commission4mission's new website

See a fantastic variety of artwork, of which the above is a sample, on our new website. The site is up and running with artist's profiles combined with information on: our commissions; the commissioning process; online sales; background information; events; and our charitable donations.

commission4mission has worked with freshSPRING to develop this website showcasing our work. 

The website also has all of our posts from this blog. In future, our posts will all appear on the website blog rather than this blog. As a result, if you wish to stay up-to-date with commission4mission's news please bookmark http://www.commission4mission.org/blogs/. 

New website for commission4mission

commission4mission has been working with freshSPRING to develop a website showcasing our work.

Our new website is now up and running with artist's profiles combined with information on: our commissions; the commissioning process; online sales; background information; events; and our charitable donations.

The website also has all of our posts from this blog. In future, our posts will all appear on the website blog rather than this blog. As a result, if you wish to stay up-to-date with commission4mission's news please bookmark http://www.commission4mission.org/blogs/.

Member's update: Jonathan Evens

Is there really a 'Secret Chord' that would both please the LORD and nearly everybody else as described in Leonard Cohen's popular song 'Hallelujah'  And are there some people who just don't get music, as in the next line in Cohen's lyric?

These are among the questions explored in The Secret Chord, a new book by Peter Banks  and Jonathan Evens. 

They say, “In the book, we seek to explore a number of the dilemmas which musicians and other artists face, not so much in order to map out one route through or around these dilemmas but in an attempt to get the creative juices flowing. Our experience of creativity is of disparate and often contradictory ideas being crushed, swirled, fermented, shaken and stirred in our minds in order that the fine wine of creativity results. Our hope is that The Secret Chord, by exploring artistic dilemmas from a range of different perspectives, will mature in reader’s minds just like fine wine or a precious pearl.”

“Secret Chord is an interesting and impassioned study of the role of music in cultural life, written through the prism of Christian belief. Covering a huge range of musical styles and influences, from gospel music to X Factor, Secret Chord conveys a great enthusiasm for music and its transformative powers, which readers are sure to find engaging.” Carol Biss, Managing Director of Book Guild Publishing

"Secret Chord is well written, full of wisdom, great quotes and illustrations. It's great to read something about art and Christianity that embraces such diverse material." Rev Dr Hugh Rayment-Pickard, author and co-founder of IntoUniversity .

Peter and Jonathan say, "While a significant number of books have been published exploring the relationships between music, art, popular culture and theology - many of which we have enjoyed and from which we have benefited - such books tend either to academic analysis or semi biography about artistes whose output the writers' enjoy. By contrast, The Secret Chord is an accessible exploration of artistic dilemmas from a range of different perspectives which seeks to draw the reader into a place of appreciation for what makes a moment in a 'performance' timeless and special."

The Secret Chord is available initially on Kindle  (http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Secret-Chord-ebook/dp/B009OG5790/), price £1.95. Those without a Kindle can download a free Kindle PC programme at http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/feature.html/ref=kcp_pc_ln_ar?docId=1000423913.

The Secret Chord website can be found at http://www.thesecretchord.co.uk and will be developed over time to enable further exploration of the issues raised.

Peter Banks is a successful composer and musician with mainstream chart successes in many countries in the world within his most well known musical collaboration, 'After The Fire'.  As well as a musician he has worked in other creative industries and now contributes professionally to various online publications as well as his popular music and technology blog, The BanksyBoy Brief.

'Run with the Fire' interviews

Steve Scott has been interviewed about his wide ranging career in art, music and poetry, including his involvement with Run with the Fire, in the current edition of Down The Line magazine. Steve has some fascinating things to say and the interview can be downloaded by clicking here.

Transpositions has also published an interview with Steve specifically about Run with the Fire. Run With The Fire is an arts project for the London 2012 Olympics year organized by CANA, commission4mission and Veritasse. Designed to exhibit in churches, Transpositions say that Run with the Fire is an interesting synergistic example of what happens when art, culture, and the church come together. Click here to read the interview.

Steve has also given an interview to Church and Art Network in which Run with the Fire is featured as a case study. 

Steve Scott is a British writer, poet, and musician whose songs have been recorded by artists including the 77s and Larry Norman. His musical and spoken word projects include Love in the Western World, Lost Horizon, Magnificent Obsession, More Than a Dream, The Butterfly Effect, Empty Orchestra, We Dreamed That We Were Strangers, and Crossing the Boundaries, in conjunction with painter Gaylen Stewart. In 2012, his songs became available on MP3 format, coincident with the release of a limited edition CD, Emotional Tourist: A Steve Scott Retrospective. He writes and speaks often on the arts in the UK and US, and is the author of Like a House on Fire: Renewal of the Arts in a Post-modern Culture, The Boundaries, and Crying for a Vision and Other Essays: The Collected Steve Scott Vol. One. He holds an MA in global leadership.

Run with the Fire update

Run with the Fire has entered a new and really exciting phase with a series of initiatives around the country. Read about what is happening in Streatham and Plymouth and see more of the RWTF artwork in our newsletter - click here! Then go to the Run with the Fire blog for the latest stories such as Colours of Life, Inflame and God in the Park.

A Reflection on the Art in the Church Workshop

Sara Schumacher has posted an interesting reflection on the Art in the Church workshop hosted online by Transpositions. In it she considers two recurring themes that emerged over the three weeks of rich and deep conversation via the workshop. Her two themes are diversity & the importance of context and art begetting creativity and innovation. She uses commission4mission as one example of "innovative and creative solutions to overcome one of the most commonly-mentioned challenges: the lack of money for the arts." Sara's reflection can be read by clicking here.

Transpositions interview

Jonathan Evens has been interviewed about the work of commission4mission for the current online 'Art in the Church' workshop at Transpositions. The interview can be found at http://www.transpositions.co.uk/2012/06/an-interview-with-commission4mission/ and more information about the workshop can be found at: http://www.transpositions.co.uk/2012/05/introducing-the-art-in-the-church-workshop/.

New blog - Run with the Fire

Run with the Fire is an arts project for the London 2012 Olympics organized by CANA, commission4mission and Veritasse based on the image of fire which links the Church’s Pentecost celebration with that of the Olympic runner.

Run with the Fire aims to celebrate creativity, cultural exchange and hope for the future by providing a virtual exhibition of international artwork for use in Olympics-themed events organised by churches in 2012.

Run with the Fire will provide a virtual exhibition of international artwork available on DVD, for display on large scale HD TV or monitor, or for projection using a digital projector. This digital exhibition can be presented as part of Olympics-themed events organised by churches in 2012 plus arts events or exhibitions organized by local churches.

The Run with the Fire DVD will come with an electronic resource package, to accompany the virtual exhibition, which will give ideas for churches on how to organize and facilitate community/arts events.

The Run with the Fire resources (virtual exhibition DVD & electronic resources package) cost £50.00 and can be ordered by contacting Jonathan Evens on 020 8599 2170 or jonathan.evens@btinternet.com.

 

Latest news of Run with the Fire can be found on our blog at http://runwiththefire.blogspot.com/. Two recent articles about the project can be found at: http://www.artway.eu/content.asp?id=1043&lang=en&action=show and http://www.artway.eu/artway.asp?id=225&lang=en&action=show&type=current.

Robert Enoch

'Resurrection' at the Brightlights Festival

'The Cup at Gethsemene'

Robert Enoch makes art, films and photographs. His art is an exciting exploration of colour, form, movement and meaning. He makes artistic interpretations of the Bible in a visionary form, has made artistic installations for the church that visually explore and interpret the Gospels and has recently finished new work for the Brightlights Festival 2010. His recent films are a blend of social documentary and corporate video. In his photographs he searches the environment for images of piercing meaning among everyday things. Free is an on-going collection of photographs by Robert of the words FREE and FREEDOM. His entry in the ECVA Artists Registry can be viewed by clicking here.

Airbrushed from Art History?

Jonathan Evens is asking for help with a Personal Development project that he is currently undertaking.

The project involves him firstly in reviewing and updating his reading on Christian influences on Modern and Contemporary Art and secondly in posting summaries of these influences at his blog. He is calling the series of posts 'Airbrushed from Art History?' as his basic contention is that these influences have been consistently overlooked or ignored in art histories.

Your help, if you are able to give it, would be to comment on these posts, as and when you are able, as people able to critique or develop the ideas and information summarised in the posts.

Jonathan's aim is to systematise and develop his thinking on this theme and make use of the material generated in Study Days and other events to be organised in future by Commission For Mission. The series of posts will potentially also form a useful source of reference for those interested in this topic.

Guest post on Commission For Mission

Jonathan Evens has been asked to write a guest post for Phil's Treehouse, the blog of Revd. Philip Ritchie, about Commission For Mission.

Philip has responsibility for lay education and training in the Diocese of Chelmsford and he writes that he is delighted to publicise the exciting initiative in mission and art that Commission For Mission represents.

If you would like to read this post, which also features examples of the work of several Commission For Mission artists, then click here.

Airbrushed from Art History

Jonathan Evens has begun a series of posts entitled 'Airbrushed from Art History' which argue that religious and/or Christian influences on modern art have been airbrushed out of histories of modern art.

He is echoing Daniel A. Siedell's call in God in the Gallery, for "an alternative history and theory of the development of modern art, revealing that Christianity has always been present with modern art, nourishing as well as haunting it, and that modern art cannot be understood without understanding its religious and spiritual components and aspirations."

In this series of posts Jonathan will aim to highlight at least some of the artists and movements (together with the books that tell their stories) that should feature in that alternative history when it comes to be written.

Meditations on Stations

Jonathan Evens has posted a review of the Northwood & Northwood Hills stns to his blog together with photos of selected artworks and his associated meditations.

Feedback from the project on his meditations has included:

• "Thank you so much for these meditations. We found the whole journey [around the artworks] together really moving – thank you for your contribution to it."
• "God really has worked through your words and you have such a gift."

Jonathan Evens

Mark of the Cross

I AM Love

Jonathan Evens paints in a symbolic expressionist style and has facilitated the involvement of churches in a range of public art projects. His arts journalism has featured in publications including 'Art & Christianity' and 'The Church Times'. He is also a creative writer (meditations, poetry, short stories, and a blog) and the Vicar of St John the Evangelist Seven Kings. Jonathan is the Secretary of Commission for Mission.

Jonathan's paintings can be viewed on the Veritasse website by clicking here. More information about all of Jonathan's creative projects can be found on his blog at: http://joninbetween.blogspot.com/.

Each week he posts a new photograph in his 'Windows on the World' series on his blog. Past images from this series (each of which feature a foreground object framing a background view to suggest the way in which we each see the world from a specific perspective while also simultaneously perceiving something beyond) can be viewed by clicking on the photographs tab in the blog index.