Arts Mentoring Group

The Arts Mentoring Group blog has moved

2011-07-26T11:02:00.000Z

Hi Everyone,

The Arts Mentoring Group blog has now moved onto a Word Press site to give us a little more flexibility for design and media. You can find us at http://thegroup.artsmentoring.co/

I hope you'll continue to follow us on our journey. Coming Soon, a review of Terrence Malick's film, The TREE of LIFE' and The Group's monthly letter.

Peace and Love,

Geoffxx

The DMZ Project - Korea with art by Mark Philip Venema

2011-07-18T15:48:00.001Z

Hi Everyone,

Here's a very interesting project from Mark Philip Venema, a friend of mine from Twitterland. The DMZ Project is located in Korea and Mark's work is entitled 'Entrenched Thought'.

If you can support Mark, please go to the Indiegogo website by clicking on the title of this blog entry. It would be great if you could help a fellow artist.

Thanks for your time and attention dear readers!

Peace and Love,

Geoffxx

About The Cultural Way of Being

2011-07-15T10:04:00.000Z

The Cultural Way of Being - details & Quotes

“If we believe ourselves to be artists for the public

domain, then we need to understand what this means,

not only for what we do, but for who we are. We are

not accountants, engineers, plumbers or electricians,

builders or demolition experts—although good art

may entail a sense of building and demolition!”

From the editor
The Cultural Way of Being uncovers the artist’s path toward re-discovering their art’s power to influence and inform culture. Geoff leads the journey away from a narrow, prescriptive platform of institutionalism towards an expansive, authentic and personal art spearheaded by The Spirit; the artist emerges from the Wilderness with a new credibility and a renewed voice.

Join the conversation at PostmodernLandscape.com

The book is available as a paperback, PDF or Amazon Kindle version. We'll soon be adding this title to the Apple iBook Store. Check out the Upptacka Shop for different currency prices, including UK Sterling, US Dollar, Japanese Yen and the Euro.

(CLICK ON THE TITLE TO ACCESS THE SHOP)

The Cultural Way of Being has been published by Upptacka Press

2011-07-11T16:55:00.000Z

The Cultural Way of Being is the second book in the series 'Spiritual Direction in a Postmodern Landscape'. It focuses on helping the artist take their work from being personally expressive to culturally transformative. The book is currently available in Paperback and PDF format.

It's the author's belief that our work is not meant as a private conversation, but is to create a conversation in the public domain which changes our perception of the problems we face in this current reality. The book shuns the notion of art as sensationalist or ideological and calls for an art of humanity, resurrecting spirituality in our day as the foil to rampant materialism.

To join the conversation, please join us at:

http://postmodernlandscape.com

Peace and Love,

Geoffx

A crisis of faith

2011-07-07T13:20:00.000Z

In May 1944 Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote these words,

All Christian thinking, speaking and organising must be born anew out of this prayer and action...We are not out of the melting-pot and any attempt to help the church prematurely to a new expansion of its organisation will merely delay its conversion and purification...Till then, the Christian cause will be a silent and hidden affair, but there will be those who pray and do right and wait for God’s own time. May you be one of them...
‘Letters and Papers from Prison’. Edited by Eberhard Bethge, Published by SCM Press, 1986. p300.

The Church’s complicity in the Nazi horror show was something which Bonhoeffer could not be accused of being a partner in. He knew that any future the Church had must start with its own conversion and purification. Whilst Bonhoeffer practised resistance with his ‘non-co-operation with evil’, the Church collaborated.

PLEASE CLICK ON THE TITLE LINK TO READ MORE

Peace and Love,

Geoffxx

The Group's Monthly Letter - June 2011

2011-06-30T19:55:00.001Z

Mentoring Support for those involved in word,
image or performance art

Dear Arts Mentoring Group,
It has been an eventful month, with meetings, a birthday, a trip to Neustadt in Germany, being asked to participate in the Bristol Literature Festival and the ‘Narrative as Healing’ project with myself and a bunch of GP’s, gaining momentum.

It is important to travel, to push the boundaries, but it is also good to come home. It is good to connect with others, but it is also good to find yourself. It is good to be emptied, but it is also good to be filled.

We are told that the Body Spiritual is there to help us connect and strengthen one another, because we cannot live alone, we cannot ‘find’ ourselves in isolation; we cannot be artists disconnected from those we share a similar calling with.

Song 16 talks about our ‘lot being secure’, about the ‘boundaries falling in pleasant places’ and as I returned from Neustadt where I met Johannes and Birgit, I was amazed at how we can connect with simple things like a Tweet! Simple maybe, but I think for all of us it was a step of faith. Here is a strange boy from England stepping off an aircraft near Frankfurt and being collected by two very lovely people, who had a very interesting drive to pick me up.

Their journey involved a Sat Nav system that took them within hand-shaking distance of the Airport, only to find that the road in front of them was closed, literally! Johannes told me of his Batman-like utility belt which had a cunning device on it that undid the bolts on the bollards secured on the road - allowing them to continue their journey. He told me how weird it was to pass derelict buildings along the old deserted military airfield. How the Sat Nav system ‘ re-calibrated’ the route only for them to find themselves outside the Arrivals Terminal and greet me!

I thought this was a wonderful metaphor as we depart on faithful, grand adventures only to find that when we are so close to our destination, the road is blocked. What do we do? Do we stop the work the Spirit has led us to, or do we look for that utility belt and remove the road block, to eventually move on and find that our guidance is being re-calibrated!

As artists we can sometimes stumble when the world seems against us and we don’t get the breakthrough we need. We somehow think God is being a little mischievous, a little double-minded, calling us to things that we just cannot complete on our own. And hey, we've hit the nail on the head, because we are not called to work alone, we are called to connect with others in this most pleasant of places. If Johannes and Birgit had stopped and returned home, that would have left me with an interesting stay at the Airport until my flight back to sunny Stansted, but because they persevered we connected.

I came back home feeling renewed, because on meeting each other we knew God was at work. We will persevere until the potential of our meeting is realised and we start working together. We will begin to make a difference; to our relationship, to our art-making and to European culture. Big vision, lots of Airmiles!

The spiritual terrain has changed and continues to do so as we connect, strengthening one another and going the extra mile to complete the journey.

Peace and Love to you all,

Geoffx

Sinnvoll: An Artwork by Udo Mathee

2011-06-29T11:09:00.000Z

Hi Mentoring Group,

Please check out this lovely article at the ArtWay.eu website by our friend Johannes Manz of the Aspekt Galerie, entitled 'A New Form of Speech', the English version/translation of 'Eine neue Form der Sprache' - a visual meditation on 'Sinnvoll', a work by Udo Mathee.

Click on the link in the TITLE to take you there!

Peace and Love,

Geoffx

‘Senna’ a film by Asif Kapadia. 2010. UK/France/USA 1hr 46mins.

2011-06-23T09:01:00.000Z

'Senna' is a 2011 Sundance Winner. A Working Title Film.
I was coming out of the cinema in Bristol and someone behind said to his girlfriend, "Well, that was a sombre film!" However, I couldn't disagree more. Yes, it does end with Senna's death, but it works on so many different levels.

This film leaves you with both a sense of presence and absence, along with a feeling of wonder, as Ayrton Senna’s skill as a Formula One driver is clearly visible.

Kapadia does well to deal with the hours of footage showing Senna’s tenacity and vulnerability as well as his despair, as the sport he loves becomes the victim of 'Political Intrigue'. If I came out of my viewing with a sense of awe for Senna the Man and Senna the Speed King, then it is sharply contrasted with nothing but suspicion and regret for the attitude and conniving of the then President of F1, Jean-Marie Baptiste. In any sport, when politics raises its ugly head, the sport in question is left tainted.

Certainly in ‘Senna’, the viewer has the distinct impression that Prost could attribute one of his championships to Baptiste. (If you are a football fan, you will know all about this kind of European transparent opacity, with the wheeler-dealing of FIFA and the recent World Cup bids).

The task of editing this documentary took three years. The first cut was 7 hours long, but eventually Kapadia managed to get it down to 1 hour and 46 mins! Within the footage we see the most harrowing images - that of the twisted body of Martin Donnelly in the middle of the track, after his crash at Jerez in September 1990 - and from which, amazingly, he survived. It presaged more anxious moments, including the crash of Rubens Barrichello, whose car overturned after hitting a tyre-wall and of course the death of Roland Ratzenberger the day before Senna’s fatal crash at Imola (1994). The tension is cranked up, we know what is coming, but the anxiety for Senna grows.

I like films with a redemptive thread and no-one would have been able to predict redemption as a possibility after seeing the tense behind-the-scenes footage of the relationship between Senna and Alain Prost. That is until the final credits roll and we are told that Prost is on the Board of Trustees for the Senna Institute, a charity which helps Brazilian children from under-privileged backgrounds complete an education. So, there is reconciliation after the conflict and passion of F1!

A friend told me of a review on BBC Radio 4 which complained that the film made Ayrton Senna look like a 'spiritual man', which in the reviewer’s eyes he clearly was not.

However, listening to the interviews with Ayrton it is clear that he had faith and that having prayed after Ratzenberger’s death on the previous day, he read his Bible. We are informed that God told Senna he’d be given more than life could give, God would give Ayrton Senna...Himself. And that is exactly what happens at his death. Not bad for someone who is just a great racing driver!

The film doesn’t idolise Senna, it shows a man of faith, of charisma, probably the greatest F1 driver of all time, along with his shortcomings and aggressive competitive spirit. It seems that under the scrutiny of a Secular press you can either be spiritual and therefore of no earthly use, or talented and the greatest driver the world has ever seen, but you can’t be both spiritual and talented! Alas, dear reviewer, Senna was both - which must be really frustrating for you!

Go and see this film while you can and be amazed at a great human story, a story well told by Asif Kapadia. Senna is one of my heroes! A man of faith, with great compassion for the poor and a darn good F1 driver.

Peace and Love,

Geoffx

Geoff's visit to Neustadt an der Weinstrasse

2011-06-14T21:36:00.001Z

Hi Mentoring Group,

Click on the title link to go to the Arts Mentoring Group Facebook page to see some video clips and photos of my visit to the Aspekt Galerie and the beautiful people who are Johannes and Birgit Manz.

Thank you Johannes and Birgit for being wonderful hosts. My stay was deeply moving and meaningful.

Peace and Love,

Geoffxx

Geoff is flying to Germany

2011-06-10T07:55:00.000Z

Hi,

Just to let you know that I'll be in Germany over the weekend and checking out this great gallery in Neustadt an der Weinstrasse. Click on the title to take you to the website.

Aspekt Galerie is managed by Johannes and Birgit Manz and I'm really excited about meeting them and checking out the German arts scene.

I'll be away until late on Monday, so please be aware that I won't be able to answer any queries until I get back.

Peace and Love,

Geoffx

Jan Gossaert's Renaissance - spirituality and synthesis

2011-06-07T09:11:00.000Z

We noted in the first part of this look at the work of Jan Gossaert that Renaissance spirituality was a synthetic fusion of Paganism, Classicism and Christianity.

I alluded to Gossaert’s ‘Man with a Rosary’, 1525-30 and not simply gazing at the Man in the foreground, but discerning his spirituality by looking at the setting, the background of the image. See below:

George Bull the translator of Baldesar Castiglione’s ‘The Book of the Courtier’ (originally published in April, 1528), writes of Castiglione’s intent to answer a courtly need of his time.

"The truth was that the self-interested endeavour of Castiglione’s contempories at the small Courts of Italy to justify the profession of Courtier – to synthesise the idea of the warrior and the scholar, the Christian believer and the classical hero, the self-contained man of virtù and the dutiful servant of the prince – [provided an opportunity for Castiglione to answer]...a need felt urgently in the north of Europe as medieval values dissolved."
[The Book of the Courtier, Published by Penguin Classics, 1976 p14.]

Check out this painting by Raphael at the National Gallery, London. ‘An allegory: A Vision of a Knight’ circa 1504.

http://nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/raphael-an-allegory-vision-of-a-knight

Here we can see this synthetic spirituality embodied aesthetically. The choice of Virtue over Pleasure, the rugged way of the Wilderness or the Pleasures of lover and scholar appears tantalising, but actually the allegory suggests a combination or synthesis of such virtues and a path of life which is finely balanced through grace - of both paths being needed to be the perfect Courtier/Knight/Christian believer. Raphael's vision embodies the philosophy of Castiglione's Courtier.

I’ve already alluded to those who wish for a New Renaissance to arrive, like a new era of Christendom and the patronage of the Arts, but this is as misplaced as the Pre-Raphaelites intent to purify art by taking it back to a time before Raphael’s corruption of it. Again all that was produced was synthetic and reactionary, an attempt to roll back time to an apparent nobler and more romantic era.

We are considering in the series ‘Spiritual Direction in a Postmodern Landscape’ that art should point to the future not the past - the artist has to be involved in something more than the mimicry of a bygone age. Art has to point to the future and is therefore avant-garde, not retrospective. This kind of artist suffers from dysphasia, that is, they are unable to speak coherently of the times they live in and more importantly to create a vision of the future which decries the pessimism of our day. We cannot give a vision of the future by resurrecting the past.

An art which points to the past has given up hope for the future.

A radical transformational spirituality is not one of synthesis, or reactionary zeal for an alleged ‘Golden Age’ of art or spirituality, but is subversive in intent - undermining causes of injustice, dismantling institutions of static spirituality and pointing to a culturally potent ‘Spirituality of Resistance’ through expressing the voice of lament.

To see the future, simply turn over the page!

Peace and Love,

Geoffx

The Wilderness and the Desert of the Real at the Apple iBook Store

2011-06-02T11:05:00.000Z

Hi Everyone,

We are pleased to announce that 'The Wilderness and the Desert of the Real' is now available at the Apple iBook Store.

PLEASE CLICK ON THE TITLE LINK FOR DETAILS.

We are working hard on The Cultural Way of Being, the next in the series ''Spiritual Direction in a Postmodern Landscape". Look out for the publishing date at http://upptacka.com

Peace and Love,

Geoffx

PS be a part of the conversation and REGISTER at http://postmodernlandscape.com

The Group Monthly letter - May 2011

2011-05-26T09:28:00.000Z

May, 2011. Reflections from the Tree House

Mentoring support for those involved in word,
image and performance arts

Dear Arts Mentoring Group,

Having clambered down the Tree House rope-ladder last week, my thoughts were stirred by what I’d seen and heard. It was good to see the basement packed to the rafters as we considered how faith informs our work as artists, how we develop our style and who are influences are.

We often conflate faith with ‘religious’ and end up judging art by its content, namely its christian symbolism and ecclesiastical truthfulness, as if first and foremost the artist has to be a good theologian - although that is what William Dyrness suggests in his book ‘Visual Faith’!

Faith is the direction of our heart towards God and towards Creation. To confuse spirituality with religion reminds me of a saying from Saint Bono of Vox “Religion to me is almost like when God leaves – and then people devise a set of rules to fill the space.”

Our spirituality is not fixed by the institution, but it is our life, every bit of our life from the time we are naked in the shower, to the time we work in our studio or study and then onward to when our head hits the pillow - that and everything in between. The work we produce is part of that wonderful journey, not an extra bit added on, or something we can ‘feel’ when we leave everything else, ‘all worldly pleasures’ behind.

Art which is locked into institutional needs, communicates by code and signs instead of being a visual metaphor for something life-enriching. It is intellectualised, dry, set in the sediment of dogma. An art that is free shuns this imprisonment and roams freely, taking inspiration from beauty and mystery in this world, adding a little ugliness or tension perhaps, but all the way offering something quite different from the visions of Postmodern Nihilism.

I was also taken by those who shared their work, Heather, Tony, Chris, Marco and Deborah and how this thing we call style develops over time in conversation with other artists. I loved their commitment to excellence!

As we articulate we begin to understand ourselves more, we begin to perceive gaps in our thinking, style elements which need a little modification. Articulation helps us develop artistic knowledge, but also knowledge of who we are and what we are here for. Sometimes this is gained by the generous thoughtfulness of other artist who we never meet, but ponder and gaze upon their work, check out statements about their practice and then there is The Group and the Tree House and how we learn from one another, in serving one another. For at the end of the day, art is not about self-realisation or self-expression, but about sacrifice and service.

Thank you to all who contributed to a great evening and for those in attendance, who like me were amazed by the visions set before us, with a pinch of humorous salt thrown in for good measure.

Peace and Love to you all,

Geoffx
People who attended the Tree House have asked me about checking out Chris Lorensson’s video on the Framework for Mystery again. You can find it at

http://upptacka.net/

TREE HOUSE TONIGHT - ADDENDUM

2011-05-18T07:59:00.000Z

Hi Everyone,

Just to remind you that the Tree House is tonight at the Hooper House Cafe, starting at 8pm.

Hooper House is at 113, Stokes Croft. Bristol BS1 3RW.

In addition to our programme I'll also be reporting on my contact with the International Arts Movement in New York and also with Aspekt Galerie in Neustadt an der Weinstrasse, Germany.

Looking forward to seeing you tonight.

Peace,

Geoffx

Tree House - May 18th, 2011

2011-05-09T16:32:00.000Z

Hi Mentoring Group,

The next TREE HOUSE is on May 18th @ 8pm. We are meeting at the Hooper House Cafe, 113 Stokes Croft, Bristol. BS1 3RW.

CONTRIBUTORS ARE:

Marco Cazzulini, Deborah Keiller, Tony Perrett, Heather D and Chris Lorensson.

You can check out their websites from this page, all are included in the links, except Heather D who is accessible through Twitter as @HeatherFineArt.

We are looking at how spirituality informs art practice, how these artists developed their style and who in the art world has influenced them.

It will be a great night. Please come along and enjoy yourselves!!

Peace and Love,

Geoffxx

Tony Martin Exhibition - Space, Grace & Line

2011-05-06T10:43:00.001Z

Hi Everyone,

I met with Tony for a coffee at the Watershed Media Centre the other week and we had a great discussion about the vocation and calling of the artist and our concerns over the growth of kitsch!

It would be great if you could support Tony in his forthcoming exhibition at the Bath Royal Literary & Scientific Institution, full details below and there should also be a map attached.

You can visit Tony's website by clicking on the link in the Title of this blog entry.

ENJOY!

Peace and Love,
Geoffx

The Group Monthly letter - April 2011

2011-04-27T13:50:00.000Z

Mentoring support for those involved in word, image or performance arts.

April 2011. “The Word became flesh...and we’ve turned the flesh back to words!”

Dear Arts Mentoring Group,

This little piece of wisdom was written by Tom Wright. I’m not sure I concur with his conclusion because I think the nature of the problem, the crisis we face today is that, “The Word became flesh...but we have turned it into stone.”

What do I mean by this? We have turned the flesh and blood humanity of Jesus into the static stone of the institution. We have turned the flesh and blood of corpus Christi into an organisation, a hierarchical monolith. We strut around this world; we are poseurs in our superior view of life - of Creation and Redemption. We take offence easily at those who think differently, we are hateful of those who tell us that ‘Love Wins’, because our certainty of redemption is based on judgment and damnation, exclusion and rejection and not the love of God! When our view of life is contested we go for the institutional stand-off; we do not meet heart-to-heart and converse with each ‘other’; we engage with siege-like machines, with a war-like mentality.

Human contact is so much better than trying to connect with an institution or organisation. We have been given a great gift, this flesh, this potential for contact, for movement, for connection. If, as Dietrich Bonhoeffer has said, our bodies are the shape of the Spirit on earth, then as I reach out to make contact, I’m not just doing so physically but spiritually, because my spirituality is bound up and expressed by my minimal good looks, my physical dexterity, delightful wit and personal charm!

Speaking of connections, Wim Wenders has just released a new film, ‘Pina 3D’. I’m in awe! Go and see it, please, it is a real inspiration. No, it’s not a culturally nuanced alternative to Avatar, but a gentle remembrance of a great dancer and choreographer, Pina Bausch.

Many of the dancers sitting in front of the camera found it difficult to express their love for Pina verbally, as if remembering her words that sometimes we are not able to express thoughts and feelings vocally. Then, she tells us that if we do use words to say something of our experience, they can only evoke a sense of what one felt and not the fine detail of it. Creative language is evocative!

She seems to have used this method in her choreography. One dancer recalls Pina telling them to ‘find a movement to express joy’! That was her only direction! The language used in the film suggests things like ‘weightlessness’ for freedom (of movement). Other dancers responded to her choreography as if she was developing their character through the joy of working together as a community of movement. The joy of their discoveries seemed to shine in their reminiscences of Pina Bausch. This communal approach to developing something for public performance, will stick with me forever.

Now that Wim Wenders has introduced me to her troupe, I just want to see more of productions like ‘Café Müller’, where the dancers perform with their eyes closed. She used language sparingly, to evoke the Spirit of Freedom, of the possibility of a humanity revitalised by suggestive language, breathing freedom into the imagination which then found expression in movement; in dance. May we have the same evocative imagination, may we see that the Word needs to become flesh again and again; we need to connect, to move together, to feel one another’s joy and pain, to offer support and aid growth. This is the art of commitment, the art of self-denial.

The problem with stone is that it finds it difficult to move; to be animated, to express joy or freedom, to feel the need for human contact. The Word became flesh to save us from spiritual atrophy, so that we can be animated by the Spirit of Freedom; to dance together, to imitate the blissful Perichoresis!

Peace and Love to you all,

Geoffx

Stop Press:
The next Tree House is on Wednesday, 18th May where we’ll be focusing on the visual arts. @ Hooper House Cafe. 113, Stokes Croft. 8PM start! More info here soon.

Wim Wenders' - 'Pina 3D' opening at the Watershed

2011-04-20T15:03:00.000Z

Dear Friends,

Wim Wenders' latest film on choreographer Pina Bausch opens at the Watershed this Friday. Here's what they have to say about it.

Pina Bausch, one of dance's most innovative choreographers, tragically died just two days before Wim Wenders (Wings of Desire, Buena Vista Social Club) started shooting Pina 3D, his wonderful tribute to an extraordinary woman which opens on Friday.

Bausch helped pick four of her most celebrated works to be performed by her company Tanztheater Wuppertal in the film. These sequences are staged in some imaginative settings - including in parks, on a monorail, in a gym, in the woods, in a pool and on escalators - and the dancers share some of their strongest memories.

Please click on the title link to see the show times and enjoy what will be a most thrilling and aesthetic journey captured by a master of European Arthouse film-making.

Peace and Love,

Geoffxx

Silent Auction for JAPAN - Report from Kaori Homma

2011-04-18T13:59:00.001Z

Hi,

I am back from Budapest.

I would like to report that the Silent auction went very well and we have raised more than 760,000HUF. The fund will go straight into Japan Red Cross.

Considering the poor economy and the standard of living in Hungary, which is not quite yet up with the rest of Europe, the above amount raised in one afternoon in the contemporary art sector is apparently very good.

The local artists were all very surprised to find out the result. I am simply grateful for all the support and help we have revieved for this event.

The artists were also saying that they would like to participate if something like this is happening in London or elsewhere, they are keen to help again and indeed, we will continue the effort and I will be updating the progress on our fund rasing effort on a regular basis so please check up on our blog:

http://artactionsupportforjapan.blogspot.com/

I would like to thank you for your kind support.

Kaori Homma

The Wilderness and the Desert of the Real on Kindle

2011-04-16T15:46:00.001Z

Hi,

Just to let you know that our book, 'The Wilderness and the Desert of the Real' is now available on the Amazon Kindle Store.

Click on the title for a link to the relevant Amazon page.

Peace and Love,

Geoffx

Date for next Tree House

2011-04-16T13:37:00.003Z

Hi Everyone,

The date for the next Tree House is Wednesday 18th May, at 8pm. We'll be meeting at the Hooper House Cafe 113, Stokes Croft. BS1 3RW.

We'll be exploring the question of developing a style, how your faith informs your practice and finding out who our participant's main influencers are.

Contributors for the evening are:

Marco Cazzulini - artist http://marcocazzulini.blogspot.com/
Deborah Keiller - artist web address to be released later
Tony Perret - cartoonist http://friendsinmyhead.blogspot.com/
Heather Distant-Taiwo - artist from California USA
Chris Lorensson - designer, poet, all-round good guy http://upptacka.com/authors

Chris will be talking about 'mystery', which will be presented via video!

We look forward to seeing you there and trust that our evening together will inspire your work as artists. Bring a friend!

Peace and Love,

Geoffx

Help Japan - Silent Auction

2011-04-05T10:10:00.002Z

Hi Everyone,

Please read the letter and invitation from Kaori Homma, re the 'Art Action Support for Japan' initiative. Please respond with compassion!

Peace,

Geoffxx

Dear Friends,

I would like to ask if you can kindly invite anyone who might be interested in this Charity Event taking place in Budapest.

All the proceeds from this event will go directly to Red Cross Japan Tsunami Fund.

I am also very happy to announce that a representative from Japan Embassy will be attending this event.

Please see attached invitation.

Date:４月１４日(木)12－６時までプライベートビュー& サイレント･オークション

Venue: Brody House, Brody Sandor Utcha 10,1088, Budapest, Hungary
Organised by : Drawing Room Hungary
Supported by：Brody House,IPA Foundation,Hajdu Menyhei,Taste Hungary,Maki School,Guiness House

Thank you very much

Kaori Homma

March 2011 - Group Letter

2011-03-31T14:43:00.000Z

Mentoring support for those involved in word,
image or performance arts

March 2011. Leave your day jobs and follow me!
Dear Arts Mentoring Group,
I was sitting in Ruth and Roger’s mansion in Victoria Park last night and we were encouraging each other that God had given us some really wonderful gifts and how we loved that moment when the creative flow starts and we lose all track of time. This doesn’t exactly fit the 9 to 5 lifestyle very well at all, as we could end up spending 12 hours writing, painting, sculpting or making music and who would pay the overtime due to us!

Ruth passed a comment, I can’t remember how we got there, but she talked about the ‘proper job’ criticism that we sometimes face and drew our attention to Jesus calling Peter and John along with their brothers to follow him, on what was to be a pretty lengthy walk.

Matthew records it this way - “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.”

Jesus called them to leave their day jobs and follow him! He didn’t seem to be worried that he couldn’t provide for them and they didn’t appear to be worried that they were leaving the family fishing business behind. So, it seems in those days some were called to leave their daily routines and lead a different way of life. It didn’t mean that their lives became easier, or that their lifestyle would now accrue the benefits of prosperity via the intimate walk they were embarkinhg upon. In fact I think it was probably a more arduous journey.

Being called to the arts is like this. Sometimes we worry; we become anxious about adequate resources for our lives; our families, our work. The good news is that the Jesus administration is not subject to Government cuts! The other good news is that we are not called to walk alone, but in community.

My heart’s desire has always been to develop a community which challenges and supports me; wherein others can find the same thing and that we go on to create significant work - work which challenges the status quo and also Postmodernism’s predisposition towards nihilism. This community will understand that there is more to following Jesus than a 9 to 5 job and a personal career in Finance or Human Resources.

I am thrilled with this call and in the coming year I’ll be working with a bunch of creative people on a project to be launched in 2012. The first challenge for me was to overcome the fear of sharing incomplete work with others. The second challenge is to see it completed together as an expression of our creativity and beliefs. What it will look like, I’m not sure, but I’m not anxious about the process, of loosing ‘control’ of the world I’ve created and allowing the imagination of others to reshape it with their creative talents.

We know there have been difficult times in the past; when we felt inadequate to the task, when all the things which supported us seem to crumble. However, it is a journey worth taking, a journey worth the perseverance to accomplish great things together, because the whole idea of walking alone was never part of the original game plan anyway!

Peace and Love to you all,

Geoffx

Developments:
The next Tree House is on Wednesday, 18th May when we’ll be focusing on the visual arts. Venue to be confirmed. Stay Tuned!

Japanese Earthquake - A Letter from Kaori Homma

2011-03-24T15:43:00.001Z

Here is a letter from our friend and fellow artist, Kaori Homma.

Dear Friends,

I just want to report that my aunt and her family who lived in Sendai survived the Quake and Tsunami, are somehow coping in sub-zero temperature, though supplies are limited.

My father is involved in the church action where they are getting a convoy of trucks together to go into near Fukushima where other drivers are refusing to go in, with basic supply and planning to bring around 60 people out of the area and house them in Okutama church where my father is an associate minister. As you can imagine, because of this my parents are not fleeing Tokyo despite of the current radiation scare. I am just praying that the worst can be avoided.

Meanwhile, I am setting up an action group to fund raise for Japan through ART, and you can see our blog which is just set up today as below.
Please take a look.

http://artactionsupportforjapan.blogspot.com/

I am so grateful for the overwhelming support I am receiving from everybody.
It will be great if you can continue your kind support!

Thank you

Kaori Homma

Jan Gossaert's Renaissance

2011-03-16T15:29:00.000Z

Jan Gossaert at the National Gallery, London - 23rd February to 30th May, 2011.

When I researched the Iconoclastic Disorders of the 16th Century for my BA (Honours) Degree over 20 years ago, I came across an enchanting painting by Jan Gossaert ‘The Adoration of the Kings’ (1510-15). It is saturated with colour and the fine ‘sprezzatura’ (nonchalance was a courtly virtue) brushwork, especially of the garments is magnificent. It stuck in my mind from that day, but paintings are like that, they burn into your memory. So, it was great to be given the opportunity to study his work and his artistic milieu more closely at the National Gallery.

NG2790 Jan Gossaert The Adoration of the Kings

1510-15 © National Gallery, London

What has grabbed my attention this time follows my review of Deborah Keiller’s work in ‘Sensuality and Spirituality’ and this whole area of thought considering the separation of two aspects of our humanity into some kind of flesh versus spirit dualism. As if, of course, that’s how we live our lives, fragmented, ethereal spirituality and earthy physicality!

(see http://artsmentoring.co/
articles/sensuality-and-spirituality.html )

Can we look at the art of history with this kind of focus? How did the spirituality of the Renaissance view sensuality? Is it true that the Renaissance is a cultural rebirth of the Christian faith? (Renaissance = Resurrection?) Let’s take the first two questions. I may need to come back to the third with a separate blog article.

It’s been a while since I ventured into the Great Smoke for an exhibition and my how things have changed. At the NG you used to get a freebie handout with relevant room information, paintings of note, that kind of thing. Now you just get a free flyer informing you of what you can buy to supplement your visit; books, posters,DVD’s etc. It seems that marketing has taken over the educational remit of the National Gallery! I must confess that I’m not a fan of this and unless they want art to be for an elite, they should stop such dreadful policies. Just as well I brought my pen and notebook. I’m still disappointed by this aspect though, as it’s not exactly free when you pay £11 to go into the exhibition!

That aside, what did I learn about an ancient spirituality from the art produced here?
Well many in the christian arts circle seem to make this big assumption that the world was a more christian place during the Renaissance and art just followed suit! However...take a look at this painting by Jan Gossaert ‘Man with a Rosary’, 1525-30.

NG656 Jan Gossaert

Man with a Rosary

about 1525-30

How do we read this painting? What kind of spirituality is represented here? Well you will notice a certain sanctification of the character, the pious disengaged look and the rosary and then all is well with our christian worldview. Yes? No!

To adequately read this painting we also need to assess the setting. The background reveals that the subject is positioning himself in the context of classical antiquity. Here we have a spirituality born of synthesis. Classical Humanism and christian spirituality meet, not so much head on, but are synthesised, melded as equals to each other; an hermaphrodite spirituality, fused with a universal intent which obviates distinction, diversity?! Sound familiar?

Now at this point I’d love to have shown you Jan Gossaert’s painting of ‘Adam & Eve’ c1520, but the copyright belongs to Her Majesty the Queen and I don’t want to spend any time in the Tower of London for crimes and misdemeanours! So, please follow this link.

http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/whats-on/exhibitions/jan-gossaerts-renaissance
(right click on the image and then ‘go full screen’)

You will have a clear identification between sensuality and original sin! Eve’s sensuous frame; her curved shoulders (the style of the day), beautiful hair, small stylised breasts and those long legs. Adam with his curly red hair, his muscular torso, the finger touching his lips to hint that he had already succumbed to temptation, but also please note his left forefinger pressing into Eve’s upper arm; an extremely tactile gesture of sensual love and possession. The serpent above the couple is worming its way between them; passion brings separation, antagonism, disappointment. As Juvenal wrote in his ‘Satires’ “What good is sex, when desire outweighs performance!”

Physical intimacy is represented as a part of humanity’s Fall from grace; don’t
touch, don’t taste, don’t enjoy. God is watching! Guilt personified. Thank goodness there are only seven sins!

X6583 Jan Gossaert Hercules and Deianeira, 1517

The University of Birmingham

Drawings and paintings of Adam & Eve and other amorous couples (here Hercules and Deianeira, 1517) suggest a place in the mind of the Renaissance man for erotic imagery. We see the familiar classical background, firmly placing the couple in antiquity (of course) and the intertwining of legs to show their intimacy. It is a cultured setting, speaking of the richness of Classical design.

The frieze in the background and under the seat probably bear reference to the ‘Labours of Hercules’ and the great warrior was said to be the personification of the Greek ideal of pathos, that is struggle and suffering leading to fame and immortality. The appeal of such ancient stories to the Courts of 16th Century Northern Europe; of the ideal husband, warrior and lover, reveals that the more sensual images of course were there to inflame the passions, not deter them! Hercules here, is putting down his club to attend to his wife’s passionate advances, love conquers violence when at home in your Renaissance Apartment!

This gives us two different views of physical passion, the one which follows the ideal of Courtly manhood and the other which denigrates the physical senses to the realm of sin, of fallen-ness, as inferior to our spiritual character, as corruptible. Original Sin is depicted as sexual and departs from the Creation Narrative, but how long has it taken us to perceive the shift and remove the guilt? Gossaert’s ‘Adam & Eve’ places them firmly within an uncultivated, almost wild setting, save for the grand fountain, perhaps the fountain of life in the distance and reminiscent - in its inclusion but not its style - of the fountain in the Creation panel of Hieronymus Bosch’s ‘Garden of Earthly Delights’ (c1490-1510).

In the next article we’ll look at the Renaissance christian spirituality of the day, in the light of this synthesis.

Peace,

Geoff

Marketing Nostalgia

2011-03-11T10:00:00.000Z

Marketing Nostalgia, or a cursory comment on my latest film-watching experience.

A few days ago I went with a friend to see the latest Matt Damon movie, ‘The Adjustment Bureau’, co-starring the lovely Emily Blunt (The Devil Wears Prada, Young Victoria). We had tasted a little of the marketing of this film, mostly focused on ‘Bourne Identity meets Inception’. So, I’m sitting there wondering when the big action scene will be and whether reality will come folding in on itself in some big special effects scene. You get the picture.

After the film had ended, we both said, ‘Well that was different, not what I expected.’ Why? Because the hype had led us to believe one thing and we experienced another. You may say, well the marketing worked, it got you to see the film. True, however, if this sense of disappointment gets around, then the film will have a short shelf-life. Marketing can’t just be about the first hit, but about gathering momentum to make the film a real box-office blockbuster. Ever heard of seeing a film more than once?

Of course this is a film based on the Philip K Dick story (Adjustment Bureau) and I got to thinking that maybe the marketing ought to have spoken of ‘Blade Runner meets Minority Report’, or if they'd included Emily Blunt's career, then maybe ‘Total Recall meets Young Victoria’! They could’ve you know, because what they all have in common is the unnerving inaccuracy of the film's marketing strap-line!

Marketing is about audience appeal. If you’ve seen the Bourne Identity,then maybe you’ll like this! However, art is about the future. If art focuses on the past it falls into the area of nostalgia. Marketers seems unable to point to the future, a future we’d experienced with The Adjustment Bureau, where the action isn’t about some amazing piece of technology that can help you gain access to people’s dreams, or about talking the I out of CIA with the Bourne Movies. The Adjustment Bureau ‘technology’ relies on wearing a certain kind of hat and turning the doorknob in a clockwise direction. In my thinking this is incredibly low-tech, right? Perhaps the marketers responsible for this film had missed this facet of the movie?

Philip K Dick is renowned for his takes on reality and consciousness; how we experience life. His books are not about nostalgia. I know why marketing works this way, but I think in this case and there must be more, it misses the point. It looks to the past instead of thinking about the new audiences it could open up.

What if you are into Indie films which question the nature of reality? What if you are looking for something new, or a different way of storytelling, something that points to the future without being tortured by doom-laden nihilism, or sugared by schmaltzy triumphalism?

To the marketers I say, "Ahem", there are enough of us out there who are searching for something different from film and this could have been it, but you were pointing in the wrong direction!

To Matt Damon and Emily Blunt I say well done, for a beautifully quirky, poignant and engaging film. To Matt Damon I say, please have a word with your retro-marketing department, they will hurt your future endeavours.

As for the aesthetics and the cinematography of the film, well that is another subject.

February - Monthly letter

2011-03-01T11:17:00.000Z

Mentoring support for those involved in word,
image or performance arts

February 2011. The Group's 10th Anniversary!!!

Dear Arts Mentoring Group,
February was the 10th Anniversary of the Arts Mentoring Group, aka The Group! In February 2001, things started to form, as we became aware of art students who were the victims of discrimination from secularised art colleges, simply because of their spirituality. (It seems we only tolerate the things which we agree with!)

A couple of weeks ago I was at my spiritual director’s home in Taunton, having lunch with Jeremy and Sheila. I passed a comment that we ‘cannot be an artist alone’, in splendid isolation as it were and Sheila said “We cannot be spiritual alone, we cannot be fully human, alone.” This I thought was pretty profound, as our whole notion of spirituality is actually one of connection, to God and to others, through the epistemology of love.

It is essential if we are to move our work from being personally expressive to culturally formative. Art practice in isolation is what one philosopher, Hans Gadamer, has called ‘a private conversation’. If you are lucky you may overhear some of it, but the meaning or meanings of it will probably remain a mystery.

Somewhere in the body of work, which over the years Calvin Seerveld has written, he said something like - I think the number is not meant to be prescriptive - that our artistry can have a cultural impact if we have a community of 85 arts practitioners, which will also include publishers, gallery owners, writers, academics and perhaps I should add a more contemporary element to it, record label owners and filmmakers who understand the communal dynamic of art-making!

It is at this point I’d like to welcome Johannes and Birgit Manz, to our growing community. Johannes and Birgit own a gallery in Neustadt an der Weinstrasse in Germany. I particularly thought God was behind this connection, as Neustadt is in a wine-making region of Germany! Aspekt Galerie is a new initiative and we are looking forward to working with each other in the future. You can check out the gallery via a link on the AMG blogsite (Links Section). Chris and I are planning a trip to see them. It is amazing what can grow from a simple Tweet!

At the last Tree House, we had presentations form Sarah Trigg of Trigger Editions, Chris Lorensson of Upptacka Press and James Bragg & Tony Silcock of Intense Music. As we mature in faith and worldview certain things are happening and we need to embrace this development; participate in it, learn from it, but also allow it to inform our practice as musicians, writers, dancers, artists etc. It is then that our work will move to the culturally formative, it is then that we will mature in the sphere of our influence; it is then that a truly spiritual character for our work will be cultivated.

What good is a writer without a publisher, an artist without a gallery owner, a musician without a promoter or label behind them? I simplify of course, but you get the drift. If we are truly committed to cultural transformation, we have to be connected to one another. There is no ‘going it alone’ in spirituality, in artistry. To be fully human, one has to be fully connected.

The next Tree House will have a visual arts focus, but I hope we will all come to be a part of that social vibe which the Tree House gives us. (This is scheduled for early May, venue to be confirmed).

Peace and Love to you all,

Geoffx

Developments:
The Tree House was a real blast. Thanks to everyone who came along to support some great initiatives. I’ll be emailing you shortly with new developments on that front.

Artisan Tonight

2011-02-21T15:23:00.000Z

Hi Everyone,

There's an Artisan Social tonight at Hall & Woodhouse in Bath, starting @ 8pm.

Click on the title link for more info and a map of the location.

Peace and Love,

Geoffx

Flash Mob - Toronto, Canada

2011-02-14T20:18:00.000Z

Hi Everyone,

Check this out to bring a smile on your face!

For all the dancers out there!

Peace and Love,

Geoffx

Tree House - Pictures of a book launch

2011-02-10T09:05:00.003Z

Hi Everyone,

Thanks to those of you who made it last night to the book launch at Cafe Kino.

We had a wonderful night. Check out the pics by going to the Upptacka website. The link is in the title.

With thanks to Sarah J Trigg of Trigger Editions, Rob Creet for the VJ vibes, James, Chris and Tony for the music and Mr Chris Lorensson, my publisher, for his deep-pan pizza-like thoughts!

Peace and Love,

Geoffxx

Tree House February 9th @ 8pm

2011-02-03T21:06:00.001Z

Hi Everyone,

If you are following this blog, then you are invited to the Tree House on Wednesday 9th February and if you'd like to bring some friends, that is just great!

We are holding this new series of quarterly socials at the Cafe Kino (108 Stokes Croft, BS1 3RU). STARTS @ 8pm

THINGS TO NOTE:

If you are a contributor or performer, then please bring a friend or two to support the cause.
There will be drinks and nibbles to purchase and encourage the CK community.
Entrance is free!
If you like art, music and books then you'll love this.
If for a future event you'd like to perform or present your work, let me know.

James Bragg


Sarah J Trigg

Chris Lorensson & Geoff Hall

Group Letter - January

2011-01-31T21:54:00.000Z

December, 2010. “the epistemology of love”

Dear Mentoring Group,

Well, it’s been quite a month hasn’t it? What with Tunisia and Egypt rocking and reeling from people-power and protests organised via Facebook and Twitter AND it appears that Yemen is next.

And what do we make of Mohamed El Baradei, President Hosni Mubarak’s replacement leader, allegedly? My worry about him is that he talks of ‘regime’ change, when it is exactly the opposite of what the Egyptian people need, another regime. Whilst he has support from the Moslem Brotherhood I also fear for our Coptic brothers and sisters who have been systematically kidnapped, tortured or raped and then forced to convert to Islam. This has been achieved with the connivance of the Mukhabarat, the Egyptian Secret Police.
Please pray that there will not be a ‘regime change’, but that freedom reigns.

How we know the world, is not through power and how we really change the world is not through violence. We both know and change the world through love. This is what Tom Wright has to say about it,

The sterile antithesis of ‘objective’ and ‘subjective’, where we say that things are either objectively true...or subjectively true...is overcome by the epistemology of love which is called into being as the necessary mode of knowing for those who will live in the new public world, the world launched at Easter, the world in which Jesus is Lord and Caesar isn’t. (‘Surprised by Hope’, p.85)

It is love that replaces the tyrant. How can we as artists participate in this ousting of tyranny, of setting people free from oppression, of helping the blind see and the lame dance?

As artist we will begin this journey through love. In Luke ch11, Jesus shows some appalling table manners when invited to the home of a Pharisee for a meal. He calls the other Pharisees present ‘hopeless’, ‘frauds’, ‘stupid’! But then He mentions this ‘key of knowledge’ (v52). What is the key of knowledge? It is Love! Because if you love God with all your heart and your neighbour as yourself, then that is the beginning of knowing the world, the key to knowing ourselves, our calling and vocation and the key to creating captivating art.

It is in showing love that we set people free, give sight to the blind, and help the lame walk. It is through love that our work speaks to people, captures their attention and imagination.

Power and violence have only caused injustice, famine and plague and if the people of Egypt really want to be free, may they align themselves with love and not the purveyors of nihilistic violence and oppression.

Peace and Love to you all,

Geoffx

Developments:
Tree House is next Wednesday 9th February at Cafe Kino. 108, Stokes Croft. (BS1 3RU)! 8PM Our presenters and performers that evening will be Sarah J Trigg, (Trigger Editions), James Bragg (Intense Music), Rob Creet will be providing us with the some ambient VJ-ing, Chris Lorensson will be talking about his new publishing company (Upptacka Press) and presenting the author of its first publication, Me! (The book is 'The Wilderness and the Desert of the Real') Please come along, bring your friends and support us. We need your help to make it a great occasion! Thanks

The Wilderness and the Desert of the Real

2011-01-21T10:39:00.000Z

Hi Everyone,

Here's the new book in all its glory! I have to say a BIG thank you to Chris Lorensson of Upptacka Press for making it happen! It is the ffirst book in a series entitled Spiritual Direction in a Postmodern Landscape.

Ever feel frustrated about the time lapse between the calling and your release into the public domain, where you can actually participate in the cultural conversations? Well, 'The Wilderness and the Desert of the Real' is an extended essay on creative spirituality, or what Chris would call 'unorthodox thoughts on christian spirituality'.

Check out the link. Let's start talking about the issues raised here and begin connecting.

The book is being officially launched on Wednesday, 9th February at Cafe Kino (108 Stokes Croft, BS1 3RU) 8PM. Chris and I will bee there to talk about the book and this year's future publications.

Peace and Love,

Geoffxx

The Creative Entrepreneur Roadmap Course

2011-01-18T17:44:00.001Z

Hi Everyone,

You'll remember a few months ago we held a teaching seminar on 'How to earn a living from your creative gifts'. The session was facilitated by Mark McGuiness and he is now offering this free e-book to members of The Group and all our creative friends. Personally, I believe we can all make a living from our creative gifts and it is great to have Mark and his team of collaborators offering this course to aid our financial recovery!

I'm happy to be an affiliate for this course and so I need to point out to you that I will receive an income from course subscriptions.

Now here's a word from Mark.

TITLE: Free Ebook: Freedom, Money, Time - and the Key to Creative Success

Creative people need three things to be happy:

Freedom - to do what you want, when you want and how you want it. Not just in holidays and spare time - but also doing meaningful work, in your own way.
Money - to maintain your independence and fund your creative projects. Of course you want a nice place to live, but you’re not so worried about a bigger car than the guy next door. You’d rather spend money on experiences than status symbols.
Time - to spend as you please, exploring the world and allowing your mind to wander in search of new ideas.

Usually, you’re lucky if you get two out of the three. But if one of them is missing, it compromises the other two.

Without money, you don’t have much freedom, because you have to spend your time chasing cash.

Without time off, money doesn’t buy you a lot of freedom.

And if you’re doing something you hate for a living, it doesn’t matter how big your salary is, or how much holiday you get.

This is the premise of a new free ebook by Mark McGuinness: Freedom, Money, Time - and the Key to Creative Success.

The ebook describes Mark's unconventional career journey, as a poet and creative coach, and the lessons he's learned the hard way about finding the right combination of freedom, money and time.

It's full of practical advice you can apply to your own situation, if you want to earn a living from your creative talent, or if you're a freelancer or small business owner and want to make your business less stressful and more profitable.

Mark and his partners have also prepared an in-depth training program to accompany the ebook, and I'm pleased to be an affiliate partner for the launch. But the ebook itself is free to download, with no need to even give your email address.

Click the link to download your copy of Freedom, Money, Time and the Key to Creative Success. (The link is in the title of this blog entry)

And feel free to share the ebook with anyone who you think would find it helpful.

--
Mark McGuinness

http://www.wishfulthinking.co.uk

http://www.lateralaction.com

http://twitter.com/markmcguinness

The Creative Pathfinder - Your FREE Guide to Success as a Creative Professional http://lateralaction.com/pathfinder/

Marc Chagall – the painter as light-bearer

2011-01-11T13:00:00.000Z

Christ and the Artist (the artist and his model) 1951

After spending 6 hours going around the Vatican Museum, I came across the contemporary art collection, which included one of my favourite artists, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. Just around the corner from his work a painting by Chagall caught my eye. Christ and the Artist (the artist and his model) was a sublime moment from the miles of corridors in the museum.

It speaks profoundly about understanding the artist and their role model, Christ. It also suggests that the role of the artist is to vanquish the darkness of paganism. Is it also a self-portrait? Does it suggest that artists will suffer for their work of redemption, of bringing light into the world?

We know from the richness of our experiences, that this is the case. The way of the artist is not paved with gold, untold riches and fame, but with struggles and turmoil as well as the odd victory. If those looking from outside the artist’s world think it is a cop out from a proper job and a 9 to 5 existence, then this point-of-view simply reveals a lack of knowledge for our work in the world today.

Whilst we struggle, we also realise that resurrection is on its way. In pondering the suffering of others, or being like Christ in suffering for redemption, we will invariably bring light to the world, if we understand that the suffering of humanity has a connection with the sufferings of Christ. Chagall, of whom I know little, takes a Modern and profound understanding of colour and places it back in time to the brutal age of Roman oppression and aggression, against its perceived enemies.

Chagall is an artist that warrants my further study. I’m enthralled by his knowledge of colour and how he expresses his spirituality.

Tree House Returns

2011-01-10T16:24:00.000Z

Mentoring services for those involved in word, image or performance arts

Hi Everyone,

This is simply to shout a huge !!hurrah!! for the return of the much loved Tree House.

We'll be back on Wednesday, 9th February from 8pm till 10:30pm at Cafe Kino, 108 Stokes Croft, Bristol. BS1 3RU.

Sarah Trigg of Trigger Editions will be talking about her company and the new opportunites in publishing for visual artists.

James Bragg will be speaking about a new adventure (Intense Music) and performing live.

Geoff (me) will be releasing a new book, 'The Wilderness and the Desert of the Real' and a new company and website ArtsMentoring.Co

I look forward to seeing you there. It promises to be a great night! Don't miss it! More information to come.

Peace and Love,

Geoffxxx

Roman Holiday

2010-12-29T17:17:00.000Z

Hi Everyone,

Just to let you know that I'm busy packing for a holiday in Rome. I'll be back in a week, but until then the blog will be silent.

Have a healthy New Year's Celebration!!!

Peace and Love,

Geoffxx

December Monthly Letter

2010-12-24T15:59:00.001Z

Mentoring support for those involved in word, image or performance arts

December, 2010. “Once in Royal David’s City!”

Dear Mentoring Group,

HAPPY CHRISTMAS!!!! Well, here we are with another year almost complete. I trust that God has been at work in our lives; challenging, comforting and enabling our talents.

This carol has stuck in my mind after watching the BBC’s ‘Nativity’ film, when Mary gives birth to Jesus!

Once in Royal David’s City

Stood a lowly cattle shed

where a mother laid her baby

in a manger for His bed.

Awh, I hear you sigh! Because babies are beautiful and cuddly; amazing creatures who smell so wonderful and clean. They attempt to focus on our faces and expressions, they try to touch our faces, probably to make sure that what they are seeing is real! They smile because they think we are funny, or is it just wind?

This is what it must have been like for Mary and Joseph many years ago; their little helpless babe, born in a terrible time of political oppression, tyranny and slavery. How the light shined in the darkness of those times. How the political despots of the day sought Him out, to kill this little bundle of hope, this beacon of light. Herod sent out his guards to the region, to kill every child under a certain age, in the hope of killing this Messiah. When we think of the power of such people, it is hard to see how Herod would have felt threatened by a baby! However, this was the case and even though the light arrived in a small package, the darkness sought to snuff it out. God intervenes and this small family heads off to Egypt for a season, to escape the tyranny of Herod.

This Light has told us that we are also light and in this age of oppression, tyranny and slavery, the darkness is still intolerant of it shining and seeks to snuff it out and thus deepen the darkness.

I really do believe that the arts are culturally formative and that they can bring light to the world. This happens not automatically, because it’s creative, because it’s art. It happens if we ourselves are light-bearers.

When I look at the frail and vulnerable way God brought the Light into the World, we should not be afraid of our own fragility. When I look at the purity of that moment, a virgin birth, I’m reminded of those today who are kidnapped, tortured and raped because they are followers of the Way, bearers of the Light. Women in Egypt suffer from this kind of treatment to force a conversion to Islam. We move from purity to savagery, from love to hate!

When God brings salvation to the world, it is through humble means, it is by asking us to follow and be used, it is never against our will; violence will never bring light, it will only deepen the darkness, encourage hate. God’s call always needs a response from the heart.

Pray for our sisters in Egypt, for their hearts to be won by love, to overcome the darkness with light. Pray for artists everywhere to embody the Light so that their work will bring illumination to this present darkness. The Light is still shining and will not be overcome, even if the packages are small and fragile. Remember, the darkness is more frangible than the light! Be Light! Be strong!

Peace and Love to you all,

Geoffx

Christmas Competition - and the winners are?

2010-12-22T11:17:00.001Z

Hi Everyone!

Happy Christmas,

The three winners of our Christmas Competition are:

Charlie Groves
Tony Perrett
Heather D

Well done to the winners. You'll be receiving your download codes shortly.

Peace and Love,

Geoffx

Christmas Competition

2010-12-16T13:36:00.001Z

Happy Christmas Everyone,

As part of the festive celebrations I'm giving away a downloadable album to each of the three most imaginative responders!! The Blackthorn Project consists of Tim & Laurie Thornton from Colorado, America. The album is soulful, acoustic Americana, with haunting melodies and vocals. Thank you Tim and Laurie for your kindness!

Artfully speaking, what is your favourite part of Christmas Celebrations? A song, poem, artwork, design, dance, opera, cartoon, film, TV programme? Answers by using the comment box beneath this message. Closing Date: Tuesday 21st December 12noon (GMT: London). WINNERS ANNOUNCED ON WEDNESDAY 22ND DECEMBER.

ANSWERS SHOULD BE IN THE FORM OF LINKS TO SONGS, FILMS, ARTWORK ETC. OR YOU CAN EMAIL ME!
HAVE FUN!

With love from,

Geoff

Finding Your Purpose - Course

2010-12-15T15:40:00.000Z

Dear Mentoring Group,

Here's a course facilitated by our friend, Roger Allen.

Maperio™ “Finding your purpose!” January 2011

Please join us if you are:

Seeking to live God's purpose in your life
At a point of transition in your life or career
Thinking of making changes but undecided as to exactly which direction to take
Addressing conflicts between your own values and those operating in your work environment

“Finding your purpose!” will give you the opportunity to step back from daily routine to :

Gain clarity and purpose about your future direction

Reflect deeply on the areas of your life that are important to you

Explore your life and career from different perspectives

The programme is designed around 10 evening sessions and everyone has access to an exciting online tool
(http://www.maperio.org/ Creative Metier's Maperio™) and/or a hard copy workbook with Bible readings.

We have been achieving profound results for participants as they connect with their calling.

“Its been a really great opportunity to reflect on my career and life goals in a communal context.
I would recommend it to anyone unsure of the next step.” (SK)

Course Leader – Roger Allen.

For more details about the course, or to find out about one to one coaching on these or any other issue

Contact roger.angieallen@blueyonder.co.uk or 01454 416 446

Dates: From 7.30pm to 9.30pm every Tuesday from 25^th January to 5^th April 2011, except 22nd February (half-term)

Venue: Severn Ridge, Almondsbury, BS32 4HH.

Rembrandt's self-portraits Morphed

2010-12-10T14:34:00.000Z

Hi there,

Happy Friday!

Please check out this video of Rembrandt portraits! Click on the title to view.

Peace,

Geoff

Some thoughts about good news

2010-12-08T12:54:00.002Z

Much communication of good news isn't good news, but condemnation.
Condemnation is a powerplay to reinforce another person's inferiority.
'Inferior' people do not understand how privileged they are, that 'good news' is being transmitted through a superior mediator!
This mediation reveals the cultural gap between mainstream culture and the christian sub-culture.
The christian sub-culture is not normative, but reactionary.
This reaction is produced by insecurity and creates fear.
Fear makes us retreat.
Perfect loves casts out all fear.
Love reverses retreat.
Cultural development is based on the epistemology of love.

11. Rainbow coloured bullet points seemed like a good idea...at the time!!

Peace,

Geoffx

ARTISAN TONIGHT

2010-11-30T16:35:00.000Z

Hi Everyone,

Artisan is tonight, starting at 8pm, at Hall & Woodhouse, Old King Street, BATH.

PLEASE CLICK ON THE TITLE LINK AND IT WILL TAKE YOU TO THE ARTISAN WEBSITE, WITH A GORGEOUS MAP OF THE VENUE AVAILABLE FOR YOUR PERUSAL.

The idea tonight is to bring a book and read a paragraph from it which has changed your life!

Peace and Love,

Geoffx

November Monthly Letter

2010-11-29T17:33:00.000Z

Mentoring support for those involved in word, image or perfomance art.

November, 2010. “Take the old prophets as your mentors!”

Dear Mentoring Group,
When I first became a follower of the Way, I read scripture with a hungry voracity. Nevertheless there were certain books which having read once, I didn’t want to return to! Leviticus and James stand out foremost in my memory; the latter seemed to be a kill-joy to my youthful enthusiasm. James was like that stern old teacher, who stood at the back of the classroom whilst you worked, tapping his cane in his hand to remind you that his displeasure could not only be sensed, but felt!

Recently, I plucked up the courage to revisit this book in ‘The Message’ and came across this wonderful section.

Take the old prophets as your mentors. They put up with anything, went through everything and never once quit, all the time honouring God. What a gift life is to those who stay the course! Ch5 v10-11.

Now I thought this was a strange thing to say, as some of the ‘old prophets’ were a bit barking! They hung around in ‘schools’ wandering the countryside, having ecstatic visions, singing and dancing as they passed by your village. What you might call extravagant behaviour! However, it is interesting to note that they still managed to form communities!

Whilst we attempt to nurture our calling and vocation, through much discouragement of circumstance, or perhaps due to well-meaning colleagues and friends who are not reserved in ‘encouraging’ us to give up. Their logic being, that if our gifts were truly from God, we’d have cracked it by now, broken through and been successful. In the light of this ‘support’, we need to find mentors who have passed through this landscape and made it back to civilisation. James tells us we can find such wise mentors in the old prophets, because they persevered, ‘put up with anything’, or ‘went through everything’ whilst still honouring God with their gifts.

So it is with those involved in the arts today. We are much misunderstood, perceived as extravagant, maybe even egocentric; however we must press on and understand these prophets are our mentors. Why is this? The prophets persevered and so must we. Not until we are ‘successful’ (whatever that means), but so that Jesus is fully formed in us, through our work. Till our creativity reflects the gaze of someone who understands that the arts and spirituality are a personal journey in a communal context. It is this context which gives our work meaning and brings a spiritual vision to bear on reality. Community brings cohesion, whereas the isolated individual only brings incoherence. Community speaks of humility, of service as we endeavour to have an impact on a fragmented and fallen culture, wherein success is measured by the things we accumulate and not by the efficacy of the story we have to tell.

As we approach Christmas, let’s persevere until we see the heart of the servant fully formed within us, until the Word in our hearts becomes flesh, or pigment, or moving image, song, dance, poetry or story. For until this happens again and again, the voice of violent dissent will not be purged from our midst and people will not see that this Word is Love. If your friends tell you to quit, let them know that the book you read tells you to press on. A seed planted but left un-watered, will surely die! We wait for God to give the increase. Stay the course!

Peace and Love to you all,

Geoffx

Sensuality and Spirituality

2010-11-20T15:30:00.003Z

Introduction: There is little left, only traces of a christian spirituality, free from institutional control. The institution has occluded a radical community for the development of a spirituality which embraces the arts as culturally formative and sensually evocative.

When I visit the institution I’m always reminded of my sinful condition, always in need of repentance, always unclean. We are seldom it seems, encouraged to see the ‘new creation’ of our rebirth; newly regenerate and clean!

Art in the past has reinforced institutional notions of control, both of aesthetics and the human condition. The artist has seldom been left to participate in the free expression of creativity, but this is not just a ‘christian’ problem, it also is at the heart of secularised art colleges, with its control of medium and the de-programming of artists, from utilising their drawing and painting abilities. Many have succumbed to the pressure to conform to institutional control. With ‘christian’ artistry, many assume the theological control of art is a natural extension of their faith commitments.

When we look back at the 'dubious' value and nature of landscape painting, usually permitted if the view contained holy characters or angels – namely the imposition of a holy narrative as an attempt to sanctify such naturalistic (sensual) revelry! What stems from the Reformation is the free composition of landscape painting; the joy of Creation freed from justification by holy narrative.

What then do we make of Deborah Keiller’s artwork? Her lino cuts (or block prints) exude sensuality and I can confirm that there is no attempt on the artist’s part to justify the portrayal of naked models by cunningly placed halos, crosses or chalices. I talked to her recently at a local exhibition, (Larkhall, Bath UK).

I asked Deborah about her work.
"I am fascinated by the landscape of the human body & soul and often use my charcoal & pencil life drawings as a starting point for my art. I work in a number of mediums ranging from paint, inks, printmaking and more recently 3D, both figuratively & abstractly.
I am often perplexed by people's need to define the human body as 'natural' and the soul as 'spiritual' as if somehow due to its fleshy, bloody, tangible nature the body ranks lower than its invisible counterpart! I see no distinction and guess in some way I seek to challenge the 'secular' vs. 'sacred' myth that seems to pervade our Christian culture!"

Deborah is aware of this tension between her work and that of other artists, who are christian. She talked to me of an art which is message heavy, not leaving any doubt as to where the artist is coming from. Aesthetically this falls badly into the category of propaganda, but many seem unaware that in doing so they simply fall into the trap of turning faith into ideology. This is either naïveté, or a denial that art encumbered by programme or agenda, isn’t really art.

Such artists are still under the misconception that art needs justification, or that sanctification is possible through symbolism; adding code to aesthetic media.

In Figure One, we see a naked figure, the outlines of pink set against the purple/blue background. Those outlines flow diagonally from top left to bottom right. It imbues the image with energy, as our eye flows across the surface of the image. We are fearfully and wonderfully made, not boring orthogonal lines, but replete with interesting contours. The reclining figure for me is not enforcing passivity, but creates energy, casting our mind back to Creation and Eve’s ‘birth’.

But, still we are fearful of this alluding to the sensual, we are reserved in our judgements about such things, because our sensitivities are influenced by conservative moralisers, the new ‘Judaizers’ of this present age. We find it difficult to break free from such prudish persuasion.

Sensuality and Spirituality
There is a strong link between sensuality and spirituality. Our view of sensuality is informed by where our spirituality starts from, at which part of the grand narrative we find our origin. If we start at Creation, sensuality is not problematic, but an integral part of our story and worldview. Creation is good and our origin ‘very good’. However, if we unravel one of the threads, that of Creation and start with the Fall, then we start with corruption and our view of the sensual will be informed by this. In fact our view of all ‘matter’ will be shaped and coloured by it. Deborah Keiller’s work has its starting point in the thread we know as Creation. If this narrative thread is unravelled, Creation picked out, then the whole story itself disentangles and loses its coherence for life. Art then becomes a problem, because of its sensual appeal. We have difficulty seeing its purpose and see it as having its roots in the Fall, in corruption. How on earth then, do the Arts reveal something of God’s purpose for our lives? How could the artists ‘calling’ be affirmed as valid? If you think this way, then your worldview is coloured by the wrong glasses, in fact you are reading the wrong book!

This blog article is an edited version of an extensive review of Deborah's work. It will appear on the new ArtsMentoring.Co website as a free download.

Peace,

Geoff

Two stories - one coming soon

2010-11-10T18:38:00.001Z

Hi Everyone,

Two items of good news.

We will shortly be releasing our film 'One' for purchasing from our website. After many enquiries, we took the hint to make it available to Handy Cloud fans, and have adopted PayPal technology for ease of transaction!
Handy Cloud Productions has just been accepted by the BBC e-Commssioning service and so we will be putting forward some film proposals for Easter viewing. Please wear-out your prayer mats as we endeavour to have an impact on dear old Aunty!

That's all Folks!

Peace and Love,

Geoff

Trigger Editions

2010-11-04T11:23:00.000Z

All the things you wish you had said but never did....
All the things you are glad you never said....
Things you just forgot to mention.

[ Film Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFfAB_rxzOA ]

Just published, an anthology of poems inspired by a two-year project by artist Sarah J Trigg (a member of the arts mentoring group). During this time Sarah collected people's 'unsaid words', which range from 'I wish I had told you that you are not a burden...' to 'take the next left!' A national competition was launched inviting poets to create new works inspired by the project, culminating in this limited edition artist book. The poems sit alongside the original hand-written statements that inspired them and each book is accompanied by a set of postcards.

This is the first artist book to be produced and published by Trigger Editions, a small publisher of limited edition artworks launched earlier this year. Based in Bristol and run by Sarah Trigg, Trigger Editions collaborate with artists to produce high quality, affordable art works, prints and book works made to 'trigger' some kind of interaction or exchange between artist, viewer and artwork. Trigger Editions specialises in art works that hold the act of giving and receiving as integral to the piece.

Whilst working as a visual artist based in Spike Island, Sarah has set up Trigger Editions as a platform for artist-books and multiples that are affordable and often interactive. She has previously published a book for Sheona Beaumont (another member of the group) and is currently looking to work with other artists, especially those working from a Christian worldview, producing contemporary visual art and poetry.

You can find out more about this book and what Trigger Editions is all about at www.triggereditions.com - click on the TITLE of this posting to access the site.

Sarah would love to make contact with other artists/poets/illustrators who have experience of making contemporary work, engaging with the zeitgeist in a counter-cultural but nuanced way. You can also find Trigger Editions on Twitter and Facebook.

Sarah J Trigg - Trigger Editions

Translating the Invisible Wind - Part Thirteen

2010-10-29T13:28:00.000Z

The spiritual informs the material!

Many phenomenologists make the mistake of using their research to tell us about the human condition - from a neutral scientific standpoint – and from thence pronounce the norms of life. The flaw in the ointment is that they appear to have no grasp of the ontological! But enough of philosophical witticism! This flawed practice has even found its way into theology, undertaking theology ‘through’ the arts. Looking to art to determine a relevant theology for our age is simply akin to a sighted person only reading Braille publications and hoping to get a handle on current affairs.

Whilst the spiritual informs the material, that spiritual ‘thing’ is not ethereal, woolly or impersonal. ‘It’ speaks of our creation in the image of God, reflecting God’s characteristics; love, joy, peace, mercy, creativity etc and also of God’s essence and the as yet invisible parts of Creation. It speaks of many things we cannot fathom, but it comes to a head in human revelation, with the Word becoming Flesh; God putting on our clothing and living in the neighbourhood.

For the spiritual artist who lives as a slave to none, on the margins of society where the angst and passion of life is lived out to the full, their art frames this point of perception, of revelation. To be that, it must not be limited to recording the phenomena, the everyday objects of life; an entanglement with so-called realism, perhaps with the intent of politicising or sensationalising the issues of life. It must transcend and bring a spiritual vision to bear on reality. It does not leave this reality in the same state, shuffling around objects in the name of a concept, as if it’s a mere utility to realising the artistic (conceptual) vision.

The art of perception, must not be confused with the art of Bridget Riley and the Op Art Movement, (see ‘Squares’ above), where perception is a trick of the eye; a physical, visual phenomenon. Or again perhaps as part of a perceptual experiment with hallucinogenic drugs! If you have no idea of who or where you are, your concepts will be a mystery to most and simply increase the frustration and lack of fulfilment in the lives of those who view your work. Incoherence abounds!

The art of perception speaks to the spirit within all of us, whether recognised or not. It points ‘to’, but also ‘beyond’, the current reality. Think back to the quote of Hayden White, “We only can know the ‘actual’ by contrasting it or likening it to the ‘imaginable’.”

Perception works back as well as forward, it looks back to contrast the actual with the imaginable and then forward to an altered perception engaging us in new ways of seeing and describing the world; as well as new ways of living so we tease out the ‘new’.

The definition of percept is ‘a concept that depends on recognition by the senses, such as sight, of some external object or phenomenon.’ I would extend this to cover, sound, smell, taste and touch. This falls amazingly into the domain of installation art, inspiring all sorts of allusions, but also far-reaching beyond this medium. It also gives latitude to the imagination making a connection with a phenomenon in reality. It doesn’t however, as is the case of conceptual art, reduce the phenomenon to the artist’s intellectual and conceptual powers; an unfathomable domain unless you know the artist personally and can unravel their thoughts. Nowadays there is a great dichotomy between the artist writing about what they do and the practice of art, i.e. what they actually do.

The reasons for this are many, but let’s focus on the dichotomy between their professional education as conceptual artists and what they actually do. We have said previously that the artist who works to communicate institutional spirituality is a slave to propaganda, we must also elicit the same conclusion for artists who pass through the sausage machine of secularised art colleges, with their focus on nihilistic philosophy. Much of an artist’s writing has nothing to do with artistic practice or aesthetic nuance, but with educational language, meant to celebrate the nothingness of reality (philosophically) and the monitoring of educational pedagogy (outcomes). Life, reality has become minimalised; the atomisation of artistic practice divorces any sense of a bigger picture, of a world of connections. All that is ‘connected’ is an object to the bright idea of the artist’s own machination (hyper-subjectivity). Here’s an example.

“[The artist] recreates the glowing ember of a match in aluminium and modelling clay. It is that precise moment, after the flare of ignition and just before it disintegrates that fascinates [the artist]. His work is also concerned with an equivalent cultural moment, the point at which a subculture, trend or genre becomes outmoded and is consigned to the dustbin of history.”

To such an artist, Bourriaud claims the public is an ‘unreal reality...’. (Nicolas Bourriaud, ‘Relational Aesthetics’. Les Presses du reel, 2002. p81) Lost is the communal essence of art, focussing on the material and unable to cope with any notion of the spiritual. Disrelational Aesthetics is the norm today, hyper-subjectivity leading to the hyperreality of Postmodernism’s world of illusions. Smoke and mirrors in the name of art education.

In the grand design of Marxist ideology - because that is the pill you are forced to take - the undermining of bourgeois taste, values and representations of reality, is subverted to the point of the disintegration of everything. It is cheap worldview, as nothing is offered in its place, as most have lost their faith in the Communist State as an arbiter of (economic) justice. The genocides of the last century, have cultivated a Post-Humanist world today, where nothing coheres! This includes conceptual art, which only has the weak glue of an artist’s own say-so, to try and make things stick. Due to Humanism giving birth to a little shop of horrors, art and the artist have retreated from reality to escape the horror without. Alas, they find themselves confronted by the origin of that horror, the human heart; out of which come all the issues of life!

October Monthly Letter

2010-10-28T10:06:00.003Z

Mentoring support for those involved in word, image or perfomance art.

October, 2010: Forum for Change

Dear Mentoring Group,

It has been a strange old month: News that we won’t be going to LA to meet with potential investors, participating in a speed-writing competition (168 hours to focus your mind and then wonder if you have one left!), visiting exhibitions and attending the Forum for Change meeting in Easton.

At the Forum meeting, we were given an insight by Stuart Murray-Williams into our Post-Christendom situation and asked to consider that culturally this was a state of exile; speaking comforting words from Jeremiah about blending-in and prospering. I of course couldn’t agree to this interpretation of our cultural situation. To posit that we are in a state of exile, suggests our home is elsewhere. This of course is not true, we were created to be good stewards of Creation, to cultivate good things in the ‘here and now’ and cross-pollinate things for future (potential) development. We were given a cultural mandate which ‘suggests’ not displacement, but location. Exile may be a thread in Judaism’s story, but our story starts in a land occupied by imperial forces!

Our cultural response should therefore be different from that of exile. In the light of this, be careful which contract you sign; the old or the new! So, Stuart and I had a good conversation in our group session! I left the discussion with this thought. “If we are called to, ‘go into all the world’, how then can we be exiled? If the whole world is ours, every place is home.”

The second thread of the day arrived on my radar a little later when someone said ‘sport is a great tool’! Ah, so we are back to seeing everything in Creation as a tool, a utility to exploit. A tool for what you may ask? For Evangelism of course; as the whole cultural mandate has been whittled down to serve the institution and leave us with only one ‘function’. So we don’t actually love God’s good creation, we just want to utilise its resources for a message. As Hans Rookmaaker said, ‘There are more important things to be done than evangelism.’

Why does he say this and why does it seem so provocative?

He makes this point, because the whole of Creation has been given to us to take care of; to tend and cultivate. The limited utilitarian view of Creation speaks of institutional needs and not creational ones. It seems so provocative because we are slaves to the institution, our minds captured to serve this monolithic spirituality, set in stone to preserve 'the faith'. However, such preservation renders the faith lifeless; the art sterile, veiled with symbols which make sense only if you know the code. Locked in a bygone age of Christendom, the word has not so much become flesh, as turned to stone!

I was talking to one of The Group who lives near Sacramento, California. Heather said such a wonderful thing to me, which I think is worth repeating. It reminds us of our work in the arts.

“Artists can often see beyond here and now, that's how we can create works of art on blank paper or blank canvas.”

This is the art of the future, not the art of the past. The cultural mandate may originate in the past, but it speaks of our future; of revealing the potential placed within Creation and awaiting the spiritual artist to (re)discover - whether with charcoal, pencil, oil pigment, words, light, movement or sound. The visionary helps people see the potential in Creation and in others; cultivating well-being, peace and love.

Peace and Love to you all,

Geoffx

In Emergency Break Glass

2010-10-22T15:50:00.001Z

Hi,

Please support our friend Paul Hobbs with his new exhibition in the High Street, Weston, Bath. BA1 4DJ

There is a link in the title to take you to Paul's website, for more information.

Peace,

Geoff

Write of Passage - 168 Film Festival

2010-10-22T15:21:00.001Z

Hi Everyone,

It has been a quiet week on the blog front because I've been locked away in my writer's garret participating in a speed writing competition for the 168 Project, called 'Write of Passage'.

The 12 page screenplay has be be sent to LA by 5pm on Monday! After that I'll be free to write some more on the blog, inlcuding the 'final' part of "Translating the Invisible Wind".

Peace and Love,

Geoff

Momentum Exhibition

2010-10-11T08:31:00.001Z

Hi Everyone,

Please support this lovely looking exhibition which includes art by our friend Marco Cazzulini.

Enjoy and if you go and see this, then please leave a comment on the blog, by clicking on 'COMMENTS'!!

Peace,

Geoff

Modernism Weekend at the Bath Royal Literary & Scientific Institution

2010-10-07T16:53:00.000Z

Hi again,

For those who like a little education, please check out this wonderful weekend of cultural historical fare. It includes talks on German Expressionism, Wyndham Lewis, Kafka and Woolf.

Enjoy,

Geoff

Unchosen - Bath Film Season 2010

2010-10-07T16:12:00.001Z

Hi, this is for your perusal and delectation. If you have a heart for human rights, then please support this event.

Peace,

Geoff

Angel Investors crash and burn...

2010-10-02T08:57:00.003Z

Angel investors crash and burn...when their wings are clipped by a fear of heights!

I’m not talking about the usual investment with the sole purpose of making a return on funding, but the visionary investor who believes that the arts, are culturally transformational. For me the sharp end of this is film!

The visionary investor should understand three things about such activity:

1.    Investment is not speculative but adventurous.
2.    The adventure is not to a well-defined destination, but a journey through the cultural landscape.
3.    Having travelled from A to B, B is only your current position and not the place to settle down and build concrete super-structures to contain your aspirations. Death quickly ensues!

In the search for ‘new voices’, new visions of life, these will not come with an established ‘strong brand’, but will have the potential to be developed into one. Those desirous of pre-branded artistry merely protect the status quo. The current economic climate may make this fear appear rational, but it is hardly the view of the visionary investor. God, after all, is in the detail.

Creative people like me, are not business people, PR people or marketing people. They get up in the morning, or are disturbed by strong winds during the night and they have to write; to encapsulate new visions of life. We generally do not think business first, or even promoting our work as the first and foremost concern. Initially, I may suggest, that is not the reason for the inspiration and the ensuing frenetic activity and sacrifice!

The new voice is a different perspective, another way of looking at the world, a changed reality waiting to be born, of perceiving this current world of glory and decay. The voice of the new cries out in the wilderness, not in the City; longing to be heard. The investor needs therefore, to travel culturally to get to a meeting place between the creative talent and business wisdom.

I expect angel investors have a different kind of aerial view of the landscape, but once they desire the safety of ‘terra firma’ they lose that perspective. They lose their nerve for pioneering transformation and with wings clipped, crash to the ground and burn!

The cultural way of being is one of relationship between art and business. One teaches the other; the creative life and practice, the development of brand and business acumen. Apart they will both lose their faith in transforming culture, only witnessing the status quo being strengthened. Together the journey starts, the transformation begins.

And the destination? Well culture-forming is not a destination, but a continual walk through the landscape, cultivating change, new ideas and stories, adding a new voice to Creation; a new vision to astound an unsuspecting public.

These are my thoughts after failing to help business people see that a new voice doesn’t come with a strong brand already attached, but that one can be cultivated throughout the journey. Otherwise the investment is into pre-produced, pre-packaged, pre-dictable films. We simply confirm the malady that we were so desperately trying to change!

Geoff Hall

Arts Mentoring Group Monthly Letter

2010-09-30T16:04:00.000Z

September, 2010. Vision

Dear Mentoring Group,
For the last month I’ve been stuck on these words written by Paul to the ekklesia community in Colossae.

"So, if you are serious about living this new resurrection life with Christ, act like it. Pursue the things over which Christ presides. Don’t shuffle along, eyes to the ground, absorbed with the things right in front of you. Look up and be alert to what is going on around Christ; that is where the action is. See things from His perspective."

So often this is translated in a way that produces a severe heavenly mindedness, rendering the usual conclusion about earthly use. If you look through scripture with the wrong lenses, reality can be full of strange contradictions. The philosopher Michael Polanyi wrote of our visual abilities, noting that we actually see like a medium-format camera, upside down, but that our brain translates, transforms this vision the right way up! In an experiment with a pair of inversion glasses, which reveal how we actually see things, the wearer sees the world the ‘wrong way up’ again, causing all sorts of problems when trying to negotiate their way around a room. Imagine driving with them on! (Is this the problem with the M25?) The Postmodern worldview is like this; it is applying an inversion which disorients human navigation.

The renewed mind allows us to see the right way up. We understand that the things ‘going on around Christ’ are not simply a picture of some heavenly domain, but that it is mirrored in the events of everyday life.

‘What is going on around Christ’ can be seen in the art of our day, in paintings and installations, films, literature, music and dance. It reflects on things like human worth, meaning and purpose in life, it darkens the room with nihilistic gloom and lightens it with the perpetuity of grace and self-sacrifice. There is not an impregnable boundary between the heavenly and the earthly. We are called to ‘Look up and be alert’ and we should know that we have this visual ability, but also the attitude of heart to be alert. This is not a call to the impossible, or the ‘ideal’.

How should this reveal itself in our work as writers and poets, filmmakers and visual artists, musicians and dancers? How do we fulfil our calling, or indeed know it? How do you know what your ‘proper job’ is?

Spiritual direction in a postmodern landscape may seem precarious, but God is impervious to the shifting sands of time and the many changes of perspective that have occurred in the ebb and flow of the historical narrative. Our work should not be self-focused, but Creation focused. We should look at this Creation and marvel, we should look and grieve. In this same passage from Paul’s letter, we are told to ‘pursue the things over which Christ presides’. This is not some kind of heavenly displacement, denying the visible for the invisible, but it gives us a context to connect with, which helps us understand that our work holds such a powerful influence when it reflects the Kurios of Christ.

So what is ‘going on around Christ’? Well, look around your own field of expertise and check out the conversations artists are having with their audiences. What are they saying about life, relationships, about what is wrong with the world and how it should be put right? This is a conversation we should be participating in. Why? Because Christ presides over the earthly as well as the heavenly; because when we look up with a renewed mind we see the world the right way up, we see that our adversaries are not flesh and blood and that the new world ‘aborning’ is a reality transformed through our gifts and calling. Poets dispelling the darkness, for instance.

Think on these things. Cultivate a worldview which is consistent with scripture, which opens up the landscape and doesn’t partition it off, closing it down into cultural no-go areas. Don’t be pursued, but pursue the things over which Christ presides!

Peace and Love to you all,

Geoffx

Paul Gauguin - Maker of Myth. An exhibition at the Tate Modern

2010-09-29T16:48:00.004Z

Paul Gauguin
Teha 'amana has many Parents 1893
Art Institute of Chicago, USA © Art Institute of Chicago, USA
Oil on canvas

Here is a link (in the title) to a video about the new Paul Gauguin exhibition at the Tate Modern, starting tomorrow, 30th September and runs till 16th January, 2011.

If we'd like to go as a group, then let me know and I'll try and organise something.

Peace,

Geoff
http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/exhibitions/gauguin/default.shtm

a date for your diary - Tree House

2010-09-24T15:11:00.000Z

Hi Everyone,

Here's a couple of dates to pencil into your diary. We are looking to resurrect the Tree House at a city centre venue. We hope that will be around November 23rd or 24th, depending on availability and are looking to run it as a quarterly event. If you are able to contribute to the event presenting your work: VJ-ing, music, art, film, poetry, fashion, whatever, then drop me a line, please.

Peace,

Geoffx

Translating the Invisible Wind - Part Twelve

2010-09-09T16:52:00.000Z

Marcel Duchamp, 'Fountain'. 1917.

If as an artist, your work only points to the real, that is, you have been persuaded that one must communicate to an audience only through the phenomena of this life, then all this does is confirm that change is impossible, all you can do is move the furniture around; you cannot change the architecture, nor the infrastructure.

Marcel Duchamp's famous, but on its public release infamous found object, stands as a turning point in Western Art. One of his philosophical influences was Henri Poincaré, a Physicist who suggested that the laws which governed matter were simply ‘man-made’ and that ‘The things themselves are not what science can reach...but only the relations between things. Outside of these relations there is no knowable reality.’ (Quoted in, ‘Duchamp- Art as Anti-art’ by Janis Mink. Published by Taschen. 2000. p43)

In the light of this, art cannot tell us anything about the world, it has no epistemic function. Reality is unknowable and all we can know is a relation ‘between things’.

This is of course problematic, as if we cannot know the ‘things’, then how can we know the relations between them? This very much seems to me where Bourriaud’s ‘Relational Aesthetics’ is placed, in the interstices, the cracks between things. It warrants the question that if reality is unknowable, then how can we talk of the relation between various elements. We can see the effect, but not the cause! Poincaré’s thought, according to Mink, is the seminal influence on Duchamp’s work from that point in time - the first decade of the 20th Century. (Duchamp translates this scientific thought into aesthetic form.)

Conceptual art is based on such ‘insights’. If bourgeois values & virtues along with their communication through art are to be undermined, then the spell of this purported illusion is broken by the ‘found object’; the object of everyday reality, not of virtues and values alien to proletarian life. Art as anti-art then stands as the epitome of this art practice. What Duchamp achieves through everyday objects is to show the conceptual relation between things, how various objects interact/react to one another, or how they react to one another when held together by a concept. It is the art of scepticism and concept, materialism and atomisation; it is realism per se. All that is solid melts into the air!

If you are someone who believes that reality and its creator are knowable, then you cannot embrace this point-of-view and its art-form uncritically. If you are active in conceptual art, then your work should be on the basis of questioning the presuppositions and assumptions of Duchamp (and Dada) and undermine their influence. If however, you wish to show a different form of art practice, then consider perceptual art forms.

In the next instalment, we will look at perceptual art and some of the possibilities it holds for the spiritual artist; the artist who understands that the spiritual informs the material.

Fritz Lang's Metropolis on show at Vue Cinema, Cribbs Causeway

2010-09-07T13:50:00.001Z

Exciting News!

The newly reconstructed and restored version of Fritz Lang's 'Metropolis' is on show at the Bristol Cribbs Causeway, Vue Cinema, this Sunday @ 5pm. Some of you who came along to the Tree House, will remember me showing clips from 1920's German silent films. This is truly one of the greatest!

A negative of this version was found in Argentina and on inspection it revealed that this version had an extra 30mins footage, which no one with the DVD version will have seen.

So, if you are excited by films with genuine historical kudos and love the silent era, then pop along to see it. The LINK in the title takes you to the Vue Cinema website with further information and times as well as ticket booking facilities. HOPE TO SEE YOU THERE!! How exciting!

Peace,

Geoffx

How to earn a living from your creative gifts - with Mark McGuinness

2010-09-06T11:00:00.000Z

Mark McGuinness will be running a workshop for those involved in word, image and perfomance arts, on October 1st. @ SS Philip & Jacob, Bristol, BS2 0ET. 10:30am to 12:30pm. Registration starts from 10am.

We will be looking at how to find your audience and sustain your life through the Internet!

The cost is £10 by cheque or £10.50 via Paypal. Places are limited, so if you are interested please contact me through the blog, by commenting on this post and leaving contact details. Your place must be booked and paid for before your attendance.

This is going to be a great time with Mark, book now to avoid disappointment!!

Peace,

Geoff

August 2010, Mentoring Group Letter

2010-08-30T12:05:00.000Z

August, 2010. Grace, Love and Intimacy

Dear Mentoring Group,
Greetings to you in this holiday month! I trust you have all been able to recharge and find times of refreshing during this ‘summer’ season!

Sometimes God takes us on a journey we’d rather not take. God takes us to the wilderness, when really we want to be developing our public profile and create marvellous new visions of the world around us. We ponder, even question the wisdom of God in making ‘our’ life a misery. Our faith seems more fragile in these desert places, as opposed to feeling empowered by the cultural interaction that our work brings.

I’ve been reading a book by Henri Nouwen, entitled ‘Adam, God’s beloved.’ Adam is a man Henri looked after in a care home for those with severe disabilities. Adam’s included epilepsy and an inability to walk and talk, after a mix up in his medication for his epileptic seizures. The book is structured along the life of Christ and includes chapters like, ‘Adam’s Desert’, ‘Adam’s Public Life.’

Nouwen writes that in Adam’s Desert journey he communicated a marvellous mystery of God, that we are ‘precious, beloved, whole and born of God.’ His wisdom shines forth when he tells us that this also reveals that his worth has nothing to do with ‘whether or not he made money, had a job, was fashionable, famous, married or single. It had to do with his being.’ (p25)

I am learning this desert walk, in the hope of arriving at my public life! I am learning that I am precious, beloved, whole and born of God, despite my circumstances, despite my impending unemployment, despite having a sense of others' disappointment, despite looking in the mirror and seeing someone apparently untouched by life’s potential, despite wishing my gifts were good enough to sustain life.

‘Despite’ all of this desert experience, I am learning that God has taken me this way. As TS Eliot wrote in his poem, ‘East Coker’,

Old men ought to be explorers,
Here or there does no matter,
We must be still and still moving,
Into another intensity,
For a further union, a deeper communion...

I am travelling this way because God wants me to see that at my very core, I am beloved, precious and whole; despite the circumstances of my life. This is the nature of my very being.

In this walk, this desert sojourn, I embrace the words of Paul,

The amazing grace of the Master, Jesus Christ, the extravagant love of God, the intimate friendship of the Holy Spirit, be with all of you.

In this wilderness, we need Grace and Love to embrace intimacy with God. These things are given to us; we don’t have to attain them. Despite our misgivings about ourselves, our sense of unworthiness, we can know the intimacy of the Holy Spirit. This will inform our work as artists. We need to be at home with this extravagant love, this miraculous wholeness as children of God.

Just when we think our faith is fragile, we see that in this place we are strengthened. This is a place of knowing how precious we are and that we experience not the absence of God, but God’s presence in a different way.

Peace and Love to you all,

Geoffx

Art is a Spiritual Discipline – with material consequences

2010-08-12T15:15:00.005Z

a closing parenthesis:

Art is, first and foremost a spiritual discipline. That is not to say ethereal and disembodied, disconnected from the world. It is a spiritual discipline with material consequences. It is therefore just like life, where ‘soul meets body’, where flesh is animated, energised from a Loving Source. Let’s go back to Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who featured in the early part of ‘Translating the Invisible Wind’.

“To live as a human being means to live as a body in the spirit. Flight from the body is as much flight from being human, as is flight from the spirit. The body is the form in which the spirit exists, as the spirit is the form in which the body exists. All this is said only about humankind, for only in the case of human beings do we know about body and spirit. The human body...is the form in which the spirit of God exists on earth.” Dietrich Bonhoeffer – ‘Creation & Fall’, Fortress Press, 2004. p78.

As an analogy, we can suggest that Art is an expression of this spiritual body, a means of communication, but if we as artists prefer a ‘flight’ from our spiritual nature and merely perform tricks with sticky pigments, charcoal, household or industrial objects, then like Richard Serra, the process is what art is all about, not meaning or metaphor. This being the case, we have missed the point - that art connects through perceptual means, with those whose imagination we capture, even if for a moment. Art expresses, art embodies a worldview; it is never ever neutral in its view of the world.

The Enlightenment Project’s desire to rid the world of religious ‘superstition’, along with its naive perspective on the world, encompassed the policy for the privatisation of ‘religious’ beliefs; permitting only scientifically verified knowledge into the public sphere. Serra’s focus on ‘process’ is merely a sign of this controlling culture, enforcing itself at the expense of those who dare think differently. Such a worldview reduces diversity and enforces conformity. Art, spiritual art, breaks down this separation and undermines the isolation of faith in a hermetically-sealed environment. The main problem with this act of censorship, is that its gaze is focused on the art of institutionalised spirituality and liturgical symbology.

As the years pass by, materialism desensitises ‘our’ spiritual capacity and also arts spiritual propensities. Add to this a disdain of Bourgeois style and Dada’s conceptual art of the ‘found object’ - a proletarian alternative - the clutter of materialism continues to isolate art and artist from the public with its esoteric, hyper-individualised and conceptual framework, whilst desensitising our spiritual imagination and character. It is providing us wholesale with an anaesthetic, whilst the secular surgeon operates on every fabric of society, remedying the disease in the nature of things; relationships, art, politics, economics, justice. What I’m suggesting is a reconnection through perceptual art, a veritable by-pass of the surgeon's intent. (More on that in the next instalment.) A perceptual art reconnects with artist and public and reforms those very things deformed by Secularism.

Our materials will express something of our worldview, when coherently fashioned into a perceivable form. We can either collaborate with the prevailing spirit of the age, or we can resist. The artist cannot resist by standing aloof or alone. Jacques Ellul, in his work on ‘Propaganda’ shows the kind of environment this resistance needs to be influential.

“An individual can be influenced by forces such as propaganda only when [they are] cut off from membership in local groups. Because such groups are organic and have a well-structured material, spiritual and emotional life, they are not easily penetrated by propaganda.” (p.91)

Next - We’ll go back to 'Translating the Invisible Wind' and draw it to a close, by giving some outlines of perceptual art.

PLEASE FEEL FREE TO LEAVE A COMMENT BY CLICKING ON THE LINK BELOW.

JUBILATE! ENCORE

2010-08-11T10:58:00.000Z

I'm excited to announce this latest exhibition! Please support our dear friend Paul Hobbs in his new show at the Chapel Row Gallery, Bath. Click on 'Coming Up' on the Chapel Row website, for more details.

After you've visited the gallery, why not leave a comment at the bottom of this entry!

Art is a Spiritual Discipline

2010-08-06T09:51:00.003Z

An opening parenthesis:

Before we define the ‘art of perception’ and bring to a close ‘Translating the Invisible Wind’, we should stop to think about the nature of art and the artist. For if as artists we don’t know who we are, we will never understand our task on earth and create something cohesive and meaningful.

When Tarkovsky talks about resurrecting spirituality, he puts it this way.

“I believe...that an enormous task has been entrusted to art. This is the task of resurrecting spirituality.’ (Andrei Tarkovsky Interviews, p.144)
He goes on...
“With the word spirituality I first of all have in mind a person’s interest in what has been called the meaning of life. This is the first step at least...We have asked ourselves the question of why we live...and the artist who isn’t preoccupied with this question is not an artist...it is when we begin to take on these questions [of existence] that what we call true art arises.” (p145)

With the growth of materialism in our age, the space for spirituality, for asking questions of existence, has been submerged. When we focus on the material, the artistic search for ‘realism’, our spiritual capacity is diminished. The artist who simply focuses on capturing the ‘material’ world has not understood this purpose for the arts; to help answer the spiritual yearning within. Whether this is conceived as the focal vision of the artist, or the gathering of the ‘found object’ for the conceptual artist, spirituality is diminished and we are left with all the angst and confusion of Existentialism. The Existentialist God is a silent God, at some distance from our plight, unsympathetic and judgmental and probably worst of all, unwilling to help.

If this is the point-of-view the artist is working from, then every connotation of human dissipation is conceivable; for nothing holds this world together. If however, we perceive our yearning as stemming from what Qoheleth claims, that, ‘God has placed eternity in our hearts’, then nothing material in its own right can fill the void, nothing will through technological development, ever achieve an answer to the aching and longing within; the God-shaped hole is actually bigger than the world and all its potential.

If the artist does not know who they are and what they are here for, they will simply add to the confusion; that is, the babel of many tongues. What distinguishes a spiritually attuned artist from a materialist, is that the spiritual artist will no longer participate in the building of a tower, to reach heaven and claim it for its own.

A second facet is this: The artist must resist this reflex for autonomy. We cannot work alone, we cannot live alone. Resistance is possible to the propaganda of our time, ‘consumere ergo sum’; a message poured out through advertising campaigns, conceiving the problem of existence as immediacy and choice. If your itch can’t be scratched immediately, then there is something wrong with you. You need to buy this hair product, anti-wrinkle cream, car, property, computer, iPad, eBook etc. Of course, with technology you subject your life to an endless stream of ‘updates’ to keep you functioning, your next ‘fix’ can be 'downloaded' NOW!! From mainframe to mainline!! However, what kind of functionality is it, when your computer becomes your life-support system? Add to this our appetite for humanity; we seek endless variations to fulfil our sexual longing, trying to ease the pain of the void. The intimacy of the gland replaces the intimacy of the spirit.

If our art falls into this category of consumerism, then we have indeed lost the plot. We cannot resist alone, but the pressure to conform is seemingly endless. Does our art give people the time, the space to reflect on the meaning of life? Or is it just another sound bite, another sales-pitch to purchase another brick for the towering edifice of our self-proclaimed autonomy?

With the closing of this parenthesis, we will look at the isolation of the artist and our resistance to the propaganda of our age.

PLEASE LEAVE YOUR COMMENTS BELOW.

The Guardian - Arts Funding

2010-08-04T08:15:00.001Z

Hi Everyone,

Well here's a plug for something in the press we've been talking about for years. The Guardian calls it 'private investment', but we may know it as patronage.

The Link is in the title. Let's have your thoughts on the Comments section.

Peace,

Geoff

July 2010, Mentoring Group Letter

2010-07-30T12:15:00.000Z

METANOIA

Dear Mentoring Group,

Art, first and foremost is a spiritual discipline. If our desire is to create an art which transcends the materialism of our day, then we need to take this to heart. The word didn’t stay as the word, the word became flesh. This is the foundation of a new guarantee which is radically different from the older version. The word was proclaimed, it was written on stone, then on parchment. In the newer sleeker version, it is written on our hearts. Whatever we write, film, paint, sculpt or dance; art is more than the materials we use to create.

To look into our hearts and see what is written there, we need to contemplate how wonderful this is; how life transforming and transcendent it is. If however, the spiritual discipline of the artist is neglected and we simply concern ourselves with the material aspect, whether of found or created objects, we haven’t really had a ‘metanoia’ moment, a change of perception, a change of heart. What is written on our hearts wasn’t penned cheaply; it involved sacrifice. Our gaze into the heart involves the same cost. If we are to resurrect spirituality in our day and point away from a materialism which disdains such intangible things as ‘Spirit’ - simply adding to the hopelessness of our day - then we need ‘metanoia’ moments. Not one, but many. Not just about performing certain institutional rituals, but about relationships; about art, about Creation and creativity, about everything we are involved in.

For myself such moments are ongoing and are always done with the help of friends. We are not called to live or work alone. If we follow this path of self-autonomy, then we rebel against our uniquely Created nature and dissolve the connections we were meant to cultivate. The art of dissolution is always superficial and self-obsessed. My present change of perception and heart regards preparing for success. I use this word in the sense of a gardener’s handiwork producing fruit and vegetables for the household. Cultivation takes time, that’s why we think we are always waiting for God, but in fact God is waiting for us! My past is littered with glorious failures and my current position is hardly one to be advertised, but if I perceive of life as a growing list of failures, I simply prepare this garden for a crop failure.

So, I’ve been preparing my heart, my life, for the harvest. I’ve continued writing and have just finished a screenplay, I’ve attended a Business Link training day on ‘Intellectual Property Rights’, I continue to undertake marketing research for the day when we’ll have something more to present to the world. Oh and I’m scribbling furiously for a new story. In all of this, God continues to inspire. Why? Because...there is a future not determined by the past. And so it is with you. What are your ‘metanoia’ moments; your change of heart, change of direction moments? What are you preparing for? Recession? Crop failure? Disappointment? Rejection? Or are you looking the other way and preparing your heart for Growth? Fruitfulness? Fulfilment? Embrace?

Peace and Love to you all,

Geoffx

'The Meeting Place' Exhibition by Joy Wolfenden Brown

2010-07-27T17:03:00.002Z

Barry and I came across this lovely gallery in St Ives, the home of some jolly good art!

The finishing touches were just being put to a new exhibition, 'The Meeting Place', a collection of paintings by Joy Wolfenden Brown.

If you are down in Cornwall this summer, then you must pay a visit to this show. For me it is a very aesthetically-charged exhibition. The paintings demonstrate a remarkable control of medium and psychologically reveal an unresolved tension. Memory is also evoked, by the surface texture, a kind of blurred memory caught up in family history. (This reminds me of the Wong Kar Wai film, 'In the Mood for Love', where the frame is cropped and images blurred to suggest the inadequacy of memory recall.)

It was Bono who said that the problem with much (christian) art these days, is the lack of tension. If you want your imagination inspired into thinking how this can be achieved in your own work, look no further.

The exhibition runs from July 24th - August 22nd. Check out the website for details. The link is in the title of this blog entry.

Geoff Hall

Geoff's Holiday Crib!!

2010-07-27T15:03:00.000Z

My...erm, crib!

Barry providing an evening's entertainment!

Geoff's Holiday Pics - The Chapel

2010-07-27T14:58:00.000Z

Penponds Chapel

Inside tells its own story

Geoff is on Holiday

2010-07-16T16:28:00.001Z

Travelling on a Honda Goldwing!

Hi Everyone,

I'm away from 19th July till Saturday 24th. I'm travelling on the back of this wonderful Goldwing owned by Barry Dunnage. This is my first roadmovie kinda trip and my very first on the back of a motorbike. We are staying in a derelict chapel in Penponds, near Camborne!

All a bit of an adventure, but Barry and I will also be brainstorming an idea for students, to help them discover how their spirituality influences imaginative art and design.

Beyond that, we are visiting the Tate in St. Ives and a few cafe's and tea rooms along the way.

Peace,

Geoff

Donald Miller Podcast

2010-07-15T19:33:00.005Z

Hi,

Here's a Donald Miller (Blue Like Jazz) Podcast from iTunes. Check out his talk on life and storytelling. (He's number 18 on the list.)

Inspirational stuff!

Peace,

Geoffx

Translating the Invisible Wind - Part Eleven

2010-07-15T16:06:00.003Z

Art of Perception.
‘We only can know the ‘actual’ by contrasting it or likening it to the ‘imaginable’. (Hayden White, ‘The Tropics of Discourse’, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1978. p98.)

The Parables come to mind. Jesus doesn’t preach, he tells stories and much to the chagrin of the Authorities, this seems to give him more power over the imagination of the crowds, than they do with their moral preaching! There must be something in this, a lesson for today? It is true to both past and present day, the Institutional needs outweigh the needs of the people.
Tithing becomes a self-righteous show to others and a maintenance grant for the Institution of Spirituality. It doesn’t affect the needs of the supporters of the institute, and is set to keep it going in fair weather or storm. The Newer Testament notion of giving is different from that of the Older one; you have freely received, so freely give. In Jerusalem the new born community of Followers of the Way go for a common ownership policy, which in the main goes along the lines of ‘if you see someone in need’, talk to the one of the seven appointed officers and in the meantime sell any superfluous items you have and give the money to the deacons so that they can allocate to those in need. Simple, huh? Imagine this today, if the church saw an artist in need and responded in that way!

The language of Jesus though is unburdened from institutional needs. He is one of the people and committed to their welfare. He strangely though, doesn’t tell them what the new Kingdom of God administration looks like, but introduces his stories with phrases such as: ‘The kingdom of God is like’... or, ‘Picture this’... Now you’d think that 'something new’, would need clear branding so as to distinguish it from the Older something, wouldn’t you? Something like a clear an unequivocal statement of intent, an evangelical outpouring about the truth of the matter would help, no? In a way we miss the statement, the branding of the new, but in those days the sermons from the Religious Leaders weren’t like this sort of stuff. The difference was in the language; the connotation, the simile, the metaphor and it was stated thus, because Jesus’ language deals not with religious concepts (theologies of righteous living), but on perceptions of this new elusive Kingdom. Rationalising this new thing won’t help, trying to find a logical conclusion to what it should be has its starting point in what is already established, the status quo. You first have to perceive it and then move heart and soul to the new.

And what happens? Do people ignore him wholesale? No. Do they all get what he is saying? No. To change the phrase used of the parable, ‘that in seeing they might not see’, let’s alter this to, ‘that in perceiving, they might not perceive’. The work of the storyteller and the artist is not to convict people of error, nor convince people of truth, but to capture the imagination with the possibility of something new being born into the world; a change in the world order, justice for the afflicted and the disenfranchised, a change in the materialistic conceptions of life and the materialistic conceptions of art. Conviction isn’t their job, it is something achieved in the heart, by the Spirit.

Let’s look at it in this light, from the quote at the top of our page, ‘We only can know the ‘actual’ by contrasting it or likening it to the ‘imaginable’. Jesus in his parables was showing the crowds the imaginable, he was communicating perceptually. However, the perceiving leads to understanding the ‘actual’ situation, it feedbacks to reality, to the place where the status quo appears unchangeable. It is only through this percept that we can see that real change is on the way.

If as an artist, your work only points to the real, that is, you have been persuaded that one must communicate to an audience only through the phenomena of this life, then all this does is confirm that change is impossible, all we can do is move the furniture around; we cannot change the architecture nor the infrastructure.

In the next Translation, we’ll look at the work of the artist in terms of the percept, as opposed to the found objects of realism and proletarian art.

Translating the Invisible Wind - Part Ten

2010-07-08T13:18:00.003Z

A response to despair - the language of lament

Brueggemann – the language of lament is powerful
"The task of the prophetic imagination...is to cut through the despair and to penetrate the dissatisfied coping that seems to have no end or resolution." (Walter Brueggemann, ‘The Prophetic Imagination’, Fortress Press. 2001, p63)

Whilst Brueggemann writes mainly about the ‘word’ of the prophet, it limits a truly cultural response to one medium, it limits the prophetic imagination. As a counter to this, remember the performance art of Ezekiel!! (What we don’t have time to do here is realign the prophetic imagination to the various media in visual and performance arts.) Brueggemann also writes about offering symbols to penetrate the despair. As an aspiring filmmaker, my aim is not to provide the viewer with new symbols of hope and transformation, but to enable them to perceive things metaphorically. Krzysztof Kieslowski said, ‘I don’t film metaphors. People only read them as metaphors...That’s what I want.’ Another slant on ‘film as visual metaphor’ is found with Andrei Tarkovsky.

"I prefer to express myself metaphorically. Let me stress: metaphorically, not symbolically. A symbol contains within itself a definite meaning, certain intellectual formula, while metaphor is an image. An image possessing the same distinguishing features as the world it represents. An image — as opposed to a symbol — is indefinite in meaning. One cannot speak of the infinite world by applying tools that are definite and finite." (In, ‘Andrei Tarkovsky Interviews’. Edited by John Gianvito. University Press of Mississippi, p86)

Put away the formula milk of the symbol and turn to the meat of the metaphor, or if you are a vegetarian, the Quorn of the metaphor!

Changing Perception cannot be achieved by prescriptive measures; hope reduced to a symbol, knowledge limited to a didactic method. We have put our faith in the logic of the Word, an intellectual formula and not the Word Incarnate. The letter kills, the symbol withers, but the Spirit animates, transforms; breathes life, everyday. As McLuhan has pointed out, God as a concept is dead. We need to return to the God of Creation, the animator who attracts our attention through the percept, the metaphor, the vision of life which rejects the status quo and challenges us through the prophetic imagination of the artist.

This is the age of despair and dissatisfied coping. If our art does not address this condition, it is impotent, self-infatuated. Here’s Brueggemann again,

“I believe that grief and mourning [the language of lament], that crying in pathos is the ultimate form of criticism, for it announces the sure end of [the status quo, the dominant consciousness].” (Op. cit. p.46)

This is an uncomfortable art, not a palliative for pain, nor a panacea for pathos. The artist is to embrace pathos, communicating with those who have been injured, marginalised in society; the have-nots who cry out for redemption, for justice, for a new way of life to be born in their day. The vision offered by the artist should embrace those discarded by the affluent, by static religion and by political oppression and should show a different world is possible. This is not feasible if we are complicit with contemporary art’s experimentations with navel lint; the propaganda of despair, the concept of ready-made sophistry.

In Part Eleven, we’ll look at the Art of Perception.

‘We only can know the ‘actual’ by contrasting it or likening it to the ‘imaginable’. (Hayden White, ‘The Tropics of Discourse’, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1978. p98.)

Across the Arno - May 2009

2010-07-07T09:01:00.001Z

Bristol Artisan Event

2010-07-05T10:57:00.000Z

Hi,

This Tuesday (6th July) is the last Artisan Event before the summer break.

We are meeting at the Watershed Media Centre at 7pm for food and then will be starting on the serious stuff at 8pm till 9:30pm.

We are situated in Watershed 1, just the other side of the cafe.

Peace,

Geoff

Translating the Invisible Wind - Part Nine

2010-07-02T19:35:00.011Z

The Art of Changing Perceptions?
Nietzsche’s pronouncement of the death of God, gives credence of course to the fact that God was at one time, alive and well! So we may ask, in the minds of men and women everywhere, what caused the demise of a healthy, playful Creator God?

I think that the "death of Christianity" or the "death of God" occurs the moment they become concept. As long as they remain percept, directly involving the perceiver, they are alive. (From, ‘The Medium and the Light’. Marshall McLuhan. )

In Part Six, we looked at propaganda and that the effect of following this path, would invariably change the nature of ‘Christianity’. We also gleaned from Rookmaaker that the starting point of our focus should be on three different aspects of our living today: Freedom, Humanity and Critique. The effect of Propaganda on us is one of creating impotence, in that we ‘cannot see what [we] might do that would be effective’. We then become compliant with the prevailing spirit of the age and live out the despair of consumerism and fear of pending doom. Our lack of effective development reveals the power propaganda has had over the Christian to date. So much for being free, our collaboration creates an impotence of action and a sterility of thought (perception), rendering resistance impossible. This of course is an illusion, but we must understand that resistance has a cost to it. It is not a free-ride out of Occupation territory, because we want this territory back! God does not call us to be cultural refugees. How then shall we proceed?

To the Counter-cultural? Calvin Seerveld writes,

Counter-cultural movements are by inception negative in outlook, against whatever is established or dominant and labour like lobbies or fringe groups, often in spite or desperation, to make their partisan point, enact their limited reforms and then either cut and run or get absorbed. But christian culturing is not a counter-cultural movement…No, the christian culture that is the task of God’s people is the normal, positive, free and joyful calling of acting like adopted sons and daughters of the King of creation all together, internationally, in the field where you are most gifted. (In ‘Rainbows for the Fallen World: Aesthetic life and Artistic task’. Toronto Tuppence Press, 1980. p.184.)

I hear many Christians today speaking at student art conferences, who are seduced by the energetic adolescent appeal of the ‘counter-culture’ movement. They talk of a christian counter-cultural art, but the whole of our cultural task for affecting change is based on the foundation of what God has said are the ‘norms’ for living, not the latest grievance or fear. We need to see contemporary culture as ‘counter-cultural’ not as normative, with its fetish for reactionary movements. The evidence noted in Part Three, of the health of young people is not a normative phenomenon; it is the consequence, a symptom of a rampant despairing secular humanism, with its rabid atheism and spiritual nihilism. We could go on to look at the rest of society, but one example will suffice in this section.

Here is a quote from a piece by Ned Tempko, in The Observer, 2nd September, 2007.

"The investigation [the Gambling Prevalence Study, 2007] was commissioned two years ago as a follow-up to a 1999 study which found 'relatively low' levels of addiction in the UK. But this time researchers say they have found a significant increase in problem gambling, with a particularly steep rise in online betting. This confirms other research which has found a sharp rise in online betting.

These studies indicate there are now nearly a million 'regular online gamblers' in Britain, accounting for almost a third of the European total. On average, these individuals spend about £1,000 a year on their habit, which means that gamblers now spend more than £1bn a year online."

You can’t watch a game of football on Commercial TV nowadays without it being sponsored by a ‘Gambling Company’. Even programmes shown on day-time TV have numerous gambling advertisements. It is simply a way of showing ‘our’ children that it is ‘normal’ to bet on every conceivable outcome in sport. It is a way of creating new participants in an insidious market. If the £1billion a year, noted above, remained in the pockets of those who earned it, people could afford to pay their bills, their mortgages or rent and keep their family together. This is a far better outcome than increasing the profits of such companies in the name of the free-market. There is no salve in posting the ‘gambleaware’ web address on such advertisements. TV Broadcasters have to be more responsible for what they transmit and where they seeks sponsorship from. Welcome to a land polluted by greed. Is Secular Humanism working for you and your family?

For further evidence of the state of the nation check out:
http://www.centreforsocialjustice.org.uk/client/downloads/BB_addictions.pdf

June 2010 - Monthly Letter

2010-07-01T10:42:00.003Z

June, 2010. CURIOSITY

Dear Mentoring Group,

For my birthday I was bought a copy of 'The Message', to replace the loose-leafed edition I currently use. I just can’t put it down. After nearly 36 years of being a Christian it is like reading a new book!!

The language Eugene Peterson uses is more personal than the ‘sanctified’ verse-form we are used to, and which of course, was not how the original readers experienced it.

Language is important for artists, whether poetic, visual, narrative, music or movement. It got me thinking about the language we use and whether it is exclusive and assumes a particular kind of familiarity, or if it is a language of common experience, the lingua franca? I’m not of course talking of dumbing-down, or being inclusive. It seems that we have suffered enough from the social engineering we call ‘political correctness’.

There are of course different languages, depending on the medium, but when communicating something of our spirituality and worldview do we assume too much, or indeed too little of our audience?

I’ve been reading the Book of Acts and came across a wonderful way of putting things. Paul is in Ephesus causing all sorts of trouble and Luke records this in Acts 19vv17-20:

It was soon all over Ephesus among both Jews and Greeks. The realisation spread that God was in and behind this. Curiosity about Paul developed into reverence for the Master Jesus.

That last sentence speaks volumes about communication and about character. It seems pretty obvious to us that God was behind all the goings on at Ephesus, however, that is with 2000 years of hindsight. At the time, in the now of Acts, Paul was an enigma to the citizens of that city. Influence is a thing which has been maligned by the Evangelical Community in the past. We are meant to go for the direct proclamation of truth, not flit around the borders of nuance. BUT! We read about such a thrilling time in the history of our faith, and it seems that the likes of Paul where still enigmatic to the public.

In John we read the words, “You know well enough how the wind blows this way and that. You hear it rustling through the trees, but you have no idea where it comes from or where it’s headed next. That’s the way it is with everyone ‘born from above’, by the wind of God, the Spirit of God.” (v7-8)

Please note it says that is the way with ‘everyone’ who is born from above. What does that mean for how we live our lives and therefore the work we produce? It means we should excite curiosity in others; as to where we are coming from, how we live and what we create. Otherwise we can fall into creating an art of the obvious statement, of pretext, not of context and subtext.

We should remain a curiosity, so that reverence for Jesus may develop in the hearts of others!

Peace and Love to you all,

Geoffx

Developments:

You are here - http://arts-mentoring-group.blogspot.com/ Please become a follower!

Please check out the link above. If you have a Google Account then simply go to the ‘Followers’ section of the blog and become a follower! If you don’t have an account, then scroll down to the ‘Links’ section and click on the ‘Google Account Set-up’ link and the rest is as easy as pie, or is that pi! The plan is to create a hub for the group to advertise our work: an exhibition, book launch, album or single releases, a film premier. You can also put a link on to the blog, for your website. If I can set up a blog, then I’m sure you can set up a Google Account!! In future we’ll be able to sell our work through the blog too!

Translating the Invisible Wind - Part Eight

2010-06-24T18:42:00.003Z

Artistic Responses in an Age of Propaganda

It is not enough to limit our artistic response to thoughts and feelings we have about God in the privacy of our studio. It is not enough to reduce art to a utility of the establishment, or the institution. Whether within or without of the Church, the vast majority of art is now institutionalised. (Joking aside of mad artists being institutionalised.) What is necessary, now more than ever is to resurrect the emaciated corpse of patronage. Where artist and patrons meet face-to-face, share a common vision and curiosity for the development of the(ir) arts, not to serve the establishment, but to serve humanity. And by serving humanity we will see that we follow in Christ’s footsteps. Here’s Rookmaaker again,

"Again, humanity is not cheap. It is worth our lives, and it is for us to make something creatively of our lives, to realize the given possibilities, the human potential. And we shall stand for it so that others can enter into the same possibilities if they wish." (ibid p158)

Such an existence, given over to creative developments for our lives, gives the possibility for others to follow. Part of the stumbling-block for new artists, new talent, is that there are not many Christians out there who exemplify a christian spirituality in their work as filmmakers, writers, poets, artists etc. to learn from, to look at how they work, how they communicate beyond the safe walls of the institution. I’m forever asked two questions in the mentoring of artists.

1. How should my spirituality direct/inform my work as an artist?
2. Who else is out there, that I may study and learn from?

This brings us back to Ellul’s opening thought; that we don’t know how to be effective, because we are ‘flooded by various propagandas’. Whether that is of sexuality, spirituality, environment, economics, social cohesion, we are numbed into a spiritual torpor, a cultural impotence, unable to act Christianly.

Part of the answer is within this piece, offered to us by Rookmaaker. Another part of it is human contact, because it is not just an intellectual pursuit (getting your head around it). Not the dehumanised ‘network’, a technological metaphor added to human relationships, but through communion with one another; sharing hopes, fears, challenges and successes. Most of the artists I know wish to work outside of the church institution. Where are the examples for them to follow, the fleshed out, incarnational presence of artists at work in the sphere of their calling and impacting at a fundamental cultural level. Where are the people we can learn from? Where are the people working in film, who do not believe that redeeming the arts means making films about ‘Bible Stories’? Redeeming the arts, redeeming film, means that our storytelling will be informed by our indwelling of the whole of the story of creation, fall and redemption, not just the religiously-loaded stories about angels, temples, Christmas and Easter. It is never done in isolation, but by committing to a group of like-minded filmmakers and patrons. We need to live this, flesh-it-out so that others can follow and lead their lives in creative fruitfulness.

God so loved the world, that he didn’t send a concept!

In Part NINE and beyond, we’ll be looking at a personal journey for finding friends and allies in filmmaking and the discovery of percept over concept, the prophetic imagination and the empowerment that comes from life on the margins, after the inevitable threats of excommunication!

Holocaust Memorial (Girl) - Berlin, 2008.

2010-06-10T16:23:00.000Z

Monthly Letter - May 2010

2010-06-06T17:20:00.001Z

May, 2010. LIGHT

Dear Mentoring Group,

So here we are with a new Government! The first mentoring group letter with a Tory Prime Minister in ‘power’!

I’m sure we are all excited by the potential for change, but what we really need to see is actual change. Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote that we shouldn’t try and change the world, but try and change the world in us! A profound model first expounded, I think, by Paul in Romans 12 v2. “Inner renewal brings about outer transformation.” When we see the great injustices of this world, things too which perturbed the writers of the Psalms, we see that there is not always a link between righteousness and prosperity, that the wicked can prosper and the righteous suffer want.

Many contemporary preachers and writers tell us of course that there is such a link; that we can choose the path of blessing or curse and whilst this is generally true, it does not follow that blessing = untold riches. Much of the evidence for the link is extricated from the Old Covenant, from a covenant which has been replaced, fulfilled by two simple rules about loving God and loving our neighbours! We also fall for the trap of taking things out of context, from the communal to the individual. What in Deuteronomy was meant for a people or nation, we turn into personal rules of acquisition!

Jeremiah warns, in Chapter 23 of false prophets who talk of peace and prosperity through worshipping idols.

Following God does not always lead to acquiring the perfect (blonde) partner, the wonderful manor house, the latest model sports car or membership of the best and most exclusive social clubs! Our example is taken from Jesus and the Apostles, the blood of the Saints poured out during a city’s purging the populous of undesirable types. We are tempted to follow the idol of the ‘I’, craving the good life, but this jars with this testimony of persecution. Proof, if you follow the logic off prosperity teaching, that there must have been some hidden condemnatory sin in their lives! (Read Hebrews ch11 and it shows us that sometimes you do not get what you have been promised.)

So, what could God want when times are hard, when we feel broken and not fulfilled?

I was reading and praying out-loud the Psalms during my wilderness sojourn and came across one of those revelatory verses. This is taken from The Message and Song 119 v130. “Break open your words; let the light shine out, let ordinary people see the meaning.”

‘Break open your words; let the light shine out...’ It seemed to me that we are like words, (Paul said we are like epistles; letters, words written on our hearts) and whilst we live we may try and convince all sorts of people about the correctness of our faith in God, but it seemed to me in that brief, quickened moment of revelation that actually it is in our brokenness and perseverance that others are convinced and personal questions of why we are on this path, arise. As we are broken, the Light bursts forth and ordinary people see the meaning of life in Christ, of life itself.

Whilst the contemporary fetish is for wholeness, there is something to be said for how God works in our brokenness. It is nearly a year now since Mary Palmer’s death. A poetry-reading of her work was held in Waterstones store in Bath. It was amazing to see how many people, Christian and non-Christian, were touched by her life and work, because she had faith until the end of this part of the journey! Although broken, the light shone forth, people began to see the meaning of her life and her work!

May our work be as the words which are broken open to let the Light shine forth. May our work be so rooted in Christ that it is like the bread of life, broken for us. For without the brokenness there would be nothing to share to the many; people looking for meaning and purpose beyond a new Parliament, a new era of airbrushed politics and digital propaganda; of ‘Big Society’, ‘freedom’ and ‘fairness’!

Peace and Love to you all,

Chill Radio

2010-06-06T17:06:00.001Z