Author: Jody Thomae

Create-A-Day: your daily dose of creativity #183 — The Artisan Soul

Standard

National Book MonthNext month is National Book Month, so I’ll be posting links to books for creatives, artists and worshipers the rest of September and throughout October!

Erwin McManus is the Founder of MOSAIC in Los Angeles. He is the author of The Artisan ArtisanSoulSoul. This is what his website says about McManus’ vision for this book:

“In The Artisan Soul, Erwin Raphael McManus, author, thought leader, and founder of MOSAIC in Los Angeles, pens a manifesto for human creativity and the beginning of a new renaissance. McManus not only calls us to reclaim our creative essence, but reveals how we can craft our lives into a work of art.”

Continue reading

Create-A-Day: your daily dose of creativity #182 — Experiential Worship

Standard

National Book MonthFor National Book Month in October, the rest of September and all of October we will focus on books for creatives, artists and worshipers!

Screen shot 2014-12-16 at 5.05.35 PMExperiential Worship: Encountering God with Heart, Soul, Mind & Strength by Bob Rognlien is a must-read for pastors, worship leaders and creative arts ministry leaders and its companion book, The Experiential Worshiper: Giving Yourself More Completely to God, a must-read for all others! As a worship leader myself, this book has been foundational to the way I do ministry!

Continue reading

Create-A-Day: your daily dose of creativity #181 — Walking on Water

Standard

National Book MonthOctober is National Book Month so for the rest of September and throughout October we’ll be focusing on books for creatives and artists.

Many of you have read Madeleine L’Engle’s popular 1980 book entitled Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith & Art many years ago. But of course, I do want to recommend it, just in case you are new to this “creative” or “artistic” journey. I would be remiss if I didn’t point it out.

There is so much to be gleaned Walkingfrom this treasure from an incredibly prolific and creative writer.

“But unless we are creators we are not fully alive. What do I mean by creators? Not only artists, whose acts of creation are the obvious ones of working with paint of clay or words. Creativity is a way of living life, no matter our vocation or how we earn our living. Creativity is not limited to the arts, or having some kind of important career.” ~ Madeleine L’Engle

Continue reading

Create-A-Day: your daily dose of creativity #180 — Books of Julia Cameron

Standard

TheArtistsWayNational Book MonthOctober is National Book Month so our focus for the rest of September and all of October is books for creatives, artists & worshipers.

So let’s kick off this focus with another post about Julia Cameron, author of The Artist’s Way and founder of The Artist’s Way movement. According to her bio on her website:

Julia Cameron has been an active artist for more than thirty years. She is the author of thirty-seven books, fiction and nonfiction, including her bestselling works on the creative process: The Artist’s Way; Walking in This World; and Finding Water. Her work has been translated into more than thirty-five languages and has sold more than four million copies worldwide.

Continue reading

Create-A-Day: your daily dose of creativity #179 — 31 days of Living Art

Standard

31 Days of Living Art is a blog series from Emily P. Freeman, which includes 31 posts (originally planned for the month of October but could be done anytime). These wonderful posts are designed to help you realize the artist within you, the artist God created you to be!

It was also designed to go along with Emily’s book, A Million Little Ways. And speaking of books… October is National Book Month so I’ve been saving all the book resources to feature in October. Trouble is, there’s more books than days! That’s a great trouble to have though because that means there are many great resources for your creative library. So the book feature starts tomorrow. By the end of October we’ll have over 35 books for creatives, artists and worshipers!! So dust off your shelves and get ready to load them up with books all written with YOU, God’s creative gift to the world, in mind! Continue reading

Create-A-Day: your daily dose of creativity #178 — Take Better Photographs

Standard

pipafineart.com

I don’t necessarily consider myself a photographer but I do like to capture moments. And who doesn’t want to capture those moments in an eye-pleasing way?

Today’s feature is a short and simple article on compositional balance in photography. It was posted by PI Photography and Fine Art (PIPA): a site where you can find galleries of wonderful nature-inspired photographs. Head on over to find out how to improve your images with balance, and while you’re there check out the Portfolios and Galleries to “find the extraordinary in the ordinary.”

If you want to keep exploring, PIPA also posted another article recently called Photography Mistakes: Stop Screwing Up Your Shots with professional photographer Joshua Cripps. This one includes an entertaining video to help you stop making “stupid” mistakes! Great tips and some chuckles for free!! Enjoy!

Continue reading

Create-A-Day: your daily dose of creativity #177 — Artist of the Earth

Standard

Andres Amador “paints” incredible designs on an interesting “canvas”—a canvas that disappears with the tide! Working with garden rakes, he creates beautiful geometric designs on beaches at low tide. I love watching the ease with which he works and hearing his heart of creativity!

Andres Amador

You can watch him in action here:

Continue reading

Create-A-Day: your daily dose of creativity #176 — No Longer Running

Standard

There are some images that live in your memory forever. Consider this image:

Vietnam

Kim Phuc is the name of the young girl captured in this iconic photo from the Vietnam War. Today I want to refer you to a CNN article about her journey from this terrifying moment of excruciating pain to a beautiful place of healing and forgiveness. It’s a remarkable story. I encourage you to read the entire article and watch both videos. As you read consider if there’s a matter of unforgiveness in your life, and if there’s a way for you to move from pain to healing and restoration. Continue reading

Create-A-Day: your daily dose of creativity #175 — Amazing Art

Standard
partial view of artwork fiber, nails and plywood by Samantha Burns

partial view of artwork
fiber, nails and plywood
by Samantha Burns

I want to direct you to Amazing Art, a blog post by Dave Weiss. It is indeed “amazing” and wait until you find out about the artist.

The picture you see here is only a small portion of the artwork, constructed of fiber, nails and plywood. You can see the entire piece by clicking the link above.

It was hung at a church that used the walls of its worship space as a gallery for the members’ artwork. What a great idea! We turned our lobby area into an art show one year for Easter. It was a wonderful way to challenge our artists to create around a theme (we used the theme “Redemption”), and a great way to display their work for our members to see! Continue reading

Create-A-Day: your daily dose of creativity #174 — Bring Your Praise Dance

Standard

FBIt’s another Facebook Friday!!

Today’s group is Bring Your Praise Dance, administered by Prissy Cosme.

Here’s the group description:

We have created this group so we can all come together and share our best praise dances. Feel free to post any praise dance video groups. Please share any tips that will benefit for groups that are starting out. Those tips will be saved on this page for future reference.

Continue reading

Create-A-Day: your daily dose of creativity #173 — ArtWay Resources for Faith & Art

Standard
The Creation by Aaron Douglas 1935, oil on masonite, 48 x 36", Howard University Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

The Creation by Aaron Douglas
1935, oil on masonite, 48 x 36″
Howard University Gallery of Art,
Washington, D.C.

“Art is born when the temporary touches the eternal.” G.K. Chesterton

ArtWay is a website that offers a plethora of resources for Christian creatives and artists. Out of Europe some of its resources focus on events and exhibitions in Europe, however, there are a large number of articles to peruse, as well as an opportunity to sign up for a weekly visual meditation, emailed right to you each Sunday! You can also search through wonderful artwork there by hundreds of artists! I’ve also found poetry and wonderful quotes about the arts and faith from some of the “greats” of our Christian faith. Continue reading

Create-A-Day: your daily dose of creativity #172 — Healing Power of Art

Standard

Today I want to connect you to a powerful article entitled The Healing Power of Art by Dr. Dianne B. Collard. She quickly admits she is not an artist but her story of healing through the arts leads her to implore believer-artists to keep creating:

“Please,” I concluded, “as a non-artist believer, I beg you: Do not stop engaging in your art. Don’t stop exercising your creative gifts. Especially don’t abandon the church—no matter how hard it might be. The world needs your gift, the church needs it, but most of all, I—a non-artist sister in Christ—desperately need it.”

Continue reading

Create-A-Day: your daily dose of creativity #171 — Art Lessons from God

Standard

ALFGToday I want to direct you to Tony Snipes who lives to “help creative people discover their purpose.” Sounds like a man after my own heart!! He offers many resources and ideas for artists and creatives.

First let’s start with Tony’s Facebook Page: Art Lessons from God. Here you can find quick links to the latest offerings from Tony. Continue reading

Create-A-Day: your daily dose of creativity #170 — Blind Artist Sees Color

Standard

Today’s post begs the question: What can you do in faith when life’s circumstances blind you from seeing God?

Light in the Dark (C) John Bramblitt bramblitt.net

Light in the Dark
(C) John Bramblitt
bramblitt.net

This is a remarkable story about John Bramblitt, an artist creating brilliant paintings despite being blind. You’ll want to read the whole story here where you can see his beautiful work. There’s also two videos that help tell his story and process for painting with limited vision. Continue reading

Create-A-Day: your daily dose of creativity #169 — Walk Thru the Lord’s Prayer

Standard

file000126098408On Steal Our Stuff blog you can find some great resources. I want to refer you to a specific post for an interactive prayer walk called A Walk Through the Lord’s Prayer. It was created for a youth confirmation program, and is now available as a free download for your use. A wonderful resource for your church, ministry or prayer event. Continue reading

Create-A-Day: your daily dose of creativity #168 — Free Photo Resources

Standard

Then Jesus said, “Let’s go off by ourselves to a quiet place and rest awhile.” He said this because there were so many people coming and going that Jesus and his apostles didn’t even have time to eat. So they left by boat for a quiet place, where they could be alone. ~ Mark 6:31-32

N boat by sea

We visited Kendall Conner’s The Creative Pastor site awhile back. Just in case you didn’t spend time exploring the site, I wanted to direct you there again today to take advantage of a terrific list he compiled of free stock photo resources. If you use photos for your projects, take advantage of the free stock photos provided by the photographers who share their images graciously with the sites above! And thank you Kendall for compiling these resources for us!

Continue reading

Create-A-Day: your daily dose of creativity #167 — Teachers & Art Making a Difference

Standard

Art TeacherConnecting you to an article entitled Teachers, Art and Things That Last Forever by author Michele Bledsoe, author of The Secret Kingdom, a children’s book of paintings and poetry celebrating the world of dreams. This article is short but it sure packs a punch!

If you are a teacher, especially an art teacher, never doubt for a moment that you make a difference in this world!! And if someone hasn’t told you this lately….THANK YOU!

Continue reading

Create-A-Day: your daily dose of creativity #166 — The Bible on Creativity & the Arts

Standard
L Bible w heart
What does the Bible have to say about creativity and the arts? Although this list may not be exhaustive, it definitely reflects God’s heart toward creation, creativity, artistry, artisans and craftsmen. Please use and share this as a resource for those in creative and prophetic ministry!

Continue reading

Create-A-Day: your daily dose of creativity #165 — Ira Glass on Creativity

Standard

Ira GlassIra Glass is the host and producer of the documentary radio program “This American Life” broadcast on Public Radio. Today’s inspiration is a clip of him speaking on creativity. To whet your appetite, here’s a quick quote:

“The thing I would just like to say with all my heart is that most everybody I know who does interesting creative work they went through a phase of years where they had really good taste and they could tell what they were making wasn’t as good as what they wanted it to be. They knew it fell short. It didn’t have that special thing we wanted it to have. And the thing I would say to you is that everybody goes through that…

Continue reading

Create-A-Day: your daily dose of creativity #164 — Writing Groups on Facebook

Standard

FBIt’s another Facebook Friday!! And we have two groups featured today!

Our first group is Christian Authors & Writers and has almost 16,000 members!! It is administered by Mark & Claudette Elliott. Continue reading