Artist of the Month: Over the Rhine
Husband and wife duo Karin Bergquist and Linford Detweiler have run the gamut of musical styles in their formidable career, from R&B to Americana and folk to jazz and cabaret. Karin’s voice offers a stunning mix of fragility and virtuosic power, and Linford’s piano is warm, meditative, and inventive. As master songwriters (they’ve released over ten albums), they command brains, sensuality, idealism, fervor, and humor, drawing on those two great wellsprings of American music, sex and religion. Their lyrics pair a vision of otherworldly hope and redemption with a rawness about doubt, desperation, and bliss. In the summer of 2008, Karin and Linford will teach songwriting their third year running at the Glen Workshop, our annual art and writing workshop in Santa Fe. Endearingly, these rock stars were also humble enough to be students at the Glen. They recently took a poetry workshop from National Book Award finalist Andrew Hudgins, whom they nicknamed “The Shredder.”

Since they appreciate great writing, Karin and Linford want their fans to subscribe to Image. And we want our readers to listen to Over the Rhine. Subscribe now—or give a gift subscription—and receive a free copy of their Christmas album Snow Angels as a special gift from Over the Rhine. The eclectic Snow Angels includes a gorgeous new carol of reconciliation and hope, “White Horse,” the wry, steamy “North Pole Man,” and everything in between.

This offer is good only with internet orders for new personal subscriptions and gift subscriptions, and is available only while supplies last. Many thanks to Over the Rhine for their perpetual generosity.

Bret Lott Joins the MFA Faculty at Seattle Pacific University
Image editor and Seattle Pacific University MFA program director Gregory Wolfe is delighted to announce that Bret Lott is joining the creative writing faculty of SPU’s low-residency MFA program. The recipient of Image’s 2007 Denise Levertov award, Bret Lott will serve the MFA core faculty in fiction. Lott is the author of eleven books, most recently the story collection The Difference Between Women and Men, the nonfiction book Before We Get Started: A Practical Memoir of the Writer’s Life, and the novel A Song I Knew by Heart. He is also the author of the bestselling novel Jewel, which was selected for Oprah’s book club in 1999, and is the former editor of The Southern Review. A friend of the SPU MFA program since it was launched in 2005, Lott was instrumental in the early stages of the program’s formation, helping us to put together the country’s first MFA program that engages the Judeo-Christian tradition—without sacrificing the highest quality and rigor. Lott has previously taught in the MFA programs at Bennington and Vermont College, and now joins fellow SPU MFA faculty members Robert Clark, Leslie Leyland Fields, Jeanine Hathaway, Gina Ochsner, and Jeanne Murray Walker.

For more information about the MFA in fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction at Seattle Pacific University, click here.

Rapture of the Deep by Doug Thorpe
In Rapture of the Deep: Reflections of the Wild in Art, Wilderness, and the Sacred Doug Thorpe (Image #28), a poet and professor of English at Seattle Pacific University, seeks to inhabit, though purposefully never encompass, the literal and figurative depths of the word “wilderness.” Woven together, the ten essays and interludes explore what it means to go to the brink of understanding and security, straining toward without pitching into the chasm of unknowing, and waiting there for what is essential—in another word, for the holy. Thorpe’s voice is gently musing, his poetic mind sharp, and the territory he encounters vast, from Gilgamesh, Hesse, and Li Po to Denise Levertov, Ursula LeGuin and Dante. Like riffing on jazz standards that coalesce into something fresh and new, he moves lightly through quotations, literary and mythic tropes, and his own physical and emotional placement—in his office listening to Dvorak, on a trail in the Cascades in Western Washington—as the rhythm of his thoughts keep pace. The intent of each piece is less to come to an understanding of wilderness than to take up a way of being. Passing through analysis, helpful though it may be, readers are invited to go beyond it, into a “true initiation, true surrender and depth.” The natural world is cast as both backdrop and potent catalyst for that movement toward the edge. The student-teacher conversations between father and daughter on the trail, the sacrament of setting up camp, the falling away of pretension when the path is lost and hunger takes over—all lead inward toward another hunger that, should we choose not to run away or disguise it, takes us to “‘the very depth of our own being.’” Christ haunts several of these essays as an embodiment of wilderness, “the pathless way,” showing us that it is through the reckless abandonment of surrender that hunger is transformed into an offering of “Love [that] lives to be eaten, to be taken in, to be tricked and broken and pounded down only to rise again.”

Click here to buy the book.

Michelle Shocked: ToHeavenURide
Michelle Shocked’s music has always embraced diversity. Following the folk sounds of The Texas Campfire Tapes, Shocked experimented with jazz, Latin, show tunes, and Americana. Recorded at the 2003 Telluride Bluegrass Festival, Shocked’s latest release, ToHeavenURide, focuses on her most notable influences—gospel and blues. “If you follow the trail from rock ’n’ roll,” Shocked says, “it always leads you back to the blues, sweet soul music and finally to the churches and gospel music.” In returning to the roots of music, then, Shocked channels Sister Rosetta Thorpe on “Strange Things Happening Every Day” and “Ain’t Gonna Study War No More.” Billie Holiday’s “God Bless the Child” receives a spirited performance, as does “Wade in the Water” by the Staples Singers. The album’s highlight, however, may be Shocked’s four original compositions. Initially available only on the Grammy award-winning soundtrack for Dead Man Walking, “Quality of Mercy” poses a dilemma: “Did not He die for my sins / But never could I do the same / Oh I’ve been three times a sinner / And only two times a saint.” Following the folk-based “Psalm" is ”Good News,” a song commissioned by Greenpeace for the documentary, Cancer Alley. Shocked closes the set with “Can’t Take My Joy,” a reggae number highlighting her particular gift for imbuing songs with genuine elation. Unaware for years the set had been recorded, Shocked describes the concert—marked by much testifying and shouts of “Hallelujah”—as a unique “manifestation of ‘the politics of preaching,' as opposed to preaching per se.” Like her first album, also a sort of bootleg, ToHeavenURide showcases Shocked at her best—live and in concert. Musicians on the album include, among others, Nick Forster, the “Sacred Steel” quartet, and the Dancy’s from the New Greater Circle Mission Church in Los Angeles. The ToHeavenURide tour began November 28 in Minneapolis, MN and continues through the first half of 2008.

For more information click here.

In A New Light: Spirituality and the Media Arts by Ron Austin
A contemplative in Hollywood? Hard to imagine. But in the case of Ron Austin, it’s true. Austin’s career has spanned much of modern cinematic history: his first job as a child actor was for Charlie Chaplin; he has written and produced an incredible variety of things, from episodes of Mission Impossible to moving documentaries on the war in Sudan; he has taught at the USC film school and been the catalyst for a unique film collaborative adventure called “Unica.” A convert to Catholicism, Austin is deeply read; he is, quite simply, a spiritually grounded person in a notoriously chaotic industry. His essays on film have appeared in Image over the years. After retiring from teaching, Austin decided to write a book that would distill his insights into the nature of the creative process, particularly in the realm of the “media arts.” The result is In a New Light, which draws on the thought of Rene Girard to outline a number of key spiritual principles, such as “being in the present moment,” “affirming the mystery of the other,” and “transforming conflict.” There is even “A Brief Spiritual History of Film,” which covers some of the great auteurs from Chaplin and Renoir through Bresson and Bergman to Scorsese and Kieslowski. Of the book Image editor Gregory Wolfe has said: “Ron Austin calls himself a ‘survivor’ of Hollywood, but he is so much more than that. Like Melville’s Ishmael floating on the vast ocean after the catastrophe, Austin has attained hard-earned wisdom and a remarkable simplicity of spirit. This enables him to calmly cut through the incessant chatter about movie-making and restore us to the essence of film: a loving attention to the world, including the fragile beauty of the human face, and the drama of conflict and violence being transcended by forgiveness and mercy. Just as he learned from Charlie Chaplin and Jean Renoir, so Ron Austin ought to become a guide to a whole new generation of filmmakers: artists capable of making films that are more deeply spiritual precisely because they are more deeply human.”

Buy the book here.

Seattle Lecture and Reception with Sandra Bowden
Friday, December 7, 7:00 p.m. at John Knox Presbyterian Church
Join Image next week as artist Sandra Bowden delivers a lecture on her work and the exhibit Word As Image, which is currently on display at John Knox Presbyterian Church in Seattle. Word As Image explores the interaction of images and the biblical text. Working with paper, mixed media, texts, and paint, Bowden (Image #47) has spent over forty years investigating, among other themes, the relationship between history and language. Though simple and seemingly straightforward, Bowden’s works make use of a variety of materials—musical scores, envelopes, letters, rice paper—to act as conduits between two worlds. Collage and text are set alongside archeological-themed pieces and Bowden’s newest interest: artist’s books. Sandra Bowden, former president of Christians in the Visual Arts (CIVA), currently lives in Massachusetts. Her work has been displayed internationally, and is part of the collections of The Vatican Museum of Contemporary Religious Art, The Museum of Biblical Art, The Hafia Museum, and many other private collections. She will give a lecture on Friday, December 7 at 7 p.m. at John Knox Presbyterian Church in Seattle. For more information, please call 206.241.1606. The event is co-sponsored by Image and will be followed by a reception.

The Word As Image exhibit can be viewed at John Knox Presbyterian Church during regular office hours.

For more information on Sandra Bowden, visit her website. For more on the exhibits and lecture, go to the John Knox Presbyterian Church website.

For directions to John Knox Presbyterian Church, click 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.

This section lists ongoing exhibits and events that have been featured in previous issues of ImageUpdate. Click on the links for more information.

Christianity & the Visual Arts in Indonesia, June 8-23, 2008: The Council for Christian Colleges and Universities, the Nagel Institute, and the Asian Christian Artists Association are hoping to find a few innovative visual artists to go to Indonesia for two weeks next summer to learn about a fascinating culture, share insights and examples from their own artistry, and experiment together in studio on a common project. The deadline for applications is January 25, 2008. For more information and instructions on how to apply, click here.

The Image Annual Appeal Letter: Help us Transgress Boundaries
Tis the season for fund drives, and this is our version of a little red kettle and tinkly bell. In all seriousness, we’ve got a great story to tell this year—check out our appeal letter to read about Sara Zarr’s journey from the Glen Workshop to the National Book Awards. We’re mighty proud to be a part of her story. It’s one example of the many ways Image has helped artists and writers of faith over the years to keep on keeping on, breaking rules by refusing to be confined to the label “Christian Artist,” and making their work about honesty and excellence first. Your help will enable us to carry on the work that we’ve started. Please consider making a tax-deductible contribution today. As a small, lean, tightly run ship, every dollar you give makes a big difference, be it $35, $50, $100, $500, $1,000 or more.

You can give right now by clicking here and donating over our secure server. Or, if you prefer to give by mail, just send Gregory Wolfe an e-mail at gwolfe@spu.edu with your mailing address and we'll send you a print version of this letter, a response card, and an envelope.

Want to Work for Image This Summer?
Are you an undergraduate or graduate student who'd like to work for Image this coming summer? Or do you know someone who might be interested? The purpose of the Luci Shaw Fellowship is to expose a promising student to the world of literary publishing and introduce him or her to the contemporary dialogue about art and faith that surrounds Image, its programs, its contributors, and its peer organizations. In short, we're looking for summer fellows who share our vision for the place art has in the life of faith, and who are also diligent, meticulous, and responsible about the daily details. There's grunt work galore in this job, but also plenty of opportunities to grasp the vision at the heart of a dynamic arts organization. The Shaw Fellow will also receive a scholarship to Image's Glen Workshop in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

To learn more about the Luci Shaw Fellowship, and to download an application, click here.