the M O S A I C project

Welcome to the M O S A I C project. I am sure most of you have seen a mosaic before (if not just click on the picture above. It is a mosaic of the world made out of apps). Most mosaics are formed by overlapping various broken materials. I like the phrase various broken materials because it is a good description of us all. We are all broken in some way. We all have hurts and imperfections, but when we are in community and share our lives with each other we begin to see a bigger picture take form. We begin to see a *work of beauty under the artful hands of God.

Now I want to finally give you the details for our M O S A I C project:

1. pick ONE creative project. video yourself telling a story, photograph something beautiful, dance, sing a song, paint a picture, rap, write a short story, try out a new creative endeavor. I dare you.

2. sign up for this project. at the bottom of this post is a place for you to enter your name, email address (we will not publish this), and your site/blog address. this is how we will know you have signed up. I strongly recommend that you take this step. the positive peer pressure of community is helpful in avoiding procrastination.

3. work on your project for a week. you have until next wednesday to submit your project to me (and yes you can send it BEFORE wednesday). so get started – you will really enjoy seeing your creativity come to life!

4. capture your project. take a picture of your painting, post your movie to facebook/youtube/vimeo, write out your story and save it in word, record yourself singing that hit song. with the resources you have available to you, capture your creativity because we want to see what you’ve done. (if you need help figuring out how to capture your project, please contact me HERE and I’ll be happy to give you some ideas for how to do this.)

5. send me your info. once you’re finished your project, EMAIL ME the link to your project or send me your project because I want to display our M O S A I C next Wednesday at 12 pm (CST).

6. help me curate this project. this is not a plea for me to have more visitors on the blog. this is me asking for your help because people need encouraged. invite a friend, or a group of friends, or get your kids involved for this newest project. you can use this link – http://ow.ly/4XXxY – to tweet, post a message to facebook, or email people you think this would help.

I said yesterday that I would tell you the story of the creative farmers, and I think it is a fitting story for us all to hear as we begin M O S A I C; however, it is not required reading. If you would rather not read the story, feel free to skip to the end of this post and sign up for M O S A I C. I can’t wait to see your projects!!

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On Monday morning, my sister and I took my daughter, Ada, to the dentist office. After Ada went back to have a cavity worked on, two farmers in their mid-60’s strolled into the office and began talking with one another. They started off with soybeans and I barely noticed as I dove back into the book I had been reading. I probably would have missed their whole conversation, except I heard the younger looking of the two ask his friend this interesting question – “So I hear you’ve been writing poetry lately?”. The eavesdropping began.

“Yes,” he answered. “Ever since 9-11 I started writing. It’s really very cathartic for me. I don’t know that it’s very good poetry, but I enjoy doing it. I mostly write what I happen to be thinking about at the time. Someday I hope my grandkids will read it and say ‘wow – so that’s what was important to Pop!'”. He smiled a little. He gave a few more details and then his friend interrupted with a similar story.

“Well, at Christmas time I wrote a short story for my granddaughter!” At this point it was all I could do NOT to grin from ear to ear. I would never have mistaken these two men for authors, much less for wanting an outlet for their creativity. He continued, “I can’t draw very well so I searched until I found a local artist from Macon who does illustrations. She illustrated it for me, then the book was bound and I gave it to my granddaughter as a Christmas present. She loves it and it probably only makes sense to her and me because there are a lot of our inside jokes in it. But I loved writing it.”

I so enjoyed listening to them as they continued to talk about other things they wanted to write about, art they were interested in trying to make and at the same time I realized something. We all have a desire to do creative things. No matter our day job, we need to have times where we attempt creativity. Even if it’s as simple as coloring with a child for a few moments – find something you enjoy, sign up and join M O S A I C. I promise you will love being a part of the picture!

*borrowed from About Mosaic at mosaic.org.