The church is generally still pretty suspicious of
the art world; and what goes on there has this
kind of bohemian reputation. That hasn’t gone
away. But I think the posture of the church in
American life and culture with respect to art is
still evolving or migrating or changing quite a
lot. As you already mentioned, you belong to a
church and it has an exhibit program and while
most churches probably don’t do that, there are
actually hundreds and hundreds of churches
around the country now that have a gallery
program and have an exhibit program and they
want the visual arts to be a part of their worship
I just published this book, but there is a whole
bookshelf full of stuff out there now that you can
pick up. Not to mention online stuff and confer-
ences. It’s a much more rich environment and
therefore it is more encouraging to artists who
are Christian and it follows, of course, that they
are making better works for the church. It’s a
kind of ecosystem that’s tuned up.
This is probably a good opportunity for
me to put in a plug in for InterVarsity
Press because your book is part of a series
called, Studies in Theology in the Arts.
Obviously we are coming along, right?
As a young person,
then, the question
becomes, “If you are
a Christian and you
wanted to be an art-
ist, who in the world
would you look to?”
and their education and their life together.
When CIVA was founded, that would have been
just very, very unusual. When churches start
making those moves, the artists start feeling
welcome in those kinds of churches. It feels like
the vocation is valued. It just sort of makes sense.
I would say almost 40 years ago when CIVA was
founded, you just really didn’t even know where
to look to find another Christian who might be
engaged in the visual arts; certainly not with for-
mal training and background. These days they
are just everywhere and they are doing excellent
work. There isn’t this sense of isolation and there
isn’t that sense of “lostness” in terms of, “Where
do I go and where do I find a resource?”
Yes. In fact, it turns out that by the time I handed
in my manuscript, that I had been working on for
a very long time, they had just decided to go with
that series. The first book in the series, Modern
Art in the Life of a Culture, was written by two
CIVA members and good friends, Jonathan
Anderson and Bill Dyrness and the third book in
the series coming out is actually the papers and
major talks from the last conference we hosted
two years ago. I have a chapter in that. As a
whole, it is just a really rich series. I’m really hon-
ored to be a part of it and I think it’s a pretty big
deal. I am just so pleased that InterVarsity Press
decided to take it on. David McNaught is the
series editor and a member of our organization
and just really has a passion for this. I don’t think
there has been anything quite like this before.
Certainly there are Catholic presses and presses
like Baker who publish some really fine books on
the arts. But not maybe a series quite like this.
Back to your book. You get into a little bit
of your history. You grew up in an evan-
gelical family and you decided to be an
artist and that was not necessarily what
they originally thought you would want to
be. You mentioned that you had three pri-
mary barriers. I thought those were very
interesting, so maybe you could elabo-
rate on this. First, not having a mentor,
which is kind of like what you have been
discussing. Secondly, who are you going
to relate to when you’re in the church but
at the same time wanting to be an artist,
what the church regarded or disregarded
relating to the visual arts. Thirdly, that the
art world wasn’t particularly keen on the
religious beliefs. Could you talk a little bit
about that and maybe even throw in some
advice for the up and coming artist.
I did grow up in an evangelical home. I sup-
pose in my early days, I grew up in a church that
would have been described as fundamentalist.
When I talk about my evangelical background,
though, I need to be absolutely clear from the
beginning and say that my parents were always
an encouragement to me with respect to pursu-
ing the arts.
I studied at the University of Wisconsin, Au
Claire and then took an MFA at a small art
school called Cranbrook Academy of Art in
Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. Both secular schools.
When I was in that space between BFA and MFA
and was accepted at several MFA programs and
was talking with my dad about what I should do,
he, without reservation, encouraged me to just
press on because I loved art and he thought I
should pursue what I loved.
There was family support and not resistance.
Probably in the broader evangelical community
there was this sense of, “Why would someone
who could be a pastor or a missionary or do all
these other things for God go off and do some-
thing so worldly?” It was difficult to figure out
how to respond to that sort of thing. It wasn’t
often spoken aloud, but was sort of implicit in the
conversation that there were all kinds of things
that people can do with their lives and being a
visual artist would probably be just about near
the bottom. Why would a gifted, capable person
choose something like that; to be part of the
world and not be part of the church. That dichot-