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
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
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
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
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…