Reminder: Conference Early Registration Discount!!!

The early registration discount for the fall Image conference, "A Narratable World: The Theological Implications of Story," will end in just two weeks, on September 15. Register before that date and take advantage of the discount. (And see our feature on keynote speaker Stanley Hauerwas below.)

For conference info, click here.

Artist of the Month: Laura Lasworth
It's an overused word, but clear your mind for a minute and believe us when we say that Laura Lasworth's paintings are haunting. In its original usage "haunt" meant to habitually frequent a place and that's what Lasworth's canvases do: linger in our minds, in that border country between dreaming and waking life, between faith and reason, between narrative and abstraction. While many of her works emerge out of her profound grappling with literary texts, she never becomes a mere illustrator: always there is a transformation of the text so that the painting acts like a text, yet in its own visual medium. To see one of her paintings based on Flannery O'Connor's stories, for example, is to sense the writer provoking the artist to new acts of creation. Pain, alienation, and loneliness inhabit these works, but so do light, grace, and benediction.

To see the Artist of the Month feature on Lasworth, click here.

Intruding Upon the Timeless:
Meditations on Art, Faith, and Mystery
By Gregory Wolfe
Originally published as the editorial statements at the beginning of each issue of Image, these short, evocative essays constitute a new Christian aesthetic for our time. Each of the meditations is like a polished gem: radiant, gracefully written, beautiful in itself, but also serving as a stimulus to further reflection. They remind us of the way that both faith and imagination reach beyond the limits of reason to intuit the mystery of redemption. Among the subjects of these meditations are: the intimate relationship between faith and imagination, the spiritual value of irony, the great divorce between Christian subculture and the larger American mainstream, and post 9/11-America's lack of a tragic sensibility. The book is enhanced with the engravings of Barry Moser, one of America's leading artist/illustrators.

Annie Dillard writes: "Gregory Wolfe's vision is the animating force behind Image, one of the best journals on the planet. Intruding Upon the Timeless, a collection of his pieces from Image, takes its title from a phrase of Flannery O'Connor. That's apt, because not since O'Connor's Mystery and Manners has there been such bracing insight on the pile-up where art and faith collide. This book will rev your engines and propel you down the same road."

To order Intruding Upon the Timeless at a pre-publication discount of 20% click here. (Offer good until October 1.)

The Melancholy Stories of Damien Jurado
Opinions on Damien Jurado vary widely. He's not your typical Christian songwriter, both in his chosen subject matter and the avoidance of overt spiritual references-"My relationship with God is so personal…It's like I don't go out and tell the whole world about me and my wife...." To some he's the epitome of the singer-songwriter, to others a tortured soul spinning dark Raymond Carver-like stories; others see him as just an average guy. Jurado might agree with all three. Based in Seattle, Jurado moved from the realm of punk rock to eclectic solo songwriting in 1997 with his debut album, Water Ave. S. In 1999 Jurado released the haunting Rehearsals for Departure, a cue to anyone paying attention that an important new voice was increasing in range and depth. Jurado released Ghost of David in 2000. The album deals with the brokenness of a fallen world as seen, felt, and heard by the inhabitants of Jurado's lyrical geography. In 2002, Jurado closeted his acoustic six-string and plugged in. I Break Chairs was the result, a rollicking rock-based album that segues directly from Water Ave. S. In trademark style, Jurado's latest release moves off in a different direction than his previous album. Where Shall You Take Me? travels country roads back to sparse and mournful songs. The album is replete with aspects of American mythos: small towns, highways, and murder. With the exception of the amplified rock tune, "Texas to Ohio," the album maintains a quiet, almost hushed, focus on the lives of desperate characters. Rosie Thomas provides backing vocals on three tracks, including the achingly beautiful "Window." The realism of Where Shall You Take Me? is indeed bleak, and one is led up a road that fades into the night. Direct connections to Jurado's personal life, however, should be avoided. "I don't like writing about myself," he told one interviewer. "To me, I'm boring, you know." Those who listen to his songs, however, cannot say the same about his music.

Visit Damien Jurado online here.

Precarious Peace: God & Guatemala
Decades of war. 200,000 dead. A constant struggle for peace. God & Guatemala tells a story that has been in the making for over fifty years. This two-part documentary recounts the troubling history of violence in Guatemala, introducing us to people who have lived through it. They tell their stories in their own words, revealing how years of war and unrest have taken a toll on the people of Guatemala. One of the sad effects of the unrest in Guatemala is that those in authority have viewed the indigenous Mayan population as a threat. As a consequence, those in power have pressured the native people of Guatemala to assimilate, to speak Spanish and become Latino in every way. But this solution has done little for Guatemala and its people. The documentary poses this question: "What does it take to ensure peace?" For years, the leaders and citizens of Guatemala have conflicted on the answer to this question. Even after the peace accords of 1996, which officially ended war in Guatemala, the country is still struggling for that often elusive peace. The violence persists, partly out of the distrust in authority that has been built over all these years. Without the backing of a strong government, the peace accords have not realized their full potential. So the film asks again, What will it take to ensure peace for Guatemala?

In light of this question, the second part of the documentary examines the role that the church has played in Guatemala's struggle for peace. It shows how God has worked already through a variety of church communities in Guatemala: through the proactive struggle for peace that the Catholic Church has undertaken, through the resonance with suffering that Guatemalans find in Pentecostalism. Religion, the film suggests, will play a critical part in the shaping of Guatemala's future. A source of hope for Guatemala lies in the potential for Mayan and Christian thought to converge. As one voice in the film proclaims, God does not belong to any one culture. Because Christianity can embrace the people of Guatemala, it offers an alternative to violence as well as an alternative to assimilation. Precarious Peace: God & Guatemala shows how God's work in this war-torn country has already paved the way and will continue to fight for that precarious peace. Simply put, this is a masterpiece of documentary filmmaking.

Copies of God and Guatemala and reproducible study guides are available through the following:

Vision Video: 800-523-0226 (M-F, 8-6 EST)

Maryknoll: 800-227-8523 (M-F, 8-5 EST)

Catherine Prescott: Portraits
Portraits: Recent Oils of Family and Friends, an exhibit of works by Catherine Prescott, will be on display from September 2-26 at The Gallery at Pennsylvania College of Technology. Prescott's works, known for their breathtaking realism, are also noted for the sensitivity with which they interpret their subjects' intangible characteristics-the spiritual and emotional lives of those she depicts. About this complex fusion of skill and intuition Prescott says, "Perhaps it is the psychological aspect of making portraits that constitutes the fundamental drive behind my work, but I also love the craft and challenge of getting a good likeness and making the presence of the particular convincing." Prescott's work was featured in Image #36 and was accompanied by an essay by Kate Daniels entitled "Painting Poems: The Psychological Portraits of Catherine Prescott". For more information on the Portraits exhibit call (570) 326-3761, ext. 7973 or click here.

Continuing Art Exhibits
Excavating the Image: Biblical Subjects by Wayne Forte

The Reynolds Gallery at Santa Barbara's Westmont College will present an exhibit entitled Excavating the Image: Biblical Subjects by Wayne Forte. This collection, through which the artist explores the relevance of the Bible as a source for contemporary art, will include over sixteen years' worth of paintings and drawings of biblical subjects ranging from "narratives to liturgical pieces to updated interpretations of old master works." Acutely aware of "the tension between the figure and the paper's containing edge," Forte's work achieves a sense of compressed monumentality that is simultaneously majestic and intimate. His artwork was featured in Image #13 and his essay entitled "Confession and Revision" was also published in issue #38 as part of the "Bringing Home the Work" symposium. About his artistic process Forte says, "I initiate the creation of a painting, but soon the work takes on its own momentum and starts to feed its energy and ideas back to me. The painting guides me. This is what sustains me as an artist. This is what keeps me going. This is my reward."

This exhibit is open from August 18 to October 18, 2003 with a reception for the artist taking place on September 6 from 3-5. For more information see the gallery website.

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.

The Second Annual Arts Ministry Conference
Tending God's Garden: Arts Ministry in the Church
From October 16-18, 2003 IMAGO DEI: Friends of Christianity and the Arts, a regional, ecumenical Christian arts organization, will sponsor its second annual arts ministry conference, entitled Tending God's Garden: Arts Ministry in the Church. The conference will be held at St. Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church in Mission, Kansas, a suburb of Kansas City.

This conference, intended for all who appreciate the arts, represents an attempt to extend the creative dimensions of the life of faith and foster the development of ministries in a wide variety of different artistic disciplines. The conference will include worship services that incorporate music, visual arts, dance, poetry, and drama; twenty-eight workshops ranging from arts ministry, to sacred dance to the environment; and speakers from both Roman Catholic and a wide range of Protestant backgrounds. Topics include Father Paul Turner's Church Music: What a Garden Sounds Like; Executive Director and founder of the Cathedral Arts Project, Brother William Woeger on Faith and Art: Cooperating with the Creator; and former president of the North American Academy of Liturgy, Gail Ramshaw's address entitled In the Midst of the Garden: The Tree of Life in the Bible and Christian Tradition. The weekend will also include performances by the Störling Dance Theatre, the Northwestern College Drama Ministries Ensemble, and an art exhibit from Christians in the Visual Arts.

For more information about the conference or about the work of IMAGO DEI: Friends of Christianity and the Arts, click here, call 785-842-2680, or e-mail hurcharts@aol.com.

Call for Papers
A conference entitled "The Arts and Visions of the Apocalypse" will be held on January 31st, 2004 at St. Paul School of Theology in Kansas City, Missouri. This conference is sponsored by IMAGO DEI: Friends of Christianity and the Arts, with co-sponsorship from the St. Paul School of Theology and the Friends of Chamber Music of Kansas City.

Speakers include Marilyn Stokstad, Emeritus Professor of Art History, The University of Kansas; Thomas Allen Seel, Author of A Theology of Music For Worship Based on the Book of Revelations; Leland Ryken: Professor of English at Wheaton College; and Michael Bauer, Professor of Organ and Church Music at The University of Kansas.

Paper proposals may be sent to Michael Bauer, 3908 Stetson Drive, Lawrence, KS, 66049. Proposals should include a brief biographical sketch and are due by November 15, 2003. Special consideration will be given to proposals that integrate theological and artistic concerns. For more information, click here or e-mail churcharts@aol.com.

Call for Artist-Priests
I am a Church of England Priest in my third year of curacy with a BA honors degree in Graphic Design. I am searching for ministry patterns that uphold both the call to priesthood and art. More specifically, I am interested in exploring ways to support creativity without abandoning the priestly role that gives that artistic process its significance.

I am interested in contacting others, regardless of denomination, who have a concern for this artist-priest relationship, and sharing stories, advice and encouragement on how this connection manifests in ministry. Any contacts or resources would be much appreciated as I struggle to find out where God is leading me. Many thanks in advance.

Contact Reverend Sarah Wright at: sarah@squeaks.co.uk.

Spotlight on the Conference
In this section of ImageUpdate, we will occasionally present short features on individual workshops and other aspects of the Image Conference that might catch your interest…

Image Conference Feature: Stanley Hauerwas
Stanley Hauerwas will be featured as a keynote and plenary session speaker at the upcoming Image conference, "A Narratable World: The Theological Implication of Story," to be held in Seattle on November 6-9. Currently serving as the Gilbert T. Rowe Professor of Theological Ethics at Duke Divinity School, Stanley Hauerwas is the author of many books including The Peaceable Kingdom: A Primer on Christian Ethics, Resident Aliens: Life in the Christian Colony, In Good Company: The Church as Polis, Prayers Plainly Spoken, and most recently With the Grain of the Universe: The Churches Witness and Natural Theology. TIME magazine has called Hauerwas "America's greatest living theologian." For more, read "A Conversation with Stanley Hauerwas" printed in Image #32 or click here.

To learn more about the Image conference or to register online, click here.

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