Welcome to the 2009 Grünewald Guild /LSTC Weblog!

2009 LSTC J-Term: Art and the Gospels at Grünewald Guild

We are Janai and Brian, first-year students in the Masters of Divinity program at Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, and we thank you for checking out this web log in which we recount our journey and experience here at the Guild, up in the Cascade Mountains of Washington state.

I’m Brian, and I’m a second-career student following early retirement from a 29-year career in the corporate world of research and development and manufacturing/product support. I never took art courses through all my schooling years, yet have always had an interest and have done some drawing and painting over the years when the time was available and the inspiration hit. My journey to the Guild (and to LSTC and ministry) began about six years ago when my wife handed me a pamphlet for the Guild and told me that I should go to this place where faith and art come together. I resolved to do just that, but had not found an opportunity until I saw the J-term course offering in the LSTC catalog. So … here I am!

I hope to use this site to share information about the Guild, what I’m doing while I’m here, and what I’m learning (or not) on this journey to the snowy northwest (which is slowly melting away right now, in case you haven’t heard).

I'm Janai, and I graduated from the University of Nebraska at Kearney with a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree and German. I am also a published author of In His Presence: Intimate Moments Between a Woman and Her Lord and will soon have anothor book coming out in the Spring. Coming to the Grunewald Guild has been an awesome affirming experience and will impact my life for many years to come. We have great art professors that each share their abilities with us in a unique way. My mission here at the Guild to sharpen what I have, gain a solid confidence in what I already know, and be open to what I do not know about. I also do have a theme that I wish to create while at the Guild. Its' focus is on the four gospel symbols that have been icons throughout church history, and my attempt to translate, through typography, how those symbols would look today. I am just thrilled to be here especially with Brian so that we can support one another in keeping our gifts in art alive while undergoing seminary studies.