The Divine Drama of the 2023 Christmas Art Walk

by Karis Lee, AWE blog editor

"In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) And everyone went to their own town to register.” -Luke 2:1-3

I don’t think we would be too surprised if we turned on the news and saw a headline like this today. “Foreign government leaders announce a mandatory census: all citizens are to return to their registered home states to comply.” 

So tumultuous. So unprecedented. So inconvenient, you moan to your neighbor. But what can you do? you sigh. Off you go. 

The moment seems no more ripe for fairytale as you join the sweaty mass of people at the airport, elbowing their way home to register. When you arrive, you pause to listen to the frazzled hotel manager grousing about a pregnant teenager and her fiancé begging for shelter. No reservation, but there’s an old barn in the back. 

Another headline, you think, “Homeless couple gives birth in a barn: manger used as a cradle.” Sad, yes, but these days sad stories are a dime a dozen. Maybe we can start a GoFundMe, you half think before you smack your forehead. You forgot to pack presents for the distant relatives who live in your small hometown. 

But as you hurry to see what shops are still open, your eyes snag on some overripe hippie-types in a frenzy. Angels, you hear, and the Messiah was just born here. You stop. You haven’t heard that name in years.

When you were a kid, one of your eccentric great-aunts used to tell you stories of this savior-hero. But then you grew up and found that such monsters as pandemics and loneliness, war and inflation, weren’t the kind a God-guy could penetrate through. Perhaps this kind of life, you think, isn’t a story built for miracles. 

Or is it…

We left off six years ago when Jonahre held our last Christmas Art Walk in Barrington: 12 Advent inspired paintings commissioned by 12 artists, installed in 12 partnering stores for people to experience as one cohesive story.

In 2017, no one would have accused our world of being naive or beatific. But as we return to our roots in this 2023 Christmas Art Walk, we are clinging (perhaps more equally and hungrily than ever) to the sacred joy and the sacred sorrow of the Nativity story. 

As per tradition, along with rich, evocative paintings, this Christmas Art Walk will culminate in an open-air play of the Nativity. It will bring to life some of the unlikely witnesses to the birth of a centuries-delayed miracle within the eye of their own time.

Mary. A teenage girl turned mother of God. Both of our talented casts for Mary, Naomi Rogers (past), and Danielle Miller (present), are no longer teenagers-but do our younger selves ever truly leave us? From hers, Danielle muses on playing Mary this year with “a little more naïveté…a little more awe.”

Danielle believes that the medium of a live performance “may be a little bit more accessible” for younger generations who might have less exposure to tangible art. However, in both paintings and performance, she says, “you can control your part [as an actor/artist] in what you give, but you have no idea what the receiver comes to the story with.”

Motherhood is what comes to Naomi, reflecting upon her experience playing Mary in 2015-2017. “I’ve got 2 adult children who are married,” Naomi says after a pause. “[I have] 2 grandkids. One here on earth…one in heaven,” an almost imperceptible tremor in her voice this time.

"As a mom, you never want your child to hurt, and yet [Jesus] hurt for all of us.”

Naomi, who is also the granddaughter of Armenian genocide survivors shakes her head. “The sacrifice…I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t willingly give my child to bear the sins of the world. He did that for us.”

Joseph. A working man, struggling to find the most basic shelter for his vulnerable wife and newborn. For Sue Schuerr, who wrote the script with her husband, Joseph's plight lands a little more acutely with the surging rates of homelessness. “Just talking about it makes me tear up,” she says, picturing him trying to remain strong, surveying the desolate space they shared with barn animals. “Joseph must have wanted something better for his wife, any father would relate to that.” 

An act of incarnation. As a writer and director, it is paramount for Sue to make sure her actors understand the lines they are saying. According to her, this is what live performances do differently from paintings. “They’re doing it in first person,” she says, “becoming that person.”

One can’t help but hear the echoes of incarnation in her phrasing.

There is, perhaps, no other art form that mirrors Jesus’ radical solidarity with the human experience quite as literally as within acting. But beyond mere catharsis, Christ chose to enter the joys and heartbreaks of the flesh to redeem it. 

“In the beginning of Scripture, God is with us,” Jason, our new Joseph, explains. “Sin separated us from God, and He then sent a stream of art. Prophets speaking poetry…all these things that reflect and echo his presence, his truth, and his love for his creation.

But in the end, Jesus needs to come be with us again.”

“And that’s really what this story is about,” he goes on, “[Jesus] coming into this world-into the stable, into our midst-as God with us…as Emmanuel.” In this post-everything world, who among us does not long for Peace and Joy and Truth to become as solid and all-consuming as a loving embrace?

We hope you will join us this year in Barrington on December 12-24 to immersively experience just such a story through our Christmas Art Walk: A Gift to Remember. 

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Sue and Larry Schuerr: Sue has a Master of Art degree from Concordia University and is a retired English drama teacher of nearly 30 years. She has directed a number of school productions such as, “Miracle Worker,” and, “Pygmalion.” Her husband, Larry, who also has a background in academia, assisted her in the research and writing of the script.

Danielle and Jason Miller: A Milwaukee transplant, Danielle is an actress, opera singer and director who has performed with the Florentine Opera Company, Acacia Theater, Overshadowed Theatrical Productions, etc. She duets this role of Mary in the 2023 Christmas Art Walks with her husband, Jason Miller, as Joseph. A tech project manager by trade, Jason is also a passionate poet and musician who has performed in a number of school Shakespearean productions.

Naomi Rogers: The Lord has blessed Naomi with her own performance ministry, His Story Productions, where she travels to various venues/events proclaiming the Gospel in a one woman show as Mary, Jesus’ mother, with her husband, Michael, as the technical director of the ministry. Naomi played the part of Mary in the 2015-2017 Art Walk, along with Michael as Joseph in 2015-2016. She assisted in this year’s stage direction. She and Michael have also performed together with Overshadowed Theatrical Productions in, “The Hiding Place,” and, “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.”

AWE: Steve Puttrich. Light and Shadow in our Odysseys

Three Wise Men by Steve Puttrich

When I was in college, one of the most profound things I learned about stories was this: the hero’s worst possible scenario needs to happen for him or her to be transformed. It’s an uncomfortable truth that is just as valuable for our own lives. Unfortunately, we often shy from all deviations from our plan without entertaining that there might be abundance beyond our own means and foresight. 

This truth is exquisitely evoked in plein air painter, Steve Puttrich’s, art and life. Raised in the Northwest side of Chicago, Puttrich was born into a family that encouraged his art and his faith. Years later as student of architectural illustration at the American Academy of Art in Chicago, Puttrich deepened in both and met his wife of 36 years, Bobbie-an artist herself.

““Then about four years ago, things took an unexpected turn.””

As any young graduate could only hope, Puttrich found work within his field under the employment of Parsons, an engineering company based in Chicago. Over the course of 25 years, Puttrich grew and expanded his skills, working his way up in the company to oversee teams and management. Then about four years ago, things took an unexpected turn. Puttrich’s corporate chapter came to a close when company restructuring prompted the retirement from his executive position. 

“I was vice president at the time,” Puttrich explained, “and they laid off a whole slew of middle and upper management. Now looking back I was one of the lucky ones to be chosen.” Startling at the use of the word, Puttrich graciously explained it to me. “If that didn’t happen, I’d still be there, neck-deep in stress. As soon as I got laid off my stress levels dropped and my health improved dramatically; it was a blessing.” 

Puttrich teaching plein air in the Chicagoland area. Image courtesy of Puttrich’s website

As it turned out, this blessing was one that triggered another-one had been set in motion years before. See, 19 years prior in the thick of his corporate career, Bobbie took her husband aside. “She said, ‘Steve you’re not painting anymore; you’re going to lose those skills. Let’s buy some equipment and start plein air painting.” Due to that decision, Puttrich and Bobbie two decades later had the artistic experience and means to pursue teaching and painting full time after his corporate career concluded.

Puttrich, who became friends with Jonahre CEO, Christine Gunn-Danforth, through their arts ministry at church, was commissioned for three original oil paintings for multiple Christmas Art Walks. Each piece depicts a different scene from the Christmas story, yet all do so primarily through the narrative within landscapes.

As Puttrich prepared for the first piece for the Christmas Art Walk, he called an old friend and fellow Jonahre artist, Ted Stanaszek. As the designer and web designer for the Barrington Art Walk, Stanaszek collaborated with Puttrich to create a strong background piece to fit the theme of Light. As they considered Puttrich’s commission of the three wise men who journeyed to worship a king they only knew of from the skies, they were captivated by how the 80:20 principle could convey the deeper drama of the Gospel. 

““The next time you look at any type of art, be very mindful about what your eye is attracted to.” ”

“The next time you look at any type of art, be very mindful about what your eye is attracted to.” Puttrich, who calls this principle the David and Goliath principle explained the symbolism. “If 80% of the painting is dark and cool colors, this is the Goliath part of the painting. The smaller portion, the 20% which is the contrasted warmth and light, is what I call the hero. Or the underdog. Or David. We want the hero to win. 

You see this in movies, novels and art all the time. You can’t have a hero shine if you don’t have it dark enough. It’s hard to know what warmth is if you don’t have cold areas for a reference. And if all you have are soft edges, it’s difficult to know what to focus on without the contrast of the sharp ones.”

The Journey by Steve Puttrich which is also heavily influenced by the 80:20 principle

Within 5 minutes after their call, Puttrich gathered his supplies outdoors and says the painting painted itself. It was the fastest painting he had ever done, and his process is already quite efficient with 90% of the painting done usually in 30 minutes. If you examine, The Wise Men, or the two subsequent pieces, it’s clear the artist is intimately familiar with this dynamic in himself as much as in the landscapes. Contrasts of light and shadow, the cataclysmic movement of the heavens blending and blurring into earth. 

““It gives me motivation to create further because you see that art is all about connection.””

“I thoroughly enjoyed being in the spaces where the paintings were,” Puttrich said with great warmth. “As people are looking, I’m telling the story and what inspired me to create that piece, and most of them get it. Its a really good feeling to see that. It gives me motivation to create further because you see that art is all about connection. God’s creation is shouting and pointing. As an artist, if you can incorporate high quality painting [with that] it just deepens the connection that people have with that piece, and perhaps with that message too.” 

As I listened to Puttrich share the story of his life, his love for nature and art, I saw the way in which he extended the gift of it all to others. In the luminous expression of that sacred hope, I felt pulled close, connected, and stitched deeper into the same narrative of shadow and light that is the story of all our stories. 

Steve puttrich

Discover more of Puttrich’s current work, classes, and blog here.

AWE: At the Beauty Counter

If you came here to learn what Art Walk Encounters are, or what an Art Walk is period, I assume you would expect to hear it from a person who actually attended one. Unfortunately, I have not yet had the opportunity to witness what fellowship such a union of artists, vendors, and communities can facilitate. The last Art Walk that the Jonahre Art Foundation assisted was held last Easter, months before I entered the narrative. So why then have I been entrusted to share these stories starting with my own? 

   The premise of an Art Walk Encounter, as we have so named it, is that AWE-inspiring Truth can be encountered in our mundane, diverse realities anywhere: at a bar; at the office; even at a luxury beauty counter, which is where my experience is set. 

“On this particular Friday, late last summer, there was no blunting the afternoon lull...”

   On this particular Friday, late last summer, there was no blunting the afternoon lull-at least at my end of the department. I was absentmindedly polishing white glass jars of cream and elixirs, wondering how much longer I could stand in my heels, when a coworker beckoned me for an extra hand at her counter. Replacing the last vial back onto the display, I clicked across the black and white tiles of this store that has been my stomping ground for almost two years. 

   Around the corner, the woman who greeted me in the Dior chair was poised like any other customer I would see on a day to day basis. Shiny blond hair lay smoothed over an immaculate two piece outfit, completed by modest heels and a designer handbag. She looked like a diplomat’s wife with kind blue eyes, which was why the generous smile and subtle lilt did not surprise me.

   Christine Danforth, CEO of Jonahre, had come in for a foundation color match on a whim after her hair appointment. From that small, simple errand ensued what would become an hour long dialogue about culture, beauty and art in contemporary Christianity.

“The art of makeup became a medium for deeper connection”

In that obscured, glittering slice of capitalism, the powders and colors became more than a source of profit or mere indulgence. The art of makeup became a medium for deeper connection between ourselves and the creator of beauty Himself. 

   “At my core I’m an artist and storyteller,” I explained when Christine asked me what brought me to a cosmetics after studying English and Journalism at a Christian college. “For me, beauty is the way I’ve always known of God, myself and others. But during college, I internalized this belief that to be of use to God, I had to be a traditional teacher or Christian publisher-or be martyred as an international correspondent.” Swirling my fingertips into the final color, I made three swipes along her jaw. 

   “That is understandable,” Christine empathized, canting her jaw for my scrutiny. “The contemporary church has inherited a fear of imagination because imagination, and its artistic expression, can be dangerous. But we’ve thrown the baby out with the bath water. That is why when you think of the Christian art genre today, a lot of times you associate it with an cliche, simplistic quality.”

   Removing the swatches, I began to massage in a silky gel creme to prep the canvas of her skin. I remember being cognizant of the intimacy of human touch, so integral in the art of cosmetics, as my hands learned the face of this lovely stranger turned sister. 

“…great art makes us nostalgic for God...it arouses this universal longing for redemption.”

   “I’m reading a book with the most fantastic chapter on art in the Christian faith,” I said, picking up my brush. “The author asserts that great art makes us nostalgic for God, and whether we are people of faith or not, it arouses this universal longing for redemption.”

I began to buff the chosen color until it was seamless with her skin. “I see that in makeup too. We reimagine ourselves as healed, whole beings. Rested eyes, stress-free skin, nourished bodies. Expressing our stories, identities and cultural ties through symbolic colors and shapes.” Was I talking too fast? I couldn’t help myself by this point. “It’s easy to become addicted to it, but even when you wipe it off, it doesn’t wipe off the source of that inspiration or the story. But what makes us truly beautiful is the Imago Dei expressed in us all.” Christine studied me thoughtfully beneath the final strokes of my brush.

   “I work for a Christian art foundation,” she said when I was done. “We emphasize the medium of the art as much as we do the message. Our mission is to foster a renaissance of excellent, vibrant art that does justice to the beauty of our Truth.” She handed me her card. “We gave ourselves the name Jonahre, like Jonah from the Bible, which is such an artistic genre in it of itself. Our motto is bringing Truth to reality.” 

   I don’t remember exactly what I said to that, but I remember looking down and fingering the sharp edges of the stiff gold card, absorbing the aftershocks of so much synchronicity-a number of seemingly random events happening simultaneously, but together, full of wondrous meaning. This woman could not have known who I was before she sat down. She could not have known what beauty meant to my faith, or how significant the story of Jonah had been to me in the past several weeks. She couldn’t have anticipated how reality and Truth was a concept that helped me reconcile the multiple chapters of my life overseas. 

   We made plans to meet for coffee the week after as I wrapped her packages in white tissue paper. At a Starbucks a few weeks later, Christine would tell me she and the Jonahre team had been praying for someone with my heart and my background to create a blog to share their stories. An offer I would pray over and later accept. But there in the present, after she had given me a hug and walked out of the store, I stood quiet and still at the counter for a long moment. 

“The same path, the same place, the same people, the same me, but through eyes renewed to see it...”

   I cleaned my brushes, replaced the jars and tubes, and then clicked back to my counter. The same path, the same place, the same people, the same me, but through eyes renewed to see it all with a fresh wonder and meaning I couldn’t make out before. 

AWE editor | Karis Lee

@beyondthebeholder

   I have only heard stories of the Art Walks, only heard how it moved people like me to pause in these stores, restaurants, and coffeeshops, when confronted by exquisite art in the midst of Easter errands and stressful consumerism during Christmas. But I understand what an Art Walk Encounter is through the essence of it in my own experience. A moment where the veil between heaven and earth is creased enough to see the iridescent shape of Truth in what often seems like our godforsaken, mundane, lonely lives. There is more.

AWE: Hyatt Moore. Artist and Honest Doubter.

How can we explain the bewildering moments in our story where nothing dramatic happens but, by some flicker of light or pivot within, we find ourselves changed? We listen faithfully for whispers, some of which becoming callings we could never have anticipated. If we are willing to extend our palms in those moments, we may catch the curveball like a golden egg.

“Over twenty years ago, Hyatt Moore, was not the world-renowned painter that we know today.”

Over twenty years ago, Hyatt Moore, was not the world-renowned painter that we know today. In fact, twenty years ago Moore was not a painter at all. He could not have imagined that his paintings would be commissioned all around the world, leading him eventually to a full time career as a painter. Why would he? He was the President of Wycliffe Bible Translators. With a colorful assortment of occupations within the organization before his presidency, Moore had an established career as an art director and graphic designer even before that.

But in 1996, Moore was driving home within his native state of California when he found himself paused at a traffic light by Laguna Beach. As was his custom, Moore cast a cursory glance into one of the many galleries scattered around that area. It was then he saw the painting.

““But all in a moment, I knew I was going to be a painter. I was so jazzed by it, so excited.””

“Perhaps it was a landscape,” Moore imagines, the actual image unclear. “But all in a moment, I knew I was going to be a painter. I was so jazzed by it, so excited.” Years later, time has done little to dull the delight thrumming through Moore’s voice as he recounted that moment. “It didn’t make any sense but that was just the beginning.”

Flash forward to 2013, several hundred miles east in early spring. In the suburb of Barrington, IL and Christine Gunn-Danforth, CEO and founder of the Jonahre Foundation, was in the blur of a vision she had also received: to launch the first Art Walk in 30 days. But as she commissioned each artist for a twelve piece series depicting the events of Easter through the motif of hands, it was only two weeks out that Christine approached Moore with a daring request. 

Danforth had become fast friends with Moore at a conference they had both attended in South Africa, their love for art and theology forging a unique bond. Although she admired him as an artist, it was only until Danforth had a distinct vision of Jesus offering His hands to Thomas for the final piece that she knew Moore was the only person to ask for this painting-a “Sistine Chapel-like painting,” in its proportions.

Moore, who accepts the few biblical art commissions that he does prayerfully, is known for his large canvas, impressionistic renderings of indigenous people from around the world among many other works. Yet despite the size and swiftness of the request, Moore felt compelled to accept.

Image of Moore’s home in California courtesy of hyattmoore.com

Shortly after accepting Danforth’s request, Moore stepped outside his home in California and stumbled upon two of his good friends nearby. “That doesn’t happen often,” he said, “so I had us take the picture right there.” The picture that would be the reference for ‘Hands of Doubt’ was modeled with his friend’s hands as Jesus, and Moore’s own as Thomas.

“Hands of Proof,” Moore corrected. Pausing in our conversation, I realized I had mistakenly referred to his painting as, “Hands of Doubt.” It was a slip that surprised neither of us. After all, the scene that the expansive 7ft x 8ft painting references is between a resurrected Christ and the disciple we know as, “Doubting Thomas.” 

“Thomas: he gets a bad rep,” Moore empathized. “Jesus had non-believers ask him all the time to perform miracles, and he never would.” But when it came to the crossroads of faith, Thomas who was clearly a disciple of Jesus, was asked to do something that not asked of the other disciples: to believe without proof. 

“He probably wanted to believe, but it was too hard for him because he had seen it all happen.” The arrest, the mockery of trial, the brutality of crucifixion and burial of his teacher and friend's lifeless corpse. It would be a tall ask of anybody. “An honest doubter,” Moore called Thomas, suspecting that was the reason why Jesus provided Himself as the proof he so desperately needed. 

In our own lives, how often do we long for those same nail-pierced hands to extend themselves before us? How often do we wish we could believe in the glory of Easter in a way that could redeem the chaos and dysfunction of our own stories? Or in Pentecost Sunday? Fifty days after Passover and Easter, we are told Jesus’ promise to send the Holy Spirit as an ever-present helper came with fire and wind, and a momentum that propelled 3000 people to faith in one day. 

It is the kind of longing rooted in the tension between all the ways we want to believe and all the ways it seems impossible to. But every once in a while, if we are perhaps willing to be silenced and spoken to-in a store by a painting, at a traffic light on our way to our busy lives with established careers-we may get a glimpse of the proof we so desire. A moment of complete awe. 

“Thomas said to him, ‘My Lord and my God!’ Then Jesus told him, ‘Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.’” 

John 20:28-29

Read more about the making of “Hands of Proof” and other works by Hyatt Moore here.