About the &Artists (Part 2)

Mercifully, I've never had to write my own blurb---at least, until now. But I have had practice in following my brother's lead, and that's almost always a good plan, so here goes:

"Christy began to write at age twelve because her mother told her she could. At the time she hated all forms of reading and writing, but was intrigued to hear that maybe she wasn't as dumb as she thought. Self-centeredness is a poor beginning for an artist; fortunately, that isn't where it ended. After five years of angry opposition to God, Christy was saved at age 15 and found that, of all things, God is beautiful. You'll be hearing more about that later.

"After receiving her B.A. in Literature, Christy became first the General Managing Editor of a small educational publishing company, then switched to her true love: staff authorship and direction of the high school literature track. Unlike David, she has no spare time (really!), but does truly enjoy this season of all-consuming work because it is clearly from God and also has a well-defined ending point: 2010! After that, who knows?"

David is the commercial sellout; I'm the worldviews-shaper. I can't believe that they let me mess with the minds of teenagers via literature, but incredibly that seems to be what God decided to do. David and I are both fascinated with communication, and like him my emphasis falls on what and how (not so much why) people communicate, especially in the medium of verbal art. I think I also tend to focus on what things mean in and of themselves: I'm the one for denotations and etymology, whereas David is the connotations guru.

David got me into Dostoevsky and Tolstoy, I got him into Dante (he spent a month mapping Hell for a class plan I was writing and fell in love with Dante's portrayal of the beauty of God's justice), and we got ourselves separately but equally into Vermeer.

I subscribe wholeheartedly to the principle that God has made incredible variety within unity which ought to be enjoyed as such, so there really isn't a form of art that I haven't been able to find a way to appreciate, if not for its celebration of truth, at least for its power and effectiveness. However, I do have a special place in my heart for the forgotten masterpieces of the Middle Ages, because that was when the nerves and flesh, breath and lifeblood of literature was infused with the soul of the Christian worldview.

I'm doing this blog because I believe that art---verbal, visual, audial, etc.---can powerfully communicate truth about God, sin, eternity, and humanity. More than that, I think that we as Christians need to regain a vision for literature of celebration---celebrating primarily this wonderful person---and very God of very God!---whose name is Christ.

I'm definitely NOT the driving force behind the many ampersands you'll see on this blog. However, I love the chiasmus pattern of A-B-A with God in the center surrounded by the word Art. Such patterns set off the thing in the middle, and that's what I hope this blog will do.

Since I'm not a typography genius like my kid brother, I'll just sign myself Christy.