New Work: Jonathan and Esther

India and Acrylic Inks on Watercolor Paper, 2009
"American Gothic meets Dia de los Muertos"
(see more work at elnellis.com)

Ghost Town Revival

My brother has two buddies that write short stories and songs that (in my imagination) are told and sung on the stage that Flannery O'Connor built called the "Christ-Haunted South." Really great stuff to poke through. Two of my favorites: The Preacher on Saturday Night and Weather Report.

Image Details: "The Church without Christ," Ink on Board by Phil Nellis. Inspired by O'Connor's Wise Blood.

mhgs write up

here's a write up about my art showing last week. yay. thanks mr blanco.

Bazan at MHGS

Bazan at MHGS

Interview and Q&A at Art Show

NEW WEBSITE IS LIVE!

well, we worked hard and finished it a day early- so why not launch? thanks to mr armstrong for the [amazing] design and web skills and mr longbreak for the [click!] photos!

presenting the all new: www.elnellis.com

art show!

[followed by an evening of music with david bazan! that part is sold out... but my part is free for all- so that means you can come too!] ps. sorry for the scary picture, it was not intended to frighten you or your children. NOTE: Corrected Time!

re-reading a psalm

"la escapadita" - phil nellis (2006)

i was a part of a great conversation last night around psalm 23. we read it 5 times and then did some reader-response. there was a range of responses- anything from "i find comfort in this text" to "this is bullshit" and everything in between. i mostly responded to the text out of a place of disconnect and disillusion regarding the imagery and promise being offered- it is a psalm so worn out that its' words have no traction in my heart, they only trigger memories of poorly crafted songs and lame sunday school imagery.

i have to find a way back into the text. what i have found helpful is to handle it almost as a creed, which to me feels a lot like fantasy. i read it and submit myself to it not because it is my experience but because i have to believe that it could be. certainly, there is something deep down that resonates in the memory of my soul, but it is primarily the imaginative task that can lead my fools' heart to hope. and that is the risk of course.

earlier this week i was internally preoccupied with "the valley of the shadow of death" and was at the same time being invited into imaginative play by my 4-year old son. there was a deep cynicism that resisted this, i even projected it upon him thinking, "play while you can, kid, someday life won't be so fun." but in the end, i let him pull me out of my "real world" into a world that proved to be more real in that our play changed my perception of the valley. we were lions, there was a parade with foxes and hedgehogs, we had a picnic in the jungle. i began to feel the comfort of a rod and a staff. i sensed a table prepared before me.

when the play was over, my soul had been restored and reality had been altered. fantasy had spilled back into my world of anxiety and despair, reorienting what i could say to be true in that moment. i had recited a creed that was not mine and i found myself in it. take my cynicism and give me the prophetic imagination that affirms as real that which could be, that which my heart longs for- give me eyes to see more than i see right now.

mhgs advert

a recent viewbook for mars hill graduate school featured my "la danse revisited" (2008)- a permanent installation in the lobby.

i want this life

somehow i stumbled across nicole's blog and foto stream this morning and found myself in a restful world. i have no context for this person and of course we all craft images of ourselves online, "controlled" perceptions if you will- but the lifestyle portrayed in the photographs evokes a sense of intentionality, nurture, creativity and care that i long for. at any rate, browsing them was sabbath experience and for a moment i thought i lived on wendell berry's farm.