Monday Muse: 'Happiness Is God'

I am the man who has seen affliction. . . .

~ Lamentations 3:1

If you are unaware of the New York-based nonprofit Spark and Echo Arts, take some time to browse its terrific offerings in Browse Art. The group's concept is to create or commission a work of art, music, theatre, poetry, dance, or film for every passage of the Bible, thereby "creating the world's largest multi-disciplinary illumination of the Bible" and "inspiring a refreshing type of artistic dialogue". 

The arts organization invites artists, thinkers, and creatives of all kinds to respond not only to the text and imagery of the Bible but to each other's talent. If you would like to be considered for a commission, the curation team asks that a work sample be submitted to www.sparkandecho.org/suggest-artist/. Artists who are selected receive a stipend. Donations are accepted to support commissions by and stipends for artists. (Watch Sponsor an Artist video.)

New work is uploaded to the online gallery every Monday. 

Below is just one example of the creativity and inspiration you'll find on the site. In Happiness is God, a relatively recent addition to the site, Ryan Pendell, of Omaha, Nebraska, responds to the theme of destruction and Lamentations 3:1-18. In his statement about the work, Pendell writes, ". . . I took the text and destroyed it. I cut it up into pieces. Then I tried to figure out what could come out of it. The poem exists in a liminal space. . . ." His creation is profoundly poetic.

Happiness Is God from Spark and Echo Arts on Vimeo.

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(My thanks to Philip Metres at whose blog, Behind the Lines, I first watched the video.)