scripture studies
 

scripture studies is an ongoing practice of drawing in found books. Whether or not the text is explicitly religious, I approach the reclaimed sketchbook as a sacred site of transformation. 

 

Moving sequentially through the book, I respond to each page with marks from a ballpoint pen. The breadth and depth of this humble office supply is vast (see Ballpoint Art by Trent Morse and the small emergent patterns in drawings by Lori Ellison and Chris Arabadji). The mark-making might be a subtle, cross-hatched gradient, or a haphazard nest of bleeding lines from a dying tip pressed firmly into the paper. The shapes I gravitate towards in scripture studies range from scribbles to blobs to motifs of rocks, mandorlas, circles, crosses, horizons…these forms morph and iterate, ebb and flow as the pages progress. 

 

In these drawings, there’s room for chance and play. I might be experimenting with my non-dominant hand or not even looking at the paper; alternatively, I might be responding to diagrams on the page and/or conversations, sights, and sounds happening around me. These books dialogue with daily life as companions in waiting rooms, meetings, breakfast tables, and in transit. Through drawing, mundane spaces become meditative.

 

Working on one book at a time, I am attentive to when the sequence of drawings starts and ends. The date of beginning and finishing might be in sync with the liturgical calendar, earth seasons, or an anniversary of some kind. The point of arrival isn’t necessarily pre-determined; I feel my way to the destination. While working with a particular book, I take notes of insights, reading, images, artists, memories, experiences, etc. that come up and compile these fragments in a zine/booklet, which helps to synthesize what I’ve learned and clarify guiding questions that are coming up as I move into the next book. 

 

As I enter into graduate theological studies for the next couple years, the scripture studies project is a practice in theopoetics: “an emphasis, style, and positive concern for the intersection of religious reflection and spirituality with the imagination, aesthetics, and the arts, especially as it takes shape in ways that grows community, focuses on material change, and affirms the importance of embodiment” (Arts-Religion-Culture). This approach to theological study is further supported by my participation in Spiritual Wanderlust’s Night School, a year-long series of masterclasses exploring the gifts of befriending and redefining darkness (beyond the binary of dark=bad/light=good) in the spiritual life. Through drawing, I want to bring an attentiveness to play, process, materiality, and unknowing to this academic theology context as well as communities I’m part of in daily life.