
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Wednesday, June 30, 2010: Chelsea, Mentor, & Man Date

Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Tuesday, June 29, 2010: Christian Hedonism urho
After a time of hitting the streets, Caleb and I pay a visit to one of my old acquaintances John Jacobmeyers who is Dean of New York Academy of Arts located on Franklin Street. Story behind John Jacobmeyers was I knew him through my painting Professor Chawky Frenn. John came to my school and gave a lecture and critique some of Chawky Frenn's students and I happen to be one of those students. He was very engaged with my theme of war and death and wounds of Vietnam War victims. He said I should pay his school a visit and suggest I look into New York Academy for graduate school. Fast forward two years since that conversation I facebook John and explain my stay in New York on this Tribeca Arts Project. I thought it be beneficial for Caleb for being a painter to go with me and pay the school a visit. John was welcoming and we took a tour of the building facility. By the end of it we invite him to our art show at the end of July. He says he will be in Ireland for an artist in residency but be back July 15 so he can come visit the show the next day. I'm not sure if he believes in God but hopefully he can come and we will find out what he has to say about our theme words. On the first floor was the New York Academy Summer Exhibition of students, faculty, and alumni work. The work are high quality with different medium from paper mache sculptures of handicap people to oil paintings of dirty laundry submerge under sea water to painting of painted toe nails on top of articles about South and North Korea. John gave me a tour of the first year graduate students narrow workspace verse the second years graduate square space 120 cubic foot each. The french greeco tradition for first year students in intensive development of drawing skills from french nude sculptures on loan by the Metropolitan as a gift as well honing on fundamentals as well working once a week on Wednesday copying old masters at the Metropolitan and working conceptually with the human figures including the spatial function along with the figure. The human figures is stress in this academy with antonymy/ecorche classes which makes you build a 24" human antonymy in clay from the bone skeleton, to muscle and lastly skin. It looks highly intensive but good training of the formal structure and shape if you like to paint realistic accurate portrayal of the human body. We met some of the graduates who goes to the school there like Peter Simon Muhlhauber who currently one of two artist in residency at the New York Academy on his third year after graduate school working on his project of sculpted realistic baby models in twisted position and pose. Overall it was good learning experience for Caleb to see top quality graduate program and we talked more about where God may convict us to go after undergraduate whether that is full-time college ministry, seminary in Canada where Caleb's father is the Dean or graduate school.
"God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him". This is a popular John Piper'squote and he has a lot to say about Christian Hedonism and about 'grace is the pleasure of God to magnify the worth of God by giving sinners the right and power to delight in God without obscuring the glory of God'. Our devotion was on this topic of duty verse fulfillment and joy spoke by Anthony Lam. Anthony expressed his concern with parachurches use of the four laws coming across as dutiful or obligation which a lot of Christian or churched people is motivated by in their walk with Christ. Anthony read an exert from Desiring God book by John Piper. It talks about the idea that all people are incline to follow their pleasures, it happens that Christians follow a different pleasure than the world. As a Christian we believe God is the final and lasting pleasure.
Monday, June 28, 2010
Monday, June 28, 2010: Art of Communication
Today we had devotional by Steve and he talked about "What is the gospel?" We basically went through scriptures preaching the gospel to ourselves reminding ourselves of the purpose we are here on this project not necessary to make art, although it is part of it as art track, but to simply work out the gospel in our lives as artists. I enjoyed it and it refresh my mind that there's no pressuring in trying to figure out a prototype for our project with the word "betrayal". We had some Theology and Art teaching and I took notes below. The rest of the day we met up in our collaboration groups and talk about our dreaded word "betrayal". I felt much better after today's studio time talking about the concept of depicting "betrayal" as a mood. The feeling that lingers over us when we feel betrayed or hold on to the feeling of betrayal. It isn't a pretty mood feeling of color desaturated our lively colored world. We thought of how we can visually display "betrayal" and mention the freedom of light penetrating our world. A preview of what we will do will be making a lightbox and shedding light upon images of our word.
Art as Communicant
Sacramentality
Communicant
1. A person who receives or is entitled to receive Communion (Eucharist).
2. A person, especially an information, who communicates something.
- Miscommunication
- Lack of Communication (lack of communication something, relationship break)
- Unintelligible Communication (communication happens but no possibility of people understanding it, language interpretation)
British verse American English
“Dancing in the toilet”
Swimming in the toilet- Jonathan
British English “He’s just in the bathroom.”
American English Where is the toilet? Is rude and cruelled
If I offer you squish to drink would you accept it?
“I assume its like tomato juice except squish” Adam
Liquid concentrated juice basically a container in stores and look like fruit juice
American mistake when making squish juice is pour it into a glass bottle
What do you expect when you find a “hump zebra crossing”?
UK speed bumps; pedestrian crossing with bumps
Which should be more valued in art, clarity of communication or obscurity?
Favorite Quotes of the Day
“A lot of art is too obscured, I would play $20 to see toy story than seeing work at the MoMa” Jonathan
“I like to say the MoMa is better than toy story. Time and place for it [obscurity] and a lot of it overdone.” Jayson
“In theater when you are talking down to your audience or at them, Christ may not have the same message come across. If you can’t get the message across, retell it a different way, even when you’re telling about your art when it is obscure it doesn’t mean ‘you have failed.’“ Elisabeth
“As a Christian if I’m making art I’m thinking about who will see the film, but I’m also seeing who God will bring to see it. I think about the intent and purpose of who will see the film.” Jayson
“As a believer I believe it will cause us to reflect more so on the tension and question more concerning with the message than me as the messenger. My motive in the art community can be strong and be more avant-garde in justify myself to the art culture.” Mike
“ I experienced the church cheapen theater in a concluding statement of the moral story at the end of a play…” Elisabeth
“My church just starts recognizing the art and the PCA format of art. Form a committee and have couple of meeting. My mentor likes to start creating art and reflect and contemplate the meaning before starting on what you really want to make…” Jayson
Mission of the church is to clearly explain the gospel. Motivation of the church, we don’t want people to ignore the gospel, drives from the gospel. Art might communicate but it might do it differently instead of a front door but through the backdoor.
Does a work of art need a title?
“I don’t think it needs a title but having a title can clarify meaning of the piece” Adam
What are our responsibilities to our viewer? Do we care about our viewers? Do we care only about ourselves?
Agree/disagree: Someone can understand and respond to he gospel through a work of art (jazz, dance, architecture, etc.)?
To begin with, men can learn nothing of the content of God’s Word from an image. “Why, “ Zwingli rhetorically asks, “Do we not send images to unbelievers so that that can learn belief from the,” Precisely because we would be required to explain what they mean, which in turn requires knowledge of the Word. “If now you show an unbelieving and unlettered child images, then you must teach him the Word in addition, or he will have looked at the picture in vain.” For is ”you were newly come from the unbeliever and knew nothing of Christ and saw Him painted with the apostles at the Last Supper, or on the Cross, then you would learn nothing from the same picture other than to say He who is pictured here was a good-k man in spite of it all, ”.. One may have images of Christ, but they are powerless; the “story must be learned only from the Word, and from the painting one learns nothing except the form of the body, the movements or the constitution of the body or face.”
Zwingli on the Gospel and Images
How has God communicated?
- Psalm 19:1-4 “communicate knowledge without speech and words”
- Daniel 2 (45b) Daniel interpreter of King’s dream
- Ezekiel 4:1-4 Draw the city of Jerusalem; Ezekiel reenact his plans for the city
- Ezekiel 5:1-12 Thirds images is clear (performance art) smell of burnt hair New Yorker’s personality out of the norm behaviors reason behind his action; why did God show his people instead of telling? It helps people internalize the words by powerful images of action (trigger memory to past)
- Jeremiah 24:1-10 Imagery of “figs” which are common in the days of Jeremiah and visual metaphors/symbols for Jeremiah about good and bad figs are like those who obey and disobey God
- 2 Timothy 3:16
- Exodus 35-38 35:30-35 God use artists to design the Ark and let them construct the template with their creativity
- Hebrews 9:1-27 The Ark is only an example of what to come in Hebrews of the Holy place “Holy of holies”. Christ as the sacrifice that does not have to be given again and again. God communicating the solution to sacrifice a high priest advocate on our behalf.
- Colossian 1:15 God is showing us the tangible God in flesh.
Rituals are performance art showing the values you upon in your life that you engage with.
Visual images of how God use art to explain his intent:
Vile being rip shows the relationship barrier between humanity and God are torn in two.
A chained shut closed door reminds me of our fallen broken relationship with God when Adam committed the first sin in rebellion of God separated us from God.
“The point is, art can portray spiritual realties. The highest and most ineffable, the very presence of the Deity with His heavenly hosts, God commissioned Bezaled to represent in the Ark of the Covenant. Art can represent spiritual reality, expressing the visible in terms of the visible (Romans 1:20). Such representations are never exhaustive of their subject matter, rather they accommodate themselves to human imagination. The difference between the images made by Bezaled and those forbidden by the commandment against graven images is that the former communicate what God reveals. They do not receive worship, but point beyond themselves to the rue object of worship. They do not pretend to contain the infinite God, only to praise him and communicate His reality to others (1 Kings 8:27-30).” Gene Edwards Veith, Jr. State of the Arts
What roles do words, narration, and explanation play in understanding art?
Can one lead to or aid the other in an unexpected way?
Symbol Gap
Synthesis in Space
My Journal 6/28/2010
How has God communicate with me?
God had communicated to me through answered prayers coming on to this project and many previous times he had blessed me. God had answered my prayers for a community, which I felt loved and belong to at my college fellowship. He has surrounded me with brothers and sisters I had grew close bonds with when I don’t understand the meaning of a family and intimacy. God had become my encourager when I am weak and in need of his strength to get through each day. God had come through and become my deliver when the world expects I would come through. God has communicates to me through people who cares about my well-being. His love is expressed in giving me mercy in situations when I don’t deserve mercy. He has shown me mercy when I broke a trust with someone. God renew me consistently each day of my mind through his scriptures of who He says He is and who I am in relation to Him.
God has shown me Himself through Jesus Christ and communicate the depth of His love through the atonement of His Son.
How do we know its God’s voice communicating to us?
Tanya Walker’s testimony
She became a Christian during her sophomore year of college like a light came on upon her but when she went to France, which is a completely atheist country concluded that “God does not exist”. She saw the world as the color gray and color become absent; “Getting by in the world”
While studying in Frances she went on a school trip to the French Alps trip as they were turning the corner of the window she was stun by the beauty of the Alps. “This is cannot an accident, someone has to design this…” hit her with the realization of God existence.
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Sunday June 27, 2010 Extending circumstances

Saturday, June 26, 2010
Saturday June 26, 2010 Good Art/ Bad Art
Favorite Quotes of the Day