For the record: I am slow,and I avoid things, like finishing writing this post, which was originally crafted august 17th, one month ago. Forgive me.

Canvas Conference 2016 • Humble Beast | Western Seminary | Imago Dei

I got the chance to attend the Canvas Conference in Portland, Oregon. A lot of stuff was thrown at us in a short amount of time, and it wasn't until day 2 that it occurred to me (and by "occurred to me" I mean someone told me to do so) that taking notes would be a good idea. Whoops.
They were right; taking notes was a huge help and truly, the only reason I remembered some of what was said to us!

Since this is my blog and I can say whatever I want, I am first writing out each quote as it was spoken.

This is how I process: I write down what struck me, and then later go back and think over the meaning of what was said and I dissect the depth of each statement.

You could read the quotes and be done with it, or you can keep scrolling and see why each sentence struck me so.

Choose your own adventure

"We've got to learn to tell better stories. Tell that story ( the Gospel) to yourself."

"If you truly want to make Christ-saturated art, live a discipled life, letting art flow from who you are: a transformed Christian life."

"Do/Make the best you can and leave the results to God"

"If it is easy for you to write, it's going to be hard to read. If it's hard to write, it will be easy to read. You have to work hard at it. Whatever God has gifted you in, work hard at it to the glory of God."

Why are there not more programs for artists in church's?
The artist's job is to serve the church, not the other way around.

"Don't make art to "make art." If your art is about "expressing yourself" you are a hack! We have to live beyond ourselves."

"We are priest before painter. But, being priests gives significance to the paint."

"We are not the image of Jesus ourselves, but the reflection of Jesus."

"There is no such thing as loving the bridegroom and hating the bride."
There is no such thing as loving Jesus and hating the church.

"Don't whitewash the Christian life. In your art, show the horrors of death, but also the beauty of life."

"Invite others into the process of the art making. Be a hospitable artist."

"Stop looking at the world to determine what "good art" is. Be a good Christian and good art will come from that."

"Create beautiful things that reflect the beauty and glory of the original creator. Use your art to give the creator of creativity the glory He deserves."

Live for the line after the dot. Don't live for the dot.

"We've got to learn to tell better stories. Tell that story ( the Gospel) to yourself."

This one, I don't remember fully why I wrote it down... I just remember liking the idea that we need to tell better stories in this world. One reason (not the only. Ask me about this if this bothers you) I avoid movies and TV is that I feel that there are a lot of pointless, crap stories out there. Those movies that are all potty humor, sex jokes, objectification of women and adult men acting like immature, teenage boys that are saturating our movie market make me cringe. I cringe even more when I think about how people actually go watch them and spend money on them! AGH! WHY!!!!!
We need to learn to set the standard for storytelling higher, expecting more from people, artists and directors so that they can live to their full potential.

"If you truly want to make Christ-saturated art, live a discipled life, letting art flow from who you are: a transformed Christian life."

Yoooooooooo
This one is one of my favorite take-aways from the whole conference! It's so freeing to me! Love God, seek him out in everything, and God will take care of the results. I don't get to chose who gets impacted by what I do (and I couldn't honestly say that I would even want that pressure if it were offered to me.), so why should I worry about what happens, who is impacted and in what ways etc?

"Do/Make the best you can and leave the results to God"

See above comments.

"If it is easy for you to write, it's going to be hard to read. If it's hard to write, it will be easy to read. You have to work hard at it. Whatever God has gifted you in, work hard at it to the glory of God."

Just a great reminder that good works take hard work. There is no short cut, no easy way out.
BUT
It will be worth it.
Throw your whole self into working hard for the Glory of God, not for glory of self.

Q: Why are there not more programs for artists in church's?
A: The artist's job is to serve the church, not the other way around.

HELLO GUT CHECK.
I have been guilty about whining that the church isn't doing things to help artists. NOT ONCE considering that MY job was to serve the church... I've learned more and more about this as of late, but hearing this at the conference was a GREAT reminder about this truth.

"Don't make art to "make art." If your art is about "expressing yourself" you are a hack! We have to live beyond ourselves."

Hmmm... I know this one was a stand out to me, because on our 4 hour drive back (we made a stop at the coast), I brought this one up in conversation.
Although, a month later, I can't really remember why I loved this so much.... I'm going to take a stab at it:
The idea that making art to "get away" with something is fascinating, but, becomes this self-glorifying thing: We have now turned the creation to pointing out how clever we are for passing something off as "art."
Living beyond ourselves as christians who create means creating not to glorify self and point out how great we are, how talented, how cool or whatever we think we are, but creating to show how good God is to us, how talented, creative, wonderful, inspiring, beautiful HE is. It's not about us and what we can do, it's about Christ and what He has done for us.

"We are priest before painter. But, being priests gives significance to the paint."

I don't remember. This one is still good, but I can't remember exactly why I loved this so much. I think the idea that "artist" doesn't define me, child of God, does, and I get to create because of that is what rings true to me in this statement.

"We are not the image of Jesus ourselves, but the reflection of Jesus."

Gut check right there. This explains itself.

"There is no such thing as loving the bridegroom and hating the bride."
There is no such thing as loving Jesus and hating the church.

Hi, I quoted this about four times since the conference. It's GOLD my friends, solid gold.

"Don't whitewash the Christian life. In your art, show the horrors of death, but also the beauty of life."

Just a reminder to the Christian creative that just because you are a Christian doesn't mean that life is magical and isn't full of suffering, so don't lie about it and pretend it's all good all the time. I personally became a Christian and then immediately went through the hardest six months of my life EVER. So yeah, the Christian life is NOT roses and sunshine all day.
David wrote many Psalms crying out in utter despair, he was very detailed on all the crap happening in his life. He wasn't white-washing what was going on - he was real and straight forward. That's one of my goals in life; to be real, not perfect. I want to be honest about who I am, where I've come from, and where I am going. Life is up and down, but Jesus is constant and he is my healer, provider, protector and comforter when life is hard and trails and suffering are pulling at me. I want to be sure to tell everyone about it. Being honest that things are awful sometimes, but there is goodness out there, there is true beauty.

"Invite others into the process of the art making. Be a hospitable artist."

Document and talk about why you made something. Don't keep it all to yourself. If the piece means something super specific to you, tell everyone about it. Help them understand why the piece means so much to you.

"Stop looking at the world to determine what "good art" is. Be a good Christian and good art will come from that."

YES. Yes yes yes yes yes.
Why are christians making crappy film and tv shows and other art forms that are cheese-ball, campy, crap, cheeto-fluff stuff? WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY?
Stop it. Stop imitating and making a "christian" version of stuff you like. FREAKING INNOVATE AND BE CREATIVE! Be in it, not of it, and this goes for the standard of art! We should be setting the standard for art, not following it. I want the world to move to a point where they look at a piece of work and KNOW a Christian made it - just by looks - in a good way. Not in that negative way we are currently used to. Let's hold ourselves to a higher standard, shall we?

"Create beautiful things that reflect the beauty and glory of the original creator. Use your art to give the creator of creativity the glory He deserves."

Speaks for itself

Live for the line after the dot. Don't live for the dot.

This one is a hard one.

Watch this video for the explanation

You made it through! Thanks for reading!

Have thoughts of your own on all that I said (or didn't say)? Share them. I want to know!