Art & Faith Conversations

Justin McRoberts is on the show to talk about his most recent project, "Prayer: 40 Days of Practice" that he collaborated with artist, Scott Erickson on.  It's a book of brief prayers paired with visual images to create a language for prayer that could be accessible to all people no matter what their religious background is.  Justin is studying to be a spiritual director and is also a musician, speaker and has a podcast called The @Sea Podcast.  

To order the book or find out more about Justin's other work visit: 

justinmcroberts.com

You can also connect with him on social media

instagram.com/justinmcroberts

twitter.com/justinmcroberts

facebook.com/mcwhatshisface

Visual artist and musician, Aeron Brown, shares a lot of amazing stories about how he connected with God as a father after he grieved the loss of his father as a 3 yr old boy.  Through his art and community work, he has seen cities transform and lives changed.  He owns a gallery and recently released his first album.  View his work on his website and Spotify.

http://www.aeronbrown.com

https://open.spotify.com/artist/1enxTJBdMmcZ0rgTP6yzkW?si=P-8eECD9QF-Oh5pacW2quw 

Enneagram and personal growth coach, Abby Buter, joins us.  She briefly describes each type of the 9 points of the Enneagram and how we can prayerfully approach exploring our own.  She also helps us see how it can help our creative work and process.  She has a passion for helping people understand themselves better and take steps to cultivating health and wholeness in their lives and relationship with God and with each other.

She teaches the Enneagram at retreats and workshops as well as does personal coaching.  You can find out more on her website at

https://www.abbybuter.com

A short episode to encourage you in the care of your inner sanctuary, the sacred space where only God sees.  

Dancer, author and educator Marlita Hill talks with us about her 3rd book, "Defying Discord."  Her passion is to liberate artists to live in harmony with their artistic career and faith lives.  She takes a raw and honest approach to asking questions about how to represent the kingdom no matter where we work.  She is the founder of The Kingdom Artist Initiative(KAI), which is a discipleship program for artists working in secular culture.  Marlita shares some raw details about her past with porn addiction and lack of self-confidence and how God used the gift of her art of dance to heal her.  

She lives in Los Angeles and has a BFA from Towson University. She founded her own dance company, "Speak Hill Dance Project" and also leads the Artists Prayer Collective in partnership with The Salvation Army, Hollywood.  Marlita speaks at retreats, universities and churches and is available to speak for events.  

Visit http://marlitahill.com for more info 

"Defying Discord" is available on her website and Amazon.

We continue our conversation with Allison Bown from Brilliant Perspectives ministry.

She goes into depth on ways to keep the passion in our faith and creativity.  We talk about adventure days with God, journal guilt and more!  

Her book "Joyful Intentionality" is available 

https://www.brilliantbookhouse.com

Speaker and author, Allison Bown, shares a teaching with us from her book "Joyful Intentionality".

She is a creative partner and strategist with Graham Cooke for Brilliant Perspectives ministry.  Together they strategize and create for Brilliant TV and recently collaborated on Graham's "Letters from God" series.  

Allison's book and message is about discovering God's passion for you and how you best express that passion towards Him.  She shares her teachings on God's love and delight for us and the transformational work He is continuing to do as He sees who we are becoming.

Her book is available at 

https://www.brilliantbookhouse.com/collections/books/products/joyful-intentionality-a-passion-filled-life-on-purpose

Vesper Stamper is an illustrator and author who just released a brilliantly illustrated novel called "What the Night Sings".  It tells the story of the bravery of two holocaust survivors and how they rebuilt their lives from scratch.  

Vesper combines her unique style of artwork and writing to tell the stories of the holocaust in a way that shows the inner state of the characters.  She talks about her Jewish identity and what it was like to grow up in a family that did not talk about the holocaust. 

She also shares with us what it was like growing up as an artist in the Manhattan area and the art and faith culture she experienced.  Hear her share about her first encounter with Christ as a teenager and the reaction of her family.

She received an MFA at The School of Visual Arts in New York.  She has a background in children's book illustrations and has received numerous awards and grants for her work.  Find out more at

http://www.vesperillustration.com

Her book is available on her website and also through amazon

https://www.amazon.com/What-Night-Sings-Vesper-Stamper-ebook/dp/B072SVD1FW/ref=dp_kinw_strp_1

Entrepeneur and author, Jordan Raynor, joins us to talk about his latest book, "Called to Create."  He helps artists, entrepreneurs, writers and all creatives see our work as serving God and others.  He refers to God as the first entrepreneur and helps us redefine that term as "anyone who takes a risk to create something new for the good of others."  Jordan speaks candidly about one of his so called "business failures" and confesses about an opportunity he missed to be transparent and how as Christians, we need to get better at admitting our failures to the world.  

Jordan's current venture is as CEO of Threshold 360 which serves as the worlds largest library of 360 degree interactive videos. His book,  "Called to Create" is full of stories from over 40 founders such as TOMS shoes, Chick-fil-A and many more.  It covers topics we all are faced with no matter what field we are in such as discerning our calling, checking our motives and using our lives as an opportunity to serve others wherever we are.  

You can find out more about it at http://www.calledtocreate.org

It is available to order at Amazon and other retailers.  

We discuss the latest Star Wars movie, The Force Awakens, and how heroism is portrayed throughout many of our popular films and stories. Guest, Ph.D. Chip Crane, joins us to discuss details about your favorite characters including Harry Potter, Bilbo Baggins, Aslan the lion, and Luke Skywalker.  We have a fun discussion about how our culture views heroism and how its changed over the centuries and evolved in literature and movies.