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Top 2016 posts feature artists, musicians, playwrights and authors

29 Thursday Dec 2016

Posted by Robert White in General

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Arts Connection, Books, Canadian culture, Christians and the arts, Drama, Music, Visual Arts

This past year has been a busy year for Christians in the arts, complete with new works by new artists to new works by veteran artists. My personal favourites include: Faye Hall’s ART begets ART (which combined text and art), Mike Janzen’s Nudging Forever CD, Lost & Found Theatre’s production of Pocket Rocket, Barrie Doyle’s latest novel The Lucifer Scroll, the debut of the CBC comedy series Kim’s Convenience base on Ins Choi’s award-winning stage play and artist Josh Tiessen’s first monograph: Josh Tiessen: A Decade of Inspiration.

While these posts were my favourites, a few others gained the attention of my readers and became their favourites. So, in chronological order, here are the top read Arts Connection blog posts of 2016:

February 9, 2016

More “Hot Apple Cider” to warm the soul

Like a cup of hot apple cider warming the body on a cold day, the Hot Apple Cider with Cinnamon anthology will warm the soul.

The fourth in the Hot Apple Cider series, the latest volume contains 67 stories – some true, some fiction and a few are poems – all based around the theme, and subtitle, of “finding love in unexpected places…

 

February 17, 2016

Artist’s book a visual look at her inspirations

When interviewing artists for the Arts Connection radio show, I usually ask them “where do you get the inspiration for your art?”

Winnipeg-based artist Faye Hall’s new book ART begets ART is a 40-page answer to that question….

 

March 15, 2016

Film will move viewers close enough to hear God breathe

With the words “We waited until the last of my children arrived before taking my father off of life support…” Jason Hildebrand’s portrayal and Mike Janzen’s piano breathe life into Greg Paul’s words in Breathe…

Breathe… is a film version of the stage play co-created by Hildebrand and Tom Carson with music by Janzen. Inspired by Paul’s award-winning book, Close Enough to Hear God Breathe, the play explores the “story of a man who never heard ‘I love you’ from his father, searching through the characters of his life to find – ‘I love you’.”…

 

Thursday, October 20, 2016

Singer/songwriter Ali Matthews plumbs the depth of her spiritual experience for new CD

“I have travelled this road/I have wrestled these fears/I have carried this load/And cried a sea full of tears/Though I may rise, though I may fall/You are my hope, You are my all/Forever this be my song and my story/To God be all of the glory.”

With those touching words, and equally touching keyboard backing, Ali Matthews opens her latest CD: So Shall We Love: Songs of Worship and Faith…

 

Wednesday, November 30, 2016

Young artist chronicles a decade of work

Artist Josh Tiessen has packed more into his 21 years than some of us have packed into two, three or four times as many.

The Stoney Creek, Ontario resident was born in Russia to missionary parents, moved to Canada and has traveled internationally…

 

“Kim’s Convenience” successfully makes leap from the stage to television

12 Wednesday Oct 2016

Posted by Robert White in Review

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Canadian culture, CBC, Christians and the arts, Ins Choi, Kim's Convenience, Review, Television

kims-convenience-indexKim’s Convenience, playwright and actor Ins Choi’s heartwarming comedy about a Korean immigrant family, made it’s way to television screens via the Toronto Fringe Festival, repeated runs at the Soulpepper Theatre Company and stages across Canada.

The CBC series premiered Tuesday, October 11, one week later than scheduled due to a Toronto Blue Jays wildcard playoff game. But if social media buzz is any indicator, the delay didn’t dampen the anticipation and enthusiasim fans had for the series.

Kim’s Convenience tells the story of Appa (Paul Sun-Hyung Lee), a Korean immigrant who runs a convenience store in Toronto’s Regent Park neighbourhood. His wife, Umma (Jean Yoon) lends a hand at the store but mainly tries to help her children succeed in life. Janet (Andrea Bang), their daughter, is an arts college student who hopes to become a professional photographer despite her father’s wish that she eventually run the store. An incident when he was a teen means son Jung (Simon Liu) has moved out and father aren’t on speaking terms, despite Umma’s and Janet’s attempts at reconciliation.

The debut episode, “Gay Discount,” highlights one of the series’ main sources of comedy: Appa’s struggle to understand the world in which he lives, in part due to a language barrier and in part due to his own cultural upbringing. The conversation between Appa and business rival, Mr. Chin, about the society’s changing attitudes towards sexuality highlights this.

Kim’s Convenience sees the world through the lens of the Korean immigrant experience – a lens that makes for great comedy and must-see viewing.

The second episode, “Janet’s Photos,” shows the second key source of humour, which no doubt comes from Choi’s own experiences growing up with immigrant parents: the gap between the expectations of the parents and the children. When Jung decide to apply to be the assistant manager at the car rental office where he works, Umma tries to bribe his boss to turn down the application so Jung can pursue a more suitable career.

The main cast, anchored by Lee, is outstanding. Lee has played Appa in every incarnation of Kim’s Convenience since the original Fringe production and it shows. The depth in Lee’s portrayal of Appa comes to the fore in one particular scene: Janet has fooled him into visiting Jung’s workplace. While there, he sees a poster of the staff, in which he sees Jung. With one brief look, viewers see a father’s pride, a longing for reconciliation and a resolution to wait for Jung to make the first move – a look by Lee that sums up the father’s and son’s whole relationship.

Yoon, as Umma, while misguided at times – like trying to convince Janet to find a “cool Christian Korean boyfriend” – cares deeply for her children. Bang’s Janet, wants to respect her parents, while carving her own path in the world. And Liu’s Jung, trapped by his past, is content to enjoy life on his own terms. If there was any flaw in the first two episodes it came from some of the supporting character’s who seemed to lack depth. Hopefully this be resolved as the series progresses.

While Kim’s Convenience is rooted in the immigrant experience, it also seems to transcend that experience. The struggle to understand a changing world and bridge the generation gap are common issues in all cultures. Kim’s Convenience happens to look at it through the lens of the Korean immigrant experience – a lens that makes for great comedy and must-see viewing.

***************************************************************

For previous Arts Connection interviews with Ins Choi about the development of Kim’s Convenience check:

http://artsconnection.ca/content/arts-connection-september-1-2011

http://artsconnection.ca/content/arts-connection-january-19-2012-ins-choi-kims-convenience-soulpepper-theatre

http://artsconnection.ca/content/arts-connection-monday-april-7-2014-ins-choi-kims-convenience-and-subway-stations-cross

“More Than Miracles” more than a simple history of the Scott Mission

14 Thursday Apr 2016

Posted by Robert White in Book Review

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Ben Volman, Book Review, Canadian culture, Christian, More Than Miracles, The Scott Mission

More Than Miracles coverThe Scott Mission first came to my attention in the late 1990s when I worked in the Salvation Army’s public relations department in Toronto. At the time, I saw the Scott as one of the myriad of Christian social service ministries serving those in need in the city.

Reading Toronto-area freelance journalist Ben Volman’s new book, More Than Miracles: Elaine Zeidman Markovic and the Story of the Scott Mission, gave me a new appreciation for the Scott, its ministry and the people who have served there.

Volman, with the eye of a journalist and heart of a pastor (he’s also the Toronto director of Chosen People Ministries and the spiritual leader of Kehillat Eytz Chaim/Tree of Life Messianic Congregation) tells of the triumphs and trials of the Scott and those closest to it: the Zeidman family.

A challenge of those writing histories is the delicate balance between glorifying the subject or tearing it apart. Volman manages to balance hagiography with the reality of the Scott’s struggles (especially after the untimely death of Alex Zeidman, its second director.)

While other histories of the Scott have been written – a fact noted by Volman – More Than Miracles recounts its history through the eyes of Elaine Zeideman Markovic, one of the four children of mission founders Morris and Annie Zeidman.

Markovic, along with her brothers Alex and David (who both became directors) and sister Margaret, all contributed in some way to the ministry of the Scott. In her 50-plus years of working at the Scott, Markovic filled a variety of behind-the-scenes roles and Volman sensitively recounts her own struggles with her place in ministry and her ultimate resolution to serve God in whatever role He chose.

One of the strengths of More Than Miracles is Volman’s choices as a writer. As someone who has also written organizational histories, I know the challenge of choosing which document or interview to quote from and how much should be quoted. Volman as struck the right balance between narrating the story and choosing from the myriad of Scott Mission’s ephemera and interviews he’d held. Volman has an uncanny knack for knowing when to speak as the author and when to let a diary entry, letter or person speak.

This sensitivity has led to a well-written book that was a joy to read. Whether you are familiar with the Scott Mission, or just have a passing knowledge of the “Miracle on Spadina,” More Than Miracles should take a place on your to-read list.

*******************************************

For more information on More Than Miracles check http://castlequaybooks.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=101

Author’s patience, efforts make “Bomb Girls” a fascinating read

06 Wednesday Jan 2016

Posted by Robert White in Book Review

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Barbara Dickson, Bomb Girls, Book Review, Canadian culture, Canadian history

Bomb Girls coverMost of the buildings on the 346 acres of land in Scarboro have disappeared. But from 1941 to 1945 the area running south from Eglinton Avenue to Hymus Road and west from Warden Avenue to Birchmount Road in the modern-day Toronto suburb of Scarborough, Canada’s largest munitions factory employed more than 21,000 people (most of them women) who produced more than 256 million pieces of munitions.

After stumbling onto this little-known episode of Canadian history in her own back yard, Scarborough, Ontario author Barbara Dickson spent a decade researching and writing Bomb Girls: Trading Aprons for Ammo which was released last year.

Once Dickson found out about some mysterious tunnels under some of Scarborough’s businesses, her writer’s curiosity led her down a path where she discovered the General Engineering Company (GECO, pronounced gee-ko) munitions plant. It took a decade to uncover the story because much of the historically-vital information has been lost. As a government-sponsored munitions factory, most of GECO’s paperwork was destroyed or deem classified when the factory was decommissioned in 1945.

Dickson’s patience and efforts make Bomb Girls a fascinating read.

Through painstaking research, Dickson was able to track down what remained of memos, letters and photos that are part of private collections. She was also able to connect with former employees, some of whom refused to share their story, feeling the oath of secrecy they took while working at GECO was just as valid today as it was during World War II.

Dickson’s patience and efforts have resulted in a fascinating read. I’ve been a Canadian history buff as long as I can remember, but I’d never heard of the GECO plant before seeing some of the promotional material for the book. Dickson’s experience as a writer (she’s also a novelist and journalist – which is where I connected with her) shines through. She deftly weaves the factual aspects of a military munitions factory with the personal stories of those whose daily lives revolved around making, what they thought, was a small contribution to the war effort.

Two aspects of the book disappointed me. The first was some repetition of facts, figures and quotes. While this was done to maintain the narrative and remind the reader of the importance of GECO’s work, I found it somewhat irritating

The other, which most people wouldn’t miss, was the lack of footnotes in the hard copy of the book. Dickson explains, in the book, that including the copious notes (the sign of a well-researched book) would have increased the book’s size and cost. Both she and the publisher (Dundurn) decided to post the notes online for those who wanted to reference them.

But those are minor points that shouldn’t detract from this wonderful look at a little-known episode in Canadian history. It’s well worth picking up and reading.

*******************************************

For more information on Bomb Girls: Trading Aprons for Ammo check http://www.barbaradickson.ca/

To listen to an interview with author Barb Dickson, tune in to Arts Connection Monday, January 11 at 9:30 p.m. ET on 94.3 Faith FM or listen to the simultaneous webcast at http://faithfm.org

 

InScribe anthology a valuable resource for newer writers

18 Tuesday Aug 2015

Posted by Robert White in Book Review

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Tags

Book Review, Canadian culture, Christians and the arts, InScribe Christian Writers' Fellowship

7-Essential-Habits-Cover

We’re back. Thank you for your patience while Arts Connection went through some technical changes. My tech wiz took care of changing the domains and syncing all the Arts Connection pieces (website, blog, e-mail) together. It’s my hope, as Arts Connection re-launches, that there won’t be any glitches or snafus.

***********************************

As with any good book, 7 Essential Habits of Christian Writers started with a “what if…?” question. Published by the InScribe Christian Writers’ Fellowship (ICWF), the book is another step in the organization’s development from simply supporting fellow wordsmiths to providing them with tools they need to start, improve and develop their writing skills.

ICWF started out as the Alberta Christian Writers’ Fellowship in the early 1980s and provided fellowship through its regular newsletters and annual conferences (the book’s introduction includes a brief history of the ICWF).

An ACWF workshop I attended proved integral to my own career, where a connection with Peter Fleck from the Alberta SonShine News led to freelance work and, eventually, a writing/editing career in mainstream and faith-based publications. In recent years, the organization expanded its reach outside of Alberta and changed its name to reflect the change.

7 Essential Habits of Christian Writers was published specifically for writers working within Christian genres and provides advice on:

  • Time with God
  • Healthy Living
  • Time Management
  • Honing writing skills
  • Crafting a masterpiece
  • Submitting your work
  • Marketing

About 30 ICWF member contributed articles, short stories, poems or photos to add meat to the bones. While much of what was written was review for me, I was able to see how 7 Essential Habits of Christian Writers would benefit a beginning or novice writer.

7 Essential Habits of Christian Writers is a valuable resource that every beginning and novice writer needs.

The advice is solid and comes from the experience of the writers. Unlike many “how-to” books, it doesn’t provide a recipe for success. Instead it provides a smorgasboard of perspectives, allowing the reader (and writer) to choose which fits their own experience. One example is Ruth L. Snyder’s chapter “Fit Writing into A Busy Schedule” and Loretta Bouillon’s chapter “To Schedule or Not to Schedule.” Both talk about fitting writing into busy lives (a common conundrum for beginning writers), but Snyder and Bouillon provide different means and methods to do so. By including both perspectives, the underlying message is: the only “right” way is the one you find works in your circumstances.

If there was one drawback to the book, it would be the chapters written as a short story. I found the change in narrative styles, from non-fiction to fiction, jarring; with many of the short stories coming across as contrived. The practical tips within the short stories could have worked just as well if they’d been presented as a non-fiction article.

And, while the book was written specifically for those working within a Christian milieu (for denominational and devotional publications and Christian publishers), it would have been beneficial if one or two articles about writing for a non-Christian venue were included, specifically in the “Submitting Your Work” and “Marketing” chapters.

Despite these drawbacks, 7 Essential Habits of Christian Writers is a valuable resource that every beginning and novice writer needs.

*********************

For more information on 7 Essential Habits of Christian Writers check http://inscribe.org/anthology/

Revisions, revisions

22 Wednesday Jul 2015

Posted by Robert White in General

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Arts Connection, Canadian culture, Christians and the arts

Sorry, this week’s blog is being postponed due to revisions.

I recently discovered the need to move my website from its current host to another. So that’s what I’m in the process of doing – as well as incorporating this blog into a revised website.

With that change and the deadlines for a few major stories looming, putting a blog post together has been moved down the priority list.

Keep watching this space for the new artsconnection.ca website and blog. Once everything has been migrated, designed and ready to run, I’ll let you know.

In the meantime, thanks for you patience and keep traveling the intersection between faith, arts and Canadian culture.

Church features students’ art as part of Art in Worship ministry

10 Wednesday Jun 2015

Posted by Robert White in General

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Art Students, Canadian culture, Christians and the arts, Churches, Redeemer University College, Visual Arts

Phil Irish, Puddicombe - edited cropped The Art in Worship ministry at New Life Christian Reformed Church intentionally incorporates a variety of artistic expressions into its worship experience. An element of this ministry are the regular exhibits of visual art on the walls of the northeast Guelph church’s sanctuary.

“In a sense we’re crafting a multi-sensory worship worship space,” says worship ministry coordinator Nicole Ensing in a media release announcing the most recent exhibit: The Temple Project

What’s unique about The Temple Project exhibit is that it features the work of nine students in Redeemer University College’s “intermediate painting” class. Six of the students and painting professor Phil Irish (pictured above) were on hand on Sunday, June 7 for a reception following the regular worship service.

Puddicombe - edited

Redeemer University College art student Jessica Puddicombe talks about her art.

Tristan - edited

Tristan Kaarid talks about his piece “The Carpenter and the Universe”

“Their task was simple and open: reflect on the connotations of the word ‘the temple,’ and create an oil painting that brings size, materiality, imagery, and visual language to bear on the theme,” writes Irish in a brochure explaining the project.

At the reception, he expanded on that statement, describing the various techniques the students used to bring the theme to life. The students were also given a chance to describe the journey they took in creating their works.

The art is stunning. Bethany Kenyon’s abstract “Immanence” combines gold leaf and oils. Irish explained how Maria Wagler used a pour technique for “Reaching,” a work my wife said was her favourite of the exhibit.

I was particularly struck by Nathasha Van Gurp’s work “Boundless.” The deep, rich colours used in her landscape captured the vastness of God she wanted to depict.

“My portrayal of the ‘temple’ is centred on the idea that His temple exists through all of creation as everything is created by Him and done in and through Him,” Van Gurp explains in a note accompanying the painting.

I came away with a couple of take-away thoughts that morning.

First: the willingness of New Life CRC to incorporate visual art as part of its worship expression. I’ve had the chance to see the works of at least three different artists at New Life CRC and have been moved by each.

“Our goals are to integrate visual arts more purposefully into congregational worship, and to create a space to host the art of our extended community” says the exhibit brochure. This is a model other churches might be interested in exploring and replicating.

Second: the sheer joy of witnessing a new generation of artists who have responded to that divine calling to express their faith in art.

“The opportunity to show art is second only to the opportunity to glorify God,” says Tristan Kaarid in the media release. “The capacity of art to represent the godly in creation is uncanny. To me, the calling to create art is of utmost importance.”

And just as significant was the welcome of both the art and the artists by the receptive congregation.

“We’re so pleased to finally host students of the Redeemer art department,” says Ensing. “This has been a goal of ours for a number of years.”

**********

The Temple Project exhibit continues until June 14. For details and contact information go to www.newlifecrc.net

Has the Christian music industry died? It might be a good thing

03 Wednesday Jun 2015

Posted by Robert White in Commentary

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Tags

Arts Commentary, Breaking the Ice, Canadian culture, Christians and the arts

downhere onstagedownhere on their farewell tour in Cambridge, Ontario in August 2009 ((C) Quail Communications)

During the early to mid 1980s I had the privilege of freelancing for Alberta SonShine News, a monthly Christian newspaper distributed to churches in Edmonton, Calgary and points in between. A chance meeting with editor Peter Fleck led to a gig covering the burgeoning Contemporary Christian Music (CCM) scene. This led to interviews with almost every Christian artist who came through Edmonton including: Michael W. Smith, Barry McGuire, Armand Morales (Imperials), Georgian Banov (Silverwind), Steve Taylor, Randy Stonehill, Phil Keaggy, etc. The highlight of this period were interviews with Christian rock pioneers Larry Norman and Glenn and Wendy Kaiser (Rez Band).

Even when CCM wasn’t my main beat, I maintained an interest in Christian music as a the editor of ChristianWeek Ontario and the host of Faith Journal and Arts Connection. So I found the following analysis intriguing: http://theweek.com/articles/555603/who-killed-contemporary-christian-music-industry?utm_content=buffer824c9&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer where Tyler Huckabee writes: “The descent of CCM is a reflection of America’s waning interests in Christianity as a whole. The precipitous dropoff in CCM sales has left Christian labels and artists staring into the void alongside their pastors, scratching their heads, wondering where they went wrong.”

This seems somewhat simplistic and hyperbolic. A few more significant factors have contributed CCM’s death rather than the rise of the nones, some of which Huckabee points out.

 Canada’s CCM industry has never paralleled the American CCM industry

I need to point out that Canada’s CCM industry has never paralleled the States’. There have been a few Canadians – downhere, Connie Scott, Daniel Band, Quickflight, Manafest – who have broken through the American CCM juggernaut. But some, like downhere, left the CCM industry to pursue an indie path.

Why?

First, until the 1990s, Canada didn’t have Christian radio, a key contributor to CCM’s success in the U.S. Many Canadian Christian music pioneers – Salmond and Mulder, Arlen Salte, Daniel Band, Steve Bell, etc. – toured heavily to build a fan base.

Second, Canada’s size and lack of large cities lead to mainly regional instead of national fan bases. Musicians in southwestern Ontario could travel from Toronto to Windsor and play for hundreds of church youth groups and coffeehouses. Travelling the same distance, or time frame, western Canada’s musicians had maybe dozens. Those who did gain a national fan base spent even more time on the road.

Back to the main point: I see two key reasons for CCM’s demise:

1) CCM became more of an industry than a ministry. Musicians were pressured to create music that sold, not necessarily minister. Some CCM musicians have been able to do both but the pressure to create that next hit sometimes stymied both ministry and creativity.

2) New technologies have created significant shifts in every industry, music included. The goal for most musicians had been signing the ever-elusive recording contract. Record companies would then take care of marketing and promotion while the musicians made music. With the rise of iTunes, CDbaby and myriads of other music distribution channels, musicians have become marketers, tour managers, promoters, etc. – taking all the risks but gaining all the benefits.

Has the Christian music industry died? Only in the same way the mainstream music industry has died.

Is this a good thing? I think so. The change the Christian music industry has/is going through means artists can focus on creating the music they feel called to create. Not the music dictated by an industry.

Exploring the “why” of art with Calvin Seerveld’s “Redemptive Art in Society”

07 Thursday May 2015

Posted by Robert White in Book Review

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Book Review, Calvin Seerveld, Canadian culture, Christians and the arts, Philosophy, Theology

Redemptive Art in Society cover

In the paean of those who have provided philosophical and theological underpinnings for the role of art in faith and culture, four names stand out: Hans Rookmaaker, (Art Needs No Justification), Francis Schaeffer (Art & the Bible) and John Franklin (Imago).

The fourth is Calvin Seerveld, professor emiritus in Aesthetics at Toronto’s Institute for Christian Studies, who had a six-volume collection of his “sundry writings and occasional lectures” published buy Dordt College Press last year.

One of those volumes, Redemptive Art in Society, needs to be on the “to-read” list of anyone involved in the intersection of faith, arts and culture. The lectures, papers and articles date from as early as 1993 to as late as 2010 and were presented in venues as varied as: the Christians in the Visual Arts (CIVA) conference at McGill University in Montreal, the Christians in the Theatre Arts (CITA) conference in Chicago and Barcelona’s “Arts Gathering” conference in Spain.

In Redemptive Art in Society Seerveld provides artists with the “why” of art. I’d suggest that many of us are so busy with the “how” of our art, we often forget the “why.” We become focused on what we should create, what role our faith plays in creating art, where our art should go and who should be exposed to our art – often forgetting the foundational question: why do we create art?

The peculiar, subtle creaturely glory of artistry (can) be reinstated as an ordinary diaconal ministry: artists skillfully, imaginatively collect nuances in God’s world and present them like manna to their neighbors.

One answer is found in the chapter titled “Necessary Art in Africa: A Christian Perspective,” originally published in Art in Africa, where Seerveld suggests:

“If artistry is built-in human nature, and if artistic imaginative activity is so fundamentally at work in personal, family, and public societal life, though often unobserved, then artistry with its cultural potential left in the hands and to the whims of a godless direction will go to hell. An overwhelming portion of the contemporary Western artworld – painting, song, cinema – has indeed lost its way, I think, because disciples of Jesus generations ago ignored the terrain, or merely domesticated the least offensive varieties of the secularist fashion…

Artists who follow Christ are called to forge a community with faith-brother and faith-sister artists, aestheticians, art historians, art critics, art patrons, an artistic communion within which artistry can be reconceived and reformed from what passes as normal, so that art’s presumed privilege or art’s esoteric adventitious capriciousness be ended, and the peculiar, subtle creaturely glory of artistry be reinstated as an ordinary diaconal ministry: artists skillfully, imaginatively collect nuances in God’s world and present them like manna to their neighbors.” (italics in original)

Christian artistry, suggests Seerveld in “From Ghost Town to Tent City: artist community facing Babylon and the City of God” (a keynote address to the CIVA conference), “does not have to add something to art; it is simply competent artwork presented with holy spirited insight, the way God wants it done.”

Seerveld packs much food for thought into each chapter. But once the reader has a chance to digest his thoughts, they come away with a greater understanding of the role artists who are Christian can have in society: creating “artwork that presents nuanced sorrow or joy with the imaginative relish of an understanding bouyed by hope.”

**********

Calvin Seerveld, Redemptive Art in Society, Dordt College Press, 2014, 328 pages, www.Dordt.edu/DCPcatalog

Seeing churches in black and white…photography, that is

29 Wednesday Apr 2015

Posted by Robert White in General

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Canadian culture, Christian, Churches, photography

Most of my artistic endeavours have centred around the written word, either as a journalist, short story writer or, in the past couple of years, as an unpublished novelist. But because I began my writing career as a reporter in weekly newspapers, I was also introduced to news photography.

Hundreds, perhaps thousands of my photos have appeared in newspapers or magazines. Most have been focussed (pun intended) on providing a visual image of a news event or a feature subject. And, of course, I’ve taken photos of family events or trips, almost in all cases looking for the unusual or unique shot that will differentiate the photos from the “normal” photo album or vacation shot.

For the past couple of years, every other Saturday, I get together with about a dozen other men to talk about photography. We’ve talked about how sensor size counts, lenses (length, telephoto versus zoom), depth of field, existing light and photo manipulation with photo software. Our discussions are always enlightening, engaging and, sometimes energetic (but never argumentative).

Out of these discussions arose a the idea for a photo project I started working on last year. The Stone Churches Project will be a collection of black and white photos of the seven limestone churches in downtown Guelph.

Knox from Quebec & Norfolk - blended cropped B & W watermarkedKnox Presbyterian Church. Taken from the corner of Norfolk and Quebec Streets

The project is intended to challenge me on a number of levels.

The first challenge is to begin looking at the churches with an artistic mindset. As a photojournalist, my main reason for taking pictures was to illustrate a story. If, for example I was taking the above photo to accompany a story talking about the role of the church in the community, I would always have made sure there were people in the picture.

Instead, I’m now focusing more on composition, lighting, shading by creating a photo you’d want to put on your wall rather than in the recycle bin.

Lakeside Downton front - blended cropped B&W watermarkedLakeside Downtown front tower on Norfolk Street

My second challenge was seeing things in black and white. At one of my early newspaper gigs, our office was right across the hall from a portrait photographer. Victor was one of my early influences as a photographer and I still appreciate the informal lessons he gave me.

One of those lessons was about the “grey scale” used by Ansel Adams in his stunning landscape photographs. The scale ranks the varying shades of grey from white to black which photographers use to determine shutter speed and aperture size.

I had to learn those all over again for this project. And learn to convert the colour in my viewfinder into black and white.

Shell-Butterfly window - cropped B&W watermarkedLakeside Downtown interior: north-side stained glass window in the late evening.

My final challenge was to overcome my aversion to photo manipulation and learn how to use photo software more effectively.

I’ve always been a purist. That comes naturally when you’re using film and taking photos at a newsworthy event. You only have one chance to get the photo right because, for the most part, you can’t go back and recreate the event.

This becomes a challenge when shooting for black and white. While my digital camera will allow me to shoot in B & W, the photos tend to be flat, with little definition. The photo above was taken in colour and then converted to crisp, clean B & W image. I still don’t manipulate the photos as much as other people I know, but I’m learning.

Where am I going with this project? I’m still debating. Perhaps a book. Perhaps an exhibit. Only time will tell.

For now, I’m just enjoying the journey.

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