The Maker's Space video-Session #1-"Culture Care" and Collage

 

Supplies Needed:  Some magazines, watered down white glue, sponge brush, canvas panel, tissue paper, the book, "Culture Care" by Makoto Fujimura

Video on Youtube...https://youtu.be/Pg0Oewgz3xE

TEXT OF LESSON

Welcome to The Maker’s Space, where we transform this space into our Maker’s Space and use art as a tool to slow down enough to hear what He is saying.  He wants each one of you to know how valuable you are to HIm.  He is always talking to us, we just don’t slow down enough to hear Him. 

This is our first ever, virtual The Maker’s Space!  We have been meeting locally, since 2013, but now you can join us whenever you want!  It would be my hope and prayer that you might consider getting your own local group together and have your own local Maker’s Space.  I would be happy to help you in any way that I can, just email me @2013themakersspace@gmail.com.  Today, though, you might find yourself at home at your kitchen table.  The supplies for this time, are simple and you should be able to find them around the house.  First, you need an old magazine or two that you don’t mind ripping up.  Some glue, watered down a bit, a brush or sponge brush of any sort, and any old tissue paper in your wrapping paper drawer.  Next, you will need a surface to glue your collage on, such as a piece of cardboard from an Amazon box, or a canvas board you have around from another project.

This year, we will be using and exploring the concepts in the book, “Culture Care,” by Makoto Fujimura.  His website is www.makotofujiura.com  His art is amazing, using layers of ground natural rocks and gems

We can look at the times we are in, 2020, and consider that God has given us a Sabbath, a time to reconsider what we were doing, and consider how we can make beauty, so that all flourish and benefit from beauty.  True beauty is God, so if we pursue beauty, we are pursuing God.  Here, in this space, let’s learn something new.  Learning something new is nourishment for the soul.  It helps us focus on something else, not just ourselves and consuming to satisfy our needs.

{Group introductions and icebreakers}

Let’s go around and introduce ourselves.  After your name, tell us what you love doing the most.  

I believe that God gives us a hint to what our purpose is here by giving us desires and passions.  If you do not yet know, or have forgotten you can ask Him.  What better person to ask “Who am I?” than the One who made you and knows everything about you.  I also don’t think you are ever too young to know, so think back to the things you loved as a child.  You are uniquely made. 

 In the book, “Culture Care,” by Makoto Fujimura, he lays the groundwork of the concepts of generative thinking; [1]genesis moments [2] generosity [3] generational thinking. This is a movement that he began the conversation, and others are adding to the conversation. 

Def. of Culture:  The customs, arts, social institutions and achievement of a particular nation, people or other social group.

Let’s name the different cultures that each of you are in:   Each group you are in has its own culture.     

“Culture Care, though a thesis I have developed, is a movement already afoot in culture in various circles.  In one sense, this book is not new or unique….but it addresses head-on a terrible rift in our society:  our culture is broken and needs care to be restored to wholeness.  Like the ‘Creation Care’ movement that looks after the environment, and the “Soul Care” concepts provided by practitioners in mental health and spiritual growth, this book on Culture Care lays out a necessary conceptual framework and the beginnings of practical responses to repair that rift and inspire and inform individuals.”

“The principals of Culture Care can be embraced universally, by developing skills in listening to the wider culture and thinking and behaving in a generative manner. A generative approach to culture brings bouquets of flowers, or beauty into a culture bereft of beauty.”

Let’s define genesis moment….”a time when something is awakened through failure, tragedy, or disappointment.  It then becomes a place of learning and potential creativity.  In such moments, you can get lost in despair or denial, or you can recognize the failure and run toward the hope of something new.”

Can you think of a time that you had a genesis moment?  As you go forward, you might begin to remember more and more and didn’t know what they were until you look back on them.

Generosity—“Generative thinking is fueled by generosity because it so often must work against a mindset that has survival and utility in the foreground.  In a culture like that, generosity has an unexpectedness that can set the context for the renewal of our hearts.  An encounter with generosity can remind us that life overflows our attempts to reduce it to a commodity or a transaction—because it is a gift.”

Can you think of a time when you were the recipient of unexpected generosity?

Thinking generative has a generational component when we are mindful of our past, the good and the bad, and we keep an eye to the future and what we want to give to our children, leaving them blessings of creativity.

Can you think of the generosity of your parents or grandparents?  Or perhaps, we have all been affected by negative histories that we aren’t aware of their affect on or current lives?  How can you be the agent of change for the next generation?

I want you to think about the cultures that you find yourself in.  Perhaps, you are on the outskirts of some, like just beginning high school, or the parent of a high school or college or married child.  Maybe you are in and out of some cultures, or imbedded in some and can’t find a bridge to another culture that you would rather be in.  The arts and beauty, and generative thinking like generosity and listening to different cultures can be bridges to help all flourish and understand one another.  We can use art to understand each other and the culture you find yourself in today.  How can each of us approach the cultures we are in with beauty, creativity, and generosity?  For example: what about being generous with your time?  generous with your listening to another’s opinion than trying to state your own?  What would it look like if others were generous with you, by listening to you and hearing your opinions?  I know that it often does not go both ways….but just imagine what the world could be like if……

pg. 11 “We find our creative identity in God.  Genesis moments can be assumed simply because God is the great Artist, and we are God’s artists, called to steward the creation entrusted to our care.  The news of the Bible is that in Christ we are journeying toward ultimate wholeness, integration and well-being.  We are becoming more full what we were made to be, two the benefit of all creation.”

That is what we talk about here, how can I become everything I was created to be?  By listening to God, using art, and hearing who He says that I am, not the culture around me.  Thus, by focusing on who we should be, we make the culture around us habitable not inhabitable, but a “place of nurture for creativity, to choose to give away beauty freely.

Each of you will have different ways, because each of you are unique, that is why each of you are needed, to touch specific people in your world that no one else can touch in the same way.

So, let’s slow down and breathe deeply, to slow down our racing hearts. Controlling your breathing controls you brain.  You can slow it down, you can help it focus on something else if you are in a situation of racing anxiety, fight or flight, so that you can begin to think clearly.   I will help you practice this by inhaling on the up bow and out on the down bow of the music. After some deep breaths, I will speak an excerpt from Jesus Calling, by Sarah Young. Imagine God speaking to you.

{Play introit from King and Country}

I AM THE ETERNAL I AM; I always have been, and I always will be. In My Presence you experience Love and Light, Peace and Joy. I am intimately involved in all your moments, and I am training you to be aware of Me at all times. Your assignment is to collaborate with Me in this training process.

I have taken up residence within you; I am central in your innermost being. Your mind goes off in tangents from its holy Center, time after time. Do not be alarmed by your inability to remain focused on Me. Simply bring your thoughts gently back to Me each time they wander. The quickest way to redirect your mind to me is to whisper My Name.

I LIVE IN YOU! This four-word truth changes everything, wondrously improving your life both now and forever. Don’t worry about whether you’re an adequate home for Me. I joyfully move into believers’ humble hearts, where I work patiently on renovating them. But I refuse to dwell in people who think they are “good enough” without Me. I have called such hypocrites whitewashed tombs: beautiful on the outside but putrid on the inside.

As you ponder the miraculous truth that I live in you, let your heart overflow with Joy! I am not a short-term tenant, indwelling you only as long as your behavior pleases Me. I have come to stay—permanently. I warn you, though, that My renovations can be quite painful at times. When My transforming work in you causes intense discomfort, cling trustingly to Me. Live by faith in the One who loved you and gave Himself for you. As you continue yielding to the changes I’m making, you’ll become more and more fully the masterpiece I designed you to be.

“God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.”

Ephesians 2:8-10 NLT

Heavenly Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, we invite you to do art with us so that we can hear you speaking to us.   We ask for a very personal message just for each of us.  We believe that you are really here present with us and look forward to what you have to say. Amen.

By inviting God into our art, we have just made this an art worship project, different than any old art project..

Let’s get started:

1. Close your eyes and ask God for a color.  Notice the first color that comes to your mind. Say it our loud.  Now go through the magazine quickly and pull out everything that has that color in it. Don’t read anything just look for that color. I will play instrumental music while you search.  When it ends, you stop.
2. Put them in a pile.
3. Next, ask God for a secondary color.  Say it out loud when you notice it comes to mind.  Go through the magazine and pull anything you see with that color and put them in a pile. I will play a second piece of instrumental music, and when it ends, you stop.
4. Next, with the different cultures that you belong to in mind, go through the magazine again, and notice the words or phrases that stick out to you.  Tear them out and put them in another pile. I will play a third instrumental piece and when it ends, you stop.
5. Now, from the color and and the words, start going through the pile  and tearing it to fit onto your canvas.  Glue it down, on top of one another into a pleasing design.  This will take a while, but take your time and have fun.  Slow yourself down to enjoy the process.  You can also use pieces of colored tissue paper for different colored layers on top of other layers and as bridges to different colors or words. Continue to think about how you can be a “border-stalker” or a bridge between different cultures. 
6. When you feel that you have finished, Take a look at your creation and read it back to yourself.  See if you can describe what you see and listen to what God might be telling you today.

  What parts do you like?  Why?  What parts don’t you like?  Why?  Write down what you see or think that God might be saying.  Share this with me in the comments.  When you write it down you learn more things that you don’t see right away.  Send me a picture of your art so we can post it on this site. 

@2013themakersspace@gmail.com

From the mother-daughter group in Edwards, CO.............

Your collages from around the world....