Mark Lawrence is an artist with a heart on a mission! In Mark’s words:
My vision is to encourage and strengthen everyone who views my scripturally inspired art, through sharing the amazing love and grace that God has poured into my life. The closer I grow to God through Jesus Christ, the more I feel compelled to share with others the reality of my risen Lord and Savior.
I live in Ohio and had no idea this place existed until I read about it in Country Living magazine. The Museum of Divine Statues, located in Lakewood, Ohio, is dedicated to the rescue, restoration and preservation of religious statues and other art from the many Catholic churches that were closed in the Cleveland area in 2009. Here’s the story from Fox8 News in Cleveland:
CIndy Fort has the heart of both an artist and a counselor. Her website 12tribesministries.com has great resources that help you explore your creative side, as well as your heart, soul and spirit through the creative process. I will be posting more from 12 Tribes in future posts, but I wanted to point you towards an exploratory process with circles.
It’s Facebook Friday!! Facebook is a great way to network with like-minded creatives and artists!
The Prophetic Artists Guild is a Facebook group administered by prophetic artist Sharron Jones who has such an encouraging heart for artists. The group description reads: Continue reading
Colleen Briggs is an artist who shares her work and life with beautiful transparency on her blog Fragments of Light. For example, in her post, Lunge for the Light, she shares that it is “for the days when leaning for the light is not enough,” referencing a previous painting entitled “Lean for the Light” posted two weeks earlier with a short poem of ragged intensity.
Tracy Verdugo is an artist from Australia who’s paintings are bright and vibrant and speak life, beauty and joy!
“Tracy is an inspiration instigator, prolific painter, singer/songwriter and lover of the written word, smitten traveller and soaker up of all that is beauty-full. She teaches her Paint Mojo and other creative workshops all over this amazing planet and reminds her students of the wonder that already resides within them.” (tracyverdugo.com)
I wanted to point specifically to one of Tracy’s workshops—one that is highly-accessible to all.
Introducing my creative friend Dave Weiss of A
MOKArts —devoted to helping creatives in the church and helping churches to be more creative! Dave is a pastor, an artist, a storyteller, a blogger, an author*, and a wonderful proponent of the arts in our churches. Dave visited our church last Spring for our Sunday morning service. As he painted he told wonderful stories of God’s redeeming love and amazing grace. He also shared a part of his testimony and the saving message of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It was very powerful! This is some of his artwork hanging in our church: 
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Abbey of the Arts encourages transformative living through contemplative and expressive arts. It is an online global monastery offering pilgrimages, retreats, books and reflections to nurture contemplative practice and creative expression. You can sign up for their email newsletter and other free creative resources on their website abbeyofthearts.com. 
This amazing website, filled with resources, is brought to you by Christine Valters Painter, PhD, a Benedictine oblate and author of many books including The Artist’s Rule: Nurturing Your Creative Soul with Monastic Wisdom. On the Abbey website she states: Continue reading
Just as One-A-Day® Vitamins help restore the nutrients we deplete in our bodies, so too do we need to refill, replenish and renew our creative souls. So in 2015, I will be doing a daily* post to undergird your ministry, to lead you to resources to nurture the creative spirit within, and to draw you more deeply into your worship of Jesus Christ. Starting in January, watch for “Create-A-Day” blog posts. My goal is to provide you, the creative Christian, with over 250* resources to help you develop your ARTistry, CREATivity & capacity for BEaUty. What kind of resources? Books, worship arts ministries, video series, websites, conferences—all geared towards artists, creatives, worshipers and people serving in worship and creative arts ministries.
Whether you are a musician, singer, composer or worship leader; a painter, sculptor, sketcher, photographer or graphic artist; an actor, playwright or film producer; a weaver, potter, seamstres or silversmith; a writer of poetry, prose or non-fiction; a dancer, flagger or abandoned worshiper, I hope to post resources that will help you as you develop the creative gift God has placed within YOU!
So, visit my blog every day* to see what creative resource I’ve hunted down for you. You can stay connected daily by following me on Twitter or Facebook. Or better yet, sign up to receive email updates by clicking the button to the left. We’ll watch the resources pile up as the year unfolds!
Create-A-Day
http://www.jodythomae.com
Jody Thomae is the author of God’s Creative Gift—Unleashing the Artist in You, a devotional book with Bible studies to nurture the creative spirit within and to serve as a resource for creative Christians, artists, musicians and worshippers. She has been involved in worship arts ministry since 1997, serving as worship arts ministry pastor, worship leader, and creative arts director. She has coordinated artistic involvement in church services and regional worship events through dance, drama, poetry and fine arts and has had the opportunity to perform, teach, choreograph, preach, coordinate and lead workshops in the area of creativity, spirituality and embodied prayer. She has also recently released a devotional CD called Song of the Beloved.
Her passion is for the revelation of God to be made more real through the prophetic use of the arts in church and formational ministry. It is her desire to portray the message of Christ’s desperate and unfailing love for His people to help sustain the hearts of the broken and weary. Life scriptures include Psalm 27; Isaiah 50:4-7; and Zephaniah 3:14-17.
I am in the very beginning stages of writing my next book – about the healing journey of the artist and the artist as healer. This post and artwork touches on how God heals through the artistic process. It’s beautiful!
Unless a Grain of Wheat Falls; 2014; 29″ x 21″; watercolor.
There was a time in my life when I was stunned into silence. I unexpectedly received news of harm done to someone I love, two days later met the person who caused the harm face-to-face, and then several days after that received medical confirmation for my loved one of resulting lifelong disability.
It was too much, too fast. I shut down. People who cared deeply about me surrounded me, yet knew nothing of what was happening, or only bits and pieces. Grief penetrated like an arrow so deeply buried that even the shaft disappeared into the aching flesh of my heart. I stopped writing, and I stopped verbalizing anything that wasn’t absolutely necessary for some time after.
I understood why sometimes children cope with trauma by refusing to speak. For some things, there are no words. Painting, however, over the…
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Nurturing the Creative Spirit Within 