Painting on People's Lives with Words: A Night with Dean Estes

 At this month's ENVISION meeting, founder Sherri Coffield introduced us to sculptor/painter/teacher/mentor Dean Estes. What does it mean to be an "art minister"? Dean shared with us stories dedicated to speaking life into people in creative ways and how creativity can be a language to speak that life.

 Dean (wearing the hat) interviewed myself and Chad Estes (his son who is a writer and photographer) about how we reach people through creativity. Chad shared with us how he connects with people and tells their stories through photography and I shared some about how I travel doing art ministry and also connect with people through peformance art.

 Chris White and Sam Flowers added some atmosphere to the evening with some hand drum rhythm while singer Iris Gallegos sang some acapella songs.

 Dean demonstrated to us through visual art what it's like when we paint on people's lives with words. Many times we don't know how our words can affect others, but if our hearts are focused on encouraging and inspiring others we can make a difference. Dean painted an image upside down on a large canvas with both hands (challenging himself to work without knowing the outcome).

 Then Dean turned the canvas rightside up. Myself and Jessie Nilo (art teacher/founder of VineArts) came forward and painted together on the canvas. We had not planned ahead of time what we were going to paint, we worked side by side spontaneously working off of each other. We added color and texture to bring the image to life. This was a representation of how we can be influential in each other's lives. Oftentimes we're not the only one who gets to speak life, we work together in collaboration.

 After we finished, Mike Freeman (teacher/pastor/writer) joined in to complete the painting by including the Hebrew word for "soul" (this is what happens once life is spoken into someone...life is breathed into the soul).

Here is the final painting created in collaboration...a demonstration of painting on people's lives with words. This is allowing creativity to be the language of life.

photos by Jessie Nilo and Chele Shepherd