New York Exhibition

I cannot guarantee that my blogs are always going to be about art. I'm not always about art (even though you might think so).

I don't always post my blogs when I write them. This was written on 8/2-2006

I've been back from New York for about a month now. I was in New York for six weeks with about 30 artists from across the country. We had a gallery show in Manhattan called "Emerging Artists/ Spiritual Dialogue". The artwork was in direct response to surveys we administered to people prior to going to New York and we continued surveying people while in New York. We then began to analyze the data collected from the surveys. From there we found the most commonly chosen pictures and studied the answers that went with those pictures. Five groups were formed. Each one dedicated to a particular question from the survey. After a week and half of discussing what we were going to do, it came time to get started. We spent the next four weeks on installation projects to be displayed at NYCAMS (New York Center for Arts and Media Studies). NYCAMS was also a working studio space where we created our artwork. We finished the artwork and everything was installed in the gallery. Tons of people came to the exhibition. The art pieces created a lot of spiritual conversations. I believe we opened up some peoples hearts and challenged them to believe in something greater than themselves. God definitely had purpose in this show. Here is one story of how God was working through what we were doing in New York.

The last night of the exhibition I met Greg. Greg didn’t intentionally come to the show. He was just passing by on his way home from work and decided to stop in. I had a conversation with Greg about my work which was an installation consisting of sculpture, graffiti and video with photo projections. Greg had made a connection of concepts about God, Jesus and faith through the artwork that he had not previously understood before. We talked about things going on in Greg’s life and how he desired a deeper relationship with God. Before Greg left the gallery that night I asked him if I could pray for him. He said, “Yes, I would appreciate that”. After we prayed together Greg said something profound. He said, “You know Mike, you really showed me love tonight. You showed me love through your artwork”. Greg told me that he found a better understanding of God through the artwork and He sees God as being “Love”. For Greg to say that to me, made a huge impact on my life as an artist and a follower of Christ. I always knew I wanted to be an artist and make work for the glory of God. Hearing what Greg said to me showed me there was purpose for taking part in the Tribeca Summer Project. I had many meaningful conversations with people in New York but I will never forget the conversation I had with Greg that night. It was reassuring to me of my place as an artist in God’s Kingdom.

Check out these links about my summer in NY.

Campus Crusade for Christ: www.ccci.org

Photographic Image Survey: breathe-in-art.livejournal.com

International Arts Movement (IAM): iamny.org

NYCAMS: nycams.bethel.edu/