This post might offend some people—especially at the beginning. Bear with me and read the whole thing, and then see if you are still offended. This week’s project is getting a page of an old Bible dirty. I knew it would make me nervous. I did not expect it to make me cry. The easy part was deciding where …
When God Stitches Me Together
I can’t tell if I’m in a mending or tearing season. Those two opposites seem of the same piece the more I live them. As soon as I tear something, the work of mending starts, and the mending does not start without the tearing. Faith can’t exist without active, often painful engagement. It’s not enough, sometimes, …
The power the good witch wields: #wordmadeart
This week’s prompt for the Word Made Art is to have a kid draw something in your Bible. Honestly, this one scared me. You’d think being a homeschooling mom, getting my kids involved in my projects would be a no-brainer. But the honest truth, my hermit’s heart is alive and well. I love my kids, …
Strength out of trash: #wordmadeart
This week’s #wordmadeart prompt is to make some pages of your Bible smaller. It’s lifted straight out of one of Keri Smith’s book, Wreck This Journal. I thought the idea of pages of the Bible becoming bigger or smaller seemed particularly evocative. One reason: it’s the way we read scripture, right? Some pages, like the first …
Using My Bible to Process Sexual Abuse at Church
(Trigger warning: rape and abuse) In my Bible-turned-art-installation, I decided to draw a map of the church I (sporadically) attend, the same one I’ve been attending for twenty-three years. I made my first public confession of faith there. I married there, baptized my kids there. I led worship and served as a small group leader. Most …
in your face love: #wordmadeart
Generally, as an artist, if the idea of creating something makes you want to weep, it is golden and you must immediately do it. This was one of those projects. The prompt was to use pop-up book techniques to transform one of the Bible pages. My parents brought back some old photos from my grandma’s house. Among …
Cutting a hiding place in scripture: #wordmadeart
So the project I was most eager to start with was making a hidey hole in my Bible. Why? I am a murder mystery aficionado. Nothing says “Hercule Poirot” like a secret compartment cut in a book. ROMANCE. Again, a hiding place in a book? It’s so any kind of old-timey literature. All those verses about …
upside down and backwards: Recovering the Bible
You ready to start The Word Made Art?? The first project is to recover the Bible. In both senses of the word. (Wheeeee!) So last week, I introduced you to my Bible. Here it is again: Here’s the inside. (A little busy. Also: How did I write that small?): I gathered materials: I crumpled up the grocery bag …
I’m going to wreck my Bible. Here’s why.
Meet my Bible from college. “Nice to meet you,” it says. I got this Bible when I attended Intervarsity’s missions conference in 1996.. It was compact, so when I left the next year for Argentina, I took this Bible with me. It was the first Bible I read all the way through. And it was …