What a way to spend a day ... all fifteen hours of it. At somewhere after 8:30, the day begins with me getting to Lakewood, hoping beyond hope that nothing would keep me from being too late for Day Two of the Creative Arts Summit, but also hoping beyond hope that I would resist the urge for a healthy nap in the middle of the long day.
In store this day was three workshops, mixed in with a lunch and a talent showcase. And after a short time to catch my breath from all of that, it was time for church. No opportunity to leave early, though ... McNair Wilson was performing "The Fifth Gospel" at Koinonia. And it ran late. So shortly after 11:30, my good friend drags me home for some much needed rest at the end of the day. Fifteen hours. And it was easily among the best fifteen hours I've had the pleasure of spending in one place. Nevermind that I didn't get in my usual jog through the bookstore to touch and read anything new and/or interesting. Nevermind that I had to fight the urge to nod off during praise & worship (through absolutely no fault of Steve & Da'dra). I was operating on minimal caffeine levels and a roast beef sandwich from lunch for most of the day.
The first workshop I had was conducted by Lakewood's own Joan Tankersly, "Untangling the Creative Process." Wasn't really sure what I'd get out of it, but I figured it might help a bit with some of the creative projects I have with clients for web, mail, TV ads, and other communication needs. Turns out that I probably got more out of this than any of the others ... again, through no fault of the other teachers or my selection of them. What originally tipped me off that this might be a cool workshop for me was that Joan is a Dove award winner for her work doing album covers (seriously, is there a cooler career than that?) Her award was for Recorded Music Packaging of the Year for Russ Taff's eponymous 1989 album (here's the cover). Given my frequency at record stores both Christian and otherwise back in this year, I'm sure I saw more of Joan's artwork than I'm aware of.
But what I got from this workshop the most were two thoughts ... one affirming and one challenging. The affirming thought is that "at the end of the day, all creativity is about communication." That's all. It seemed to be a common theme throughout this weekend that, at various points in the journey of these creative people, they were told that what they do just doesn't fit into the Body of Christ. As if their gifts just don't matter. But they do. At the end of the day, it's just about communicating what God has put into our lives, what He's done for us, and how we express and relate to that. One of the great things I love about Lakewood is that it's tought me in no uncertain terms that there are, indeed, different strokes for different folks. Whether we praise & worship with a dance or a polite hand clap ... whether we arrive in our Sunday best or something safely beneath "work casual" ... whether a recovering Baptist, Catholic, Episcopalian, Methodist or Presbyterian (or even an unrecovered one of any of these) ... everyone is welcomed. We all communicate that love for Christ in our own different ways.
The challenging thought for the workshop was that "creativity wastes nothing." In some sense of the word, I think I understand that. Check back in my post about "Is Blogging Un-Godly?" Learning to communicate effectively is a process. It's not something you read in a book and go out into the world as a perfect practitioner. You practice. You stumble. You evolve. You change. And you grow. But none of that is "wasted." Even the bad stuff.
The second workshop I had was more technically-oriented. It was Brian Potter's class on video production. I haven't put a lot of thought into video production previously, but in my defense, I've only been involved with my first TV ads in the past couple of months. The stretch here on this little blog with inserting some video clips is a feeble, early effort to play around with it a bit as a hobby. Brian added a lot to the knowledge-base, though. We essentially followed one entire production from start to finish. In this case, a 10 minute KidsLife production produced inhouse. Great stuff that I'm sure will serve as the launching pad for a bit more learning on my part.
Last up was a decision I wish I never had to make. Apparently, all scheduled at the same time were the following workshops teachers: Carrie Hodge, Michael Hodge ... and Wendell Burton. Now, I can't sing worth a lick, but I'd crawl up the Southwest Freeway for an opportunity to sneak into any class of Carrie's just to hear her sing. And it's been too long since I picked up my guitar for any amount of serious practice, but I'd think nothing of just watching Michael teach and play guitar at any opportunity available. But my dilemna was that one of the things that piqued my interest in making it out to the whole event was to see if I might learn a little something or two to jumpstart a remote interest in short sketch writing. Don't get me wrong, now. Wendell's class was plenty fun. And what I appreciated most from it is that there's a difference between creativity and art ... and that it takes a lot of work and practive to go from one to the other. And something of a corrollary to that is Wendell's point that "the #1 thing about writing is ... to just write." In other words: practice. Get better. Improve. Evolve. Grow. It all tied in rather nicely with Joan's workshop and builds on a lot of things that I probably understand just fine on some inate level or another. But there's a reason we sometimes organize such thoughts into things like books, movies ... or even a Creative Arts Summit.
We had a talent showcase mixed into the day as well. And I'd be remiss to note one very special feature from that: Brenda Arnold-Scott. Normally, if you mention the word "poetry" to me, I'm asleep in a matter of seconds. Which is odd since I love a well-written song, which is essentially the same darned thing. But sitting around listening to just ... poetry? I can't say it's something that really appeals to my interests. But for many reasons, Brenda was a one woman force of inspiration. She did a reading of a wonderful song she'd written. Her stated intention was to just read it since she didn't fancy herself any great singer. What I got most ouf of this performance was that often enough - certainly not "always," maybe not even "often," but "often enough" - when we think that we may lack the artistry that might make our creativity all that it should be, we're sometimes wrong. By the end of Brenda's spoken word version of this song, she was in full song. And she sang a very beautiful song magnificently well. It's one thing to pay close attention to words written masterfully in a way that touches us. It's yet another thing to see the words performed in a way that fills the words with even newer meaning. But it's something else altogether to see a performance like Brenda's done in a way that makes you want to go and express a similar thought in your own way, with your own talents, with your own creativity, whether you're at the level of creativity where it qualifies as art or not. For that, I thank Brenda for a lesson succinctly taught ... even if it wasn't intended to teach.
Kudos also to Wendell for a little arm-twisting to get me out to the whole thing as well. Oh, and it should be noted that, even though I had to skip workshops by Michael & Carrie, I did manage to conduct myself like a complete dweeb by scrambling about for a sharpie in order to get my Carrie Hodge CD cover (actually the back cover) autographed by both Michael & Carrie. So everything worked out for the good.
