For behold, you look for truth deep within me ~ Psalm 51:8a

The artists' way includes periods when the artist feels much more like the prodigal than like the beloved. This 'prodigal period' is marked by a yearning within the artist to get closer, to return home, to start again. These yearnings are signposts of course, vapor trails indicating something much deeper at work. Outwardly the 'prodigal period' can be marked by a vague restlessness. For some the 'prodigal period' is filled with a quietness that can throw the artist off the trail of an important invitation to spiritual growth. Whatever the presenting symptoms, the 'prodigal period' for an artist is always indicative of a desire acting deep within the artist to bring their creative work and their spiritual life into closer harmony.

An artist's work is the artist's visual proclamation to the world. The 'prodigal period' impels the artist to resolve the differences between what the artist is creating and what the artist was born to create. For Christians, the Baptismal Covenant guides our life as the beloved of Christ and it guides the artist's way too. The resolution of the 'prodigal period' is to be found in a closer pairing of what the prodigal artist creates with what the beloved artist is creating in the mind and heart of Christ.

Seeking to be the beloved artist, the prodigal artist tends to those actions and predispositions that separate them from loving their neighbor, from remembering others, from loving God heart and soul. As these actions become known, the artist may sense the qualities of a penitent heart beginning to emerge - feelings of regret and remorse, even shame, are possible. But here is the joy hidden in the dark and the time to remember the parable of the lost son (Luke 15:11-32) Sincere sorrow for failings will be met with compassion and forgiveness. Admit the imperfection; pray for wisdom; pledge to try anew. And if all of this seems too much at first, a simple beginning is the discipline of a work blessing before each creative session. Just as the preacher intones on Sunday, 'May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all of our hearts be acceptable unto You, O Lord, our Strength and Our Redeemer,' so too the artist at the beginning of each work period can dedicate themselves and their work to God's glory.

O God, whom saints and angels delight to worship in heaven: Be ever present with your servants who seek through art and music to perfect the praises offered by your people on earth; and grant to them even now glimpses of your beauty, and make them worthy at length to behold it unveiled for evermore; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
- Collect for Church Musicians and Artists, BCP p. 819

On View: Fifth Station, The Cross is Laid on Simon of Cyrene, painting by Simon Carr.
Acrylic on Canvas, 24" high by 22" wide

As Seen In: Walking the Way of the Cross, The Rev. Thomas Faulkner, Curator. An exhibition of Episcopal Church and Visual Arts.

The Manga Bible is a Bible adaptation created in the style of 'Manga', which is Japanese for 'comics' or 'whimsical images.' The concept artist for the project, Siku, has published four different volumes:

- The Manga Bible - Raw, A small format edition containing the Manga adaptation of the full Bible plus brief features such as 'Introducing the Bible', creators' commentary on key scenes, and a 'Drawing the Manga Bible' workshop by Siku himself.

- The Manga Bible -Extreme, Containing both the full TNIV text of the Bible plus the entire Manga adaptation, this is the most Extreme version of the Bible yet! The extra features include Siku discussing the creation of The Manga Bible, an artist's workshop, and an introduction to the Bible.

- The Manga Bible: NT-Raw, A small-format edition of Siku's New Testament. As well as the comic strip, it contains a number of 'extras': a 'Creating the Manga Bible' interview with Siku and Akin, a 10-page sketches gallery and a brief article explaining what the real Bible is and how it came to be written.

- The Manga Bible: NT-Extreme, A deluxe, large-format edition of Siku's New Testament. As well as the comic strip, the 'Creating the Manga Bible' interview and the introduction to the Bible article, it contains the full text of the New Testament scriptures, using Today's New International Version of the Holy Bible

Ajinbayo Akinsiku, the concept artist and graphic designer for the project, is in seminary in London with the goal of ordination as an Anglican priest. He is quoted as saying, "Christ is a hard guy, seeking revolution and revolt, a tough guy." (New York Times, "The Bible as Graphic Novel" by Neela Banerjee, 2/10/08, A14)

A link to purchase The Manga Bible is available here with the convenience of one-click purchase through the Amazon.com Associates program. All purchases referred from visio-divina.com support Episcopal Cafe Art Blog, Episcopal Church and Visual Arts, and Visio Divina programming.

Where are the artists whose primary focus is art? It is a given that artists work from their own cultural context and life circumstances; this we can expect. If art is a blender, then the artist's life, training and influence are what goes into the mix. What comes out is art, at least some of the time. And it is the artist that throws the switch.

- Some artists, iconographers especially, can fit religion in a neat and tidy way with their craft. This is evident in their ability to assimilate to proscribed traditions. Their primary focus seems to be on faith.

- For other artists, their art reveals a road map of their seekings, spiritual and otherwise. Their body of work is a set of visual morning pages. Their primary focus also seems to be on faith.

- And then there are the artists whose work reveals the quality of their listening and their response to the call to originality. Pie-Raymond Regamey, the French priest and visionary, wrote in the mid-20th century that 'strictly speaking sacred art only requires a sacred character of the actual artistic creation, of the artist's exercise of his [or her] art.' For artists such as these, their primary focus is art. I think we need a deeper understanding of this; I certainly do.

On View: "Little Buds Tell Us Spring is Near", watercolor on paper by Emma Lou Martin.

Emma Lou Martin will teach a workshop on the use of watercolor in the landscape and the studio at Art and Soul 2008, the annual conference at The Cathedral Shrine of the Transfiguration in the heart of Virginia's Shenandoah Valley. To download information about this year's conference, click here.

Pie-Raymond Regamey quotation from Theological Aesthetics - A Reader, ed. Gesa Elsbeth Thiessen. By Gesa Elsbeth Thiessen. Published 2005, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. Originally published: London : SCM Press, 2004. To purchase a copy of this book, click here.

Text and Photography
by The Rev. Frank Logue, Vicar
King of Peace Episcopal Church
Kingsland, Georgia

Art is not created in a vacuum. Each of us builds on the work of those who have gone before us, adding our own unique vision to a larger body.

This photograph was taken in the Temple of Dendera. North of Luxor, in Egypt, this temple looks like many ancient Egyptian temples, but all is not as it seems. Just as a neo-gothic church was built to harken back to the mystery of gothic churches built centuries earlier, this temple was built by the Ptolemies who ruled Egypt from 305 BCE to 30 BC. They were a Greek family who came to rule Egypt following Alexander the Great's conquest. The Ptolemies built new buildings in the style of the ancient Egyptians of 2,000 years earlier. This picture is of the hypostyle hall with its 18-Hathor Columns supporting a roof decorated with astrological scenes. This Ptolemaic temple was built on the foundations of a temple that probably dated to Khufu from around 2570 BCE. The temple was begun by the Ptolemies and completed by the Roman Emperor Tiberius who reigned during Jesus' lifetime.

It is neither purely Egyptian nor Greek, but a Greek interpretation of the glory of Egypt. Then graffitied on this column is a cross from a time when the hall was used for Christian worship. The cross is carved so that a Egyptian God is holding it aloft giving the old column yet a new interpretation. Then adding its own layer of meaning, I photographed the hall with light slanting through the old temple thinking of how each of us builds on what has gone before.

Like every work of art, the photograph is as much my autobiography as anything. Each work is another page in the diary of the artist as the choices made in creating a piece all reflect the creator. Each layer from Khufu, to Ptolemies, to Tiberius, to Christian graffiti, to a contemporary photograph leaves meaning hidden within the finished print. Each layer the diary entry of an artist contributing to a much larger work.

"According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building on it. Each builder must choose with care how to build on it."
I Corinthians 3:10

As Seen In ECVA Sketchbook, Jan Neal, Editor
Read more of Frank Logue's commentaries here.

See more Frank Logue photography here.