Jonathan Green is an acclaimed American painter from Charleston, South Carolina whose work centers on his Gullah tradition and the nearby community of Gardens Corner, where he grew up. “You’re always reminded of being black at its worst. It seems to almost be on purpose. Imagery, where it happens, the place where it happens. So that’s what the world sees. And because that’s what the … Continue reading Jonathan Green
Howard Zehr has been called the grandfather of the restorative justice movement: the notion that justice can be about repair, responsibility and healing rather than just punishment. A retired professor from Eastern Mennonite University, Howard is an accomplished photographer and author who has published several books including Doing Life, a collection of stories and portraits of life term prisoners. “I often talk about three core … Continue reading Howard Zehr
Fiona Orr, fifteen-years-old, is home schooled in Fayetteville, Arkansas, where she volunteers regularly at the Omni Center for Peace, Justice, and Ecology where she has found positive adult mentors. Fiona draws and paints. From a very young age, she liked to put beautiful things on paper so that other people could see the same beauty she did. “Yes, you’re one very small person, but you can always make … Continue reading Fiona Orr
Eugene Joe is a Navajo sand artist who lives near Shiprock, New Mexico. At an early age, Eugene’s grandfather helped him discover his gift of art. His grandfather would send the boy to meditate on a nearby hill and say, “You have a gift that’s inside of you. Go there and find it.” “Your creator gave you a special tool in your life. To find that is to learn … Continue reading Eugene Joe
Ray Padre Johnson served as a medic in the Vietnam War. He worked as a cowboy on ranches in Wyoming’s Wapiti Valley, and discovered his love of painting. He spent a dozen years traveling the world, living in 159 countries, where he ate with people, danced with them, and got to know them. Padre painted the portraits of more than 500 people from that experience … Continue reading Ray Padre Johnson
Amy Cordova sees her work and her life as inseparable. She is a visual artist, writer, and educator based in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Amy has been creating art for as long as she can remember and finds the combination of art and nature to be transforming. She sees hope in children and her work calls on adults to wake up to the wonder, beauty, … Continue reading Amy Cordova
It’s easy to reach out to those you feel comfortable around. Compassion comes easy in those circles. But we tend to place ourselves in a bubble. We surround ourselves with those who look like us, live like us, and voted like us in the last election cycle. If we hope to bridge any of the divides that exist in our country (or even the divides … Continue reading Holden Village 2.0
Peg Carlson-Hoffman is co-director of Holden Village with her husband, Chuck Hoffman. Holden is a faith-based intentional community nestled in a remote valley of Washington’s North Cascades, accessible by a 30-mile boat ride and a 10-mile gravel road. Peg and Chuck create art around conflict and healing. They lead creativity workshops with people who have historically experienced conflict as a way to build relationships. “The beauty … Continue reading Peg Carlson-Hoffman
Shai Littlejohn was trained as a lawyer and worked at a firm in Washington, D.C., until she decided she wanted to be “free of schedules, free of being tied to a clock, of needing to have a hierarchy of titles and income.” Shai went back to school to pursue her love of music and now balances her time between practicing law and working as a country singer … Continue reading Shai Littlejohn
“I took away their erasers,” she said. They were fixated on perfection and they never made any progress. The high school art teacher was sharing how her drawing students were afraid of making mistakes. If they made a bad mark on the paper, they would erase it and start again. Another mistake, and more erasing. The thing is, if you erase too many times, you actually … Continue reading Build on it
