular photographic object on a white back ground with a lithographed archive label that will be filled out by hand in pencil. These pieces will be one aspect of the "modern" direction of the show to suggests modernity's drive for isolating objects for objective readings.

Shows

2011-01-28T08:36:00.000-06:00

As an artist, showing in exhibitions is one of the primary ways to build your CV. My first semester, my photography professor started encouraging me to enter shows at the local, regional, national, and international levels. I am thankful for her push in this direction. Since starting at UND I have had multiple opportunities to show in ND, MN, MT, WI, KY, MO, SD, NJ, and South Africa. 2011 is off to a good start with pieces in 5 different exhibits already this year. Last night was the opening for the UND TournARTment, the annual student show. I had one piece selected by the juror, Brian Frink, painting professor from Mankato State University in Mankato MN. The piece Contested Spaces: Mount Rushmore is proving especially popular at shows as it is in 3 different shows right now (MO, MT, ND).

My Studio

2011-01-27T10:23:00.007-06:00

I cannot believe the this is my last semester in UND's MFA program. It has gone by so quickly...three years. I have a hard time believing it when I write it. And in that time, I dont think I have ever put up pictures of my studio. I've put up pictures of my home office, the UND gallery and the printmaking studio, but not my personal studio at the Hughes. So here is my home away from home for the past 2.5 years.

Personally I think it is the nicest studio...perhaps the second nicest spot of all the studios spaces...its large and of course it has the beautiful window that looks out over the UND coulee. The wall on the left displays a lot of my test proofs and various failures of many of my early prints. When I started, these were a novelty to me so I kept them around...now they go directly into the trash...as these will when I have to move out in a few months. Somehow, my studio mate and I have collected a high number of chairs...in this photo there are 4 chairs and 1 stool. Why? I have no idea.

The graduate studios are open...no locks, doors, barbed wire. This was, and still is a bit unnerving to me. Some of us have hundred or thousands of dollars of materials out in the open. And yet, very rarely does something go missing. I think I have lost some paper, and an aluminum ruler over my time. It has been said that people are more likely to take/borrow your tools and materials than your artwork...not sure what that says about the artwork, but all the same I am grateful for the a very low thievery rate among the students.

Such spaces are at a premium and most students share spaces with others working in similar mediums. They become strange emporiums of curious objects, hand-me-down supplies, failed work pieces, doodles, and lots of junk...as you can tell by the clutter of the area. This is my first real studio space...I had a cube area for painting in undergrad, but this space has been great. I will miss it when I leave...and what to do with all this stuff?

New Books

2011-01-17T10:18:00.008-06:00

In preparation for my final exhibit coming at the end of April, I've been picking up a few books to help guide some of my thoughts on the project. I've been thinking a lot about the photographic object itself...its history, lost images, how they are used etc. Too often we tend to look "through" the photograph to the referent, subject or what is imaged. And yet, the object nature of the photograph cannot be separated from its subject.

The Art of the American Snapshot is a fabulous collection and history of vernacular photography. This is one of the first books I bought in this direction and it is definitely my favorite because of its diversity of photo techniques and essays, and sheer volume of images.

Another similar, and much smaller text is In the Vernacular. This book also functions like a very select group of images from an exhibition. They also break the images into various categories of archive, proof, surrogate, and yardstick. The images and their functions are explored through these categories.

I've also picked up a few texts on the photo album and its histories and functions. Suspended Conversations is the most recent text that I have purchased. More essays than photos, it looks to be a helpful guide. Snapshot Chronicles: Inventing the American Photo Album runs the other way with photographs of and interpretations of various antique photographs. The book itself invites touch with its green embossed felt cover.

NYC Architecture: Flatiron

2011-01-13T07:05:00.003-06:00

It is curious to me how one experience can linger in my memory. On my first visit to NYC, I was walking with my spring service trip group from Northwestern College in Orange City Iowa, when we happened upon the Flatiron. I looked up and immediately recognized its form from Steiglitz and Steichen's images of it...

It is one of NYC

famous landmarks and most photographed buildings. That night as our group crossed the street below I pulled my camera from my coat randomly shot upwards with the flash attached. It created a remarkable image. Barely visible from the faint flash throw, the barrel curve rises from the bottom and quickly disappears into a sea of black. I've tried scanning and photographing the one copy that I have and fails to replicate the beauty each time. A few years later, I was in a taxi headed toward Battery Park and passed the structure. This time I stuck the camera out the window and snapped a few shots and was remarkably pleased with what came out. I love how the wire cuts across so nicely across the angle of the building.

This trip however, I made time to walk around the building, taking it in, and more carefully constructing my shots. The next day, we ended up going up the Empire State Building which provided me another vantage point of one of my favorite buildings. Enjoy.

NYC Architectural Abstraction

2011-01-10T06:59:00.001-06:00

Back in November I had the opportunity to go to NYC with several fellow students and our printmaking professor. For those of you who dont know, I love NYC. I will admit that I am a tourist...looking at the buildings, watching people, etc. For someone who grew up on the prairies and loves watching the light drift lazily over fields, trees, and elevators I think that my love of line and hard edges find its source in NYC more than any other city. I love how light moves over, around, reflects, in perpetually changing angles and intensity. I marvel at the architecture itself, but also the interplay between one building and another especially in the mornings when light begins to scrape over and flit through the gaps between the buildings.

I've posted just a simple four shots of my favorites. Enjoy.

A few New Pieces

2011-01-07T10:43:00.004-06:00

Its been a crazy month and a half since I returned from NYC. Little time for anything other than finishing out the semester, let alone posting on the blog. My hope, as it always, is to post updates on my work and current endeavors. This new year my hope remains the same.

My recent work has taken my interest in lost vernacular photos and turned it into prints to explore the lost connections, narratives, roots, etc.. These two works take different but related approaches. Both use maps in a way as to suggest context. But upon closer inspection, the contexts of town and identifiers have been masked and scratched out. The first print uses a lithographic reproduction of the photographic image and replicates it and reverses the direction of one to amplify the confused nature of this lingering object. The second uses the map, printed on rice paper, then covered in wax to make it translucent, functions as a veil to the antique studio portrait.

Photos From St Patrick's Cathedral

2010-11-15T16:16:00.005-06:00

Friday night I returned from a 10 day trip to NYC and NJ filled with art and fun. If you follow AOA you likely know my love of St. Patrick's Cathedral. I made several visits (4 I think). Here are a few shots from my visits.

Bringing artists to the world of print | State of the Arts | Minnesota Public Radio

2010-10-28T10:37:00.000-05:00

Bringing artists to the world of print | State of the Arts | Minnesota Public Radio

Mpls Photo Center Alternatives Invite

2010-10-25T08:50:00.003-05:00

For those not in the art world, gallery calls for showing come in waves: typically two per year. The second is going on right now through November. Galleries are putting together their spring lineup.

This show at the Mpls Photo Center had a quick turnaround with invite and show going up at the beginning of November. One of my pieces from this past summer was chosen and will hang alongside many remarkable pieces. There is a slideshow of selected images on MPC site here.

If you are in the Mpls area please go check out the show. I will be in NYC and will be unable to make it to the opening. If you go, I'd love to hear your thoughts on the show.

A Few Thoughts on Religion, Art and Censorship

2010-10-12T09:42:00.007-05:00

Last week as I mentioned I was out at the North Dakota University Systems Arts and Humanities Summit. It was a great cozy little conference at Dickinson State in the loveliest part of North Dakota right outside the badlands. The University of North Dakota made an impressive showing of conference participation unlike a certain school 70 miles to the south of UND.

Both Patrick Luber and I presented on the curious relationship between art and religion. My presentation simple looking at the theological roots and interests that emerge in my artwork. While Patrick's presentation was more philosophical in nature considering the tenuous history of Christianity's participation in the arts. Despite the divergent approaches to our recent papers, we end up at similar positions that rely upon God's sovereignty to be revealed and use whatever means necessary for God's purposes. I think we would both suggest that a sacramental system allows an intelligent, nuanced, restrained and yet affirming engagement with the material world, and in particular the arts, that sidesteps knee jerk reactions and moralistic judgements.

Unbeknownst to me, a storm of religion and art was brewing 8 hours south of us as a Montana woman drove to Loveland Colorado with intents to destroy a work of art that had been challenged as inappropriate, smut, blasphemous and all the other basic descriptions that many religious folk use to denounce provocative pieces that deal with religion. The Denver Post has been covering the story with some basic articles which you can read here, here, here, and if you look to the right of each article there are links to more articles.

Violent actions toward art is nothing new as the one article recalls, which includes a very long history of religious destruction of work by both Christians and other religious traditions (the articles point out recent examples by the Taliban). Perhaps it is my personality, perhaps my education, perhaps it is my love of the arts, perhaps it is my love of learning and trying to understand others has perhaps given me a higher tolerance for engaging cultural forms. Perhaps. Whatever it is, I am drawn toward understanding these experiences, and trying to better articulate a Christian response.

One of the more curious aspects to this story is the difference between the methodologies of action between the woman who reacted violently by destroying the work with that of the Catholic deacon who arranged a peaceful protest and was heartbroken in the aftermath of the violence. Which, if any is the appropriate Christian action?

Why the knee jerk reactions? I am always puzzled at how quickly we respond with moral rejections of work without knowing context or meaning. What is the artist trying to say? What experiences are behind this work of art? Is their comment valid? Does the church need to hear their voice? These are some of the first questions we should be asking. Once we have come to understand the work of art in question, then, and only then, can we offer a Christian response and further engagement.

This has gotten to be a long post...more thoughts to come

Keepin' at it...

2010-10-06T08:40:00.003-05:00

Life is busy right now...which is unfortunately why this blog often sits dormant for a week or two at a time. Today I am headed out to Dickinson State University for the NDUS Arts and Humanities Summit. I will be presenting a paper on the theological roots of my artwork that I've titled "Embodying Theology: Artistic Practice and Theological Reflection." In the paper I briefly recount my theological journey towards Canterbury with particular interest paid to the sacramental imagination. Using that methodology I introduce the two central research trajectories of memory and place and what I mean by these. In the third movement of the paper I look at specific examples of my work (most of which has been posted here) that embody these themes.

Valley City State University Show

2010-09-24T09:54:00.004-05:00

Later this morning, I am headed to Valley City ND for an artist reception with several of my UND classmates. Besides the two hour drive out and back, it should be a great day. I am really looking forward to seeing our work in a gallery. Our work is so distinct from one another so I am really curious how it comes together into show.

Below is the press release from VCSU.

UND Graduate Students, Meghan Duda, Ryan Stander, Patrick Awotwe, and Jessica Christy will be on campus Friday, September 24 working with the VCSU Art Students. A panel discussion is scheduled in McCarthy 356 at 2:00 pm and a reception for the artists will be held in the VCSU Art Gallery 4:00 - 5:30 pm. The VCSU community and the public are welcome to attend.

Five Graduate Students from the University of North Dakota’s Master of Fine Arts program were invited to submit work for the exhibition that sets the stage for the artists' visit. The exhibition includes weavings from Patrick Awotwe; altered photographs from Meghan Duda; monoprints / monotypes from Anna Jacobson; lithographs, Ziatypes, and Cyanotypes from Ryan Stander; mixed media lithographs from Jessica Christy.

The Exhibition runs through October 1.

In his weaving and jewelry making Patrick Awotwe creates designs using traditional symbols that reference compositions from his African culture. Mr. Awotwe enrolled in graduate school in metalsmithing and jewelry and found a second creative voice in fibers. His homeland, Ghana, is noted for unique traditional weaving called kinte but his first fiber-works were created at UND. He describes the weaving of his daughter: "The Sunrise is a damask wall hanging that was inspired by Nhyira, my daughter. The bottom part shows a silhouette of her picture with fewer details and the top shows her full portrait. Traditional Ghanaian symbols “Gye Nyame” and “Afe “were used to give it an African identity. Nhyira literally means Blessing and the Sunrise is to describe her.”

Meghan Duda is fascinated with two things, architecture and photography. She has a professional degree in architecture from Virginia Tech and teaches an architectural photography seminar in the Department of Architecture and Landscape Architecture at North Dakota State University. Ms. Duda states, “My selected photographs are a study of cutting.” She frames her photographs around elements that can be removed thus creating negative space. Meghan has exhibited through out the Midwest and Virginia. She also has been published and received a finalist recognition twice in competitions presented by Photography's Forum Magazine.

The family farm lifestyle and the fundamentals of organic farming have been ingrained in Anna Jacobson inner self and thought process and thus is the basis of her work. Nature’s cycles and the North Dakota landscape found their voices in the color, texture, and process of her work. Coming from the flat plains of rural North Dakota, Anna learned the value of simple beauty. Her work is not filled with complex details or bright commercial colors, but rich, full earthtone colors and textured details of the great American Midwest. Anna received her BA in studio arts with an empasis printmaking from Concordia College in Morehead, MN.

Ryan Stander's interests in theology and art are rooted in ideas of place/space, memory and identity formation. Mr. Stander has a MA in Theology from Sioux Falls Seminary and a BA in Art from Northwestern College. His work included in the exhibition comes from two bodies of work. The Religion as a Chain of Memory Series draws upon his theological research into place and memory. His Ziatype and Cyanotype Icon / Altars “draw upon the interplay of memory, identity and the photographic object itself, while playing with the traditional forms of Christian iconography and devotional altars."

Jessica Christy’s mixed media lithographs are a response to mass media, contemporary art history, and family heritage. Technically her work examines not only traditional printmaking but also the territory beyond the practiced techniques. Her work has been exhibited through out the Midwest, on the west coast and in London winning numerous awards. She works with the master press at UND, as both an assistant to the master printer and as a master printer, printing lithograph and intaglio editions for various well-known artists. Ms. Christy teaches drawing, printmaking, and design at UND. Jessica is a Valley City State University alumni who graduated with a BS in Art.

Even More Prints...

2010-09-22T07:01:00.000-05:00

As promised...A few more finished prints, including my Oktoberfest invite. The first two are obviously related to the ongoing series. The invite...well...thats just for fun.

More Prints

2010-09-20T14:50:00.002-05:00

Today I finished 3 more prints...2 in this ongoing series which will appear here in a few days and an invite to an Oktoberfest party which will show up here too.

Again these prints fall under the Foreign Policy series of prints that utilize texting abbreviations as a shorthand for some kind of American attitude. The maps too function as a shorthand that represents real space.

Fall Beginnings

2010-09-15T15:59:00.002-05:00

Somehow it is already the 4th week of classes? Where did this past month go? I have made great progress on my print for the semester. So rather than waiting until the end of the semester I thought I would put up a few now.

This semester's focus is on mapping. Toward the end of the summer I started playing with a few cultural maps. See them here. I am taking a similar approach to my current series as I did for the fly-over states print by hand tracing the map and using a separate plate for text formatted in Photoshop.

The first map, is from a larger series that will show up here over the next few weeks. It might be called something like Foreign Policy, with a companion series Domestic Policy. It plays with the idea of cartography as a shorthand in a sense for real places. Here it is paired with a text abbreviation, another shorthand, that describes some sort of foreign relationship the United States has with another country.

The 2nd print is suggestive of a stereotypical arrogant American attitude about the rest of the world and America itself.

Recent Listenings II

2010-09-02T05:02:00.002-05:00

A couple more of my recent favs...

and one old skool vid

Recent Listenings...

2010-09-01T16:51:00.003-05:00

Occasionally I will post links to youtube.com for some of my favorite new music or videos and such. This is one of those posts. Over the summer, UND's Wellness Center has been playing a XM radio alt rock station and I have discovered a few new artists. Below are a few of my favorites...

Here is a link to the Kooks song Naive (sorry cant embed the video).

Fall Semester 2010

2010-08-26T09:53:00.002-05:00

So it begins...the last year of the MFA program. A hectic summer of 10 credits leaves me with 12 to go before graduation. As it stands it will break 6 and 6 over the two semesters. That is of course if I survive the extracurriculars of this semester.

During my time here at UND I have worked hard to stay active in the academic theological world as well as start to build a quality artist CV as well. This fall will continue that trend with shows, lectures, travel, and conferences. At times it feels overwhelming with the amount I have to do to get to where I want to go, but at the same time with the encouragement of friends, my beautiful wife, and faith that God has created me with these two passions of art and theology I keep going.

Upcoming Events...

This week I have had stuff taken to Valley City University for a show arranged by Linda Whitney (a UND alum) whose daughter Jess I now share office and studio space with. The show will be of current UND graduate student work and will include an artist talk and panel discussion the day of the opening. The show will run from 9.1-9.30 with the reception on 9.24 from 4-5:30. If you are in the area please stop out to see the show.

Next week I will also be hanging work for the month of September at Amazing Grains here in Grand Forks. I think Amazing Grains is one of the stops on the GF area Art and Wine Walk as well to be held on September 18th from 1-5 pm. I will be showing a number from my Elevator Series. Its great to see them framed and sitting together. Until now, I had only framed a few pieces for other shows.

I will also be at Dickinson State University in Dickinson ND for the NDUS Arts and Humanities Summit. Faculty and students from across the state come together to showcase their research. UND's Department of Art and Design will make a good showing with a good number of students and faculty presenting. I will be presenting a paper called Embodying Theology: Theological Reflection and Artistic Practice. Essentially it is a reflection upon the theological backgrounds to my artwork and how those trajectories emerge within the work. I will also be co-presenting with Prof. Kim Fink on the collaborative printing for visiting artists through Sun Dog Multiples.

In November, the printmaking folks here will be heading to New York and New Jersey to give an artist talk at the Printmaking Council of New Jersey as well as printing for the recent Guggenheim recipient Daniel Heyman. While in NYC we will hit various museums, galleries, and of course the IFPDA Print Fair.

And somewhere in there, visit PhD programs, apply to PhD programs, and of course fulfill my 6 credits of studio work just in time for my all important 2nd candidacy review which basically lays out the direction for the final exhibition needed for graduation.

Im tired just typing all of this.

Better get to work.

Summer Work VI

2010-08-12T14:45:00.006-05:00

Another batch of lithos. This group is a random collection however...no unifying theme or direction. These first 2 prints are variations of each other and the one table top photo icon from my earlier postings.

The next two images modify Ben Franklin's famous statement that (insert whatever) is proof that God loves us. This takes that statement and pushes it into geography and patriotism and comes out as another intentionally arrogant pro America statement. While those of you who know me or my comments on the blog know that I would hardly be considered patriotic, the statement seems to hover between reality as something you might see on a t-shirt and just being over the top. Its one of my favorites...not so of my lovely Canadian wife.

The 3rd print is one Ive been talking doing for a long time of the fly-over states. The fly-over states, if you dont know are the states that most people only see from the air as they pass from one side of the country to the other. They make up a rather irrelevant and unrecognizable lot to many Americans. This print intends to highlight that attitude.

Summer Work V

2010-08-12T14:37:00.002-05:00

This series continues the line of thought from the Religion as a Chain of Memory series in an alternative direction. There are 3 pieces in this series, but it looks like I forgot to photograph one. The prints contain an embossing of the state/province, 4 color separation portraits, local maps, and a regional landscape. The images are then chine-colle'd onto BFK. They are intended to be folded like an accordian (but i have not gotten to that yet).

Summer Work IV

2010-08-12T14:27:00.003-05:00

One of my continuing experiments has been with light and translucence of materials. My original hope had been to have these back lit with a light box of sort but the work and cost of producing that many light boxes quickly shut that door. I continued on with printing on various Japanese papers measuring about 24x39 which I then covered in wax to increase its translucence. This first is a Van Dyke on Mullberry which ripped horribly but was salvaged with cheesecloth melted into the wax. It produces a unique scarred look. The next few images are cyanotype images which normally have an electric blue color. These were toned to produce a more subdued eggplant hue. There is also one detail shot of a preliminary means of display. The intent is to have the image floating 4-6 inches from the wall.

Summer Work III

2010-08-12T14:20:00.003-05:00

This series offers a twist to the previous postings. Maintaining the form and materials I made the iconographic dimension more explicit. I also began to experiment with the Ziatype process. The transitional piece uses a vintage photo of my father writing home during his 2 years stationed in Germany in the 50's. The small cyanotype is of an old home. The next image is of my father-in-law and the third, my brother-in-law. I shot these images this summer on our trip home to SK. These last two, and likely the third in a less literal way, are about place and the dialectic between humanity and the land.

Summer Work II

2010-08-12T14:14:00.001-05:00

Another set within this series on panels deals with lost vernacular photos as objects and the severed memories associated with the photos themselves. This series has a tentative artist statement associated written below.

Somewhere hanging delicately between subjectivity and objectivity, memory functions. More than simple recall or a mental rolodex, memory is constituent of our very being. It informs. It orients. It is the deep well of our imagination. It can be shared and it is in perpetual reform. Within this delicate and mysterious dance, photography’s process and product enter as curious partners of memory’s fact and fiction, accuracy and distortion.

The photographic object spins out a silvery thread linking a past moment to the ongoing present. Our awareness of such is what Barthes’ called startling prick of the punctum, that historical moment of the shutter snapping open and closed allowing light to pour in and write its lingering image. That moment may persist for viewers today if they are able to wade through the flood of images that daily dull our senses, they may arrive at the alchemy of the photographic object itself.

While the punctum of time’s persistence may continue, the photographic object emanates from a particular context and set of narratives. And yet, while the remnant object retains its silvery thread to its referent, the narratives and contexts are often severed or unraveled within our vernacular photographs. Indexicality remains, but its context has been severed. In these lost images, mute strangers stare back at us. Objects become evidence of their existence but they are divorced from their story.

This body of work draws upon the interplay of memory, identity and the photographic object itself, while playing with traditional forms of Christian iconography and devotional altars. By re-presenting lost vernacular photographs through such wooden panels, it intends to impart a loose religious reading to both the lost photographic object and its referent. Heightening this religious sense are the photographic processes themselves. By utilizing hybrid or alternative photographic processes, it creates a curious sense of age and sentimentality. Coupling these paneled images with smaller cutout images continues my interest in the composite which encourages the viewer elucidate the connection among the cluster of images.

Summer Work

2010-08-12T14:01:00.006-05:00

It has been a quite a while since Ive been updating this on a regular basis. This summer was... well... overwhelming. What was I thinking taking on 10 credits? I guess its the Dutchman within since the credits were free. So in that, I will not complain. And I did manage to make a lot of work both in alternative photo and printmaking.

I challenged myself this summer with moving the image away from the traditional mat and frame. The trouble then becomes how is it displayed. One direction I began was to work into a table-top icon or altar piece. These images combine a base with the images printed in either Van Dyke or Cyanotype on plywood.

Gather Us In...A New Favorite Hymn

2010-06-23T12:19:00.003-05:00

Several weeks ago at St. Paul's, we sang "Gather Us In." Now, as with many things, it takes several hearings before it stands out so I have probably heard this hymn before. It grabbed my attention right off the bat with the place reference. It describes so much of what I have been trying to articulate about Philip Sheldrake's work Spaces for the Sacred that welcomes the periphery into the whole...the marginalized and broken, the ambiguous and forgotten people and memories are brought out into the Eucharist. Here...not just in the church, but at the altar we bring our fears and our dreams...offering the human pathos. So much more should be said about this wonderful hymn. If you've not heard it you can hear it above and read it below.

Here in this place, new light is streaming
now is the darkness vanished away,
see, in this space, our fears and our dreamings,
brought here to you in the light of this day.
Gather us in the lost and forsaken
gather us in the blind and the lame;
call to us now, and we shall awaken
we shall arise at the sound of our name.

We are the young - our lives are a mystery
we are the old - who yearns for you face.
we have been sung throughout all of history
called to be light to the whole human race.
Gather us in the rich and the haughty
gather us in the proud and the strong
give us a heart so meek and so lowly
give us the courage to enter the song.

Here we will take the wine and the water
here we will take the bread of new birth
here you shall call your sons and your daughters
call us anew to be salt of the earth.
Give us to drink the wine of compassion
give us to eat the bread that is you
nourish us well and teach us to fashion
lives that are holy and hearts that are true.

Not in the dark of buildings confining
not in some heaven, light years away
but here in this place, the new light is shining
now is the kingdom, now is the day.
Gather usin the and hold us forever
gather usin and make us your own
gather us in all peoples together
fire of love in our flesh and our bone.

Laundry, Liturgy and Women's Work

2010-06-21T19:12:00.002-05:00

In Laundry Liturgy and Women's work, Kathleen Norris reflects on the nature of the mundane tasks and the potential for sacramental inbreaking. Tonight as I did the dishes alone in our hot kitchen, something sparked my memories of working at Inspiration Hills. For three summers (1995, 1996, 2000) I worked as grounds crew, lifeguard, and sometimes reluctant counselor. I would spend glorious hours in the sun, evenings worshipping with new friends, late night games, and lots of laughing. In my recent years of growing interest in sacred spaces, I often ask people if they have places they consider sacred. Its fairly frequently that church camps become what so many people recognize as sacred space. Inspiration Hills is that for me as well. Both as a camper and staff, my story is not complete without this place. So tonight, as I did dishes in our hot kitchen, I remembered the hard and thankless work done by my friends at just one camp to make a summer, week, even meal a sacred possibility for thousands of campers. This work doesn't pay well. We would told that we would be exhausted but yet somehow feel refreshed at the end of the summer. And we were. My thought tonight is that in the midst of the summer heat...tensions can run high, frustrations mount, irritability sets in, songs are sung over and over and over. And inspite of our weaknesses, God moves, both staff and campers respond. Tonight I am reminded to pray for both campers and staff alike...for receptivity and endurance.

Sacred Spaces

2010-06-14T09:32:00.002-05:00

I apologize for this blog's dormancy for the past few months. I can assure you that it has not been abandoned yet.

Today I simply want to post a link to a friends blog post on Sacred Space. In the link the article describes a group that works to create sacred spaces amidst violent and drug ridden urban centers. Their hope is create alternative spaces for reflection and the sacred. They seem to take a wide or pluralistic view of the sacred. What is striking to me about these spaces is that they are created for others without a sense of exchange or obligation...as a grace offered freely. My cynical side wonders if the church can create and maintain spaces for human flourishing (which i would argue necessarily involves the pursuit of religious practices) if they are followers of another religion or denomination? Can a evangelicals create sacred spaces for Catholics? Can Christians create spaces for Muslims, Buddhists, Pagan's? And vice-a-versa? What is at stake for religious groups to do so? Can we get past issues of religious truth to recognize the dignity of all humanity in order to create open spaces where community and identity may flourish?

Its PKAP season again...

2010-05-24T09:11:00.004-05:00

Its PKAP season again...but unfortunately I will be back in ND most of the summer following their blogs as I work in the Graduate School and spend countless hours in the art studios. For those of you who have followed the project in the past, Bill Caraher has started the PKAP blog aggregator which condenses all the associated PKAP blogs into one handy-dandy little site.

While I feel completely spoiled for having gotten to go to Cyprus last year, and know that this is a very important summer for my MFA program here, I cannot help but to be a little sad at not going this year. While this season is not the same as last year (museum work vs. field work...from what I understand), I will miss the the quaintness of Larnaca, the historic streets, the bustling beaches, the Petrou Brothers apartments, Kalifatzia's haloumi sandwiches, Shark jokes, the community of the team, and of course the long hours of work in the sun.

Spring Semester Van Dyke Prints II

2010-05-15T10:37:00.005-05:00

This is the second half of the initial suite (i am planning on doing a few more today for my summer work). I've also learned there is a way to make these more permanent by using a gold toning. The unfortunate part of this process is that it doesnt hang around long...2-15 years...perhaps more if you keep them in a light safe box in a drawer in a dark basement.

Spring Semester Van Dyke Prints

2010-05-14T14:51:00.003-05:00

One of the things I had hoped to do during my degree at UND was to learn some of the alternative photo processes. For those who may not know, these are some of the very first experimental processes that have hung around in the fine art world. Many of them are actually making a comeback in reaction to the precision of the digital revolution. For the final I made a small suite of 15 images that I had shot in Cyprus during the PKAP residency. I was enamored and overtaken with nostalgia and old world romance by the historical doors, architecture and quaint streets. I've attempted to print these through solar plate and digitally but was just unhappy with both. While the images may look great, it takes the right process to bring them out. The images are well suited for this process to create that nostalgic feel. Many, somewhat uncharacteristically, capture an amazing amount of detail in a range of warm brown tones. I will post the remainder of the suite tomorrow.

More New Prints From This Spring

2010-05-11T19:15:00.003-05:00

Its been a busy spring but I have managed to create several prints. This top image is the most recent and draws connections in both theme and aesthetic to the Religion as a Chain of Memory series. This print takes an image of my mother and places it over Medieval manuscript image of a family tree. Along side it is another Medieval image of the annunciation to Mary. My hope is to suggest similar things to those prints of my father, but without using text.

The next image is a reworking from another failed attempt. I like the idea, but both this and the previous rendering have failed to live up to the idea for me so I have begun again to create this print. The image on the right is John the Baptist from the Isenheim Altar piece. In it, he points to Christ on the cross. In place of the crucifixion, I have instead replaced it with consumer logos that are meant to correspond to the four central parts of the Easter Vigil (roughly the services of Light, Word, Baptism, and the Eucharist). All of which hover over the text of John 1 in Latin.

The last print is just a little experiment from both my printmaking and alternative processes photo class (those images to come later this week). It takes a lithograph of a cropped Medieval manuscript drawing of the Ascension and places it over wonderful cyanotype image of a late summer Iowa sky.

New Prints From this Spring

2010-05-11T18:48:00.005-05:00

It has been a long time since I've posted any artwork...or much of anything. Ive continued on in this series of Contested Space embossings. The first included here is the Missouri River which is contested on not only water rights, damming, flow, and native lands, it also divides the Dakota's geographically into East and West river. In each state, the river divides its culture and its topography.

The second print also portrays a contested space...that of Mount Rushmore. The site is sacred not only to good patriotic American's, it is also a sacred site to the Native Americans. A few years ago, when I started thinking about sacred space, Mount Rushmore was foremost in my mind. I had never thought about it as a Native sacred space. But what happens when a colonialist people literally reshape a holy mountain in homage to their rule and build a tourist attraction upon a sacred site? It becomes a contested site.

This print took several tries to get it where it is today. The first with simple red thread conveyed the contested nature, but in the end seemed simply too anti-American. In the second, I added beading to connote the Native role in the contest over this place. Here I ran the beading along the heads to highlight the aspect of the landscape itself but at the expense of highlighting the contest. The third option, the one Ive ended with returns to the X's but with beading. Not only do the X's symbolize the contest over place, they also draw more closely from Native artwork where the 4 directional colors (as I have used) are placed in a vertical and horizontal axis. I simply have turned it on its side to make the X.

While I've not completed all the prints in this series, I expect it to be editioned in 5.

More prints and photos to come shortly from this semester.

KDLT.com South Dakota News - New Green Idea in Sioux Falls

2010-04-29T08:03:00.000-05:00

KDLT.com South Dakota News - New Green Idea in Sioux Falls

UND CERAMICS CENTENNIAL: Art at the mall | Grand Forks Herald | Grand Forks, North Dakota

2010-04-16T09:15:00.001-05:00

UND CERAMICS CENTENNIAL: Art at the mall | Grand Forks Herald | Grand Forks, North Dakota

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New Photographer Featured on Archaeologists/Photographers

2010-04-16T08:57:00.002-05:00

Back in February, my work with PKAP was featured on the Archaeologists/Photographers site. Last week another photographer, Dave Webb, was added to the slowly growing list of artists working in this line. Take a stroll over to A/P and check out his diggers series.

50/50: A Ceramics Centennial at UND | Grand Forks Herald | Grand Forks, North Dakota

2010-04-06T09:42:00.001-05:00

50/50: A Ceramics Centennial at UND | Grand Forks Herald | Grand Forks, North Dakota

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Colbert Report and the Catholic Sex Abuse Scandal

2010-04-05T13:48:00.003-05:00

The Colbert Report

Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

The Word - Forgive and Forget

www.colbertnation.com

Colbert Report Full Episodes

Political Humor

Health Care Reform

Colbert seems to hit the nail on the head with this one by pinpointing the issues of authority. I've argued with others concerning the homosexuality issues in the Episcopal church that most Christians, and for that matter, most people, do no really understand the concepts of church authority. Two years ago I tried to argue my point that individualism alters the intent of sola scriptura and authority. I wondered then, " Who gets to interpret? Who has final authority in such matters? Who can we trust? If we are to each weigh the words of the pastor, evangelists, theologians, or whomever, are we not essentially taking the power into our own hands to determine orthodoxy? American culture is so bound into this individualizing tendency that all forms of authority are meant to be questioned as abusive and oppressive to true freedom."

Im not claiming that I fully understand the structure and authority of the Catholic church, but I do recognize, in my own self, the tendency to balk at submitting to authority. I do see a strong connection between the current Catholic church scandal and the fight in the Episcopal church and those who want to stay vs. those who leave. Its not about sex, its about authority. For a congregation to split or leave is a powerful breach of church structure and authority that is built into their patterns of worship and belief.

That said, this is no excuse to immoral and such horrific behavior as what is being accused within this most recent scandal. While I understand the need to preserve the church's authority, it is also a breach in authority, and sin itself, to have the power to act and fail to do so.

Have mercy upon us, most merciful Father;

in your compassion forgive us our sins,

known and unknown,

things done and left undone;

and so uphold us by your Spirit

that we may live and serve you in newness of life,

to the honor and glory of your Name;

through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

New Album from Jonsi of the Sigur Ros

2010-04-01T08:26:00.002-05:00

If you are a fan of the Sigur Ros you may already know of the upcoming release from Jonsi. If you want a preview, take a listen here on the NPR site. Enjoy.

Liturgical Calendar

2010-03-30T13:02:00.004-05:00

I couple of days ago I posted the schedule for Holy Week from our local Episcopal Church, St. Paul's. Several people posted comments about the full week within the higher liturgical traditions. This whole flurry of liturgical activity was a surprise to me also until a few years ago and began to explore the riches of higher liturgical churches. Im no expert and maybe I am just a sucker for symbol and ritual, but the rhythms and cycles of the church calendar have quickly reshaped the way I think about my faith, witness and means of worship.

While there are many people my age climbing the proverbial liturgical ladder, there are many who are simply unaware of these liturgical traditions, and likely some who may reject them altogether because of their perception that these are Catholic things (Steve Harmon's recent article for CT is a good example). Though perhaps I underestimate folks, and a livelier Lenten liturgical tradition is thriving in low churches. I grew up in the Reformed Church in America (a mid ladder liturgical church) and can remember going to Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Morning Services. Perhaps it was my age or perhaps my general inability to understand spiritual things, but I never came close to living in the narratives of this week.

Anyway, today I ran across a great little site: churchyear.net. It has very basic information on the various seasons and special days within the liturgical calendar. It mentions history and symbolism needed to live into the depths of the narrative as embodied in higher liturgical traditions. The section called All About Lent will be especially helpful for those who might be looking at going to some of these services.

Empty Spaces and Prayers of the People

2010-03-29T07:54:00.002-05:00

Recently Bill Caraher and I briefly discussed a possible project on the idea of abandonment and what seems like a contemporary growth of interest. As my part, I am hoping to photograph abandonment across North Dakota and the region at large.

In preparation for this work, I've been doing a little web and Amazon surfing. Yesterday I ran into this amazing website on trekking the lands surrounding Chernobyl and the devastation that has been marked upon the land. While many sites of abandonment are ambiguous in terms of emotion and meaning, there is no doubt of the horror and sadness left in its nuclear wake.

As I looked at these images and considered the toll this accident took on this place and hundred of thousands of lives I was brought back to the words of the Book of Common Prayer and the prayers of the people. I encourage you to take some time and look through her site. Consider the effects of humanity on this place. Consider the place's effects on humanity.

Form IV
Let us pray for the Church and for the world.

Grant, Almighty God, that all who confess your Name may
be united in your truth, live together in your love, and reveal
your glory in the world.

Silence

Lord, in your mercy
Hear our prayer.

Guide the people of this land, and of all the nations, in the
ways of justice and peace; that we may honor one another
and serve the common good.

Silence

Lord, in your mercy
Hear our prayer.

Give us all a reverence for the earth as your own creation,
that we may use its resources rightly in the service of others
and to your honor and glory.

Silence

Lord, in your mercy
Hear our prayer.

Bless all whose lives are closely linked with ours, and grant
that we may serve Christ in them, and love one another as he
loves us.

Silence

Lord, in your mercy
Hear our prayer.

Comfort and heal all those who suffer in body, mind, or
spirit; give them courage and hope in their troubles, and
bring them the joy of your salvation.

Silence

Lord, in your mercy
Hear our prayer.

We commend to your mercy all who have died, that your will
for them may be fulfilled; and we pray that we may share
with all your saints in your eternal kingdom.

Silence

Lord, in your mercy
Hear our prayer.

Holy Week Schedule

2010-03-28T08:34:00.005-05:00

Holy Week is upon us. St. Paul's Episcopal in Grand Forks is offering a host of additional services this week. See below...

Sunday - Palm Sunday Service @ 10.15 am

Wednesday - Holy Eucharist @ 5.30 pm

Thursday - Maundy Thursday Service @ 7.00 pm

Friday - Good Friday Stations of the Cross @ Noon

Veneration of the Cross @ 7.00 pm

Saturday - Holy Saturday Service @ 10.30 am

Easter Vigil @ 8.00 pm

Sunday - Easter Breakfast @ 8.15-9.45 am

Holy Eucharist @ 7.00 & 10.15 am

NDUS Arts and Humanities Summit Proposal

2010-03-26T13:40:00.009-05:00

April 1st is the deadline to submit proposals for the NDUS Arts and Humanities Summit being held this year at Dickinson State University. Recently UND Department of Art & Design faculty member Patrick Luber and I have been discussing our submissions and decided to create ones of similar topics hopefully to be cobbled together into some form of panel on religion and art.

Since the deadline is rapidly approaching I decided that I should pull something together. Below is my first attempt.

Embodying Theology: Theological Reflections and Artistic Practice

Whether it is the artful transmission, recording and subsequent translations of its central narrative, or those narratives embodied in art and architecture, Psalm and song, or the wit and Word of preachers and theologians, the arts have played a vital role in the ongoing life of the Christian faith. And yet, this relationship, particularly for the visual arts, has been a tenuous one throughout its history. The Church’s anxiety of the artists’ freedom of expression is matched only by the artists’ anxiety of censorship and misuse by ecclesial authorities.

Following the continued splintering of the post-Reformation church, each denomination has cultivated its own, both implicit and explicit, aesthetic traditions. For many reasons, the pitch and pace of recent conversations concerning the arts and Christian tradition has continued to grow across Protestantism, particularly within Evangelicalism. As these conversations continue to expand and mature, they require an increasing nuance and thoughtful articulations of praxis from both artists and theologians.

By reflecting on my own recent academic and ecclesial pilgrimages both as a trained theologian and an artist-in-training, this paper will attempt to reconcile the woof and weft of my own artistic practices in the light of current theological trajectories.

Altera Civitas and Health Care Reform

2010-03-24T09:20:00.001-05:00

Once again this year I’ve taken to praying the hours (in a modified form) for my Lenten discipline. Whether it’s the pattern, routine, challenge, new insights, it’s a practice that I have greatly enjoyed in the past. There are times when I find myself sleepwalking both literally and figuratively through the ancient and contemporary words. But then…something sings…words glitter and begin to pull me back to proper attendance.

This year I’ve been using Phillis Tickle’s Eastertide: Prayers for Lent from her larger series The Divine Hours. By weaving traditional prayers, collects, hymns, and Psalms the prayerful pilgrim is led the way of self examination leading towards the celebration of Easter. But two nights ago, a single repeated line stood out. The following morning a similar line dug deeply into my consciousness. It’s not as if I had not read or heard these lines before, but it was the context into which they were read which reminded me of their great power and our condition as the church.

The refrain for Monday night was “Some put their trust in chariots and some in horses, but we will call upon the Name of the Lord our God.” Twelve hours later, the morning refrain came from Psalm 145.13; “Your Kingdom is an everlasting kingdom; your dominion endures throughout all ages.” Both images imply a political and alternative reality. The first suggests a military image while the second implies the stability and endurance of earthly rule. The fitting context into which these fell of course is our country’s ongoing debate over healthcare. This contentious debate spreads even through Facebook, where I witnessed a friend attacked by a complete stranger for her questions and support of what he called a socialist agenda. To which she replied that she was done with conversation because this country had lost its civility. She retreated to Barry Harvey’s Another City (Altera Civitas) which reminds us that while we are earthly citizens our means being are formed by another set of practices. Regardless of how we interpret the recent developments of the health care issues, we do well to recall these two refrains that our trust should not be in the governments power, but rather the Name of the Lord our God. We also do well to recall the fragile and fleeting reality of this thing we call the United States. It is a temporal…meaning earthly and temporary reality. Our hope is to be set upon God’s everlasting kingdom, which is not synonymous with American or any other political aspirations.

I wanted to end these rambling thoughts with my friends Facebook status from the other day. “The Christian community should always remember that as the altera civitas it is on pilgrimage toward a very different realm, that its allegiance and mode of practice is vested in this other city, and that in this world those who love as God loves will frequently, and perhaps invariably, meet with a similar fate to that... which met the divine love incarante.” -- Barry Harvey, Another City

Conference Schedules

2010-03-17T14:01:00.005-05:00

This spring has already proven to be a hectic one with 2 conferences out of the way, Ive got 2 more to go. In just over 3 weeks I present at the Upper Midwest Region of the American Academy of Religion. This meeting, as every year, meets at Luther Seminary in St. Paul. This is my 3rd paper at this conference, which tends to be a collegial and fun affair. I am also excited about UND's presence at the conference. Patrick Luber, one of my committee members is presenting his research on the Viewmaster right after my paper (which ironically is in part wrestling with his wife Jennifer Nelson's artwork). But there are a few others from the religion department that are either presenting or chairing a session.

I will also be presenting at College Theology Society annual meetings this year. We will be traveling to the University of Portland for the conference which runs June 3-6th. You can see the conference details here and the presentation schedule here. Our theme of Religion, Economics, and Culture in Conflict and Conversation should be an interesting one.

Dan Attoe Visiting Artist

2010-03-15T08:14:00.002-05:00

Two weeks ago (yes I am behind in my posting) Dan Attoe visited UND as part of the Myers Foundations funded Visiting Artist Series. Dan's visit stood out as one of the more significant for us as students. His generosity of time, energy, and encouragement were remarkable for us all. I was thankful for the connection to the printmakers so I got to spend a little more time with Dan as we printed 2 prints for him (a larger 11x22 and a smaller 10x10) for Sundog Press.

Causing Trouble in New Jersey

2010-03-13T17:25:00.008-06:00

Earlier this year I entered the members show at the Print Council of New Jersey, a wonderful group of artists and programs for printmakers. I entered a show and was accepted last year and so I thought I would join them this year. My piece Contesting Cyprus was chosen for their annual show entitled "Where have we been" or something along those lines.

The other day I received an email from the director saying that one of the venues for the show had deemed my work as "inappropriate," had been removed, and I was expected to make arrangements to come pick up the work. The County of Somerset Cultural & Heritage Commission sent us both letters notifying us of their decision. Hers got their faster since PCNJ is 10 minutes down the road while the time to get the letter to North Dakota took a little longer.

Ive attached a picture of the letter. I've gone back and forth with my emotions between thinking its funny and then being angry, and yet understanding. I don't deny that the piece is controversial. Its meant to be. I understand that the piece taken literally might be offensive...hey its got the F bomb in it. I understand that it might not be appropriate for all venues. I get that. But its what the letter insinuates about me and what that suggests about their utter failure to understand the piece that makes me angry.

"The [SCCHC] will not permit the C&H Gallery to participate as a platform for individual's political protests, promote hate speech or allow the display of obscenities. Your artwork has been removed as inappropriate for this venue."

It is the misguided assumption that these are my particular views rather than my effort to document graffiti as a sign of the many political, religious, and ideological contests marked upon place.

Along with the entry, I was asked to write a small statement on the work. This is what accompanied this particular print.

"The print takes two urban landscape images; first, of the Turkish North and one of the Greek South and placed them next to each other as in a diptych. I then used Photoshop to cut and paste the copious amounts of graffiti that covered most city blocks in both the North and South. The graffiti represents literal plurality of contests marked upon the landscape."

Now, I dont know if this statement was hung with the work or not. If it did not accompany the work, it makes their decision perhaps less offensive to me. Perhaps my current location within the safety of a university has heightened my idealism and I've forgotten to think about the impact that the literal words and statements might have upon and individual or community.

Oh well...Im still putting it on my C.V.

Red River Valley History Conference

2010-03-02T08:35:00.003-06:00

This week Friday I will presenting some of my research on the New Topographics at the Red River Valley History Conference. At the encouragement of Bill Caraher I decided to submit an abstract for the conference. It was accepted and further filled my already over full plate. Oh well, it really has taken only a few days to merge the research into an acceptable format for the conference.

The paper proceeds with a brief overview of the New Topographic photographers and their work. It then transitions to set the group within an art, and particularly photo historical context. It then turns to the social science of Human Geography to explore the disciplines simultaneous emergence and focus on topics of place/space. Within that group of scholars I mention the work of Edward Relph to explore ideas of placelessness that may function as a subtext embedded within the work of the New Topographics. I then turn to several contemporary photographers to explore how these shared tendencies have continued on. All this within 20 minutes.

The highlight of the conference is the keynote address given by Dr. Robin Jensen on "Living Water: Rituals, Spaces, and Images of Early Christian Baptism."

Check out the conference schedule here...or here.

Topos/Chora Online Gallery Is Up!

2010-02-26T19:04:00.004-06:00

For those of you out there who could not make it to the Topos/Chora opening at the beginning of the month, you now have access to the online gallery hosted, in part, by UND.

This is an expanded selection of the work, from the gallery show that includes the essays by other PKAP staff members and a great project overview by Kostis Kourelis. Read his comments about the project here.

Take some time with the images and texts. Enjoy.

Let the heat from the Mediterranean sun thaw the winter.

Visiting Artist: Nancy Friese

2010-02-22T09:28:00.001-06:00

This past week I was fortunate to have the opportunity to help print with our visiting artist series. UND alum, now faculty at RISD, Nancy Friese spent the week with us putting together a 5 etching suite with accompanying poetry by North Dakota Museum of Art Founder/Director Laurel Reuter. Tumbling Time is editioned in 20.

While at times the process is chaotic, it seems to get done in the appropriate time frame. We spent likely 6-8 hours M-S putting this remarkable body of work together. I am thankful for Anna, Jess, Kim, Josh and Nancy for sharing their wisdom, patience and humor in this process. While we do a lot of precision work we also spend a good deal of time talking and getting to know one another.

Visiting Artist Dan Attoe

2010-02-21T21:01:00.004-06:00

UND’s department of Art and Design will be hosting artist Dan Attoe from Monday, March 1st till Friday March5^th. He will be giving a slide presentation of his work at 5:00 p.m March, 3rd in room 227 at the Hughes Fine Arts Center. His luscious, highly detailed surfaces are reminiscent of romantic painting, as he investigates the “underbelly” of American western culture. He received his MFA from University of Iowa, Iowa City in 2004 and his  BFA from University of Wisconsin, Madison, in 1998. Attoe has recently exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Bordeaux, France, and Saatchi Gallery, London UK. For inquiries, email Lori Esposito, Assistant Professor of Painting and Drawing at Lori.Esposito@und.edu

New Photo Series

2010-02-19T12:39:00.004-06:00

This is a new photo series I am playing with. It emerges from some experiments from last year with artificially aging scanned photos. They sat around my studio for a year now and only recently have I had an idea for what to do with them. I wanted to move beyond the document/object themselves into a commentary or question about the document/object. I'm not entirely sure if this is the landing point or another step along the way.

Wherever it goes, I appreciate the ideas behind or within the image of the prolongation or extension of memory...and/or perhaps even the compression of time. Are these simple artifacts or is there a greater narrative?

New Print

2010-02-09T19:26:00.004-06:00

This is the latest (just completed this afternoon) in a series I've been calling Religion as a Chain of Memory. The image of me and my father is being reused from my prototypes in the first posting. This print uses the first question from the Heidelberg Catechism, still memorized by my father from his youth. I too studied it in my youth...although it is not lodged quite as firmly as it is for him. In a sense, that is what these pieces are about...human effort to convey meaning, morality, religious creeds and other confessions of faith from one generation to another. Thus far, they just happen to be those that my father has shared with and embodied for me during my life.

Topos/Chora on Archaeologists/Photographers Site

2010-02-08T10:19:00.002-06:00

Upon my return from Cyprus and the PKAP project, Bill Caraher passed along a link to the newly opened Archaeologist/Photographers site. This project is meant to explore the emerging discussion between the arts (particularly) photography and archaeologist. Last week, my work from PKAP went up as the 4th featured artist. Not only is it great timing, as it corresponds to the show at the Empire Arts Center, but it also lines up nicely with the podcast and online gallery componenents hosted by the UND working group in digital media.

Please take some time to check out the Archaeologists/Photographers site and the other artists and their work.

UND Press Release Regarding Topos/Chora

2010-02-02T17:54:00.002-06:00

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE—Wednesday, Feb. 3, 2010—UND historian, photography student collaborate on Empire Arts Center exhibit featuring art from Cyprus research project

Topos/Chora: Photographs of the Pyla-Koutsopetria Archaeological Project

The exhibit Topos/Chora: Photographs of the Pyla-Koutsopetria Archaeological Project is featured now through the end of the month at the Empire Arts Center. The exhibit features the photographs of UND Master’s of Fine Art student Ryan Stander. These images were produced during Stander’s time as the artist-in-residence at Pyla-Koustopetria Archaeological Project in Cyprus.

Since 2003, the Pyla-Koutsopetria Archaeological Project has conducted archaeological fieldwork in the Republic of Cyprus under the direction of Bill Caraher of the UND Department of History. It is one of very few archaeological projects in the Mediterranean to support an artist-in-residence program.

Stander's photos seek to present the relationship between the archaeologist at work in the field and the physical and natural environment. Portraits, landscape views, and dynamic work images capture the intersection of physical energy, personality, and the striking archaeological and natural landscape of the Cypriot coastline.

Stander’s photos will be at the Empire Arts Center through the end of the month. The exhibit is free and open to the public and is open during Empire Arts Center events and by appointment. Check the Center’s Web site for a calender of this month’s events. An online exhibit supported by the Working Group in Digital and New Media will be released later this week.

Topos/Chora Opening

2010-01-30T21:26:00.002-06:00

Friday night was the opening for Topos/Chora show. It was a bitterly cold night in Grand Forks but we still had 50 or so brave souls that filtered through during the two hour event.

I was pleasantly surprised with turnout. One never knows how many folks will show up to such and event. It was well attended by art faculty, students, friends, the UND housing dept, as well as the department of history.

Guests were treated to a sneak peek at Ian Ragsdale's forthcoming PKAP documentary (which looks to be a great addition to the ever growing PKAP media venues).

If you missed the opening, the show will be up at the Empire Arts Center in Grand Forks through the end of February.

Topos/Chora Comments

2010-01-27T11:17:00.002-06:00

Today Bill Caraher has a nice posting about the Topos/Chora project and the relationship between photography and archaeology. Take a read here.

Topos/Chora Show Opening

2010-01-22T10:29:00.013-06:00

Topos/Chora: Photographs of the Pyla-Koutsopetria Archaeological Project
Topos/Chora is the result of an artist residency provided by the Pyla-Koutsopetria Archaeolgical Project. PKAP is a transdisciplinary, landscape oriented investigation that has drawn upon an interanational team of archaeologists, artists, historians, geologists, illustrators, and other specialists to produce a vivid, diachronic, archaeological history of a significant coastal site in Cyprus.

Opening Reception
Friday, January 29th
6:30 - 8:30 pm
With gallery talks at 7:00 and a sneak peek at Ian Ragsdale's upcoming PKAP documentary.

Empire Arts Center
415 DeMers Ave.
Grand Forks, ND, 58201

The show will be hung today and will be open for viewing through late February. If you are in the area, please stop the Empire and check out this unique body of work.

Two New Prints

2010-01-20T13:40:00.005-06:00

I've recently completed two more prints in editions of 10 each continuing this idea of religion as a chain of memory. I've begun this series with my own father and images of him and his own handwriting of central religious statements in his life.

The top landscape image is from Karina's cousins home just down the road from hers in Sask. The left image is of my father at 19 or so visiting Pompeii while stationed in Germany. The image on the left is me at Paphos this past summer on my residency in Cyprus. The text is the Lord's prayer.

The second print is also a landscape just down the road from Karina's home. The image is of me being held by my father with the Apostles Creed printed over top of both images.

I think I have committed myself to using gold for the text. As I think about its significance and associations with value, it seems to make sense to put the "tradition" in what makes an easy tie to value.

Show in Montana

2010-01-15T11:11:00.002-06:00

I am excited to mention that I've had 3 photographs selected for the 31st Annual Southeastern Montana Juried Exhibit at the Custer County Art and Heritage Center in Miles City, Montana. The work is from the Elevator Series from this past fall. Two of the selected works can be seen under the October 23rd posting. I will be exhibiting along side of several of UND's faculty (Wes Smith, Lucy Ganje, Patrick Luber, and Don Miller).

New Prints

2010-01-08T09:11:00.003-06:00

Before I left for Seattle I had a bit of time so I pounded out 2 new prints and a mixed print from previously printed materials.

The first two continue on in the series of contested spaces. The first if Korea with the DMZ embroidered into the paper in a light blue to signify the division and presence of the United Nations. The second, decidedly more local for me are the Dakotas with the Missouri river embroidered in the same light blue. The river is a source of division on 2 levels. In one sense it divides both states into East and West territories. The divide is more than just geography or topography, it is cultural as well. The East side of both states hold most of the two states universities, industry, and population. The rivers are also hotly contested spaces over dams and water flow controlled by the Army Corp of Engineers.

The 3rd print is a new combination of old elements. I made them from the left over Twinkies from the fall and added the embossed flag. Its just a fun combination of imagery.

Ahh...the Innocence of North Dakota Reporters

2010-01-04T09:44:00.001-06:00

UND National Juried Photo Show

2009-12-22T09:09:00.003-06:00

In April, Elijah Gowin, a recent Guggenheim recipient will be at UND as a visiting artist and for the opening of a show, of which he is the juror. The show will be called "Of Memory, Bone and Myth". Take a look at the prospectus by following the link above.

Volunteers Needed...For a Print Series

2009-12-19T11:27:00.008-06:00

I've begun a new series that I hope to carry into the spring building off of, or modifying some work I did this past semester. Last Christmas break I returned to campus with my family slides and began scanning them to use for printmaking purposes. My hope then was to make 4-color separation prints of my father and me distanced by a landscape (either mine or his). I never got around to making this idea, though I held on to it. This semester I began making the Landscape of Belief series which took creedal type statement overlaying a landscape to suggest how such statements orient us, as maps do, within the world.

This new series, however, combines those ideas and builds on them. The two prototypes seen here take a photo of my father and me on a ski lift at Terry Peak which then is chine colle'd on to a landscape with the Apostle's Creed, in my fathers handwriting over both. My ideas still include the statements as orientation bits, but they become more personal and intimate by including a photo of my father and me. My hope is to extend the series to encompass men and their sons or men and their mentors and the impact their words have had on their life. Daniele Hervieu-Leger's text Religion As A Chain of Memory rests a base conceptual idea beneath this project. Her sociological approach considers the decline of religion and contention that in today's culture, religion must be a chain of memory...where individuals become part of a community that links past, present and future shared as a collective memory.

I am beginning with my own family, simply because I have access to the photos. But I am seeking volunteers to be included in this series. If you are interested in sharing a photo and a short reflection on your sons/father/mentor please let me know. There may even be a print in it for you.

Neither prototype is perfect but I am curious as to which might have the stronger visual attraction. Thoughts? The text in the print on top is darker, and most who have seen the two appreciate the darker text.

Landscape and Politics

2009-12-18T07:21:00.002-06:00

One of the things that came out of my summer residency in Cyprus with PKAP was the awareness of the contested nature of place and landscape. Cyprus is currently divided in half by a United Nations guarded neutral zone cutting the Turkish North from the Greek South. In recent years the gates have been reopened for residents to pass back and forth more easily. I made two prints with these ideas in mind. The first is a blind embossment of the island of Cyprus with a series “X’s” embroidered along the green line in such a way that it mimics not only the guarded barbed wire strung along this artificial line, but also the utter geographical, political, ideological, and religious divides that continue to plague these landscapes. My hope is to continue this series a little further as well by exploring other contested spaces/places which may well extend beyond landscape into ideological spaces/places.

The second print takes two urban landscape images; first, of the Turkish North and one of the Greek South and placed them next to each other as in a diptych. I then used Photoshop to cut and paste the copious amounts of graffiti that covered most city blocks in both the North and South. The graffiti represents the literal plurality of contests marked upon the landscape.

Landscape as Construction and Consumable

2009-12-15T13:33:00.005-06:00

This semester I also toyed around a bit with ideas about landscape construction and consumption. Simon Schama has said that "landscape is culture before they are nature." Thus we are shaped and have ideas about the structure of landscape images already present when we look at the land.

The first image takes that idea in a literal way by applying both scaffolding and traffic cones over and extending beyond the landscape to suggest their pre existence or external existence to the landscape itself.

The second and third prints are meant to convey the consumption of landscape. One a natural object and the other, quite possibly the epitome of artificiality. These 4 color separation prints are meant to challenge the viewer and how they interpret the landscape. Does our consumer mentality filter into how we see the world around us?

Landscape of Belief

2009-12-14T14:43:00.003-06:00

Up to this point I have only been sharing images of my photography from this semester. I've completed a good number of lithos again this semester and over the next few days I will try to get a few of them up as I am pushing to finish up a paper on landscape art and theory (which will hopefully make its way on here as well).

The series below was an idea I stumbled upon midway through the semester. I was reading how in the development of landscape art, landscape and cartography played off each other even merging at times. I began to think about mapping and what kinds of maps we use to get around today. At the same time I was listening to Krista Tippet's Speaking of Faith interview with the late religious historian Jaroslav Pelikan. It struck me that our creedal statements can function like maps to orient our participation in the world. My hope is to continue this series though in a modified format to be increasingly more inclusive extending well beyond typical religious creeds. A step in that direction is the Pledge of Allegiance. Conceptually I like them, but after a recent critique, I need to work on the visual aspects of the relationship between the text and landscape.

Below each text I've also added a blind embossing of a "devotional object" for the text. The first, the Shema, is the word Zakhor or remember in Hebrew. The second, is a couch suggestive of the therapist couch (in what I am making a judgment upon as a therapeutic kind of religious creed), the third of course is the US flag, and the 4th a pair of folded hands in prayer.

Between the Folds

2009-12-09T10:09:00.001-06:00

I watched this last night on PBS...What an amazing film. Art, Math, Science. See it.

Elevator Series

2009-12-07T14:09:00.003-06:00

The semester is drawing towards a close, as you might have inferred from the lack of recent posting here at AOA. Next week I will be turning in 30+ 17x11 images of the Elevators Series. For the most part, I've been really happy with this project and look forward to picking it up again in next spring and summer when the North Dakota temperatures allow.

ELCA Splits Over Gay Clergy...some thoughts

2009-11-19T10:35:00.002-06:00

ELCA Splits Over Gay Clergy
This article is on the front page of Sioux Falls' Argus Leader. My point in this post is not to argue who is right or wrong. Too much of that has been done already in hurtful and violent ways that are antithetical to the ideals of the Church. I recently had a conversation (via Facebook) with an old seminary friend about those who decide to stay and why we need to support them and the larger whole of the Church catholic in prayer over these issues rather than continually lead with condemnation of their actions. It is easier to critique from a safe distance than to pray and walk with brothers and sisters of Christ who remain for reform.

These situations in the Episcopal and Lutheran churches deeply sadden me as they have been my ecclesial homes over the past 4 years. I have seen the strife from within and from outside the denominations and local congregations because of ignorance and blanket types of statements. Within any large ecclesial body there is bound to be wide differences of interpretations; thus no blanket statement is just for the body. Within these bodies there are those who choose to stay within because they not only hold high the authority of scripture like Evangelicals, but also ecclesial authority found in the bishopry. Most Evangelicals fail to see that this dual crisis of authority. They only read these situations through sola scriptura mediated by an authority of interpretation rooted within themeselves. To an Anglican/Episcopalian considering leaving the denomination it is also a rejection of the bishop and their authority. It is a dangerous, and perhaps treasonous, collapse of their theology.

My hope is that those who stand outside these discussions can and will support those who remain with prayer and encouragement rather than insults and judgement. Furthermore, not only those who remain for reform, but pray also for those who oppose you and whatever side you may be on. And perhaps pray not even for conversion to your way of thinking, but for the sake of Christ's body and mission on earth. I encourage all sides to look toward each other with compassion in spite of their differences remembering that we are all sinners in desperate need of God's mercy.

God have mercy upon us all.

Creativity

2009-11-16T09:49:00.002-06:00

The other day I received a Facebook message from my niece asking for help with a college writing project on creativity. She is to interview someone about creativity and I was happy to help.

Creativity is something that I have thought about a fair amount...the 4th chapter of my thesis was positing a theory of creativity in a theological perspective. And yet, now that I have looked over these questions, my words seem to slip away. But I thought it would make for an interesting post series as I take on these questions. So I will be posting my answers to her questions and invite you to participate as well if you have thoughts along the way.

1)As an artist, how do you define creativity?

2)In your opinion, how interchangable are the words "creative" and "innovative?"

3)How has artistic creativity aided you throughout your life?

4)What areas of your life have been effected by creativity outside of your artistic career? i.e. problem-solving

5)In your opinion, how could others benefit from expanding/realizing their creativity?

6)Considering biological and environmental influences, what do you consider the source of creativity?

7)Do you agree with this quote? All children are artists. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.-Pablo Picasso

8)Do you feel your level of creativity has been consistant through your life? If so, why? If not, what do you believe accounts for these changes?

9)Are there particular experiences or people that effected your creativity?

10)If you or someone you knew wanted to increase their level of creativity, what steps would you advise them to take?

Suzanne Gonsalez - Smith

2009-11-05T09:38:00.003-06:00

Two posts in one day...

I post this with joy that one of my primary professors here at UND, Suzanne Gonsalez - Smith, has a gallery opening at the Center For Fine Art Photography in Colorado tonight.

"Artist and Public Reception
November 6th 6-9 pm
Show dates: November 6-28, 2009
Gonsalez was selected for the Solo Exhibition Award by the Portfolio ShowCase 2 juror, Rixon Reed.

Gonsalez series, Remains, focuses on the absence of what once was and what remains."

Click on the "Remains" link to see the images from this powerful show.

Eve gets a makeover by artist Roberta Paul - Sudbury, MA - The Sudbury Town Crier

2009-11-05T09:30:00.002-06:00

Eve gets a makeover by artist Roberta Paul - Sudbury, MA - The Sudbury Town Crier
Roberta Paul, a UND MFA alum, is taking on a long theological heritage. According to the article,
"Challenging ingrained notions of shame, the Newtonville artist gives Eve a cultural makeover by contrasting Masaccio's famous 1427 painting "The Expulsion from the Garden of Eden" with her own gentler contemporary vision."

Prairie Abstractions: A Preliminary Artist Statement

2009-11-04T12:21:00.004-06:00

This semester as part of my photography credits I am being asked to work on my artists statements. I must work through 3 drafts, the last of which is turned in with the final 30 images at the conclusion of the semester.

For someone who likes to write, artist statements do not come easily. I think I tend to default to my theological writing style that many just find arduous and technical. This recent attempt at commenting on the Elevator Series, seemed to emerge a little more poetically this time. Take a quick read. I would love any thoughts on it.

"As child growing up among the fertile soils of Iowa farmland, grain elevators were a frequent sight and destination. In a land known for flatness, these vertical edifices become a towns’ most prominent and recognizable architecture. They tower above the trees and cast far reaching shadows at the extremities of the day. In the fall, they become the swollen bellied depositories of the regions hard work and financial hopes. Here I would wait with my father in the train-like lines of tractors and wagons. In other seasons, as I passed through this busy hub on my bicycle, I would dodge its deep potholes worn into the pummeled ground by the over-loaded traffic.

While my recollections of these times and places are fragmentary, they still loom as large as the elevators themselves in my memory and imagination. This series is, in a sense, a return “home.” Not only to similar places that evoke long stored and now partial memories, it is a return to a first love of black and white photography. This pilgrimage of memory and method allows a continuation of work in regional architecture and geometric abstraction.

These images follow a long lineage of abstraction, particularly found in the modernist photographer and painter Charles Sheeler. They allow the bucolic and vernacular architecture to be continually transformed by the play of light and shadow that daily creep over and around the corrugated angles and lines.

This body of work attempts to push back on the tendency within photography to emphasize indexicality and objective realism while still conveying an accuracy of representation. Viewers are challenged to see beyond the literal reality into the fractured structural form and overall composition."

Steamroller Prints in Fargo

2009-10-30T08:03:00.000-05:00

A few weeks ago, on a rainy Saturday morning some of us print students made a 70 mile drive from Grand Forks to the Plains Art Museum in Fargo to watch a group from Minnesota do steamroller prints...which as it sounds, uses a steamroller to make large scale prints. As part of the museums Day of the Dead series, worked with ArtOrg from Northfield, MN.

While we only saw them pull this first print of the color fields, it was fun to see this large scale operation. The next day, they were planning on printing the 2nd "plate" seen in standing in the background of the second image. Once inked, the image is wedged into the wooden runway, paper carefully rested on top, covered, and steamrolled. The drive of the steamroller needs to deftly maneuver the machine as moving more than and inch or so to one side or the other will crinkle the paper. The first print, as you can see and know if you are a printmaker, is always a test until the ink builds up enough on the plate. On a scale this large, it takes a lot of ink!

UND Recent Acquisitions Show

2009-10-27T07:53:00.000-05:00

UND kicked off their gallery schedule this fall with a wonderful collection of its recent acquisitions funded largely through the wonderful Myers Foundation. Below is a sampling of my favorite pieces from this show, as well as the text panel for the show. Img. 2 - Kiki Smith, Img. 3 - Ben Shahn, Img. 4 - Louise Chase, Img. 5 - Helen Frankenthaler, Img. 6 & 7 - Audrey Flack, Img. 7 & 8 - Peter Kuper, Img. 9 - Joyce Kozloff.

Both the Audrey Flack and Peter Kuper were made here at UND through our visiting artist series in the semester before I arrived. UND bought the Daphne sculpture by Audrey Flack and when she came out, also did a series of prints with her featuring the sculpture as seen here.

Helge Skaanlund: Visiting Artist From Norway

2009-10-24T07:28:00.000-05:00

A few weeks ago UND was host to Helge Skaanlund, a visiting artist from Norway. Helge is typically a painter, but has also worked in commercial printing. One of the great things about UND is their visiting artist program and the time these artists spend with students. In the printmaking area, students generally get to help the artists print as well.

While Helge was here, we pulled three different prints series. One larger traditional stone litho seen in most of the image of a Norwegian landscape. Helge worked from a painting as seen in the first image where he is checking the surface of the stone.

Helge's other images were more cartoon line drawings of traditional Viking figures. The second image, UND grad student Anna Jacobson assists with the editioning process. Generally the artist takes half of the edition and half stays with the print studio.

The 3rd image is a close up of the print which Helge later went into with a small brush and red ink to color the top of the light house barely visible on the white area that juts out into the water. The 4th image is our fine printers...Josh and Jess. And the last image is Josh and Helge sorting though the batch of prints that will make up the final edition.

This was my first time to assist and observe the nearly the whole process of working with a visiting artist. I sat and photographed most of the time, but was allowed to put both Josh's and the studio's chop on...not much but its a start as I slowly learn this world of printmaking. Its a lot of fun to see the team work together and produce work with an artist.

Pastor to Host Halloween Bible-Burning Event - Local News | News Articles | National News | US News - FOXNews.com

2009-10-23T13:19:00.002-05:00

Pastor to Host Halloween Bible-Burning Event - Local News | News Articles | National News | US News - FOXNews.com

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Ok...this is ridiculous. Which version of the 20+ of the KJV revisions are you using? Kinda shoots a hole in that inerrant thing of yours. In my days at the seminary we would occasionally run into KJV only folks like this. They would inevitably ask what translation we use to which my stock answer became, "we prefer to work from the original greek and hebrew." But even this is not enough for many hardcore KJV because they privilege and dismiss certain ancient texts. But again, anyone who has done even a little translation work realizes the word play involved especially in hebrew that goes into a translation. One of the first things I learned in seminary is that every translation is based upon interpretation, built upon varieties of foundations and theological premises and presuppositions.

All that being said, I might agree that Christians might be better off to burn some of the books surely going into the fire.

Elevator Series

2009-10-23T08:57:00.006-05:00

I've not made posting a priority lately but I shot some fun shots in this ongoing elevator series over last weekend. We've been gone to Minneapolis and Sioux Falls over the last 2 weekends to see friends and such. My weeks have been condensed down into about 3.5 days of actual time so blogging has not been a priority.

Days like last Sunday in the fall and spring in ND are rare...no wind and bright sun. So under these perfect conditions I was able to get a few quality shots for the series. I feel these two are among the best thus far for the series.

One of the struggles being an interdisciplinary person as I am is staying active in both fields. Most of my time here at UND has been focussed on art (as it should) though I do try to maintain a small connection into the theological conferences and even postings here. Over the past year I have had quite a few opportunities to show across ND, SD, NJ and even S. Africa. I did find a potential show for these elevator prints called Positive/Negative. You never know what will come with juried shows. So much depends upon the chosen juror and their interpretation of the theme, their likes/dislikes, and probably their mood the day they look at all the submissions. Artists are jokingly referred to as "starving artists" likely because to enter 3 pieces in a show like this costs about 30 or 35$, plus framing costs, and of course round-trip shipping all for one line on your CV. My pessimism aside, it it quite fun to get the email or letter that something of yours was chosen to be shown. Here's to hoping...

Rich 2 Visit to UND

2009-10-06T21:00:00.003-05:00

This week has been a busy for the department of Art & Design who has played host to a visiting artist from Norway, as well as a beloved U.N.D. alum, Rich Patterson. Rich earned a Master of Science in Early Childhood Education from The Graduate School at University of North Dakota in 2008. Rich is also known as Rich 2 ; a well known graffiti artist in the 1980’s from New York City. While his life has changed drastically from those days to teaching today in North Carolina, Rich has gifted the university community with several wall-sized works of his former handiwork. For many years Rich had left the graffiti world behind him, but recently, in certain contexts, Rich is using his artistic gifts as a platform for his story and education.

Rich returned to campus to a full schedule including lectures in the department of Integrated Studies with Tami Carmichal, and for the Outsider Art class within the art department, in addition to creating a 8’ x 10’ foot work on canvas for the Integrated Studies Program.

Earlier this fall, just prior to school starting Rich's work was at the center of a small controversy. As the school attempted to renovate OKelly hall, one of Rich's works was threatened. Those who follow AoA might just remember a posting and nice following discussion back in August. As Rich is a proud UND alum, the provost Paul LeBel (bottom photo Paul and President Kelly) and his wife stepped in and commissioned another piece for the school (see below).

Quinn Justman Benefit Auction

2009-10-02T09:15:00.003-05:00

Just a reminder to check out the benefit auction for my nephew Quinn Justman. Many of the pieces seen on this blog over the past few months are up for auction. Buy some nice art (or other great stuff)...support a young couple. Online bids are being taken now!

Manhatta by Charles Sheeler & Paul Strand

2009-09-23T09:00:00.004-05:00

Manhatta is one of several films that Sheeler and Strand made, though only this one survives. Still images from this film show up in both artists work. This collaboration is one of Modernism's high points and predates, what in many ways has a similar feel, in Russia's avant-garde film maker Dziga Vertov's The Man With The Movie Camera (which by the way, is one of my all time favorite films. You can read a previous posting on Vertov's work here.). Sheeler and Strand's work pre-dates Vertov's film by 8 or 9 years. Enjoy this wonderful piece of Modernism with an updated Brian Eno soundscape.

Charles Sheeler's Photography

2009-09-21T12:31:00.003-05:00

This semester is slipping by all too quickly and I have failed to keep up with my writing here. My hope had been to do a series on the work of Sheeler as a source of inspiration for my recent elevator series. Its now 2/3 of the way through September and I have yet to draw those connections.

Charles Sheeler (1883-1965) is known more for his painting as a key member of the precisionist school than for his photography. That being said, for a short time, Sheeler was the leading photographer in the United States and perhaps even beyond. In 1913 Sheeler exhibited 6 new paintings in the Armory show and about the same time, Sheeler picked up the camera to make ends meet shooting architecture around the Northeast. In 1915 Sheeler's photography moved forward into abstraction with the photograph Side of White Barn (seen below). Sheeler now sought to merge photography's realism or indexicality with Modernity's drive toward abstraction. His goal was to show that the basic elements in Modern art, particularly cubism, existed within nature.

Sheeler also employs another key to Modern art, that of flatness. Through photography, Sheeler is able to explore real depth and the flatness of the actual image through light, shadow, line, form and the overall composition. What emerges in his work is a bold geometry and structure of the American industrial ediface. The first image is of the Ford Plant and the second graces the cover of the book I read this summer...certainly the finest coverage of Sheeler's photographic work.

UW Student Discovers Precious Gemstone

2009-09-20T16:34:00.002-05:00

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Anarchy, Rivalry and the beginnings of the Roman Empire

2009-09-12T10:59:00.002-05:00

A heads up for the UND regional followers...

The Cyprus Research Fund

Department of Political Science and Public Administration

The Department of History present

"Anarchy, Rivalry and the beginnings of the

Roman Empire "

Prof. Michael P. Fronda

Department of History, McGill University

Professor Fronda’s paper will examine the growth of Roman power in the ancient world by focusing on how the city of Rome came to dominate the Italian Peninsula. Through an innovative use of contemporary international relations theory, Prof. Fronda argues that Rome capitalized on the tendency for ancient state relations to be anarchic, on the one hand, but in some way limited by enduring rivalries between particular states, on the other. Rome’s ability to exploit these fundamental characteristics of ancient, and perhaps all, states led ultimately to the city’s domination of Italy and provided important lessons for the city’s conquest of the Mediterranean world.

September 17, 2009

Chester Fritz Library

East Asia Room

4 pm

Reception to follow