Can art conquer war?
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Can art conquer war?

Given spray paint, a broken wall and 15 minutes, what would you say to the Taliban? Ukraine erased Afghanistan from our news. Many people are entering 2023 weary of news of war and worried over inflation. Our lack of attention doesn’t mean that atrocities stop. Ukrainian, Afghan, Yezidi, Rohingya and Nigerian individuals are still living…

Mrs. van Gogh
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Mrs. van Gogh

Jo van Gogh-Bonger: The Woman Who Made Vincent Famous by Hans Luitjen just came out in English on November 3, 2022. Jo van Gogh was a sister-in-law to Vincent, married to his brother, Theo. After both brothers died she single-handedly made Vincent a household name and redefined the world’s definition of an artist at the…

Introducing the winners to CC’s Portrait Contest!

Introducing the winners to CC’s Portrait Contest!

Congratulations to the winners of Christian Courier’s Portrait Contest! We asked contestants to capture their encounters with friends, family and strangers after our shared experience of isolation. The submissions we saw this year are evidence of the creativity that runs throughout our communities, a creativity worth celebrating. Here’s to your creativity and courage! A word…

Communicating Jesus Through Cloth
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Communicating Jesus Through Cloth

I’ve always enjoyed making things. A friend once introduced me to a retired Wycliffe missionary who taught me to weave and allowed me to borrow a small four-shaft table loom. I didn’t weave again for years. Then in 2015 I did a special project as part of ethnographic research in the Solomon Islands: the banana-fiber…

Serendipity at ‘A Creature Chronicle’
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Serendipity at ‘A Creature Chronicle’

“I’ll be sharing my video story at an event in Langley,” Amy Dyck told us at the end of our March local arts council critique session. Maybe I should go to be a familiar face in the crowd, I thought. When I studied the details of “A Creature Chronicle,” however, I realized that stumbling upon…

‘Big Breath In’ Took my Breath Away
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‘Big Breath In’ Took my Breath Away

I didn’t really want to read George Keulen’s memoir Big Breath In about his journey with Cystic Fibrosis (CF) and lung transplant. Don’t get me wrong – I love reading, and I enjoy a good memoir. But there’s something about people sharing their stories of these specific experiences that makes me feel vulnerable. I am…

A Thought
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A Thought

if you look at the end / of a day, / at geranium streaks of sky, / a shot of sun fading in a vertical beam, / herds of clouds that flock to the west

‘Can the Holy Spirit indwell a cyborg?’
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‘Can the Holy Spirit indwell a cyborg?’

Daily advances in science and engineering are making it possible to alter humans mentally and physically. Our technological advances are quickly outpacing our ethics. Betty Spackman, an installation artist currently residing in Langley, B.C., is drawn to the gaps between our philosophies, belief systems and technological abilities. We accept pacemakers and functional eyes, “the crumbs…

The Rules of Art?
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The Rules of Art?

I love a good question mark. It was a dismal, late winter morning when I saw the sign outside the Museum for an art exhibition called The Rules of Art? As it had been a very long time since I’d visited a gallery and I had some time to myself that morning, I stepped inside,…

Introducing the winners of CC’s ‘Map and Mend’ Art & Poetry contest

Introducing the winners of CC’s ‘Map and Mend’ Art & Poetry contest

During our Fall 2021 Art and Poetry Contest, we were delighted to receive contest entries related to our “map and mend” theme from digital art to pencil crayon, from well-established artists to people trying blackout poetry for the first time! Scroll down to find the five contest winners and three honourable mentions. First place for…

The paradox of beauty
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The paradox of beauty

Crystal Hao was a student in the United States, far away from her homeland of China, when she saw two million migrant workers vacating Beijing on the news. It was 2018, and the mass evictions were part of a crackdown on illegal housing that began the year before. “The government thought [the migrant workers] were…

The world in miniature
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The world in miniature

During the Christmas season many of us are drawn into the world of miniatures, though we might not call it that. Ornaments hang on our trees depicting, at a hand-held scale, Jesus nestled in a manger or the wise men visiting a stable. Each year we carefully unwrap the figures of our nativity scenes –…