Artist of the Month: Allison Funk
One of the most valuable gifts a poet can give us is to make large things small. Most of us look to great ideas, classic religious and literary texts, and heroic figures from history and art for meaning and guidance, but too often these things get lost in the clouds. Enter the poet, who can set up lyric shop inside the epic edifice and bring it down to human scale. This is certainly one gift that Allison Funk possesses in abundance. In her poems that Image has published, she has taken the story of the prodigal son and depictions of the Virgin Mary by Albrecht Durer and inhabited them so deeply that they become freshly available to us. Whether she is imagining the prodigal’s story through the eyes of his mother or brother or seeing Durer’s Virgin as a flesh and blood woman, Funk makes the opaque translucent. In “The Madonna with the Iris,” Mary sits in an enclosed garden with the infant Jesus. Conscious of the burden of meaning that she holds in her arms, and dimly aware of her son’s future suffering (and her own), Mary looks through an arch in the garden wall, “through which, when she needs to, / She can find, unbroken, / The level line of the sea.” In Funk’s rendering, Mary’s need for a steadying, contemplative refuge becomes one with our own desire to survive daily stresses and strains. So the poet’s incarnational art makes the divine human, vulnerable, real.

See Funk’s Artist of the Month page here.

The God Committee at Taproot Theatre
Playwright Mark St. Germain’s The God Committee is a riveting hospital drama—but not exactly the kind you’d watch on prime time television. Germain’s play is a financial, medical, ethical dilemma that explores what it means to play God within the limits of human knowledge—and under the pressure of a less than 90-minute deadline. The play opens on St. Patrick’s Day morning at a metropolitan hospital; by 9:30 a.m. someone in the transplant ward will have a new heart. Six medical professionals and a lawyer-priest gather in a conference room to debate who should receive the heart: a single man with HIV and no family support, a former nurse with a history of attempted suicide, an overweight African American man who is statistically less likely to survive, or a young man whose father has offered to donate $50 million to the hospital. Unfolding in real time (a ticking clock onstage adds to the urgency), The God Committee explores the ambiguities surrounding organ transplant decisions, and raises questions that lack clear-cut answers. As one of the characters says, if these decisions could be reduced to a mathematical formula, the transplant selection committee would be replaced by a computer program. Instead, humans with plenty of personal biases, emotional entanglements, and motives of their own must decide who “deserves” a second chance at life. Like the Irish sensibility that infuses the play, The God Committee will make you laugh while breaking your heart—Taproot’s actors deliver emotionally convincing performances of the heart-rending, galling, and lovable batch of characters that Germain has created. Don’t worry, we won’t give away the committee's decision; but that's not the only secret revealed when the meeting adjourns. The Northwest’s regional premier of The God Committee opens at Taproot Theatre in Seattle on February 2, and runs until March 3.

For tickets, call (206) 781-9707 or click here for more information.

Mark St. Germain’s name may sound familiar—he’s teaching Playwriting and Screenwriting at this year’s Glen Workshop.

Story of a Girl by Sara Zarr
Sara Zarr’s Story of a Girl—which got a starred review in the School Library Journal—is one of a new breed of young adult novels that embrace a sort of dark realism: troubled families, money problems, sex, drugs, chilly parents, abuse, unwanted pregnancy, longing, and insecurity. Teens have always lived in a dangerous world, and the great young adult novels of the past have found ways to convey that without violating the old taboos—but it’s a different scene now. Zarr, who developed her novel at Image’s Glen Workshop in Santa Fe, writes with craft and economy. She begins Story of a Girl in the middle of things, in the summer between sophomore and junior year of high school. Deanna Lambert is the girl everyone in school thinks they know: when she was thirteen, her dad caught her having sex in a car with a high school boy. Her father has ignored her ever since. At school the story is old news by now, but not forgotten. In a social structure as rigid as anything out of Edith Wharton, Deanna is permanently (and inaccurately) cast as the school slut. Zarr explores Deanna’s struggle to see herself as someone else. The characters are unusual and appealing, familiar enough to be intelligible, but always a few interesting degrees off of stereotype. (One of the best is Stacy, Deanna’s brother’s girlfriend, a former high school queen, now a conflicted teen mom with her own subplot.) The language is precise and energetic, and the pages fly by. Deanna’s voice is angry, funny, resilient, and touching. The result is a beautiful study of how someone who has developed a very tough exterior can gradually be melted. Not everyone writes Deanna off, and Zarr gives her a few friends who are able to cut through her veneer of self-protective contempt. The bleak world of the novel (it’s set in a depressed suburb of San Francisco) makes the sweet moments—and there are quite a few—all the brighter, and all the more credible. This is young adult fiction that does not look away from the darkness of adolescence, but that also points toward a hard-won kind of hope.

For more, visit Sara’s website.

Fan Mayhall Gates Reading with Jennifer Maier
On February 7 at 7:30 p.m. poet Jennifer Maier will give the Fan Mayhall Gates Literary Reading in the Art Center Gallery at Seattle Pacific University. Maier will read from her newly released debut collection, Dark Alphabet (Southern Illinois), winner of the 2005 Crab Orchard Review First Book Award. Says Madeline DeFrees, “Jennifer Maier's colloquial language settles you comfortably into the passenger seat for a journey full of surprising turns.… Dark Alphabet is a sophisticated blend of wit, intellect, feeling, and perception, as mysterious as nightfall and as fresh as daybreak.” Jennifer Maier teaches literature and creative writing at Seattle Pacific University and serves as an associate editor at Image. Her poems have received three Pushcart Prize nominations, and have appeared in Poetry, SWINK, Image, The Mississippi Review, Spirituality and Health, Poetry Daily, and elsewhere.

For more information and directions, click here.

Call for Submissions: Art Relating to Advent/Christmas/Epiphany
Editor Greg Wolfe is looking for outstanding visual art submissions for a book to be published by Paraclete Press later this year on the spiritual meaning of Christmas and the Incarnation. God With Us will feature text by leading Christian writers, including Kathleen Norris, Scott Cairns, Eugene Peterson, and Luci Shaw. Art will be reproduced in color. In addition to classic works of art, we hope to feature some contemporary material as well. We are primarily looking for paintings but might also consider visual art in other media. The only requirement is that submitted works have some connection to the seasons of Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany, even if they are not direct illustrations. While we cannot pay artists for allowing us to reproduce their work in God With Us, we can include the artist’s contact information in the book.

If you would like to respond to this call, we are only accepting submissions electronically. Please send jpegs of your work to Gregory Wolfe.

ImageUpdate Tweaked
With a new year comes a new look for ImageUpdate. Not much has changed, but we have taken a few steps to freshen up the layout and cut back on repeat material. You’ll notice that we’ve changed the name of this section to Features (from News) and we’ve added a section called “Ongoing” to list art exhibits, plays, conferences, and other items that have been featured in previous issues of ImageUpdate but are still, well, ongoing.... Instead of running these items in their entirety, we will include very short descriptions and a link for more information. We have also deleted some of our repeat “house ads” from the ImageNews section; you’ll see new graphic ads to replace them. We hope you'll appreciate our tweakings!

Abstract Realities: Robin Haines Merrill
The Upper Room Art Gallery in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, presents artist and social justice advocate Robin Haines Merrill’s upcoming exhibit, Abstract Realities. Merrill’s paintings are softly luminous windows, each opening onto a constellation of forms imbued with known wonder, stripped of ordinary appearance—or, as in the “Language” series, made visible—and bathed in new light. They invite the viewer to venture into this perception, one that extends beyond the canvas or the senses. Says Merrill, “God has replicated all of creation with a pattern, purpose, and reflection of the Divine. This is what I paint.” The exhibit will kick off with an opening party on February 3, from 5-10 p.m.; the exhibit itself runs from February 3 to April 30. The gallery is located at 417 NE Third Ave, Fort Lauderdale, FL, in the First Evangelical Lutheran Church building. Hours for the show vary; call (954) 828-1505 for more information, or visit the website here.

If you have information other ImageUpdate readers might find interesting, share it here! Do you have a question that you hope a member of the ImageUpdate community might have the answer to? Ask it here. Have your messages posted by sending an email to gwolfe@spu.edu.

Travel to France with CIVA
Christians in the Visual Arts (CIVA) is going to France! “The Artist and the French Church,” held throughout France during November 3-16, 2007, is the third opportunity for CIVA members and friends to explore how the artist has served the church in France through the centuries. The visit will include such major sights as the Matisse Chapel, the Musée National Message Biblique Marc Chagall, and The Maeght Foundation. For more information, download a PDF brochure at http://www.civa.org/tours.php or contact tour host Ed Knippers, cknippers@aol.com or (703) 527-5934.

New Stained Glass Windows for Hereford Cathedral
This March will see the conclusion of a yearlong stained glass project at Hereford Cathedral. Since 2006 artist Tom Denny, internationally renowned for his pioneering techniques of acid-etching, staining, and painting on glass, has been creating four new windows there. The windows commemorate Thomas Traherne, the little-known Hereford cleric, poet, and writer of the 1600s, and the project is one of the cathedral’s most exciting and significant in recent years. The dedication service will take place at Evensong on Sunday, March 25. Anyone interested in coming to the service should contact the Cathedral Office at 01432 374200 or office@herefordcathedral.co.uk.

Seattle Pacific University Job Opening:
Senior Designer, Response Magazine
Seattle Pacific University is seeking an outstanding, experienced graphic designer to design and produce SPU’s award-winning institutional magazine, Response. Responsibilities include: designing and producing Response, participating in the development of marketing strategy for Response, and related duties. To learn more about the job responsibilities, and the required qualifications, visit www.spu.edu/depts/hr. Or contact Kathleen Abbott, SPU Human Resources, 206-281-2591 or abbottk@spu.edu.

Holy Image, Hallowed Ground: Icons from Sinai
Several icons have traveled from Egypt for a special exhibition at the Getty museum in Los Angeles through March 4, 2007.

The Great Divorce Off-Broadway
Magis Theatre Company in New York City presents C.S. Lewis’s The Great Divorce through February 11, 2007. For tickets, click here.

The Seattle Pacific University MFA in Creative Writing Deadline: February 15
Now in its second year, the low-residency MFA in Creative Writing at Seattle Pacific University is thriving under the direction of Image editor Greg Wolfe and the distinguished writers who make up the program faculty. The MFA at SPU is a creative writing program for apprentice writers—both Christians and those of other traditions—who not only want to pursue excellence in the craft of writing but also place their work within the larger context of the Judeo-Christian tradition of faith. Students work with faculty mentors during the year by exchanging manuscripts and critiques—and all come together for two intensive ten-day residencies each year, one alongside Image’s Glen Workshop and one on Whidbey Island, north of Seattle. This summer we will graduate our first cohort and admit a new batch of MFA students selected from a competitive pool of applications. The deadline to apply for summer 2007 admission is February 15.

Click here for a link to the online application.

The Milton Center Postgraduate Fellowship Deadline: March 15
The Milton Center postgraduate fellowship brings emerging writers of Christian commitment to Image, where their primary goal is to complete their first book-length manuscript in fiction, poetry, or creative nonfiction. During their time at the Center, fellows will have a rich experience of literary and spiritual community; they will interact with the editorial staff of Image and the English department at Seattle Pacific University, participate in the Friday writer's workshop, and enjoy the lively literary scene in the beautiful Pacific Northwest.

For more information and to download an application, click here.

Register Now for the 2007 Glen Workshop!
"God of the Desert: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam through the Prism of Art"
July 29 - August 5, 2007

The Glen Workshop is an illuminating conference on the arts and religion, where participants practice and strengthen their craft and vision in community. This weeklong event combines the best elements of a workshop, an arts festival, and a symposium. By exploring this year's theme, "God of the Desert: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam through the Prism of Art," participants will share a common ground for discussion during the week. This year's faculty includes illustrator Barry Moser, playwright Mark St. Germain, poets Scott Cairns and Daniel Tobin, musicians Linford Detweiler and Karin Berquist of Over the Rhine, fiction writer Moira Crone, calligrapher Timothy Botts, ceramics artist Ginger Geyer, and spiritual writer Ann McCutchan. A seminar class, "Peoples of the Book," will be led by Rodger Kamenetz. Afternoons and evenings at the Glen feature faculty readings, lectures, and presentations. Guest speakers Jamal Rahman, George Dardess, Rodger Kamenetz, and Scott Cairns will explore the relationships among the three Abrahamic traditions and the role art and story play in each during selected evening sessions. Each evening concludes with an ecumenical worship service that incorporates the arts. This year's musician-in-residence, Pierce Pettis, will be giving a concert as well as playing during worship throughout the week. Please note that class sizes are limited: don't wait too long to register!

To register for the Glen Workshop, or to find out more information, click here

A brochure will be printed and mailed in early February. If you are on the Image subscriber list, you'll automatically receive a brochure. If you'd like to have one mailed to you, send us an e-mail by clicking here.