Turning Liabilities Into Assets

Some of you have seen Phil Hansen’s story on this blog before but since he is one of my favorite artists and he recently appeared on Last Call with Carson Daly, I thought I’d tell you again. Phil always dreamed of being an artist but doing massive amounts of pointillism caused him to have permanent nerve damage in his drawing hand, which caused his hand to shake. It could have been the end of his art career but instead he decided to “embrace the shake.” In the process, he became (in my opinion) one of the most inventive artists of our time.

What in your life feels like a liability? How can you turn it into an asset?
For more on Phil Hansen go to Philinthecircle.com
To be a part of his latest project, click here.

Head Full of Doubt

This is one of the most amazing things I have ever seen. I’ve done animated painting videos before but this is a “whole nutha’ level.”

The song is great, the video is brilliant, this is the total package!

The vimeo page for the video had this to say…
“Head Full of Doubt/Road Full of Promise” by the Avett Brothers. Animation by Jason Mitcham. The video was created by thousands of slight alterations on a single painting.
jasonmitcham.com

Sometimes I just like to share these things to inspire you.
Jason Mitcham, you are a genius!

Check Out Ron DiCianni and His Resurrection Mural

This is great stuff!

Creating Together

Last night I witnessed the beauty of collaboration.

Alpha Omega Players in Birdsboro are staging the revival version of the Stephen Schwartz classic Godspell. It was an amazing performance. This is sort of the ultimate “it’ll make you laugh, it’ll make you cry…” show and they did it incredibly well. It’s another great example of a way to communicate the greatest story ever told, combining the truth of the Gospel with humor and pop culture references and a fair amount of improv to create a truly touching experience.

As I watched the show, there were a few things that really struck me. A show like this is a true labor of love. No one gets paid, from the actors to the director to the pit band, every last one of these people is doing the show for the pure enjoyment of what they do. It’s a huge undertaking. Over three months of rehearsals plus countless hours of work on staging, costumes, publicity, ticketing, etc. In addition to all that, they raise funds to be able to put on the show and ticket sales go to the expenses of the show, running the theater and preparing for the next show.

I think that’s what I love about all this and why I am glad to be a small part of it. A whole lot of gifted people bring what they have to the table and work together for the good of the whole. In the process, we become this wonderful interdependent community that works together to do something bigger than any of us could do on our own. Seems to me there’s a message in there we need to pick up on. To me it’s kind of like what the subject of this show wanted from his followers.

Alpha Omega Players opened with Godspell 35 years ago and they’ve done it many times since, each time with a different group of people, all coming together to tell a great story. What could you do if you would get together with a group of talented people and all give your best for the good of the whole?

It’s worth considering…

My son Chris (center) singing Light of the World in Godspell with Alpha Omega Players.

Check this music out…

I did an event called Redemption at Widener University on Tuesday night. It was a cool creative evening combining the talents of several of the students with me and an amazing musician named Angela Burns. You really need to check out her music.

The Bible Miniseries: Telling the Greatest Story Ever

Last night I watched the final installment of The Bible Miniseries. I have to say they did an incredible job. It can’t have been at all easy to cover all that material in the relatively short amount of time they had, which brought me to my thought of the day. This was a great piece of story telling. If Roma Downey and Mark Burnett do not win an Emmy my suspicions of bias against the material will be justified, but as I watched last night I saw them coming up on Pentecost and I really wanted to see Peter give his message to the people and the mass repentance and Salvation that occurred. It didn’t make the cut. Then we crept up on Revelation and I looked forward to seeing the imagery of the apocolyptic book but again that didn’t make it. I can’t say I was disappointed, they really covered a lot of ground and really hit the high points over all, but I wished I could have seen those things.

In this sense, it’s kind of like life. We believers are entrusted with the message of reconcilliation, on a mission to take the Gospel to the ends of the earth. In most cases, with any given person, you don’t have enough time to tell the whole story. What are the high points you need to cover? How do you bring the story to people in the time you have? How do you get more time and how do you win the right to be heard? These are the questions we should be asking ourselves and matters of prayer we should take before our Lord.

Roma Downey and Mark Burnett took the time they had, combined it with their gifts talents and resources and used it to take the Gospel to the world. What will you do with your time, talents and resources? What will you do with His story?

Amazing Watercolor Technique Video

I can’t speak for anyone else so I will just speak for myself. I find watercolor painting mystifying. To me it’s probably the most difficult of all art media, so when I see someone who uses it very well, I am always impressed. Check out this video from artist, Agnes Cecile entitled Our Endless Abnegation…

The piece is stunning and the freedom in the piece is infectious. The challenge this week is to do a piece in the medium you find most challenging.

Tell a Better Story: Shane Koyczan

I’ve long said whoever said “sticks and stones will break my bones but names will never hurt me…” was an idiot. This poet, Shane Koyczan, captures it beautifully.

There is pain in this piece, but there is also hope. I was one of these kids too and so I get it. I don’t know what names Shane was called (well other than “porkchop”) but I know the name I choose for him, “GENIUS.”

See the thing is, physical wounds often heal but a lot of us carry wounds that will never heal without divine intervention. I know this personally. Every time I make even the slightest mistake and catch myself calling myself “idiot” or “worthless” or “loser.” I can hear a thousand people tell me I’m great and one person tell me I’m terrible, guess where my focus goes. How about you?

Here’s the point, and I say this to you just as I must say it to myself. The derogatory names others call us and by connection the ones we call ourselves are lies. Each of us is the unique creation of a loving God who traded His only Son for us because that’s how much you were worth to Him. He has a plan and a purpose for your life and you need to believe that, hold on to it and never let go. You are loved, you are cared for, you are important and you are gifted and that is the truth! Stop buying the lie, be who you are, who God made you to be and live out your purpose. You can live a better story, it’s found in the truth.

I always challenge my readers to tell a better story… This story is one that many of us need to tell. Shane Koyczan and the artists who made the video have found their way, what is yours?

Check this out…

This idea is amazing.

See more athttp://www.muralmosaic.com

I Believe Every Day’s A Good When You Paint…

I confess that Bob Ross was a favorite of mine. I loved to watch his show and even learned a few tips and tricks. More than that, this guy got a lot of people to pick up their brushes and express themselves and that always will resonate with me. A friend posted this video to my Facebook wall, and I thought it was going to be a slam, but actually its not half bad. Culled from his own words, this song actually has some good things to say about making art and the great things that can come from it.

I’ve always said any day where I have paint on my hands is a good day.
Enjoy the video, then go make art!