Choclate Jesus Uproar

Many thanks go to Heather for sending me this article:
Chocolate Jesus Exhibition Scrapped

These are the thoughts I shared on a thread...
Although I find it rather immature to see the Chocolate Jesus (My Sweet Lord) by Casimo Cavallaro as an attack on Christianity, I can in some ways understand why there are those of us -- that is, Christians -- who would find it offensive. Not everyone really likes to see reproductive organs, especially if our Savior is the bearer of such organs. This is why renaissance painters were often asked to edit their masterpieces (or, in most cases, they were edited without permission) by the church that commissioned them.

Perhaps we should look a little deeper at this situation than the superficial response that it is getting from just about everyone across the globe.

As a Christian and also as an artist, I am not offended by this sculpture and I do not see it as an attack against Christianity. Before you cry out heresy, here me out.
There is a beautiful relationship going on here with the symbolism of the chocolate. For most of people, chocolate is a candy favored by young and old. It is sweet and we would even say that we "love chocolate." I think chocolate is wonderful, personally. I also think the same thing about Jesus Christ - I love him and I think that He is wonderful. Granted, my "love" for chocolate is obliterated by my love for Christ, but that's not the point. Christ's sacrifice was meant for all, both young and old people, to bring them into a relationship with God because we are separated from God if we do not believe in Him. The sacrifice - the Crucifixion - was needed so that our sins could be atoned for.
Of course, there are those who don't believe this and find Jesus offensive. They do not favor that sort of theology, so they don't like Christianity. In the same way, however superficial, there are those who do not like chocolate, as shocking as that may seem.
More than just this... The idea of making Christ out of chocolate is beautiful because we eat chocolate. Now, we do not eat Jesus, per se -- although Catholic theology says otherwise.. I come out of a Protestant background... but this isn't about theological differences. There is a certain Christian practice called Communion that I'm sure many non-Christians are familiar with in some way. Bread represents Christ's Body and wine (or grape juice, depending on your church) represents his Blood. We are told to take and eat, and to take and drink, so that we shall never forget His Sacrifice. Could it be that the artist intended to echo this same practice in making the figure of Christ out of something that we eat?

Also, what of the nudeness of Cavallaro's depiction of a chocolate Christ? I couldn't imagine what his own personal reasons for making the piece are, let alone the nudeness. However, as someone else had pointed out, Christ was crucified naked...Jesus suffered physically, but I would say that He had also suffered further humiliation by being hung on a cross without beng covered. To the Hebrews, this was one of those types of humiliation that could have been worse than just getting killed. To cover up this fact -- indeed, by covering His body -- would be to cover up this truth. And to cover up truth is to say that it isn't important. I think that it is important, because Christ came in a human body. He came gender specific... he came as a man. Fully God and fully human.... which includes all the bits that we don't normally like to talk about.
But the human body is a wonderful, beautiful thing that God created. Do I want to see naked people all the time? No, not particularly. It is my sinful nature that wrestles me to think thoughts that I do not wish to think... it is not the naked body itself that makes me think those things. The body is not an evil thing... Sin is evil. Sin distorts, and thus far it has proven our society an unworthy adversary because our society says that a naked human body is either evil, or it is immediately connected to pornography and sex. But again, the body is not evil. God created man, and He created woman, and He said that what He had made was "good." Far be it from us to say that something God had created - to its minutest of details - is bad.

And with those thoughts shared, I am done. Do with these thoughts what you will.

A complete and total side note: comments on MySpace advertisements

I hate all the advertisements on MySpace. A lot of them are just annoying, flashy, and asking me to shave some lady's legs (or more recently, Brittany's head) to win something I'll never get without jumping through hoops. However, there are others that I have HUGE issues with. ... And actually lead me to more broader thoughts than just MySpace.

1. All the models from Victoria Secret ads are totally airbrushed and altered, and it makes me want to frown. While I'm not necessarily all for Dove, this little film thing is interesting. http://youtube.com/watch?v=L_aDpmfAzxI
This brings into question, then: What is beauty? Is there such a thing as beautiful women who AREN'T altered, either literally or through digital imaging? I think this gives into a totally falsification to men and feeds into a fantasy of 'perfect women.' Granted, not all men are affected this way and I praise them for that, we need more of them around standing up against artificial portrayals of women. Don't believe me that there's an issue? Why is it, then, that companies like Victoria Secret feel like they have to airbrush every little thing on a woman's body? Why is it that comic books are so overrun by female characters with outlandish curves?


2. In my opinion, True.com is just a glorified version of prostitution. Now hear me out: the website says "love" but really all they're promoting is lust with their advertisements. The ones here on MySpace appear "tame" but I've seen others that are totally geared to rustle up some hook-ups and anything but love... typically at the same time exploiting women.. Which they are obviously trying to counter the claim by now portraying men in their ads. I'm not the only one to notice this. http://www.onlinedatingmagazine.com/columns/2005editorials/april2005.html

Which all of it actually brings into mind the media's definition of love and twisting sexual activity. How many times did Joey hop into bed with some boyfriend on Dawson's Creek, or the characters on the O.C., because the characters "loved each other?" They broke up how many times? Who didn't end up staying with who? The media often times suggests that love is an impulse, and in order to satisfy that impulse completely you have to have sex right now. If you don't - well, you're not really in love, you just thought you may have been. Or, after some time after sex, the relationship is terminated.
So, it's kind of like saying it's okay to just go out and hook-up with whoever and then call it a night. Or that it's okay to sleep with your boyfriend, even if you may end up breaking up after an indefinite amount of time. I think that sort of thing tears at the insides of a person, no matter how much they say they're okay with it and that they don't deal with feelings of having been used... that is to say, the occassional pang of feeling worthlessness or wanting recognition as a human being.

We're more than just the sum of our body parts, after all.

... So that's my two-cents, and the vehement dislike of those sorts of advertisements. I did go on a bit of a tangent, and it may not be altogether coherent, but that's what I've got for you. It rubs me the wrong way every time I see those ads.

Art Auction: v.1.0

So this is not exactly an overview of the auction but just a very quick response to it. I may write something more ... "official" later, but I'm not exactly the best when it comes to writing anything "official."

First and foremost: God has so amazingly blessed me with this evening.

The art auction up at the Church Studios, hosted by Olivet Covenant Presbyterian Church - "A Work in Progress" - was awesome. While I do not know all the details of how everything went, I'm very certain that the auction was a success. I do not know all the details because 85% of my time was spent in my studio interacting with and being social with the wanderers that would come in. ... I had the joy (note: mild anxiety) to come in when a handful of people were already there, and then even more came in, and I got to explain my process for the pieces I've made. And then scramble with my faithful assistant (note: Scott) to set some things up for better viewing. And then I got to very consistantly reiterate many things, but it was really great to have people ask about the works (and works-in-progress) and to discuss things with them. Apparently the pieces I've been working on, the lightboxes, is intriguing.
It was awesome.
Overall? I am floored, in the way in which my jaw ought to have been scooped up off the floor quite a few times. Besides being able to converse with individuals about my work, God also blessed me amazingly with one simple question asked by a few people: "So, are you selling any of your work?" This is not a question I was at all prepared for, nor one that I thought I would ever get asked.

Four out of six of the prints (etching, monotype, and collagraph) I put into the auction were bid on and taken, two or three that apparently had been bid over quite a few times, and one of which I had NO IDEA would be bid as high as it was.
Four prints (collagraph and etching) were sold right out of my studio.
... I don't know what to do with myself other than to say that God is so good. I am encouraged and humbled all in one stunned package. I pray that my brother artists in the Studios were so blessed by the event.

I am exhausted. Scott has left to go to Lansdale so he can go on a band adventure for the weekend. I think it's time for me to sleep.

DNA and Art

... I'm not sure what it is, but I find this very cool.

http://www.dna-art.com/index.html

It could be because I love anything to do with genetics and DNA and all that fun stuff. It kind of reminds me of an art form I heard about some years ago where an artist was using the deceased's ashes to make art.

Just thought I'd share.

A poem fitting for the season

It's days like this that I sit in eager anticipation of the warmer seasons, and look forward to when everything is alive again.


Anticipating Equinox

Curled up tight in quiet hibernation,
young ones begin to feel the warmth
of the sun as he spreads his hands across the earth
All that he touches receives light and life,
even the shadows nod toward his splendor,
and night retreats from his path
Can you sense what they do,
the coming of equinox?

When those who sleep will be roused,
stretching limbs upward and downward;
when those in dark places will lift their heads
and be birthed as newborn babes-
It is then that colors take the stage
quiet at first in budding whispers
passing rumors of paintings so wonderful
that you and I long to behold merely days away

What is it that will come?
The sun follows his course and stays aloft,
coaxing children from the places they hide
Make yourself attentive;
can you hear their hymns?
Soft words of joy,
relinquished from a long, oppressive sleep
to crescendo forth into hues of praise

I cannot help but be captivated,
tempted toward rapture and carried away by their song,
and moved by their efforts to grasp light
Tiny fingers spread skyward,
longing to be free of mud, dirt, and darkness
Can you see their jubilant straining,
faces full of color and mouths full of song?
Can you empathize with their liberation?

YB 07 3 12

Community

I've noticed an interesting trend through my journal entries over the past month that anything with actual substance has been fairly cynical. Truth be told, I do have a cynical edge in my life that has yet to be fully worn down by the Holy Spirit; it's not exactly one of my favored characteristics. And apparently at 1AM and after reading both Adam's and Al's recent blog entries, I feel compelled to write about something that has more substance and is less critical of the world around me. It's time to scurry to my little thinking place and put out some reflections.

Manna is the bible study/discussion group that I'm taking under my wing in part with CCO co-worker (and consequently, whose family I live with) Andy Campbell at University of the Arts, and since I showed up this semester we've been going through a book that I am convinced ought to be mandatory reading material for anyone interested in the arts and happens to be a Christian. Needless to say, I'm very excited to finally talk to people about it who jive with the arts, since it's one thing to talk about it to non-arty people, and totally a different thing to talk about it with arty people. The book: It Was Good: Making Art to the Glory of God. Tonight's chapter (article) was written by David Giardiniere, and all about Community. Of course the article's slant is toward artists of all shapes and sizes, but reading about community reminds me about how passionate I am about community and belonging to a community.
As being made in imago dei, the image of God, means that human beings are inherently relational creatures. God is a relational being: Father, Son, Holy Spirit. He is the perfect and holy image that we have of unity and community being Three in One. God also seeks to have community and relationships with His creatures. It makes sense, then, that we would be relational; we are made to have community first with the Lord and also with other human beings. How beautiful it is when people come together with the same heart and purpose, to become a sort of family. As Christians, we are called to this.

Paul frequently talks about the individual Christian being part of a bigger community through the imagery of anatomy: we are all parts of the larger body. We are members, not in the sense of Status, but in the sense of Organs. It is vital for the "members" or organs of the human body to be working in community and unity wth the other organs of the body, while at the same time retaining its unique job and characteristics. For it cannot be so that an eye would decide to be a hand, or that a hand would decide to be a leg and neither can these things work independently from the rest of the body. You don't have to take an anatomy class to know that the human body just doesn't function that way. It is the same with us as believers in Jesus Christ. We need each other in order to encourage, build up, rebuke, pray for, challenge, and push each other towards God. I believe that this is primarily found in church communities.

This is something that has been on my mind for several weeks now, primarily because I currently feel at a loss as to where my place is in Philadelphia. I've lived here for about two months and I have yet to really find a solid, consistent group of individuals who can be my "transplant" family -- and I use the word transplant loosely, since I've moved on from the community I knew for four and a half years. I hunger and long for the sort of community I've just described above. And I do not use "hunger" and "long for" lightly. I need a church body to belong to, not for some trite fulfilment or simple satiation to be with people, but so that I can be encouraged, challenged, and pushed towards God.
The Lord has been good to me, however, in placing me in a city where I do know some people and He has also provided some awesome connections with people that have the potential to lead to very strong community. I have been very blessed to be around awesome people from time to time.

However that does not negate the fact that I still need to be integrated into a church. I'm unsure what my struggle up to this point has been, since I had been attending a younger church (Liberti Church) just up the street from me for a while before I actually moved here. February left me with barely any Sundays to explore other churches - so February was actually a little dreadful in some regards. Every time I thought about my need for community, a lump would quickly form in the pit of my throat; even now, there is an ache. This actually brings up a funny story: this past Sunday as I was ready to go to a different church, I discovered that my car was parked in. So, that left me with Liberti Church, which I have been unsure of going to all through February. All the way there, I had to pray and ask for a heart that would be open to what He would have for me there because it was clear I was going there for a reason that morning.
While the sermon was excellent and all about reliability and dependability (something I'd love to write more about later), I suppose the most striking thing was that one of the pastors listed some things that their church was all about. The funny part is that I wholly agreed with each of the things that Liberti is all about as a church, perhaps especially worship, community, and campus ministry.

Is this the community God has set up for me to be a part of? I'm not sure... but I do know that I had to also ask myself, "Why am I not going to this church? I agree with all these things." Perhaps, then, it is where I am meant to be integrated. Perhaps I should just bite the lip of my fears and submerge myself in this body of brothers and sisters and allow myself to be a part of a new community... because as surely as I live and breathe, I do think that I am afraid to start fresh. But despite that fear I know I need and hunger for it. I know how essential it is for me to be connected because I cannot function fully--as being made in the image of God--without that community and those relationships.

We shall see, I suppose. Prayerfully, the Lord will push me in the direction I need to go. I need to be pushed, face forward, so that all of my hesitancy is lost to the wind.

... And with that in mind, it is time for me to go to sleep.

Consumable Quote

This is off of a Starbucks cup from a month ago. ... yes, I still have the cup; no, there wasn't anything in it. Yes, now that I have the quote written down somewhere, I will throw away the cup. In the mean time I wanted to share this because I thought it was neat.


The Way I See It #153

Is art entertainment?
Art teaches us about who we are.
Entertainment tells us who to be.
Art is a public service.
Entertainment is a private product.
Art opens our minds.
Entertainment thinks for you.
Art is publicly offered.
Entertainment is publicly traded.
Art is the words we wish to say, but lack the language to say it.

-Justin Dillon, from the band Tremolo

I'm checking out the band now, and I have to admit that I actually like it. Good job, Mr. Justin.

The annoyance of sickness and sleep

At an undesirable hour of the night, I cough and sniffle and cough some more in ways that I am wholly unable to suppress. Trying to stifle the urge to cough more, I roll over on my side and attempt to bury my head into my pillow. No good; the stuffiness of my sinuses already inhibits breathing, so being nestled into a pillow is not exactly the best way to get oxygen. In frustration I turn over on my sid,e remaining uncomfortable in all sorts of ways and simply unable to settle. I breathe in and sigh—only to have my chest seize the opportunity to cough more. The nape of my neck is damp with sweat, yet to crawl out from beneath the covers would leave me cold and desiring warmth. This is not exactly the ideal situation when I want to get some rest.

I look at the clock. 3:13 AM. I’ve slept about six hours at this point, which is pretty routine for me, but I was hoping to sleep ten hours to knock out the sickness I’ve come to wrestle with. I attempt to sleep again, the coughing having subsided just long enough to trick me. Then, I’m stirred again with a very brief fit of coughing and the clock reads 3:45 AM. I stare into the darkness towards my ceiling, trying to hash out with God why I can’t sleep.

It started out harmless. All I had was a little bit of congestion, little bit of a scratchy throat… Now, four days later, it’s an all-out assault on my respiratory system with no prisoners taken: Cough, scratchy throat, stuffy ears, stuffy—and runny—nose. Headache. My insides feel squeamish, yet that could just be due to the fact that it’s so early in the morning and I’m not ready to be this awake. Clock now reads 5:18 AM. At least I’ve been able to kill some time on the computer, completing a poem, while trying to figure out why in the world God would have me awake at this, seemingly, ungodly hour. I’m still trying to figure it out.. In the mean time, coughing seems to have subsided… that’s a good sign, unless it’s trying to trick me all over again. Sickness can be so cruel in its teasing.

The Comissioned

Nestled individuals, settled and cozy
among the woodlands of glass and steel,
just within arm's reach
and close enough to feel its city-breath
and waiting for the harvest-
She stands before the unknown.
Near-sighted and fumbling through a saturated faith;
it's more than a fidgety feeling
when you're standing in the daybreak of twenty-three.

Longing to see the fires of glory,
red and yellow and white hues
bringing to light all that isn't seen by men--
As though gripped by the innards
by something that won't relent...
In the same manner as the purple, velvety richness of night
when punctured by a million stars and satellites
Captured by a beauty held east to west,
and setting her hands to eclipse her face,
she is brought to nothing.

Cacooned in God's grace
being made perfect, holy, and pure
for the day his face will be seen -
perfect and holy and pure -
He sees colors so fantastic
which have never graced mankind.
She sees fruits and grains desperate for harvest,
heavy for more than just the field they stand in,
bowed with burdens unseen, unheard
Yet where are the harvesters?

Do they wonder what it must be like
to taste the colors that we have yet to know?
Do they ponder what it must have been like,
seeing now only an Eden shrouded in fog?
Hearts aching for a day yet to be revealed,
and she hears their silent longing
She comes to serve, desirous of unblemished humility,
though struggling to spread wide her palms-
torn between faith and fear of the unknown
yet burdened for the sights and sounds of hallelujah

YB 07 3 4