I am always scribbling concepts for set designs on pads around me. Here are a couple of conceptual drawing and the sets they led to.
Scribbles
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Category Archives: Art
The Warmth of the Season
Anthony Barlich of Barlich Photography photographed our Lessons & Carols service. Here are a couple of his shots from the evening.
We spent the first part of the Christmas season in a purposefully cold stark setting. We were focusing on the simplicity of the event of Christmas. The theme was designed to contrast what the rest of the world does for Christmas. The last half of the month I wanted to create a lush warm environment but still maintain the non traditional aspect of our setting. Throughout the month there was no element that was traditionally Christmas decor.
The Red Candle
In the midst of building the Christmas set with all the candles, an artist friend of mine called and told me I needed one red candle on stage. This candle would represent the death of christ and the blood that was shed for all of humanity.
I ran by Michael’s and grabbed the candle. We had the stand in storage. I placed six white candles around the red candle and took the blow torch to it all. I melted the red candle last so you got the red wax on top of everything else.
The candles sat center stage and a shot of them created the perfect backdrop for our lyrics during communion.
Lessons & Carols via Twitter
We did a service this year called Lessons & Carols an adaption of Nine Lessons & Carols an historic service format. We ended up with 800+ candles on stage. Here are some shots from Twitter of the night. I will post more soon with pictures of how we constructed the set.
CHRISTMAS.
Christmas was always simple.
An inn with no room, a manger with a baby, a teenage girl in an unknown town, and some shepherds that celebrated the arrival of God on earth. Christmas was never intended to come along with the all of the flash and stress that now surrounds this holiday. It was intended to celebrate the incarnation and now has become more about consumerism and our western culture.
So this year at Park we decided to go simple.
No screens.
Little Technology.
Old Songs.
The Birth Narrative in Luke 1 & 2 for four weeks.
Simple not for effect, but because we believe that if we could remove the inevitable distractions that come our way this time of year and remember that the incarnation, God being made flesh and dwelling among us, is real that it will change our lives all over again.
Cultivate
So I am feeling uninspired to write any content about anything this week. Maybe it’s because I am still recovering from going non stop. Anyway here are some photos form the Cultivate Conference we hosted at Park Community Church. Anthony Barlich of Barlich Photography was the event photographer and did an amazing job, I love his eye.
The Loop
Over the last couple of weeks, we have been working very hard to make Park’s very first children’s summer camp,VBS, a fun exciting experience for the kids. The week was themed “The Loop”. We are a city-centric church and we love to celebrate the urban life experience. We built “L” tracks around the ceiling of our children’s area by cutting forms out of 1” thick styrofoam with a hot knife. We built a version of the great hall of Chicago’s Field Museum on our main stage. The main teaching segments happened there. It was themed Night at the Museum where the Bible characters, the t-rex skeleton and the statues came alive to teach. This included a night guard to guide us through the story. We created the museum out of 2” thick styrofoam and added some faux painting. The effort of many volunteers and staff has paid off with a great week of seeing children impacted for the glory of God.
This video is a brief look at the construction of the L.
This is the initial test of the crude animation.
Fix My Picture
Since moving to Chicago a year ago I have not done any portrait photography, other than my kids. A friend ask me to do some head shots a couple of weeks ago. This is Billy, the host of Fix My Recipe. It was nice to get the strobes back out.
The Cross
We have spent the first part of the summer with a black stage. A couple of weeks ago I added a 20′ X 10′ cross made out of light bulbs. The original concept was to use standard 100 watt bulbs. After thinking about it, I decided to go with a 12″X 1″ showcase bulb (I only paid $3.25 per bulb from a local supplier). The showcase bulbs added a very sculptural effect to the cross. The sockets, purchased from Ikea, come with a 15′ long cord on them. I laid a 10′ section of Unistrut on the stage floor, measured out the cross and attached the cords with black zip ties.
A or B?
A couple of week ago we asked our church to text in a vote for what topic we would teach on next. We used a texting poll via Jarbyco. The series for the life of David got the most votes. We had to do a quick turn around on the artwork and thought we would put it up for a vote as well.
So which one would you choose: A or B?
