S14 E13: Van Gogh Has A Broken Heart with Russ Ramsey

Russ Ramsey is an author and pastor with a passion for uniting art and faith. He has been in vocational ministry for more than twenty years and currently serves as the lead pastor of Christ Presbyterian Church’s Cool Springs location. He holds an MDiv and ThM from Covenant Theological Seminary, and is the author of six books, including Rembrandt is in the Wind: Learning to Love Art through the Eyes of Faith (Zondervan 2022), and Behold the King of Glory, recipient of the 2016 Christian Book Award for New Author. Russ was also a founding contributor and member of The Rabbit Room and is a featured speaker each year at The Rabbit Room’s annual conference, Hutchmoot.

In today’s episode Russ discusses his new book, Van Gogh has a Broken Heart. The conversation explores how Van Gogh’s life and art reveal universal themes of struggle and wonder and what Van Gogh reveals about the human condition.

Patrons of the podcast can enjoy an additional interview segment on why the arts are important to communities of faith. Visit Patreon.com/makersandmystics to learn more.

Name Drops: Van Gogh, Norman Rockwell, Paul Simon, Rembrandt,

Books: The Sunflowers Are Mine, Van Gogh Has A Broken Heart

Topics: Suffering, Van Gogh, Wonder, Faith, Honesty in art, mental health, emotional well-being

Van Gogh Letters

Join our creative collective

Give a one-time donation

S14 E11 LIVE: Embodied Faith and The Art of Edward Knippers

Edward Knippers is a visual artist whose large-scale body of work spans 50 years of practice and explores various genres, including figurative, expressionism, abstraction, and cubism.

His work has been displayed in museums, galleries, and private collections worldwide and centers on the human body.

His paintings often depict scenes from biblical narratives and invite us to consider the goodness, brokenness, mystery, and glory of embodiment, urging us to grapple with the temptation to avoid, sexualize, downplay, or disparage the human form.

Image Journal said of Edward Knippers that he is "without a doubt, one of the founding fathers of contemporary efforts to explore the relationship between Christian faith and the creation of outstanding new visual art.”

Alongside garnering numerous awards and accolades, Ed’s work has been the subject of much controversy. It has been banned, defaced, and even mutilated. The nudity, sometimes violent or disfigured forms within his paintings, have left some viewers offended at his imaginative handling of the biblical narratives.

I had the honor of interviewing Edward live at Gordon Conwell’s Embodied Faith Symposium in Charlotte NC. In our talk, I ask Ed about the role of embodiment within his work, how he has handled his critics and what advice he would give to this generation of emerging artists.

Support the Podcast.

Knippers self-portrait (Catherine Prescott, The Artist, Edward Knippers, Oil on panel, 12 x 9″, 2022, Private Collection)

S14 E10: Dreamscapes with visual artist Chalom

Melbourne-based visual artist and electronic musician Mike Lane creates under the name Chalom, a name spoken to him in a dream. His practice consists of visually expressing dreams and meditations, with mostly found materials, embedded bible pages, penciled notes, and spray paint.

Beyond the haphazard backgrounds of his paintings, brushes or tools are rarely used in the making, just hands and fingers employing scrawly texts, scribbles, and vaguely figurative forms.

CHALOM’s prolific work is a deeply spiritual practice, and he loves to write blessings and prophecies, hidden under the paintings for the viewer to experience as mysteries and positive energetic flow, intended to shift the atmosphere in the spaces where the works are hung.

In this episode, Chalom talks with Stephen Roach about his creative process and the deeply-felt spiritual underpinnings behind his visual art.

S14 E06: Learning To See with Paul J. Pastor

When we think of wonder or beauty, we might be inclined to think in terms of an external appearance, a scene of nature or an attractive person. But what if wonder is something that grows from the inside out? What if wonder is way of seeing? And what if wonder is an interior force, one that begins in the hidden recesses of our perceptions?

Today, on the show I’m talking with Oregon-based, poet, writer and critic, Paul J Pastor. Paul serves HarperCollins as senior acquisitions editor for their Zondervan imprint, and also serves as a contributing editor for Ekstasis magazine. He's the author of several books, including Bower Lodge: Poems, and two forthcoming titles: The Locust Years and The Fire Cantos.

In our conversation, Paul and I discuss the importance of learning to see as a means of engaging wonder. Drawing from the work of William Blake, Flannery O’ Connor and stories from the Gospels, this episode takes us on a journey into our perceptions and invites us to reconsider beauty as more than an aesthetic experience.

Author, Faith and Art, Philosophy, Reclaiming Wonder, theologyStephen RoachSeptember 4, 2024Paul J Pastor, Literature, poet, philosophy

S14 E03: How Do We Find Home? with Cody F. Miller

One of the more powerful aspects of visual art, is when a single image encapsulates an entire narrative, or when viewing a painting or illustration, the viewer’s imagination is invited to fill in the gaps and finish the tale. I recently came across an artist whose work embodies this narrative quality. I found myself going back to his images and studying what story was being told through the characters and gestures in each frame. I was moved to create in response. Which, for me is always a sure sign of a living work of art, when I am compelled to respond or when creativity is awakened and I am transported to an experience of wonder. Today, I have the honor of introducing this artist to you.

Cody F. Miller is a printmaker, illustrator, and mixed media artist whose illustrations often depict people on a journey, navigating the interplay between light and darkness, as they try to find their way home. Cody’s work has been included in numerous exhibitions and publications such as the “Arts Beacon of Light” at the Riffe Gallery in Columbus, Ohio, and the current front cover of Comment magazine. He received an Individual Excellence award in 2002 and 2018 from the Ohio Arts Council and is represented by the Sharon Weiss Gallery.

In our conversation, Cody shares about his own incredible journey of searching to find home and how discipline and everyday experiences become unlikely doorways to wonder.

If you have found yourself lacking wonder, I encourage you to spend some time with Cody’s work and also to listen to this episode in full for some practical wisdom on how to get unstuck. You can find images of Cody’s work on our Instagram and on his website.

S13 E13: Frameworks of Community with Conor Sweetman and Yi Ning Chiu

In this Season Finale round table, founder of Ekstasis magazine, Conor Sweetman and essayist, Yi Ning Chiu discuss expressive individualism, various frameworks of community and why physical community remains essential in our modern, digitized culture.

Alongside of Ekstasis, Conor serves as the director of innovation for Christianity today while Yi Ning writes Please Don’t Go, a newsletter about life in community—why it’s terrible, why it’s essential, and why we shouldn’t give up on cultivating it.

S13 E11: A Brutal Love with Kimberly Phinney

Kimberly Phinney is a professor, counselor, poet and writer. She’s been published in Ekstasis Magazine, Fathom, Humana Obscura, and many other publications. She is the editor and founder of the literary community The Way Back To Ourselves. Earlier this year, Kimberly’s poem “An Ode to Hard, Dark Nights” won the Audience Choice Award in our Bright Wings Poetry Contest in partnership with Ekstasis magazine.

In this episode, Kimberly shares how the vision for her creative community and her recent book of poems, Of Wings and Dirt were born out of her journey through an intense season of illness. As a community leader, Kimberly shares her thoughts on how artists and creatives can move against the modern bent toward isolation and disembodiment.

Join The Makers and Mystics Creative Collective

Support The Podcast

S13 E08: Come And Save Me with Danielson and Chris White

Film director Chris White and songwriter Daniel Smith of The Danielson Family have crafted an 8-minute short film/music video titled "Come and Save Me," a poignant exploration of acceptance and community as a cure to the loneliness epidemic of our post-pandemic world.

In this episode, Daniel and Chris share about the film’s inception, working with lead actor and comedian Fred Armisen, and why the arts play a central role in addressing social concerns.

S13 E06: Creativity And Community Live at Square Halo Conference

I recently traveled to Lancaster, Pennsylvania where I participated in THE 2024 SQUARE HALO CONFERENCE:

RETURN TO NARNIA—CREATIVITY, COLLABORATION, AND COMMUNITY.

As part of the event, I hosted a live podcast recording on the topic of creativity and community. Joining me for this conversation is graphic designer, children’s book illustrator, author, and printmaker, Ned Bustard. Ned is the creative director at Square Halo Books and co-author of my book Naming The Animals.

Joining us alongside of Ned, is author and community leader, Brian Brown. Brian is the founder and director of the Anselm Society, a Colorado-based organization dedicated to a renaissance of the Christian imagination.

In our conversation, we address the questions, why does community matter to the artist and what are its challenges? How can we foster healthier relationships between artists and communities of faith and how can we move beyond the impact of social disruption into new experiences of communal life.

Patrons of the podcast can enjoy my live discussion from Square Halo on The Mischief of God In Art—Exploring Subversive Themes in Scripture and Creative Practice:

Visit Patreon.com/makersandmystics to learn more.

REPLAY: An Ethos of Healing with Elephant Heart

As we prepare for The Breath & The Clay creative arts gathering, I’m going to be highlighting several of the speakers and performers who’ll be joining us at the event.

For today’s episode I reached into the archives and pulled a segment of my conversation with BC24 headliners, Elephant Heart.

Elephant Heart is the Los Angeles-based electronic duo Jason and Victoria Evigan. Elephant Heart’s music Is Rooted in their shared passion for international travels, world beats and global cultures Elephant Heart creates genre-bending music that pulls multicultural influences from far and wide.

This segment of Season 7’s conversation carries a meaningful contribution to our current season’s theme of community and culture.

In this clip, Victoria and Jason share about the healing power of music and its ability to bring people together, the beauty of cultural diversity as well as a candid look into Victoria’s own process of moving past fear into the fullness of her creative expression.

You can listen back to the full episode here.

S13 E02: The Vocabulary of Encounter with Kaleb Moten

Kaleb Moten is a singer, songwriter, composer, music producer, and musician, dedicated to revealing beauty and meaning, and liberating other artists to do the same.

Kaleb has released four studio albums to date and is currently producing two more. In addition to his solo work, Kaleb also works as a music producer, with credits for artists such as Victory Boyd and Abbie Gamboa.

In this episode, Kaleb shares one of the foundational encounters that shaped him as an experimental, musician, as well as his journey of developing a vocabulary to encapsulate some of the deeper experiences of his music and life.

In keeping with this season’s theme of community and culture, Kaleb shares about the impact of leaning into particular expressions of art not only as an individual but what happens when an entire movement of people collectively express the same heart.

Kaleb will be joining us along with Victory Boyd at The Breath and the Clay creative arts event, March 22-24, 2024.

S12 Bonus: Artist's Roundtable: Live at Loom

This Artist’s roundtable discussion was recorded live at Loom creative arts event in Spruce Pines, NC. The conversation centers on the importance of building creative community, the embodiment of the creative process and what it means to be an artist of faith amidst a culture in crisis.

Joining us for this discussion is long time friend of the podcast, author/illustrator Vesper Stamper, photographer and founder of JHS pedals Josh Scott, conversation host Corey Frey and myself, Stephen Roach.

As we prepare for The Breath and Clay 2024 I wanted to share this live discussion to highlight some of the vital community discussions we will be hosting.

Artist Profile Series 38: Hugo Ball featuring Jonathan Anderson

Hugo Ball was a German sound poet, theatrical performer and mystic. He and his partner Emmy Hennings were the original catalysts of the infamous Dadaist art movement which they started in Zurich, Switzerland around 1916.

What may be surprising to learn is that Hugo Ball was a Catholic and his bizarre forms of art were deeply informed by his theology.

Joining me for this episode is visual artist, writer and art critic Jonathan Anderson. Jonathan writes about Hugo in his book, Modern Art & the Life of A Culture.

S12 E11: Tell Me The Dream Again with Tasha Jun

Tasha Jun is a Korean American melancholy dreamer, wife, and mom, who grew up in a multicultural and biracial home. She’s spent her life navigating the space between worlds: American and Korean, faith and doubt, family devotion and fierce independence. As a Korean American, she wandered between seemingly opposing worlds, struggling to find a voice to speak and a firm place for her feet to land.

In today’s episode, as we continue our exploration of art and identity, Tasha talks with me about her journey from self-rejection to self-acceptance and how writing her memoir Tell Me The Dream Again served as a means of integrating the multi-faceted parts of her identity.

Patrons of the podcast can enjoy a deeper dive into this topic with Tasha on our Patreon.

Art & Identity, Author, authors, Faith and Art, soul care, storytelling, WholenessStephen RoachOctober 10, 2023Tasha Jun, Memoir

S12 E08: Chasing Rabbits with S.D. Smith

In today’s episode we’re going to hear from a young adult fiction writer whose creative work is fueled by the inspiration of family and who gains tremendous creative energy both from his children and by writing for children.

Our guest is S.D. Smith, author of The Green Ember Series, a bestselling middle-grade adventure saga. The Green Ember has reached hundreds of thousands of readers and spent time as the number one bestselling audiobook in the world on Audible. Smith’s stories are captivating readers across the globe who are hungry for “new stories with an old soul.” Enthusiastic families can’t get enough of these tales.

In our conversation, S.D. (Sam) shares why family and community are important to him as a writer.

This conversation continues the season 12 theme of Art & Identity, offering a meditation on how family and community shape the people we become and the art we make.

We will be talking in greater detail about this relationship between art and family in the Makers and Mystics Creative Collective. If you’d love to go deeper with us in these conversations, I want to invite you to visit Patreon and sign up today.

And since this episode features the work of a children’s book writer, it seems appropriate to tell you here that starting the first Wednesday in October, our collective will begin reading through The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

S12 E03: Artist's Roundtable: Roots and Branches

Artistic expression and the creative process profoundly shape our sense of self, culture, and belonging. In our first roundtable of season 12, author Rachel Kang, visual artist Corey Frey and podcast host Stephen Roach to explore the transformative relationship between between art and identity.

Drawing from their own unique journeys with the written word and visual art, we discuss how these forms become powerful conduits for personal and collective narratives.

Rachel Kang is an author, poet and founder of The Fallow House online creative community. A mixed woman of African American, Native American (Ramapough Lenape Nation), Irish, and Dutch descent, she is a graduate of Alliance College with a Bachelor of Arts in English with Creative Writing and a minor in Bible.

You may recall our previous episode with Rachel on her book, Let There Be Art.

Corey Frey s a visual artist, poet and musician. He and his wife Christy are the founders of The Well Collaborative, a community in Frederick Maryland, dedicated to wonder, hospitality and creativity. Corey works as the Exhibitions Manager at The Delaplaine Arts Center in Frederick’s downtown area. He is also the co-hosts of the Makers and Mystics podcast’s creative collective book clubs.

Join us as we explore the intricate tapestry of human identity and gain fresh insights into understanding the transformative relationship between art and identity.

S12 E02: A Social Imaginary with Karen Swallow Prior

What role does the imagination play in shaping the identity of a culture?

Our collective imagination provides metaphors, stories and symbols that bind people groups together and create a common understanding of the world.

But what happens when those metaphors no longer carry the same meanings? Or even worse, when those stories and metaphors no longer create unity but bring division and harm?

Professor and writer Karen Swallow Prior addresses these concerns in her book The Evangelical Imagination.

She tells us, contemporary American evangelicalism is suffering from an identity crisis - and a lot of bad press.

In this episode, Karen discusses what Charles Taylor called ‘A social imaginary’ and how artists and creatives can respond to the evangelical crisis of identity and bring healing to our cultural fractures.

Transcript

S11 E15: Artist's Roundtable P1: Ordinary & Existential

What does transcendence look like for a “post-psychedelic” artist and seeker? How does the notion of transcendence differ for the Jesus follower? Is there a difference between “manufactured” transcendence and one brought about by genuine spiritual encounter?

This Roundtable discussion brings together Canadian author, printmaker and clothing designer, Josh Nadeau, New Zealand folk musician, author and spiritual director Strahan Coleman, Mid-Western artist and writer Ashley Lande and Makers & Mystics host Stephen Roach to explore these questions.

Artist Profile Series 37: L. Frank Baum

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, written by L. Frank Baum, has been heralded as “The Great American Fairy Tale.” Generations of both young and old alike have been fascinated by this whimsical tale since the early 1900’s.

When the book was first published, it became an immediate bestseller and was translated into multiple languages as well as adapted to Broadway musicals and several silent films. Frank Baum had reimagined the traditional fairytale and created a story so universal, it caught on like wildfire, and still today, over 120 years later, new adaptations continue to emerge.

Today’s artist profile gives a small glimpse into the life of the man who brought this story to life and calls listeners to consider the sometimes fraught relationship between artists and the church as seen in Frank's own spiritual journey.

LIsten on Spotify

Listen on Apple

S11 E13: Building Bridges with Katherine Paterson

There is a relationship between grief and transcendence that may not be immediately recognizable. But it’s one often expressed within art and in particular, children’s literature.

Whether it’s Lewis’s wardrobe to Narnia, Dorothy’s house transported by cyclone to Oz or a bridge to Terabithia built across a chasm of loss.

Grief has a way of transporting us to a fantastical world of imagination where we can more easily grapple with the difficulties of loss and even find closure to the trauma that sent us looking for relief.

In this episode, Makers & Mystics host Stephen Roach talks with children's book author Katherine Paterson about the motivations behind her writing and why she feels it is important to create a safe space through art and literature for young adults to work through difficult emotions and experiences.

Katherine Paterson is the author of more than 40 books, including 18 novels for children and young people. She has twice won the Newbery Medal, for Bridge to Terabithia in 1978 and Jacob Have I Loved in 1981.

LIsten on Spotify

Listen on Apple

S11 E08: A Golden Thread with Bruce Herman

Bruce Herman is a contemporary artist, writer, and speaker. His art has been shown in more than 150 exhibitions — nationally in many US cities, including New York, Boston, Washington, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Houston — and internationally in England, Japan, Hong Kong, Italy, Canada, and Israel.

Bruce taught at Gordon College for nearly four decades, and is the founding chair of the Art Department there. He held the Lothlórien Distinguished Chair in Fine Arts for more than fifteen years, and continues to curate exhibitions and manage the College art collection.

In this episode Stephen Roach talks with Bruce about his current inspirations and the winding spiritual pilgrimage woven throughout his 51 years working as a master artist.

Continuing our season theme of art and the urge for transcendence, Bruce shares his early experiences of psychedelics and the transformation that led him from Eastern mysticism to become a follower of Jesus.

S11 E07: Redeeming Vision with Dr. Elissa Yukiko Weichbrodt

Dr. Elissa Yukiko Weichbrodt is Assistant Professor of Art and Art History at Covenant College in Lookout Mountain, Georgia. Her research and writing consider representations of race and gender in 19th and 20th century art and visual culture, but she is most passionate about equipping laypeople to engage generatively with the images they already see.

In this episode, Dr. Weichbrodt and I discuss her book, Redeeming Vision: A Christian Guide to Looking at and Learning from Art, which at the time of this recording was just released from Baker Academic.

In our conversation, we talk about how we might engage with art that makes us uncomfortable, challenges us or takes us outside our familiar ways of seeing.

One of the chapters in Redeeming Vision is titled Wondering at God’s Transcendence. Of Course, given our theme for the season, I couldn’t resist spending some time unpacking this chapter specifically.

S11 E06: Haunted By Eden with Father Christopher Foley

Father Christopher Foley is the priest at Holy Cross Orthodox Church in Kernersville, NC where he has been serving for 17 years. Fr. Christopher is a convert to the Orthodox faith from an Evangelical background. While studying missiology and art history in college, he became interested in Eastern Orthodoxy and went on to receive a Master of Divinity degree at Saint Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary in NY.

In addition to his duties as a parish priest, Fr. Christopher has been active in writing and recording music with his band, Luxury, for over 30 years. The documentary Parallel Love tells the story of the band and how three of its members each became Orthodox priests.

In this episode Fr. Christopher discusses art in sacred contexts, the tension between embracing tradition and the artist’s aversion to being labeled. Host Stephen Roach and Fr. Christopher talk about what it means to be haunted by Eden and how the longing for transcendence stays with us even for those who have deconstructed their faith.

Patrons of the podcast can enjoy an additional interview segment on idols and icons.

S11: The Primer with Stephen Roach

In this Season Opening Primer, Makers & Mystics host Stephen Roach sets the stage for the season’s conversations on Art & The Urge For Transcendence.

You can download a transcript of this episode here.

Music provided by Some Were At Sea.