Web Exclusive: A Conversation with Charles Pickstone
By Essay Issue 69
British artist Chris Ofili has long been a source of controversy. His detractors have included the mayor of New York as well as a man who threw white paint on one of his pieces at the Brooklyn Museum (the famous Virgin Mary piece with elephant dung). But despite the bombast and apparent sacrilege, Ofili’s work…
Read MoreWeb Exclusive: Wayne Roosa Remembers Guy Chase
By Interview Issue 72
Guy Chase, the cover artist for Image issue 72, passed away last year at only fifty-six years old. Art writer Wayne Roosa knew Chase for years and worked with him in the art department at Bethel University. We asked him about his friend and colleague. Image: What most stands out to you as a hallmark of Guy…
Read MoreWeb Exclusive: A Reader Interview with Linford Detweiler
By Interview Issue 75
A big thanks to one-half of Over the Rhine, the pianist, bassist, and songwriter Linford Detweiler, for participating in our reader interview–and to our Imagereaders for their thoughtful, funny, and off-the-wall questions. You can read the jumping-off point for this interview, Linford’s reflection on the word human from issue 75, here. What was your first thought when you sat down…
Read MoreWeb Exclusive: A Conversation with Valerie Sayers
By Interview Issue 70
The summer issue of Image includes a novel excerpt from Valerie Sayers. She answered our questions about baseball, the novel, and the allure of characters who are so bad they’re good. Image: You seem to be quite a baseball fan, like a number of American writers past and present. Do you think there’s a…
Read MoreWeb Exclusive: A Conversation with Larry Woiwode
By Interview Issue 71
Acclaimed novelist Larry Woiwode is the author of Beyond the Bedroom Wall; What I’m Going to Do, I Think; and Words Made Fresh. His short story “That Old Dog” appears in Image issue 70. Image: “That Old Dog” is about a famous novelist who hasn’t written a book in a long time. But over the…
Read MoreWeb Exclusive: A Reader Interview with Betsy Sholl
By Interview Issue 73
Betsy Sholl’s poem “The Harrowing” is published in Image issue 73. This web-exclusive interview with Sholl features questions from readers of Image. How do you connect with secular readers? Part of me wonders if, when it comes to art, these distinctions between secular and sacred really apply. A poet has to write from a point…
Read MoreWeb Exclusive: A Conversation with Patton Dodd
By Interview Issue 76
Image: In your essay in the new issue of Image, “Power in the Blood: Hollywood and the Myth of Religious Violence,” you write about the strange relationship Hollywood has to Christianity—mainstream Hollywood movies tend to use violent Christians, often broadly stereotypical ones, as villains. They also tend to tell stories where further violence is used to…
Read MoreWeb Exclusive: A Reader Interview with John A. Kohan
By Interview Issue 74
John Kohan’s calling to sacred art began early: “Sacred art has been a lifelong preoccupation, judging from the earliest sketch of mine my mother saved. It is a pencil illustration of Jesus’ parable of “The Sower and the Seed”…drawn when I was a child of six or so.” Since age six, John has worked as…
Read MoreWeb Exclusive: A Conversation with Steve Prince
By Interview Issue 78
The art of Steve Prince is explored in an essay by Beth McCoy in Image issue 78. Prince, a New Orleans native, works primarily in printmaking and drawing. His richly textured images are steeped in religious and visual culture; critic D. Eric Bookhardt characterizes their metaphorical power as “an ability to elucidate inexplicable worlds within…
Read MoreWeb Exclusive: An Agrarian Conversion
By Interview Issue 77
An Interview with Fred Bahnson Image: Soil and Sacrament took you around the country exploring the spiritual practice of agriculture, so to speak. What made you want to write the book? How did it take its shape? Fred Bahnson: The travel story I’ll describe shortly, but first I’ll say that the impetus to write the book came…
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