art

Wes Giesbrecht makes beautiful wooden mosaics that hang like tapestry. Another great find from the trip to Granville Island in Vancouver, British Columbia. We found his work at The Wood Co-op and it is composed of small wood tiles, about 1-inch sq. and 0.25-inch thick. The tiles are stained but not varnished or painted, so the color comes from the variety of woods used. They are then glued to a fabric substrate, though not to each other. As a result, the mosaic can be rolled up like a tapestry or thick rug.

The “Interchange7� photo collection (via Airbag Industires) reminded me of an art installation I saw in 2003, — “Jungle Island� by Yutaka Sone. The exhibition was at The Geffen Contemporary, which is part of MOCA, Los Angeles.

“Jungle Island� was installed within the warehouse style museum space — an indoor living jungle in downtown Los Angeles. The space was very humid, for the plants or maybe just for effect. Wandering into the vegetation, I came upon four table-size marble sculptures tucked away in small clearings on the island.

Each bas-relief sculpture depicted a different freeway interchange.

• Highway Junction 110-105
• Highway Junction 110-10
• Highway Junction 110-10 (detail)
• Highway Junction 405-10
• Highway Junction 405-10 (detail)

Is there such a thing as Christian art?

In Imagine: A Vision for Christians in the Arts, Steve Turner offers a model for the Christian artist that allows for a broad scope of artistic expression. He outlines a concentric model for describing art and its relationship to spirituality and is mindful of both the artist and their audience. This model begins in the outer ring with art that communicates the truths found in general revelation and narrows in scope to the special revelation of the gospel.

The casual style and pop culture examples make this book encouragingly accessible . I would hope that anyone who knows an artist or appreciates art of any form would take the time to examine their opinion about the relationship between art, culture, and faith.