Art & Faith Conversations

Actor, comedian, writer and film director David Leo Schultz sat down with us to talk about the films he directed, Ragamuffin and Brennan.

Both movies tell honest stories that show the darker side of our humanity in order to point to the true hero of our stories, which is God.  Ragamuffin is an emotionally darker movie about the late singer/songwriter, Rich Mullins. With the success of the film David went on to release Brennan about the late Brennan Manning who is most noted for his book The Ragamuffin Gospel.  

Recently David and his team, Color Green Films, have launched Ragamuffin TV, an internet streaming service they are continuing to roll out new shows, concerts, sketch comedies and movies on.  

You can get a free 3 day trial if you go to 

http://watch.ragamuffintv.com

Barnabas Piper joins us on the show to talk about his most recent book, The Curious Christian.  We talk in depth about why curiosity is vital to our relationship with God and growing in our faith.  We also discuss how necessary curiosity is to connect with others who are different than us.  The more curious we are, the more we discover others' needs and therefore can reflect God when we see how we can care for others and serve them. As well as being a writer, Barnabas is a speaker and co-host of The Happy Rant podcast.

Find out more at

https://barnabaspiper.com 

Salt of the Sound is made up of husband and wife, Ben and Anita Tatlow.  Anita joined us to talk about their music and the niche they've found in ambient music to create soundscapes for prayer and reflection.  Ambient music is described as atmospheric vs traditional musical structures or rhythms.  Anita shares about how their music allows for questions and conversations about what others traditionally think "christian music" is.  

Salt of the Sound describe themselves as "peace in audio form."  Their latest album titled, "In Prayer" is a 17 min journey through meditation and reflection and is paired with a video compiled of clips listeners sent in from all over the world of places they considered to be prayerful.  

They also create under a second project name called Narrow Skies which focuses more on seasons and nature and providing a soundscape with that focus.   

You can find their music on digital stores including Spotify, iTunes and YouTube where you can also find their lyric videos.

https://open.spotify.com/artist/0S3L6vtzNN4ArFWH2709SB

https://saltofthesound.bandcamp.com

https://www.youtube.com/user/saltofthesound  

Guest, Karla Adolphe, from the music duo Enter the Worship Circle, joins us to talk about the heart behind her and Ben Pasley's music and creativity.  They consider themselves modern day Psalmists in which they find ways to respond with creativity to life's challenges as the book of Psalms demonstrates.  They describe their music as setting a table for others to engage with God, each other and themselves.  

You can find out more about them on their website

https://entertheworshipcircle.com

Connect with them on Instagram

https://www.instagram.com/entertheworshipcircle/

And also find their music on Spotify

https://open.spotify.com/album/1bglw8NjwKR5tRlYcKWlcX

In this episode we ventured into the topic of the prophetic arts with Codye.  She is a painter who paints live at corporate worship gatherings on large 4x4 foot canvases.  She is an influential teacher and speaker on creativity and believes it is not something we need to find, but something we need to return to.  She recently released the book "Fearless Creativity" that dives deeper into how we can be bold in our artistry because it is birthed in the heavens and given to us as a gift and vision from God for us to bring into the world so others can engage with Him.  To order her book or view her paintings you can find both at the links below.

https://www.amazon.com/Fearless-Creativity-1-Codye-Reystead/dp/1680198653

http://2911thetreasury.com/gallery/wotr-package

Alabaster Co. was formed by business and creative partners Bryan Chung and Brian Chung.  Two friends with the same name.  They are passionate about exploring the intersection of creativity, beauty and faith in all of its forms.  Bryan joins us on the podcast to tell us about their first project, "The Bible Beautiful".  They created a redesign of the four gospel books of the bible, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John by pairing the text with visual imagery and modern design.  They believe the culture is on the cusp of asking the question "What is beautiful?" and they want to be forerunners in that conversation.  Just released in April of 2017, the four gospels can be found on Amazon at

https://www.amazon.com/Gospels-Set-Alabaster-Bible/dp/0998741140/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1510296853&sr=8-1&keywords=alabaster+co

Or visit Alabaster Co.'s website

https://www.alabasterco.com 

Steve Rooks is a compelling artist as a dancer and choreographer.  He creates works for dance companies all over the world and currently teaches at Vassar College.  You don't have to be a dancer to appreciate his wisdom about the responsibility of being a professional artist living out the gospel in today's world.  If you're a late bloomer, you'll love Steve's story of discovering dance post-college and how it changed the course of his life as he then received a full scholarship to train at the Alvin Ailey School of Dance and shortly after became a principal dancer with Martha Graham Company.  He discovered the love of Christ when he first walked into the Brooklyn Tabernacle Church and was overwhelmed with a feeling of grace vs condemnation.  He has so much depth and wisdom about being a believer and involved in the arts.  Grab a journal, you'll want to take notes!  

Tyler shares about he and Jenny's calling to keep writing and recording music even though at times they grow weary.  We talk about the recording process, their inspiration for their music, humility, and their passion to support IJM, International Justice Mission.  IJM is a global  organization of lawyers, investigators, social workers, community activists and other professionals who help protect the poor from violence and set slaves free from human trafficking.  To find out more about them go to

https://www.ijm.org

You can find out more about Jenny & Tyler at

http://jennyandtyler.com 

Gracelaced author, painter, speaker Ruth Chou Simons joins us.  We talk with her about her new illustrated devotional book, Gracelaced, with it's stunning and vivid imagery of her paintings paired with deep meditative readings based on the four seasons, winter, spring, summer and fall.  We talk about the pressures of running a business vs being creative. We also discuss "Christian art" in contrast to the sacred being woven throughout everything we do.  Sometimes our canvas we paint on looks like dinner at the table with our family or doing the laundry.  Yet God wastes nothing, not a minute of our time nor a season of our life.         

To view her work go to: 

https://gracelaced.com  

Or find her on Instagram

https://www.instagram.com/gracelaced/

Author of The Turquoise Table, Kristin Schell, joins us! She talks about "Finding Community and Connection in Her Own Front Yard" and describes how her desire to practice the ministry of presence turned into a movement of hospitality that spread across the world.  Krisitin painted a picnic table turquoise, set it up in her front yard and spent intentional time out there to get to know her neighbors.  She confesses that she needed to learn the difference between entertaining guests vs. hospitality.  God showed her through the Turquoise Table that being present was what He was calling her to.   She used her creativity to gather others around the table and she now describes herself as a "holder of stories" as others tell her about their own turquoise table experiences.

You can find more info about the book and Kristin at

http://www.kristinschell.com

https://www.facebook.com/FrontYardPeople/

Her book is available at retail book stores nationwide and online.