Helping you walk as the whole artist you already are!
Welcome!
This is a gathering space to chop it up about the journey of being an artist and building an art career in relationship with God.
We'll tackle the creative, business, social, identity, and emotional aspects of this experience--as well as the highs and lows of navigating faith and art.
Who is this space for?
Our conversations speak specifically to artists who:
- Are building art careers, practices, or businesses in secular culture / the marketplace
- Don't make art explicitly about faith or to be used for evangelism, doctrine, or leading people in worship;
- Are not isolated within a community of faith, and
- Are seeking encouragement, support, and a community that understands what they're going through.
My heart for you is simple.
I want you to experience two things:
1. Freedom: I want you free to do whatever you feel God is drawing you to do– however it looks, whatever it explores, wherever it exists, with whomever it involves. I want God’s artists to be free and unapologetic about seizing the life in art He is leading them to build.
2. Wholeness: I want you to understand – I mean truly understand - that you are already whole in Christ. And I want to support you as you learn how to live and walk like it.
All of the conversations in this space will focus on this freedom and wholeness and will explore how our relationship with God changes, shapes, and directs how we exist as artists and build our careers.
Why Subscribe?
Because subscribing enables you to leave comments and engage in the conversation.
I chose Substack because I wanted a place where WE could talk. When artists reply to my emails, I am the only one who can read them. However, I want you all to be able to engage with one another, not just me. Now, I want someone to talk to about these questions and experiences as well, so I'm hoping that you will participate.
You don't have to write essays but chime in sometimes. I travel and meet artists from around the world and constantly hear stories of isolation. Most of us are one of the only Christians in our creative circles or the only of our kind in Christian circles.
But here, you are home.
Here, you can receive encouragement from an artist who understands the wacky adventures of building an art career in relationship with God.
And here, you can have vulnerable conversations within a supportive network of fellow creatives who understand the challenges and adventures of integrating their faith and artistic pursuits.
How often will I receive emails if I subscribe?
At most, you will receive emails once a week, unless you specify otherwise in your settings. I often choose not to send out emails every time I post in order to respect your inbox.
My journey in faith + art
How did I come to help artists find freedom in building the life in art God is drawing them to build? Well, it all started here:
That’s me at 15 (far-left, kneeling). Here’s some quick back story (cue the harps).
My journey in art and faith started in dance ministry. At 15, I joined a group called The Hush Company (that’s us in the picture above). The foundation for all that I understand about the relationship between faith and art, and about God’s relationship with His artistic children, started in my time in this company. For years, dance ministry was all I thought about. I even wrote a book about it. Then the Lord moved me out of The Hush Company and led me to go to school for dance and begin to develop my career as a teacher and choreographer. This expanded me beyond only speaking to dancers in the church. Now I was speaking to Kingdom dancers building a career in the marketplace. I wrote a book about that experience in 2014. In 2015, the Lord resurrected a 2001 vision and told me to put my choreography down for a season and begin to create the Kingdom Artist Initiative, which started as a podcast. I was no longer only speaking to dancers. Now, I was speaking to artists of all kinds about building a creative practice in the marketplace. I wrote that book in 2019.
The short answer for how I came to do this work with artists is that the Lord told me to do it.
But the way I serve artists in this work comes from my journey in this faith and art experience.
In my years since joining The Hush Company, lots and lots and lots of things have happened. But there are 4 key aspects of my journey that shape my assignment to minister freedom to God’s artists:
The first time I remember hearing God speak to me was about art. When The Hush Company was about to dance at this resort we were both at, the Lord told me, “Go watch.” That’s how I met The Hush Company. I started dancing with them 3 days later.
Dance was the environment and context in which I learned God. I learned how to walk by faith, how to hear His voice, and so much more as I built a life in dance.
Every creative endeavor since my “Go watch” encounter has been led or affirmed by Him. I never wanted to be an artist. All that I have developed in my creative life has been a consequence of following His voice.
I was raised by a spiritual father who taught me I was supposed to be out in culture engaging as a Kingdom ambassador as I build my life in art.
I work with artists who, in various ways, struggle with confidence because the art life they feel drawn to build doesn’t look the way they imagine (or have been told) a Christian’s art life should look.
But through my own life, and the lives of many others, I know these struggles are unnecessary and that God invites us into the freedom of following Him to bring forth the creative visions He gives us.
