Posts Tagged ‘live painting’
Catch Up
It’s February! and I’m way behind on posting some stuff. The truth is I became a dad in December and that’s been taking up my time like nobody’s business. So here’s a quick update with some pics of things I’ve been doing.
NYWC – Nashville
Always a joy to work with my friends at YS.
Tic Long - a gem of a man
working with Shane Claiborne
at WOW2011 Student Conference
Fun to work with Shane again. Love his heart and hanging out always challenges my faith and life. We had a good time chatting and expect some collaboration later on this year.
Other things….
This is one of my latest paintings that I’m proud of.
Optimus Prime Saves African Orphans
acrylic on canvas
We spend millions of dollars creating heroes that never save the world from anything we really need saving from.
It would be nice if some of those “heroes” could actually help with some real world problems… like the massive growth of orphans in sub-saharan Africa.
Upcoming events:
- Tour with Derek Webb coming this spring.
-”The Crucifixion According to Radiohead” – a performance meditation art piece I’ll be doing at Ecclesia Church on Good Friday. If you live in Houston, come on out.
And here’s the new edition…..
Anders Indiana Erickson.
Have a good February!!!!!
Scott
Fall Conferences – Artist in Residence
Of late I’ve been painting at a few large conferences as the artist in residence. The idea is that art takes time and comes from experiences. So instead of having just an inspirational short art piece, why not have an artist in the mix making art out of everything that is going on. This is a better model for church leaders at least of how the visual arts can be a part of our corporate gatherings. Not just having inspirational 4 minute painting pieces (most art is not created that way), but giving at least an hour or so for the artist to create something.
Up above is a shot from Catalyst, the largest church leader conference in the U.S.
My friend Caitlin Beidler and I were the artists in residence at Catalyst this year. You can see our little art cubby in the stadium over to the left… the yellowishly lit area. We had a great time and got to make art to some really cool presenters: Scott Harrison, Seth Godin, Daniel Pink, Francis Chan, Christine Caine, Andy Stanley… just to name a few.
Here are a few pics of some of the paintings I made there. Remember, these paintings are 3ftx4ft acrylic on canvas and they were all made in less than an hour… in front of 12,000 people.
The other conference I was recently the artist in residence at was the National Youth Workers Convention in San Diego, put on by Youth Specialties.
Man I love the people at YS. The NYWC is a conference that seeks to celebrate the most under-appreciated workers in the church – the youth workers. This 4 day convention is chalked with training seminars, soul care, thought provoking subjects, and just a lot of laughter and good times. I have such a great time and I’m glad I got invited back for a 3rd year. They told me I was even family this year. (sniff sniff).
Above is me painting with Brenton Brown and band… who are great and there will be more about some future collaborations later. Below are some of the images I made throughout the conference.
There is so much more going on that I reveal in the next coming weeks…. projects with Derek Webb, prints for raising money for clean water pumps, etc…..
I’ll get to all that soon. I just wanted to give some photo updates since my last entry was August.
til next time
make more art!
scott
Art Activism Videos
My friends at WorldVision ACT:S asked me to create a series of videos about using creative activism with their Acts To End Malaria Campaign. It was an awesome project and I had fun making these shorts. Here they are for your enjoyment…..
ART ACTIVISM 101
HOW TO MAKE AN INTERACTIVE ART PIECE
HOW TO MAKE A T-SHIRT
Swaziland Trip
Yep. That’s me speaking to King Mswati III, King of Swaziland, Africa’s last remaining monarchy.
He came down and spoke to me after I had painted in front of him during Heart For Africa‘s Litsembe event. “Litsembe” (“hope” in Seswati) was an event that HFA conceived to be a sort of blessing event for Swaziland’s huge orphan population. Thousands of children came from various children’s homes and from the surrounding area. The event had multiple musical acts and performances… and once the king arrived, it became an very official affair.
I had been asked to paint at the event. The plan that morning is that I would paint on the stage across the field from the stands…. but right at the last minute I was told that I needed to grab all my stuff and I was to paint right in front of the grand stands where his majesty was seated. It was a very intense experience. Mostly cause you are not allowed to turn your back to the king… and as a painter you have your back constantly towards the viewer. So I side painted amidst the wind and the mid-day sun. But when the event ended, the king on his way to his police escorted vehicle, came over to where I was painting, asked me about the meaning of the painting, and invited me to teach how to paint so fast to people in his country. I said I would be happy to do so. We’ll see when that happens.
One of the reasons Holly and I decided to go on this trip is that we wanted to do something were we could respond in a way to the growing number of orphans in sub-Saharan Africa. Especially in Swaziland, the number of new orphans is 4000 a month. This is due to the fact that Swaziland, which is the size of New Jersey, has 46% HIV infection rate in the country. The adult population is slowly diminishing which is leaving thousands of orphans and hundreds of orphan headed households. The country itself predicts that if nothing stops this trend that by 2020 the country will mostly consist of children and the elderly. Crazy.
As a painter, the way that I can respond the best is to tell stories and make art. So that was our idea of how we could help contribute to this disturbing situation. You can read more about the idea on orphanartproject.com but basically the project is to create artwork with orphans, tell their stories, and create product that can be sold to help fund the work of indigenous organizations that are doing good work in Swaziland.
So we spent time creating work with kids. Part of the most amazing and sobering aspects of this project is the realization that this was the first time to paint for most of these kids. And they ate it up. I mean imagine never having art class as you grew up… never even having crayons to use to make pictures. And to see the few kids who lighted up with the process… knowing that they would probably do this all the time if they could…. heartbreaking.
Anyway, I’m now in postproduction finishing off all the artwork and working on a short film about the whole endeavor. I’ll keep you posted on how it’s going.
One final fun fact about our trip is that I ended up getting hired as the Second Unit Cameraman on a documentary that a friend of ours is helping to produce. They are making a movie about Swaziland…. on all the things I mentioned before… and looking at what Swazi’s are doing to stop this deadly journey. It was an awesome experience. I got to work with my new favorite persons: Helmut Schleppi, Elkin Antoniou, and Janna Fassaert…. and the film should be coming out in the winter of this year. I’ll keep you posted on that as well.
Thanks for all your support.
scott
Liberia Trip
In June, I was invited to go along with a group from the Grove Church in Chandler, AZ to join them on their Love Liberia Project. LLP was a multi-faceted trip ranging from leadership training to hosting free medical clinics. I came along to do live painting during the pastoral training events and the evening gatherings…. but in the midst of everything, I also became the filmer and random art maker.
This pic above and below is from the afternoon I decided to set up my easel in the shady town of Buchanan. I’ve only open-aired landscape painted twice before, so it was a fun challenge. Within 30 minutes of starting, I had a group of 50 people watching me. Apparently live painting doesn’t happen often in Buchanan.
I brought Ecclesia’s Canon 7D camera with me to do some filming during the trip. This was mostly to get some experience in filming overseas and to move forward in the ideas I have to combine the making of art and the unique stories of others. I ended up doing a lot of recording of the work of the Grove in Liberia and ended up telling their stories. Here’s some of the films I put together.
LEADERSHIP TRAINING
MOTOCYCLE TEAM ADVENTURE
DAY OFF – BEACH OF DEATH
THE FELLING OF THE EVIL TREE
THE BASKETBALL TEAM
THE MEDICAL TEAM
Holly and I leave for Swaziland next week to do work with orphans.
Keep you posted.
Mad love
Scott
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