Members update: Jonathan Evens

Jonathan Evens was one of the speakers at ArtServe's Hearts on Fire! festival weekend. Part of a double act with Peter Banks, co-author with Jonathan of The Secret Chord, their talk focused on the twin themes of artistic dilemmas and synchronicity which are explored within the book.

Jonathan said:

"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. Those disparate and often contradictory ideas are a little like the grit in the oyster which eventually produces the pearl or possibly, in this instance, the Secret Chord. Our hope is that this book, by exploring artistic dilemmas from a range of different perspectives, will mature in people’s minds exactly like some fine wine or that pearl."

Jonathan was also interviewed, together with Canon Ivor Moody (Vice-Dean of Chelmsford Cathedral), on BBC Essex this morning. The interview can be heard here (for the next seven days) and covered the Deconstructing c o n f l i c t exhibition and inter-faith lecture, plus their review of the Sunday newspapers.

ArtServe conference: Christ be our light!

Mark Lewis is among the contributors to this year's ArtServe annual weekend conference, which this year is entitled 'Christ be our light!'  The weekend runs from Friday 23rd to Sunday 25th November 2012 at High Leigh, Hoddesdon, Herts, EN11 8SG.

This creative, participative event will reveal all sorts of gifts and insights we can use to witness to God’s active presence in our worship through different media and experiment. The emphasis is on the present and real – recognising all that we have around us. We will examine the opportunities and challenges revealed, along with the possibilities and tensions in the relationship between art and faith, between creativity and the church’s worship. Highlights of the weekend include:

• Lantern Theatre Company’s performance of their challenging drama Key Witness, ordinary people who saw extraordinary things
• Pat Livingstone’s insights and experience as a composer and musician for the Iona Community
• Michaela Youngson revealing the mysterious beauty of colours and textures fused in glass.
• Worshipping together and enjoying excellent hospitality and good company!

'Condemned': Lent/Easter Series - Week 6

commission4mission has created a Lenten and Easter journey for 2012 using images by our artists combined with passages from Isaiah 53. Throughout Lent and for the first two weeks of Easter, we will post images and words from 'Condemned' here on a weekly basis.


Nadiya Pavliv Tokarska's interests are in traditional oil painting and moving images or film. During 2005 she was apprentice to Clarence Crawford; where she learnt traditional oil painting technique with a particular emphasis on portraiture. The aim of her creative practice is to convey to a viewer the message of unconditional love that connects us all and more importantly unites us with the Creator. Contemporary scientists armed with the latest equipment come to realise that the law of our universe is guided by what they call ‘Intelligent Mind’; who we, as Christians,b elieve to be God. Nadiya is very interested in researching more into this invigorated and transformed present dialogue between Religion, Science and Art. As a member of the Waltham Forest Art Club since 2006, she has taken part in many exhibitions and events organised by the Club. She also runs the Tokarska Gallery in Walthamstow.


Other artists contributing images to the series are Mark Lewis, Robert Enoch, Christopher Clack, Rosalind Hore, , Jim Insole, and Peter Webb. 'Condemned' has been compiled by Helen Gheorghiu Gould.

In addition to the weekly posts, 'Condemed' is also available as either a powerpoint or pdf file on request from Jonathan Evens at jonathan.evens@btinternet.com.

We are grateful to ArtServe for their coverage of this initiative.

'Condemned': Lent/Easter Series - Week 5

commission4mission has created a Lenten and Easter journey for 2012 using images by our artists combined with passages from Isaiah 53. Throughout Lent and for the first two weeks of Easter, we will post images and words from 'Condemned' here on a weekly basis.
Rosalind Hore is a sculptor and painter of Christian subjects – Christ figures, nativity sets, Ecce Homo, Stations of the Cross etc. She works in clay, plaster, concrete (figures can also be bronze cast at the foundry). Her paintings are mostly in acrylic of the events in the life of Christ. Her Pieta (pictured above) can be viewed at St Laurence’s Upminster. Rosalind has been an art teacher throughout her working life, has taken part in the Cambridge Open Studios (creating a sculpture garden and art gallery at her home) and has led art groups and projects in the parishes where she has lived. She has a sculpture in the Bible Garden at St Mary's Goring-by-Sea, which she describes as follows: "As part of a parish mission called Stepping Stones, I decided to do something special and made a seated figure of Christ with his arms outstretched titled Come Unto Me. We put stepping stones in the grass leading up to him."
Other artists contributing images to the series are Mark Lewis, Robert Enoch, Christopher Clack, Nadiya Pavliv Tokarska, Jim Insole, and Peter Webb. 'Condemned' has been compiled by Helen Gheorghiu Gould.

In addition to the weekly posts, 'Condemed' is also available as either a powerpoint or pdf file on request from Jonathan Evens at jonathan.evens@btinternet.com.

We are grateful to ArtServe for their coverage of this initiative.

'Condemned': Lent/Easter Series - Week 4

commission4mission has created a Lenten and Easter journey for 2012 using images by our artists combined with passages from Isaiah 53. Throughout Lent and for the first two weeks of Easter, we will post images and words from 'Condemned' here on a weekly basis.

Christopher Clack, who contributes the fourth image in our series, trained as a painter, studied at Camberwell School of Art and then at the Royal College of Art. His main medium was oil paint, buthe also loved etching and making sculptures. One very important aspect of all his work was the physical, tactile nature of whatever he made, so it seems very strange to him now that he works almost completely on computer.His images are produced using scanners, cameras, and software such as Photoshop and paint programs like Coral painter. The product of all this is then turned into an object by printing it out using large format printers, using the best quality materials he can lay his handson. It’s now become a sort of challenge for him to bring into this medium a sense of the physicality of things that is generally felt to be lost in the digital production.Other artists contributing images to the series are Mark Lewis, Robert Enoch, Rosalind Hore, Nadiya Pavliv Tokarska, Jim Insole, and Peter Webb. 'Condemned' has been compiled by Helen Gheorghiu Gould.

In addition to the weekly posts, 'Condemed' is also available as either a powerpoint or pdf file on request from Jonathan Evens at jonathan.evens@btinternet.com.

We are grateful to ArtServe for their coverage of this initiative.