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Welcome to Redemption Studio! Check out the rest of the forums to talk, share, critique, and analyze art, or say hello!

The Image, the Masterpiece, and God’s Gifts

“Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.’ God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.” Gen 1:26-27 NASB

We have been created by our great Creator, and we seek to glorify Him through imitating Him. God created everything that is: time, space, matter, and all breathing things, and He created us, people, men and women, as His final work before resting. The Apostle Paul says, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Eph 2:10). We are God’s “workmanship” and He created us to do good works: the proclaiming of Him! And for those good works, God has gifted us with various talents for the building up of the Church (Eph 4:11-13). When God told Moses about the Tabernacle, God told Moses that He had given skill by His Spirit to make it (Exod 31:1-6). Likewise in the Book of First Kings and Second Chronicles, God does the same for the Temple (1 Kgs 7:13-14; 2 Chr 2:7, 11-16). The Holy Spirit has gifted all God’s people for all work (1 Cor 12:4-31)! Cain’s descendants were fundamental in the start of various arts by common grace (Gen 4:17-22), but their work died with them; they were cursed and apart from God (Gen 4:1ff). As Christians, we labor not for this world, but the world to come. Our work is done for the Lord’s glory, not our own. While we should remember that there are better gifts than the creative arts, our most important work is loving God, loving our brothers and sisters, and loving the world as Christ did (1 Cor 13:1ff).

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God’s Glory and Beauty

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[wrap=“right”] “In that day the Lord of hosts will become a beautiful crown and a glorious diadem to the remnant of His people” Isa 28:5 NASB [/wrap]

God’s beauty is a driving force behind why we pursue making artwork of all kinds! In the Book of Isaiah, a Hebrew word that means both “beauty” and “glory” ¹^,²^,³ is often employed by the prophet, as in Isaiah 28:5. This can also be found in Isaiah 3:18, 4:2, 10:12, 13:19, 20:5, 28:1, 28:4, 44:13, 46:13, 52:1, 60:7, 60:19, 62:3, 63:12, 63:14, 63:15, and 64:11.⁴ The richness of the Hebrew language contains many words for beauty and glory, but in these passages in particular, we see something profound proclaimed by God’s Word: God’s glory is intricately connected to His beauty, and we should seek to praise and serve Him by sharing His beauty with others.

Creating and Serving

“Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve.” Col 3:23-24 NASB

Redemption Studio aims to offer fellowship for art, community, and faith. Our grand purpose is to glorify God, our commission is to share His Gospel, and our artwork seeks to obey and fulfill the Cultural Mandate. The Great Commission is something spoken, something shared, something discussed, something on our very lips. The Great Commission proclaims the message of redemption! We seek to glorify God and sing His praises through our artwork, crafts, and creations, and we seek to do “heartily” because we serve Christ. God commands us to worship Him, to love Him, with all our “heart”,⁵ “soul”,⁶ and “might”⁷ (Deut 6:5 NASB). Hebrew words carry more meanings than what they do in English.⁸ English words tend to represent a single idea, whereas Hebrew words represent meaning. The Hebrew’s concept of “heart” is the entire inner being of a person, their very core, their desires, wants, mind, will, and spirit. The Hebrew word for “soul” means neck, throat, soul, self, and breath. The Hebrew word for “might” means power, as well as very, exceedingly, and has the sense of best, the topmost height. We are to serve dutifully, but with all we are, with every breath we breathe, and with our very best. Our artwork should reflect this love for God: not mere duty, but wholehearted devotion and work. Our artwork should not be an afterthought.

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Fighting Tōhû and Bōhû

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[wrap=“right”] *** “The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters.” Gen 1:2 NASB*** [/wrap]

In the beginning, the Lord took the Earth, which was “formless {תֹהוּ, təʊhu, tōhû} and void {וְבֹהוּ, və bəʊhu, ve bōhû}”, and He gave it light, definition, boundaries, creatures, and its rulers. We show our authority, given to us in His image, over His creation when through the gifts and talents He has given us, we give creation shape, thus controlling the wild wilderness of tōhû, and when we create things from the things of creation, thus filling the emptiness of bōhû. We seek to represent and glorify God through our creative endeavors, rather than elevating ourselves. If you are looking for a community to share your artwork, to share ideas, to receive feedback and criticism, and of course, glorify God through sharing the Gospel and the whole counsel of Scripture, then we invite you to join us in combating tōhû and bōhû wherever it may be found.

We are creating in the Image

Redemption Studio began in 2015 under the name of Strong City Studio, but by December of 2015 the name City 26 had been adopted; now, as of Oct 2017, the new name has been implemented to better capture our mission and purpose. The mission is simple but held to eternal scope: to share God’s glory through art, and to bring creators, artists, craftsmen, techies, and makers together into one community to discuss and share their arts, receive feedback and criticism, and to discuss the subject matter of art, namely people and the things of people, like culture and art, philosophy, politics, literature, and faith. Redemption Studio began as a place for T. H. Wright, its founder, to share his own artwork. Rather than deal with questionable copyrights of other venues or letting the data exist on a platform that may exist for an indeterminate amount of time, T. H. Wright opened his server to allow the sharing and publishing of art to any who would find interest.⁹

As this place is still new, even for the internet, our only contributor is myself, Redemption Studio’s founder, T. H. Wright. As I share my works here for others to enjoy, discuss, and critique, I hope other artists join, too. Artists are welcome to join, create, and share their work alongside me on Redemption Studio. We exist in some semblance of an online Creators' Guild (which I attempt to layout in various of our About pages/documentation), and the more who join will cause our community to grow. If you want to share a work, review, thought, philosophy, or practically anything, you are welcome; I invite you. We need writers, authors, photographers, painters, programmers, and whatever else it is you have to offer.¹⁰

If creating really isn’t your thing and you’re a more avid reader than you are writer or crafter, feel free to join the forums to comment on a topic or get in touch with T. H. Wright. Comments are not enabled on blog posts themselves and all discussion is handled through our forums. You can contact me, T. H. Wright (and of course the rest of our community), through the forums. My contact information is available there as well.

Once more: welcome! Join us for creating, playing, and discussing. Stay a while, post a while, and enjoy fellowship and friends.