Chewy Lewis Project » Derek

New Print: The Great Divorce

Derek — Mon, 21 Apr 2014 03:14:17 +0000

This painting is dedicated to public transportation to otherworldly dimensions, and the concept of spiritual planes intersecting. Here’s to The Great Divorce.

Fresh prints *Carlton dance* available here.

Video: First Book Drop

Derek — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 02:39:34 +0000

Here’s some video of the first Mere Christianity book drop. I also threw in some bodies writhing in paint and some snake handling because – as you’ve probably already guessed, it reminds me of Thanksgiving as a child:

What is art good for? from Derek Wagner

First Book Drop

Derek — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 04:05:56 +0000

It was a dark and stormy night. Psychleberry. It was a sunny day, whose temperatures could really only be described as moderate, when I handed out the first handful of copies of Mere Christianity, you guys.

My pal Ryan Dean, who tagged along to shoot some video, and I went to the University of Central Florida to give away the books a few weeks ago. We were both surprised how willing people were to stop and chat, especially considering we asked them to talk on camera. I asked the students I talked with to commit to reading the first sixty pages, and consider letting me know what they thought.

I was really excited to receive the following email from one of the students:

Hello, Derek. A few weeks ago you handed me the book Mere Christianity as a project you’re doing and recommended that I read the first 60 pages.

Well, now that I have, I would without a doubt like to participate in your discussion/webisode.

Thank you once again for the book!

Kimberly

I’m really excited to hear what Kimberly and others thought of the first part of the book. I suppose she could be anxious to tell me what a pile of rubbish it is, but I hope it struck her the same way it did me when I first read it.

Lewis on Originality

Derek — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 01:08:36 +0000

Mere Christianity, in its published form, is 60 years old this year. But the book was based on BBC radio talks given 8 years earlier during World War II.

Here’s the only recording that remains from the BBC broadcasts. It was recorded on March 21st, 1944 and aired on the BBC on April 4th of the same year. Lewis makes some interesting observations on originality, literature, and art 13 minutes in, if you’re of the patient sort:

A Millionaire’s Vow of Poverty

Derek — Sat, 29 Sep 2012 03:15:52 +0000

Founder of Domino’s Pizza reads Mere Christianity, takes a millionaire’s vow of poverty:

About ‘Anesthetic Fog’

Derek — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 04:22:49 +0000

“What will all that chatter and hearsay count…when the anesthetic fog which we call ‘nature’ or ‘the real world’ fades away and the Presence in which you have always stood becomes palpable, immediate, and unavoidable?”
- C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

Several folks* have emailed looking for some insight on this painting. For giggles, listen to the following two snippets; it’ll take less than 3 minutes if you jump to the time brackets below:

Listen from 0:00 to 1:42 of A.W. Tozer’s chapter on [God’s] Speaking Voice (bear with robo-voice):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3iwxcP7pBQ&feature=youtube_gdata_player
Now here’s Brian Greene’s secular, scientific explanation of why the universe is the way it is. Watch from 15:00 to 16:17
http://www.ted.com/talks/brian_greene_on_string_theory.html

I have a vague memory of someone clumsily describing the process of placing faith in God by likening the process to sitting in a chair. That illustration seems a little weak, but I reckon all of our understanding is shallow compared to the depth of reality and truth that actually exists, irrespective of our ability to comprehend it.

After considering the above lines by Lewis, Brian Greene’s documentary The Elegant Universe (for context, a great subtitle would be “Quantum Physics for Dummies”), and reading “The Speaking Voice”, a chapter in A.W. Tozer’s The Pursuit of God, I’m convinced that these three works are corporately striking some inaudible chord of harmonic Truth. In combination, these three media nuggets have bolstered my faith that God is present in ways we are incapable of comprehending, but in a way that’s more real than our ability to comprehend it. This painting was an attempt to visually synthesize the overlapping agreements of these notions that seems to dissolve when translated into language – especially a blog.

I believe the chair you’re sitting on, and everything around, is not only physical, but profoundly spiritual – by nature of its mere existence and what holds it together.

Another possibility is that I’m insane and have no idea what I’m talking about.

Either way, thanks for your interest in the painting! Stay tuned; there’s a new one getting ready to come off the easel. Updates to follow soon.

*Several = my mom, and a friend

Chewy Lewis on Indiegogo

Derek — Tue, 14 Aug 2012 18:16:46 +0000

Chewy Lewis Project is on Indiegogo. Close your eyes and imagine your parents making out. It’s not quite that awkward, but it’s close: See for yourself here (video)

Stop! Motion! Update!

Derek — Wed, 11 Jul 2012 05:03:11 +0000

So far, it’s taken about 45 minutes of work for every 1 second of video below:

But that’s counting re-shooting an entire section because I misspelled a word. Easily the most painful typo discovery of my life.

Win a Proof

Derek — Sun, 25 Mar 2012 05:08:46 +0000

One lucky Facebooker or Twitterer-er will win a signed proof of this next print before it launches. Double your odds by following on the Twitter and the Facebook. Quadruple your odds by asking your Uncle Lamar to do the same, and promise to massage his bunyoned feet in exchange for the print when he wins.

Lost in Translation

Derek — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 04:30:44 +0000

The only valid thing in art is the one thing that cannot be explained, to explain away the mystery of a great painting would do irreplaceable harm, for whenever you explain or define something you substitute the explanation or definition for the image of the thing.

-Henri Matisse