Sacred space, place, and time... Portland meals.

Surely the time we get to spend with friends who live far away is sacred time... physical, shared, embodied time with them is rare... I can't often see my friends in Portland, London, Minnesota, Orlando, Denmark, Denver, or fill in the place for yourself... so those times are a gift when they occur, and it seems to me that something about that time and place creates a sacred space.







Meals. The shared table... the conversations... the pleasant and comfortable silences... the amazing Borsch home-cooked by Julia, the "laughing and riding and cornholing... (except Buster)"... I'm beginning to think that there is nothing I enjoy more fully than meals with good friends. At its best, this sacred space allows for a shared presence... being... to be together... to be known and to share that knowing presence.







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Portland was full of this, and I'm grateful for each meal... for both the pure enjoyment of the food but also for the time shared at those tables with Tom, Adam, Tim, Adrian, and Reuben... the borsch at Julia's cart, the coffee and red velvet muffin at Crema, the toffee cupcakes at St Cupcake, the Rwandan coffee at Stumptown (which I tried and failed to brew on my own today), the all-too-rushed meal of kelp, ribs, and dumplings at Biwa, the snakebites over pipes at the Horse Brass, the meat platter at Two Brothers Serbian food (Ayvar!), the black molasses bread and watergames at Otis Cafe, the extremely fresh crab and cod in Newport, and of course, the schnitzel, spaetzel, wurst, and steins brought to us by our sciatic-nerve suffering waitress, Sarah, at Gustav's German bar. I hope she got the massage she needed.

New Work, New Exhibit- "Through a Glass Dimly"

"Through a Glass Dimly," the 5th and final Biola Art Alumni exhibition, opens Tuesday, 2/26.

The artist reception will be from 7-9pm, though the exhibit will be open through March 20th if you're not able to make it. (and remember, March 14-15th is our alumni reunion weekend and our major symposium "On The Strange Place of Religion in Contemporary Art"- see an older post about this). The show also features new work from Jonathan Anderson, Natalie Anderson, Tony Caltabiano, Jon Puls, Brandi Nuse-Villegas and a host of other alumni and friends that I can't think of right now.

Visit the BiolArt website for further details

I am very excited to finally exhibit some new pieces-- they are part of a "new" body of work that I've been developing slowly-- one piece (the first one shown below) has been around for a few years, but the other two have been printed for the first time... and all of them will be making their debut as finished, framed pieces (I built the custom frames myself, which I must say, I'm quite proud of.)














I don't know what to say yet about these pieces. They come to me slowly. I can't force them, they arrive like surprises/gifts. That's why there's only 3 and it's been 3 years since the first one. They're untitled so far. Something about tension... something about the search for the sacred in the contemporary... something about "standing in a circle of quiet, waiting for the world to turn..."

L'Abri

In honor of Sydney Van Orden who is spending this weekend at the English L'Abri, and in honor of the annual L'Abri conference that is being held in Minnesota (England AND Minnesota shout outs!)...

I checked out the English L'Abri website and found that they had put up galleries of my pictures. So not to toot my own horn, but I'm honored and excited to see them- check it out

English L'Abri-photo page

They make for a wonderful distraction.

A little more Flight of the Conchords for you:

(if you haven't been initiated yet, you really must watch their HBO show- now on dvd- and/or get some of their songs on itunes)

Just because it's stuck in my head.

Goodbye Polaroids.

Read this link if you want to ruin your day:

BBC News- Polaroids


From the article:

"The firm was founded in 1937, making polarised lenses for the science world, introducing its first instant camera in 1948. Polaroid peaked in popularity in 1991 when its sales - mainly instant cameras and film - hit close to $3bn.

However it failed to embrace the digital photography revolution and went bankrupt in 2001, before being bought, four years later by a Minnesota-based consumer products firm, Petters Group Worldwide. "

Let's hear it for the Minnesotans who tried to save the day! Good effort boys. But, the good news:

"It says there is enough film in stock to last until 2009, and it hopes to sell licensing rights to another firm to continue supplying enthusiasts who still use their Polaroid cameras."

Nice Cup of Tea and a Sit Down

Just because I'm having a cup now, and because I agree that all of the world's problems might just be solved by having a nice cup of tea and a sit down, here's a link I'd like to share:

http://www.nicecupofteaandasitdown.com/ or, the facebook group of the same name


So it's not the most clever or artsy site, in fact, it's pretty awful, but, it's got links to the British Tea Council and my favorite feature: Biscuit of the Week.

This week's biscuit: Encores

From the site: It's the year end and we thought it would be nice to round out 2007 with some biscuits that we can all go out buy in the UK, as opposed to something exotic from foreign shores. Having said that these are those French biscuits we mentioned a while back in our news section LU's re-branded range of classics for the UK market, Encore, which includes their flagship Petit Ecolier. And seeing that team NCOTAASD has spent quite a bit of time in France this year we thought we would bring you a few highlights of our exploits in the land of the Petit Beurre in the manner of a special festive season BOTW.

I honestly don't know what half of that means. But I have had Encores, and they are delicious.

Great music / video site

I may be late to the party on this one, but I've just discovered this great site for live and casual performances-- Les Concerts A Emporter at www.blogotheque.net


David Bazan-- "Cold Beer and Cigarettes/The Devil is Beating His Wife"





The National- "Start a War"

The Resurrection of Pinocchio

Today here in Long Beach we celebrate the annual washing up on our shore of everyone else's crap. Thank you, Southern California, for throwing all of your tennis balls, styrofoam, shoes, toys, condoms, and wrappers into the street, so all of us here in Long Beach can enjoy Monet haystacks of crap whenever it rains.










In the midst of this, I was inspired to do a little performance art of sorts. What follows is the Resurrection of Pinocchio.



































ps- it should be noted that an actual body did wash up on the shore in the midst of all of this... so this one's for him.

Cats and Sunsets

Let's hear it for cliche photos... I'm enjoying the mundane right now:
















New Year's Day sunset over Bluff Park. Cat found on 6th St. in San Pedro.

the music that keeps me going.

In the spirit of all the end-of-year best-of lists, I have been thinking for a while now about the music that I just can't do without... not a top ten list, but a list of the albums that have affected me most powerfully... my own "best of" list, albums that have stood the test of time for me.




Good Dog Bad Dog - Over the Rhine (1996, reissued 2000)
A masterpiece, simply put. I could listen for hours at a time and never be any less affected by Karin's haunting voice. Songwriting has never been so honest and potent.



Sixpence None the Richer - Sixpence None the Richer (1997)
The triple-whammy, three-bleeding-into-one trinity of opening songs captivates me every time I listen to it... it's a damn shame that "Kiss Me" (though a wonderfully sweet pop song) ended up killing the band and overshadowing what is otherwise a very different feeling album. Remove "Kiss Me" and you have a very different masterpiece of poetic, wandering musings about faith, despair, hope, and hard reality.


This Beautiful Mess- Sixpence None the Richer (1995)
This cd got me through high school. I still connect to it deeply each time I listen to it.


It's Hard to Find a Friend - Pedro the Lion (1998, reissue 2001)
Dave Bazan made it okay for many of us frustrated young Christian burnouts to struggle out loud with our faith. see: "The Secret of the Easy Yoke"




Christ is My Hope/Birds of My Neighborhood - Innocence Mission (2000/1999)
It's got to be a tie between these two cds, both of which have some of my favorites songs by this underrated and understated band.




to be continued...

We Have Forgotten

Some thoughts on remembering, as the new year approaches...

From "Walking on Water" by Madeleine L'Engle (quite possibly the best book ever written, period):

"In art, either as creators or participators, we are helped to remember some of the glorious things we have forgotten, and some of the terrible things we are asked to endure, we who are children of God by adoption and grace.
In one of his dialogues, Plato talks of all learning as remembering. The chief job of the teacher is to help us to remember all we have forgotten. This fits in well with Jung's concept of racial memory, his belief that when we are enabled to dip into the intuitive, subconscious self, we remember more than we know. One of the great sorrows which came to human beings when Adam and Eve left the garden was the loss of memory, memory of all that God's children are meant to be.
Perhaps one day I will remember how to walk across Dog Pond."




"We Have Forgotten" by Sixpence None the Richer---

Dreams, inconsistent angel things.
Horses bred with star-laced wings.
But it's so hard to make them fly, fly, fly.
These wings beat the night sky 'bove the town.
One goes up and one goes down.
And so the chariot hits the ground, bound, bound.

We have forgotten (don't try to make me fly)
How it used to be (I'll stay here, I'll be fine).
How it used to be (don't go and let me down)
How it used to be (I'm starting to like this town).

When wings beat the night sky 'bove the ground,
Will I unwillingly shoot them down
With all my petty fears and doubts, down, down?

We have forgotten (am I in love with this?)
How it used to be (my constant broken ship)
How it used to be (don't go, I'll shoot you down),
How it used to be (I'm starting to like this town).

BiolArt Symposium: On the Strange Place of Religion in Contemporary Art

March 14-15, 2008----

The Biola Art department will host and facilitate a major symposium featuring Dr. James Elkins, Dr. Karen Kleinfelder, Dr. Dan Siedell, Roger Feldman, Christina Valentine, and a number of others... (moderated by our own Jonathan Anderson). The overall theme is a discussion of Elkin's book "On the Strange Place of Religion in Contemporary Art."
The weekend will also end in an alumni reunion dinner to celebrate the 35th anniversary of the art department.

Aside from being an incredibly engaging and relevant subject, this is going to be the biggest event the art department has ever had the honor to be involved in--- so mark your calendars. All lectures are free (donations encouraged), however the meals have a fee and require a reservation (see the website below).

For more information, click here.

The thing I miss most about Minnesota: