The Yellow Ochre Newsletter
A weekly curation of encouragement and practical wisdom to turn your art from a hobby into a purposeful blessing for your community and culture.
“Christian Art”
In his book, Bearing Fresh Olive Leaves, Calvin Seerveld explores various definitions of “art.” Here is one pertaining to "Christian art":
Christian art, whether product or performance, is art marked by a holy spirit of compassionate judgment honouring Jesus Christ’s rule, a spirit which is incarnate in its allusive presentation of meaning.
A Song and a Letter
King David wrote a Psalm (Psalm 32).
About 1,000 years later, the missionary, Paul, wrote to the church in Rome.
The missionary, Paul, quoted King David's Psalm to help the church in Rome understand that justification comes by faith (Romans 4).
If a song and a letter helped expand and establish the kingdom of God, what other gifts could be useful for the Great Commission today?
#MissionaryHelpers
Ways Artists Can Interface with God’s Mission (part 2)
In my last post on this matter, I discussed specific ways artists can imagine themselves as believers with specific gifts for God’s mission. They do not have to choose between the two: do I do art or missions?
In my next two posts, I will turn to Luke’s emphasis in the book of Acts. God’s heart is to both expand his kingdom as well as establish it. This post deals with the idea of arts in the use of kingdom expansion.
Exist as a Christian—be yourself—in the local art world. Whether you are a full-time vocational artist, part-time art enthusiast, artist by hobby or side hustle, we live in a time when you can find spaces to be 100% an artist and 100% a Christian without all the awkwardness. Existing and identifying yourself as an artist—regardless of skill—places you in a social status. This status shifts depending on the country or community you are in. The moment you own the fact that you are an artist, there are likely to be groups of people with that same or similar status within that community. Show your art within that community. Your art is symbolic capital (thanks to James Davison Hunter’s To Change the World for this phrase) for trust.
Help a community solve a problem using their own arts. I cannot brag enough on the work of Dallas International University and the Global Ethnodoxology Network (GEN) for this. God loves people. People form communities. Communities have needs. And communities have their own God-given ways of expressing themselves. Some might say the Western church has far too often imposed their expressive arts onto other cultures and communities. What if we sought to understand how a community’s own arts can connect to God’s heart to their identified hopes and yearnings? There is a great need for curious facilitators who have a deep heart for global-local arts. Check out the workshop Arts for a Better Future for this kind of specific training.
Build bridges with other cultures by learning their art. The photos that decorate our walls are not just photos. The song on repeat in your car isn’t just any old song. Our favorite movies, bands, TV shows, sports teams, and inside jokes are our favorites because “favorites” embody our values. We ought not bury our God-given genuine curiosities in the sand. If you naturally feel drawn to engage a community, attend their festivals (if you’re welcome), hit up that BBQ, delight in their foods, understand why they are laughing at that thing. If you’re so inclined to, learn that cross-cultural instrument. These are all actions which embody the incarnating love of Christ. Dwell.
Exegete the longings behind a community’s art and cultural artifacts. In Acts 17, we discover that Paul possessed an understanding of the Athenian idols, which, by the way, were sculptures. Despite feeling frustrated with the idols, he did not react impulsively. Instead, he discerned the desires that the people associated with these idols and engaged with them on that level. He affirmed their religious yearning, highlighted the gap in their approach to addressing it, and proclaimed Christ as the solution to that gap. Every individual assigns meaning and value to what we express, such as arts.
Explicitly share Christ directly in art. God, naturally, employs various methods to clearly convey His word through local symbols. Symbols serve as the fundamental elements of communication. This becomes evident when we consider artists using their skills to proclaim Christ. Painters, for example, can artfully incorporate a Bible verse onto a canvas, and musicians can compose songs based on Scripture. However, it's essential to recognize that these are not the sole means of communication.
Indirectly share the allusive characteristics of God’s kingdom in art. Artists often find comfort in indirectly expressing Christ through redemptive nuances, a concept articulated by Calvin Seerveld. However, this approach may be off-putting to non-artists, as it raises questions about how Christ can be conveyed directly without explicit statements.One challenge is that God designed us as more than mere cognitive processors. What of our imaginations—our internal image-contructing faculties of meaning (to quote C.S. Lewis)? When Jesus shared a parable, was he not revealing God? Did not Mark say he taught in parables? What was God telling his people when Isaiah walk around naked for those few years? Was the music indicated by the superscriptions not to color the meaning of the Psalms? God consistently conveys His word through local symbols, encompassing both direct and indirect means. Even in instances of direct communication, contextual symbols are invariably at play. Symbol-less communication of God's word is nonexistent. When an immorally-disqualified preacher approaches the pulpit and delivers the greatest, most truthfully accurate text-centered message, we know something is wrong because he himself is a symbol. Dr. Byron Spradlin calls artists “imagination expression specialists.” The church and mission are always in need of creative ways to reimagine engagement with the world, getting the church out of her ruts.
Learn how art history intersected with worldviews. One of my major regrets in art school was my approach to all my art history classes. Treating art history in isolation from the accompanying stories and historical context diminishes its significance. What I found more invigorating was delving into the narratives that art history is embedded in. Artists have consistently responded to the world around them, and this holds true even for those who aren't Christian. They often possess a prophetic urge, observing injustices, the neglect of fellow humans, and the flaws within the systems they navigate. Over the past 500 years of Western development, artists have played a crucial role in spotlighting the shortcomings of the church.
Explore in Scripture how God used art and symbol to extend the kingdom. It is worth rooting yourself in Scripture with questions such as: Where do we see God engaging man’s imagination? How does God assume people learn? What were all the components at play when the gospel was communicated cross-culturally? Consider inviting a few artist friends to join you in such a study!
What are other ways artists in your lane have plowed this path already? With the surge of the internet, encountering various stories has become quite common. If you're interested in specific resources on this matter, feel free to let me know!
Fill your social media timeline with art. Truly, human creativity is remarkable. I've discovered more joy in my life by following artists rather than accounts that spread fear or discourage my own art-making. One of the most effective ways to contribute to the expansion of the kingdom through the arts is to acknowledge and cultivate the specific gifts God has given you. Continue to develop, have fun, and keep exploring your artistic talents. "Everyone is born creative; everyone is given a box of crayons in kindergarten. Then when you hit puberty they take the crayons away and replace them with books on algebra etc. Being suddenly hit years later with the creative bug is just a wee voice telling you, “Iʼd like my crayons back, please” (Hugh Macleod).
Four Types of Humor
I grew up on 90s slapstick comedy. “How could any genre compete with such comedic glory?,” one might think. From Happy Gilmore to Lloyd Christmas, these stories hold a special place in my memory. But something happened.
I did not know what laughter meant as a new Christian.
A chasm existed between the utter seriousness of my newfound belief in Jesus (which has its roots in thousands of years of tradition) and joy. My newborn-again infancy only proved to exasperate my ongoing struggle with depression. Glimpses of what I can only call true delight moved me onward. Still, the battle to flea from sin was real. It still is, of course.
“How can one sit on Calvary’s hill and continue to laugh at degrading things?” I wondered. “If that sermon isn’t causing either sorrow for my sin OR fixes of joy, then something is wrong!”
What are we to make of the role of play and humor as Christians?
Leave it up to mister C.S. Lewis to help us out!
Lewis’ Four Categories of Humor
Reading Lewis’ Screwtape Letters struck me recently. In chapter 11, Lewis depicts Screwtape, the senior demon, classifying laughter into four types—Joy, Fun, Joke Proper, and Flippancy—for Wormwood, a younger demon intern. Let’s look at how he unpacks these four.
Joy
Screwtape says he does not know the real cause of joy. It is expressed in “much of that detestable art which the humans call Music.” He encourages Wormwood to do all he can to discourage his patient—a Christian—from it. He says joy “is of itself disgusting and a direct insult to the realism, dignity, and austerity of Hell.”
Fun
Fun, says Screwtape, relates to joy. It is “a sort of emotional froth arising from the play instinct.” He recognizes it is sometimes useful to distract humans from the “Enemy’ (God). Fun “promotes charity, courage, contentment, and many other evils.”
Lewis makes the case through Screwtape that joy and fun are mostly kingdom characteristics for believers.
The Joke Proper
This category on jokes and humor was, for me, the most surprising. “Humour,” says Screwtape, “is invaluable as a means of destroying shame.” Screwtape calls second-rate tempters those who primarily go after “indecent or bawdy humour.” Here, I believe Lewis is referring to the tactic of vulgar humor.
“Bawdy humour will not help” young Wormwood is he targets those who use find no lust in it. I believe Lewis is saying that if a joke is funny, it is just funny (even if it is vulgar). If one laughs and that is the end of it, Screwtape indicates this is wasted hours of tempting-work for demons.
However, if the laughter is intermingled with lust, then there are problems. Wormwood ought to find out which type of person is engaging with such humor. The same vulgar joke, Lewis seems to indicate, can intersect with two types of people. Applying this to 90s SNL humor, it seems to really depend on the individual themself then. What jokes can they handle?
Lewis spends a greater deal talking about this but I’ll move on.
Flippancy
Screwtape says when virtues are made comical, therein lies “success” for Wormwood.
“Among flippant people the Joke is always assumed to have been made. No one actually makes it; but every serious subject is discussed in a manner which implies that they have already found a ridiculous side to it.”
Flippancy is so destructive because it is in the cultural air of a group of people. Flippant jokes are “a thousand miles away from joy: it deadens, instead of sharpening, the intellect; and it excites no affection between those who practise it.”
For the Lewis scholar out there, my apologies if I veer from his original intent in outlining these four roles of laughter. I engage this more as a launching pad rather than a landing one.
To my excitement, I just came across an entire book on Lewis’ view of laughter based on these four. Reach out to me if you’d like to read it along with me: Surprised by Laughter: The Comic World of C.S. Lewis (Terry Lindvall)
Mental Health Observations From Ted Lasso
Watching Ted Lasso, I noticed three types of people we need in life:
The Community. The community is the context we serve as an outlet to make sense of and apply our story. The community, throughout the three seasons, shapes and provides clarity and vision for Ted in the narrative arc. Even though we work through our junk, there are always people who need the gifts we possess.
The Coach Beards. Coach Beard’s are those trusted people we do life alongside. Frequently, these are close friends—people around whom we feel completely ourselves.
The Therapists. We should make sense of our stories with others who can connect the dots, whether they be guides, therapists, or shepherds. These individuals don't necessarily have to be literal therapists. While therapist-types might not be our close friends, they offer a different kind of care.
Tying each of these together is a mission. Ted didn’t interface with these three passively. A mission (for Ted, it was coaching), keeps the car of life’s purpose in motion.
ChatGPT: If 1984 Were Writen for Today
I found myself reading Orwell’s “1984” just before the pandemic hit in 2020. When it struck, imagination had quite the experience!
Out of curiosity, I gave ChatGPT this prompt: “Write a table of contents with ten titles and brief descriptions for George Orwell's 1984 if Orwell had written it today.”
Here is what it came up with:
Title: "2024: A Modern Orwellian Dystopia"
Introduction: The Surveillance State Redux
A brief overview of the omnipresent surveillance culture in a society dominated by advanced technology and government control.
The New Newspeak: Digital Discourse and Manipulation
Explore the manipulation of language in the digital age, where social media, memes, and algorithms shape public opinion and control the narrative.
Big Data Brother: The All-Seeing Algorithms
Delve into the role of artificial intelligence, algorithms, and data collection in monitoring and controlling citizens' thoughts, behaviors, and personal lives.
Social Credit Scores: The Currency of Obedience
Examine the concept of a social credit system, where citizens are ranked based on their conformity to societal norms, impacting their access to privileges and opportunities.
The Ministry of Truth Online: Rewriting History in Real-Time
Explore how online platforms are used to reshape historical narratives, control information, and manipulate public memory to suit the ruling ideology.
Doublethink in the Digital Age: Navigating Contradictory Realities
Investigate the psychological impact of living in a world where contradictory information coexists, requiring citizens to accept conflicting truths without question.
Thought Crimes 2.0: Policing Ideas in Cyberspace
Discuss the suppression of dissenting opinions, the consequences of challenging the status quo online, and the chilling effect on freedom of thought.
Proles and the Panopticon: The Illusion of Freedom
Analyze the role of the "proles" in a society dominated by digital surveillance, exploring whether true freedom exists for the majority or if it's merely an illusion.
Technology as a Tool of Oppression: The Dark Side of Progress
Investigate how technological advancements, intended to enhance human life, have become instruments of control and oppression in the hands of those in power.
Resistance in the Digital Underground: Can the Spirit of 1984 Survive?
Conclude with a discussion of contemporary resistance movements, exploring how individuals navigate the digital landscape to preserve autonomy, critical thinking, and the human spirit against overwhelming surveillance and control.
Stawberries vs. Pecans
Strawberry patches only take about one year to produce fruit.
Pecan trees are different. They take 20 or more years to yield mature pecans.
How might we view parenting with this metaphor? Are you viewing this task like raising strawberries or pecans? When are you expecting a parental return on investment?
If All the Bibles Went Away
If all the Bible’s went away, who in your life (not the internet!) would you follow around to remember what Jesus was like?
Perhaps we can all spend 2024 attached to someone like that and being someone like that.
How to Create Mic-Drop Culture
One way to get a “mic drop” culture is from “sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me” slogans.
One Reason You Might Not See Artists In Churches
One reason the church might not feel welcoming to many artists is this…
There appears to be a sacred Spotify playlist.
And only the leaders have access to it's curation.
Barabas Days
We live in Barabas days.
What are Barabas days? They are the times when we call good ‘evil’ and evil ‘good.’
The cure is the same as 2,000 years ago: a God who empties himself and His followers who do the same.
8 Concepts of Art
Calvin Seerveld:
One misreads the knowledge won artistically if one thinks the painting or sculpture is simply a carbon copy of what is visible.
When the norm of allusively is transgressed the artwork becomes a tract.
Fundamentally art is…like a flower, like a jewel or an imaginative tear or a smile you giveaway to your neighbor, for Christ’s sake.
Walter Brueggemann
This is why poetry is so important; because the poetry just keeps opening and opening and opening whereas the doctrinal practice of the church is always to close and close and close until you’re left with nothing that has transformative power.
C.S. Lewis:
This is one of the functions of art: To present what the narrow and desperately practical perspectives of real life exclude.
The books or the music in which we thought the beauty was located will betray us if we trust to them; it was not in them, it only came through them, and what came through them was longing. These things—the beauty, the memory of our own past— are good images of what we really desire; but if they are mistaken for the thing itself they turn into dumb idols, breaking the hearts of their worshipers. For they are not the thing itself; they are only the scent of a flower we have not found, the echo of a tune we have not heard, news from a country we have never yet visited.
Jean-Jacques von Allmen:
Art is “basically the longing of things for liturgical self-expression, to find their justification in the praise for which they were created.”
Makoto Fujimara:
A grieving mother drove over 11 hrs to see my exhibit at Berry College Martha Berry Museum. She stood in front of my paintings and wept for a young son she lost only a week back. Art is a portal into the New, and I am grateful and humbled by these moments.
Merry Christmas Ya Filthy Animal!
Check it out, its old man Marley!, Matt Taylor Digital Painting 2022
Elsa, the Grinch
Hear me out…the Grinch is Elsa generations later.
The town, Arendelle, has died off. She’s still all alone in her mountain castle only to be transformed up into the Grinch.
Her selfishness kept her alive while the whole town’s generations came and went losing their town narrative in the process.