The Hurt & The Healer
Check it out. This is officially the cover of the new MercyMe record called “The Hurt & The Healer”. Thrilled to be working with the very talented Nate Farro on the packaging for this project. It’s going to be a great record and I’m honored to be a part of it.
The Bird Photographer
It happens every now and then. Sometimes when I’m on the road for long periods of time, sometimes when I’m tired, or sometimes when everything is fine. I get in this funk that for some reason I can’t shake. Call it a depression, call it being moody, call it what you want, but I think we all go through it occasionally…. At least I hope. These last few days have been a little like that but different…. and this time it’s starting to jack with me a little.
I literally just got back from walking down the street to a Starbucks in Spokane, Washington. The venue we are at is on the other side of the river and there’s this pretty amazing walk across a bridge and through a downtown area. There was a carousel with music and all sorts of people enjoying their day.
Walking back I noticed a guy sitting on the bridge with a massive camera taking pictures of, I assume, the birds as they dove down into the water. He looked pretty involved in what he was doing, wearing headphones and clearly ‘somewhere else’. Instantly, my mind went to this place of “what’s the point?” ”Why would you take the time to go to some bridge to take pictures of birds? Seems pointless to me. It’s not benefitting anything. What’s he going to do with 100 pictures of birds?”
What?!?
Who’s in my head, and how did you get there? I used to take pictures of birds. I used to appreciate art. I’m usually blown away by music. I’m fascinated by photography. Is the concept of ‘art’ slowly becoming meaningless to me? Maybe it’s because I’m working so much. Maybe it’s because I’m simply too busy to enjoy the artistry of the things around me. Maybe it’s because I have to pretend to be a “business owner” all the time studying statistics and all that junk. If anything, I hope I’m not turning into ‘that guy’.
Now this isn’t one of those posts where I have some answer or ‘solution’ on how I “got over it”. This is just the only thing I could think about writing when I got back from seeing the bird photographer. Maybe I need more sleep, or a day off, or to see my family. Who knows. I just know there’s going to need to be a conscious effort in noticing the art.
Anyone else fall into this every once in a while? Any suggestions?
Music You’ve Never Heard – Scott Phillips
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A friend of mine sent me this guys name the other day as something that I should check out. He mentioned that he was an artist in the ‘painting’ sense as well as the ‘writing and playing music sense’ and that I should take a look. It took me a couple days, but when I did get around to checking out his stuff, I found myself focussing more on his artwork than on his music. I took a rabbit trail to this site and ended up fascinated by it. It really is pretty amazing stuff.
Then a few days later I realized that I should probably check out his music too. And here we are. The next featured artist on the old ‘Music You’ve Never Heard’ section. Again, pretty amazing stuff.
Now, I didn’t really get permission to play his song on my blog, but I figure if every one of you go buy his record on iTunes, he’ll forgive me. Plus he’s playing this song on his Myspace so I think it’s okay…. but you really should go buy it.
Now, I don’t know much about this guy, except that he’s local and eventually I’d like to grab a coffee or something with him, but I’ve never communicated with him so we’ll see. In the meantime, enjoy and go check out more of his stuff.
And while we’re here discussing ‘Music You’ve Never Heard’, hit me up with some music I’ve never heard. What are you listening to, that we’ve never heard?
Ready? Go.
He Gets It From His Mom
The other day Kristin was browsing through one of the many notebooks that we have around the house that the kids draw in and found this little gem. Blue’s old enough now to really start drawing things and he loves to copy things. Currently he is in the middle of making an alphabet book. One page for every letter. I think he’s somewhere near “L” or “M”.
Anyway, I loved this drawing and the attention to detail is awesome. Check out the queen’s hair and Peter’s shield. My favorite is the backwards “N”. So, Blue asked me to blog about this and say, “This is Blue’s drawing”. So here it is. I think it’s awesome.
