This past Saturday at the VAF Gathering in Minneapolis, Amy Wevodau read her poetry with Kyle Gregory improvising a response to the reading on the trumpet. Well, they did something interesting: they reversed roles. Kyle played while Amy improvised. In fact, taking Amy’s lead, we all improvised. Here are a few samples of what was written by a group of mostly non-writers during the four or five minutes that Kyle blasted away on his trumpet. All in all, it was a pretty inspiring collaboration. See if you can get a feel for what the music sounded like by identifying themes in the writing…

Note to participants: If I couldn’t read what you wrote because you wrote in crayon or if what you wrote was three pages long then it didn’t make it on this list. Sorry. I tried to be faithful to what I saw on paper, but if I misread something, please let me know.

Untitled
by Brett Knutson
twilight
in this
zone

Wake Up!

I can’t wake up.
Stop throwing rocks
at my window

let me sleep
let me be
you don’t know me

I’ll be watching you
play your city sounds
pissing under my
overpass

Shut the hell up
one eye open
I’ll watch you while I sleep

The Flight of the Chair
by Caleb Seeling
I wonder what Sasha is up to? Dishes piling, laundry folding, scrubbing ears, wiping bottoms, and water water water water and suds and slickly clean linoleum. Slick like that bastard who showed up at the door—who showed up at my door—with a small bleached paper cup of pills, who told me to calm down when I told him to get the Hell out.

I am calm. Sitting here. Not in my home—cottonwood sending its billowy seeds out searching for purchase.

Untitled
by Aaron Jameson
Bees hovering in the hoards over spilled milk. A noise! They stop! And then return in a rush. They chatter and talk in a fury like the floor of a stock exchange room. The hoard takes many shapes as they send messengers to and from to tell the other bees.

Life-Thought
by Larry Cole
Passion, Chaos, Inspiration
frustration, Intensity,
BREATH, Continue, Pace,
Thought, Think, Scream,
Cry, Pause, Pray, Extrapolate,
Contemplate, Wait—

Simmer, Distill, Refer,
Recall, Investigate, Seek,
Slow—BREATH—
Thought, Think,
Epiphany, Write, Document,
Share, Refine, Resolve,
hone, Scream

A Prayer
by Don Bartel
Twinkling, Twirling, Twirling
Spinning, Spinning, Spinning
Face turning upward
Frantic, Desperate, Calling Out, Crying

Celebrating, Laughing
Singing, Rejoicing
All is Well.

Untitled
by Ann Hoffmann
Idea!
It’s from God!
Pay Attention—Stay Awake
Record It
Weird!
Details
Hurry—or it will be gone
Abstract—Double Themes
Deeper than I thought
That’s What You See!

Mosquito
by Phil Cheney
Circling and threatening yet keeping its distance like a needy mosquito, the idea returned, a swipe of my hand and its gone only to return once my back was turned. Nothing I can do to hurry its advance yet quickly it returns as I try to ignore it. Suddenly it’s coming from all sides at once, sending me spinning in an attempt to fend it off. How long can I hold off the inevitable?

Messages
by Wes DeSpain
People trying frantically to communicate
First in rapid long diatribes, then in short one word jabs
Pausing only to take a breath
Sometimes two people talk at once
But the one who talks the loudest, longest or at the highest pitch
Wins…or does he?

Untitled
by Gary Bradley
Move me
Stop me
Can’t
See
The
in between
Too many sounds
Hear me
The one who
Owns the
Sounds

Untitled
by Kristina Boyer
It’s time, pray, don’t loose sight of Christ. Praise Him in the morning noon and night. Sleep and wake up—stay awake with your Lord.

It’s time, painful; but yes it’s time. Hope for heaven and you won’t despair.

Wake up it’s time! Wake up it’s time for joy! The day is a celebration that you’ve come upon. It’s time—time to rejoice—time to take a recess.

continued from part I

It seems to Gary that if we believe these subtle (and sometimes not so subtle) Evangelical messages that ‘everything is going to burn’ and that ‘the only things that matter eternally are the souls of mankind and the words of God,’ then, the only continuity between earth and heaven is the act of getting to heaven (i.e. saying the ‘sinners prayer’, obeying the Four Spiritual Laws, etc.) After all, isn’t the purpose of the souls of mankind and the words of God to bring humanity the hope of one day singing Kumbaya while wearing white robes surrounded by angels?

Do we have no other purpose right now but to get to heaven and to get others to heaven? Gary thinks that we do have more earthly purpose. He asks, “What if the act of getting to heaven is not the only continuity between earth and heaven? What if eternity has already been launched?”

Without getting into all the details of Gary’s talk, we can summarize by saying that everything is not going to burn up, be destroyed, and be replaced by something totally different. Rather, God is at work burning, as in purifying and refining, everything that exists now in order to refresh, redeem, and renew all things. God is making everything qualitatively new.

Consequently, the work of our hands, the accumulation of our life will be refined and refreshed in such a way that the works of our hands form the content of the new heaven. We are at work with God in redeeming the earth and redeeming humanity. Gary explains this while holding out his left hand, palm down, and placing his right hand directly on top—symbolizing our hand at work moving in synchronization with God’s hand at work.

We are participating with God in filling eternity with the works of our hands, redeeming our world and our relationships, creating beauty for what is to come. What we do now matters eternally. Whether we are gardening, diverting rivers, building dams, painting, writing, designing, or helping a friend we are working to call out that which is beautiful, good and true for the sake of a redemptive future.

We do not need to ‘text message’ God with our art by putting a verse on it or by painting a cross in it. The work is already good enough. Gary points to a painting of a naked lady in the back of the room as says that it is good enough because it comes from the work of Shannon White’s hands. God does not tattoo the animals and plants with a verse, yet these things “renew the face of the ground” (Ps. 104). All of these things demonstrate the glory, or the weight, of their Creator’s hand.

God is in everything and we are at work to call out of the darkness that which can be made new—given redemptive qualities and refreshed for eternity. The imagery of Isaiah 60:11, “Your gates shall be open continually; day and night they shall not be shut, that people may bring to you the wealth of the nations…,” compels Gary to think of art makers as bringing all of their creations—all of the works of their hands—to the King of Kings, filling the eternal kingdom with that which is refined and redeemed by God.

We do not make art for art’s sake. When God made and arranged the world in the Genesis account, God said that it was good, not perfect. We are at work with God and we are working with the earth and humanity to make, create and redeem all things in such a way that we shape the kingdom to come.

If your job is to sweep streets then sweep streets so that all of heaven will pause and say “here lived a great street sweeper who swept streets well.”

We go forth with this prayer from Psalm 90:17:

Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us,
And establish the work of our hands upon us;
Yes, establish the work of our hands!

Well, that didn’t work very well. I was hoping to update everyone while the VAF Gathering in Minneapolis was taking place, but I didn’t get home until 11:30 each night. Half the benefit of the gathering was meeting all the interesting people…including meeting Al Franken on a late night ice cream run.

So plan B is to update you over the next two weeks or so. I won’t be able to cover everything, but we will see some talk summaries, pictures, improv poetry and more.

Have a happy Father’s Day and stay tuned…

It has been a long and good day for this introvert. My bed is calling loudly so I will be brief and rather straight forward in this summary of Thursday at the VAF gathering in Minneapolis.

I have met quite a few new faces and just saw a hilarious day-closing performance of “The Cubicle” put on by two local writers and actors, Jeremiah Gamble and Corey Mills. It is a satirical play dealing with the loneliness Western office workers experience even though they are working closely with others all day long at the office. It is essentially a tragic comedy to which many of us can relate as we rub shoulders with friends who know nearly nothing of our actual life at home—other than the names of our spouses and pets.

We viewed Via Affirmativa’s Liviu Mocan documentary. It was…well, you really need to see it for your self. Contact Gary Bradley if you would like to purchase a copy. It is well worth it. My favorite line might be from Mocan when he says, “I am a sculpture before I am a sculptor.” My favorite interview is when Mocan and his wife describe the relational tension caused by his work as an artist. It is a very real, authentic display of God-given artistic drive set in the relational context of family, community and country. A must see.

Working backwards, we are at the beginning of today. Gary Bradley, Via Affirmativa’s director, gave a talk on “The Work of our Hands.” This talk set the tone for the day and for what is to come in the next two days. Gary asks, “What voices shape what we are to become?” There are a couple clear messages that Gary has heard in the Evangelical culture. One is that “everything is going to burn someday so make sure you invest your time in what really matters” and the other is that “the only thing that counts is the voice of God and the souls of mankind.”

Consequently, if you believe these things, then art has no eternal significance. It is only for now. If that is true then art needs to carry with it some sort of message that helps save the ‘souls of mankind’ if it is to be worthwhile—either that or artists simply need to join “the ministry.” Gary posits that everything does not burn and that eternity has already begun, therefore, we can begin to dismantle these old messages and create new ones in which the work of our hands has eternal significance.

I will tell you more tomorrow. It is just getting too late to write any more right now….

Vee a what?

Last night was the last night of the 2nd or 3rd (depends on who is counting …and what they are counting) annual gathering (”conference” would be a word many would use, but it’s so …in-the-box) of Via Affirmativa (something about being on a yes road …for artists). During the meal, around our table, and afterwards with the whole group, the question was asked and discussed – How do you explain these past days to your friends and family?

When I heard the question, I could only smile. I still can’t explain the name to say nothing of the NAC (Not-A-Conference) and I’m now an oldie – I was at the 1st or 2nd annual NAC.

When I got home later that evening, I looked at a mosaic of photos I had stayed up all night the night before working on. The photos were all taken the evening before at an event at this summer’s gathering called “Celebration Performances”. I don’t really know why I stayed up all night and continued into the day (missing some Gathering events) to put this together. It just seemed the photos told a story.

The story? I was thinking the story of one evening at one event at one Via Affirmativa Gathering. I was thinking small.

Yet, something drove me to push ahead to put the mosaic together. And something kept driving after the first two mosaics I did I also rejected. The last one I did used a completely different layout. I also cut down on the number of photos (I wasn’t doing a documentary documenting everyone who came). It looked good enough to at least show others. I brought it to the evening’s event.

As I now returned to the mosaic, I saw in the photos a much larger story. It seems this set of photos from one night may actually tell the whole story in a way only a visual like photography can. For me, the photos say far more, and far better, what Via Affirmative is about. I just needed to write the story the photos were already in place for.

I also thought there was one key photo missing. There was no photo of a God created work (not counting people). I ejected the disc and grabbed a disc of photos of iris. As I was putting it in, I thought “No, this needs to be just from the photos collected that evening.” I put the iris CD back in its case.

I went to the file with the previous evening’s photos in. Now that I knew the possible purpose for this, I wanted to make sure I was using the best photos to tell the story. As I scrolled through the photos, I came to one not a part of that evening. It was, and is, the only “mis-filed” photo in the file. The photo? An iris - an iris that should be on the CD I decided not to take an iris from.

Hmmm…

It was an iris that had bloomed the day people came here, to Minneapolis, from across the country, and Italy, for the 2nd or 3rd NAC gathering.

Hmmm…

I decided to change the parameters from only photos taken that evening, to only photos in the file of photos taken that evening. God smiled. I smiled.

These sixteen photos, with the iris as the exception, were all taken the same evening during the 2007 summer gathering in Minneapolis. Together they tell the story of what we are about. The words below (reading the photos left to right), expand the photos.

We are about art and light. We are about art that knows its true origins, its true source. We celebrate art. And, we trumpet the light.

We are about all - all generations. We listen and learn and mentor. And, enjoy.

We are about a vision. We are about a vision of what the arts are meant to be. And, thankful for those who see and are bold enough to lead.

We are about beauty. We are about creating beautiful music, beautiful art. And, to play it for all who would enter the room.

We are about excellence. We desire to be all that God has created us to be. And, the world becomes more like God created it to be.

We are about freedom. We are about giving freedom to live outside the box. And, the freedom to call back when one has gone too far.

We are about each other. We immerse ourselves in each other’s creativity. We are enriched.

We are about transparency. We share our questions and our struggles. And, we hold each other up.

We are about purpose. We are not about purposeless life. We are not about purposeless art. There is that which is greater than the most beautiful trumpet sound. It is that for which we play. It is that for which we live and play to glory.

We are about truth. We welcome critics. We want to affirm the best. And, be honest with what’s not.

We are about passion. We love our art. And, we love to draw others into our art.

We are about artists and designers. We embrace all forms of creativity. And we hold none above the other.

We are diverse. We come from many backgrounds. And, we are richer for it.

We know The Creator. He is beautiful. And, He has reached out to us.

We are about dreams. We are about seeing dreams come to fulfillment. And dreaming more.

We are about thumbs up. We are about affirming each other as we travel our roads. We are Via Affirmativa.

Part II

Im trying to locate a copy of the 1948 film Quartet. It is the first of three films on the short stories of Somerset Maugham

Help