When I started KAI in 2015, I was focused on encouraging artists that a healthy relationship between their faith and art career was possible and showing what this healthy relationship looked like.
My focus was on sharing information and creating materials.
Over the last 1-2 years, I have both sensed the Lord changing my focus and realized that our community was in a different place. I’ll be honest, though: it took me a minute to fully realize what that meant and understand what to do about it. I was still set on creating material and evangelizing the healthy faith-art career relationship. But it was becoming more and more difficult to move in this direction.
Recently, the new focus and my new role in our community finally clicked. I had two big helps. One, the Lord told me It’s not about the new. It’s about the deeper. The second help came from one of our cohorts. In August 2022, we piloted our first 12-month cohort with 4 artists. We met once a month for a year and all loved it so much that we still meet monthly. They helped me see the shift when they would say things like, I could do another year of this and It would be great to have this material in different forms. I saw the shift in their desire to keep meeting and processing the same material.
The new focus.
I’ve always had a problem with the phrase integrating faith and art. Why? Because there’s nothing to be integrated. You and I are already whole in Christ. We have one life, one body, and one experience. Within this one life, we have many parts, show up in many ways, and play many roles. But they all exist and work together in the same life. Everywhere we show up, they show up.
In my conviction, however, I was missing the help artists seeking out this work really wanted. They didn’t need to be informed that their faith and art could work together. They already knew that. They didn’t need to be shown how. They knew that, too. The artists drawn to this work even know they are already whole in Christ.
The thing I’ve recently realized the artists in our community are seeking is support—support, encouragement, reminders, accountability, and community while they practice working like the whole artists they already are. As they practice becoming fluent and fluid in showing up as a whole artist in all their creative and spiritual spaces. And as they work through what it means to live out this integration in their faith walk, artmaking, and career building.
So that’s where we’re going.
That’s our new focus.
Working Differently.
This new focus means we’ll be working differently. Instead of putting our efforts into constantly creating new material (because it’s not in the new), we’ll focus on diving deeper into what we have and supporting one another in implementing it (because it’s in the deeper).
Moving forward, I will be focused on artists who are interested in building and processing together. This will happen through
Our cohorts (schedule coming)
Our Substack (where all our content lives)
Virtual gatherings and co-working times
This is a new direction and way of working for me. I’ve been fumbling my way through the dark for a couple of years but the struggle makes sense now. Hahahaa. I’ve made a lot of promises. I’ve done a lot of starts and stops. But on we go. Each time I put another foot forward, I get clearer and things come more in line.