Post-Holy Week: Good Friday
Reimagining radical, supernatural grace as the ultimate form of vengeance.
Post-Holy Week: Maundy Thursday
I have been making this comic since Advent, but it has been a little more loose in the schedule since Lent. I thought it would be fun to share the mission statement I wrote in November when I was getting ready to start the Ordinary Time project.
This is a comic designed to:
Stimulate my mental, emotional, and spiritual wellbeing through contemplation, meditation, gratitude, worship, and the act of creating.
Be a love letter to my family + friends, a community of people who love me and are worthy of receiving love from me. A community of people who need me to be healthy, whole, and present.
Provide a public outlet where I continue to work out my theology, philosophy, and humanist ideals as I continue to be a husband, father, teacher, and pastor out in the world.
THIS COMIC IS MY PUNK ROCK GARAGE BAND. #%$@ PROFIT. THIS IS A WORK OF LOVE.
*To do this really well and receive the joy from it, I need to let go of the idea of an audience and make fearless, honest work. However, it must be public because an ideology you cannot say out loud is useless.
Post-Holy Week: Palm Sunday
I drew a good chunk of this surrounded by some students at a coffee table in the hotel lobby for a school trip to Washington D.C. Normally, making these is a solitary effort. It was fun to be in conversation with folks while inking.
If I had the ability, ideally I would work on these things at the local coffee shop or the bar that I really love. Something about drawing my own version of Orthodox iconography and assessing my societal values in light of a gospel that liberates while sitting in our local punk rock bar seems like a kind of monasticism I could get behind.
Better Lent Than Never! (5)
Better Lent Than Never! (4)
"I must've lived a thousand times
But every day begins the same
'Cause there's a small town in my mind
How can I leave without hurting everyone that made me?
How can I leave without hurting everyone that made me?
Oh, baby, baby, it's all about the moon
I wish you wouldn't have broken my camera
'Cause we're gonna get real old real soon
Today we're younger than we ever gonna be
Today we're younger than we ever gonna be
Woo!
Today we're younger than we ever gonna be
Stop, stop, what's the hurry?
Come on, baby, don't you worry, worry
Everybody not so nice, nice
Everybody not so nice, nice"
I love this song by Regina Spektor. I am not entirely sure what she means, but I’m sure what it means to me. I think those are my favorite songs.
Better Lent Than Never! (3)
Better Lent Than Never! (2)
Some days you believe this, and some days you just keep saying it hoping you will believe it again.
Better Lent Than Never!
I started this Ordinary Time project, and it was going SO GOOD. And I am PUMPED with the art so far.
Then Lent began, and the well ran dry.
BUT WE'RE BACK.
Also, most of these were drawn, I just held back from posting until I could catch up. My work schedule has been very intense the last few months, which has made family life a bit hectic. I just didn't have it in me to keep up with internet stuff.
As always, I am blown away that people even read these things. You are wonderful people.
Peace + love,
-joshua.
The Light
Suffering a bit from spiritual fatigue because the world is full of darkness, and I am desperately trying to cling to the light.
Ordinary Time!
Ordinary Time!
“We must make the kind of society where it is easier for people to be good.”
-Peter Maurin
Ordinary Time!
A bunch of tomfoolery…
Ordinary Time!
Ordinary Time! (tardy time)
(rob bell won… or perhaps more accurately, the early church fathers and quakers won, but that isn’t as funny or clever)
Ash Wednesday (Year A)
Remember my brothers + sisters, that you are dust and to dust you shall return.
Ordinary Time!
“He reached down from on high, he took me;
he drew me out of mighty waters.
He delivered me from my strong enemy,
and from those who hated me;
for they were too mighty for me.
They confronted me in the day of my calamity;
but the Lord was my support.
He brought me out into a broad place;
he delivered me, because he delighted in me.”
-Psalm 18: 16-19 (NRSV).
Ordinary Time!
Just a random sample of the truck stickers regularly seen around town and in the parking lot of my son's preschool and so on. These are a bit mild, but I didn't want to draw the most horrible ones even to make a point.
These vehicles driving around town remind me of the importance of raising my kids to be kind and contrary to the scarcity mindset that permits so much injustice and violence. As I made this it did occur to me that perhaps there is some benefit to people literally putting labels on all their fears and insecurities. They're almost like little trigger warnings: THIS PERSON CANNOT HANDLE CONFLICT WELL.
IN OTHER NEWS...
This project is a bit behind the schedule I set for it, but that is because I have been making some cool stuff for a few publications lately! I am excited to share when I can.
Ordinary Time!
I hope my children, maybe above all else, grow up to be people of curiosity, grace, and empathy.
Ordinary Time!
Ordinary Time!
My children are taking on more and more self-identity + declaring their preferences + showing independence + growing up. It is beautiful + overwhelming + INSANE.