Jeri Jones Sparks is a Tamil Indian-Australian poet and writer living on Wangal Country. She is the winner of the third annual Bright Wings Poetry Contest hosted in partnership with Ekstasis Magazine. She works as the Outreach Pastor at St James Anglican Church in the Inner West of Sydney. In this bonus episode, Jeri shares her winning poem, January Born. Join The Makers & Mystics Creative Collective Read Jeri’s Poem...
Jan 24, 2023
Ernest Shackleton was an Anglo-Irish, polar explorer born February 15th 1874 and died on January 5th, 1922. Although Shackleton is arguably neither artist nor mystic, the key events of his life carry both a beautiful tale of artistic level devotion and deep mystical encounter. In this artist profile, host Stephen Roach details a mystical encounter that transpired in Shackleton's life during his most horrific struggle to survive in the famous arctic shipwreck of the Endurance. Patrons of the podc...
Jan 11, 2023•21 min•Season 10Ep. 36
Asthmatic Kitty recording artist John Ringhofer is the man behind Half-Handed Cloud. His music is a quirky combination of tape manipulation, electronic and folk soundscapes. He has collaborated with artists Sufjan Stevens, Daniel Smith of The Danielson Family and John Van Deusen. In this bonus episode, Stephen Roach talks with John about the creative process of his latest album, Flutterama. Join The Makers & Mystics Creative Collective!...
Jan 04, 2023•15 min
When we think about restoration, we typically refer to restoring something that once was but no longer is. We mean bringing something back to its original condition that was either altered or strayed from the intended design. But restoration doesn’t necessarily mean going back to something that once was. We can ‘restore the future’ as well. In this season finale episode, Makers and Mystics host, Stephen Roach discusses what it means to restore the future, what it means for artists to become woun...
Dec 29, 2022•29 min•Season 10Ep. 15
Patronage has long been a vital part of enabling artists to create their work. I think of historical examples like Lorenzo de’ Medici who funded artists as Leonardo da Vinci, Sandro Botticelli and Michelangelo. I think of Peggy Guggenheim whose patronage gave us Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko. In this brief bonus episode, I share with you how you can help Makers & Mystics continue our work of fostering conversations on art, faith and culture. Support The Podcast Join The Creative Collective...
Dec 27, 2022•7 min
Arthur Aghajanian is a Christian contemplative, essayist, and educator. His work explores visual culture through a spiritual lens. His essays have appeared in a variety of publications, including Ekstasis, Radix, Saint Austin Review, The Curator, and many others. He holds an M.F.A. from Otis College of Art and Design. In this episode, I talk with Arthur about his spiritual background, the nature of non-dualistic thinking and the concept of art set free from the ego. If you’ve followed the podcas...
Dec 20, 2022•31 min•Season 10Ep. 14
Juanita Campbell Rasmus is a speaker, writer, spiritual director, and contemplative teacher. She is the co-pastor of St. John’s United Methodist Church in downtown Houston which she founded with her husband, Rudy in 1992. In this episode, Juanita shares with me how a major depressive episode became the catalyst for personal renewal. Following our season ten theme of restoration for the heart of the artist, Juanita’s story and her accompanying book Learning To Be: Finding Your Center After The Bo...
Dec 13, 2022•39 min•Season 10Ep. 13
This episode is Part 2 of the Re-Creation of Meaning Roundtable (The Fire Dragon Edition) featuring John Mark McMillan, Stephen Roach, Vesper Stamper and Brandon Willett. In this part of the discussion, we talk through: - self absorption vs. self awareness - the role of the audience in the artist's creative process. - meekness and confidence - Fire Dragons and Jackalopes - How the intimate reflects the infinite This Roundtable is the world's first podcast ever to discuss Taylor Swift, Radiohead,...
Dec 09, 2022•28 min•Season 10Ep. 12
What does Kendrick Lamar, Taylor Swift, Radiohead, Beck, Nick Cave, Miley Cyrus, Madonna, Lady Gaga, Andy Warhol and Mark Rothko have to do with singer/songwriter, John Mark McMillan , art-instigator, Stephen Roach , author/illustrator, Vesper Stamper & visual artist/designer, Brandon Willett ? You’ll find out in this Artist’s Round Table. My guests and I discuss the “Re-creation of Meaning” and what it is like for the artist as he/she gets older, experiences change and seeks to re-invent th...
Dec 06, 2022•Season 10Ep. 12
Josh Nadeau is a print maker, writer and clothing designer living in Western Canada. His Instagram account, Sword and Pencil, features a library of images and musings about goodness, truth and beauty. His work, both in word and in image, aims to offer solutions to disenchantment and acts as an antidote to Christian culture’s rampant mediocrity. In this episode, Stephen talks with Josh about the role of suffering in spiritual and creative development, the winding path to meaning and the need to c...
Nov 29, 2022•29 min•Season 10Ep. 11
Canadian-born Erika Lemay has become a beautifully disruptive icon in the world of live performance, using her body in ways that defy both gravity and human possibilities. Her journey has taken her from her first ballet class at the age of four to worldwide success and accolades. As the creator of Physical Poetry , Erika believes that ‘Poetry doesn’t have to be expressed with words’. Her TV performances have been seen by more than 400 million viewers worldwide, and her talent has been featured i...
Nov 22, 2022•43 min•Season 10Ep. 10
Bette Dickinson is a visual artist, writer, and speaker who invites audiences to connect with God through visual parables of the spiritual journey. Through creative communication, she helps her audience awaken to the beauty of God and His Kingdom and see more clearly the eternal realm in the heart and in the world. Through her work, Dickinson helps her audience connect the inner life of spiritual formation with the outer life of mission. Bette earned her Masters of Divinity with an emphasis in P...
Nov 19, 2022
YOUNG OCEANS is a neo-alternative worship project that evolved from a gathering of musicians, re-imagining hymns in a New York City apartment. Untethered from the expectations of a traditional congregational format, these artful re-renderings gave birth to a sound that is at once familiar and refreshingly innovative. The musical ethos of Young Oceans emerged as more a companion to reflective prayer and meditation than to a typical church experience. In this episode, Stephen Roach talks with Youn...
Nov 15, 2022•24 min•Season 10Ep. 9
The Welcome Wagon is a musical duo comprised of married couple, Vito and Monique Aiuto. heir musical style is steeped in sacred song traditions presented with minimalist Alt-Folk sensibilities. Their musical journey began with Asthmatic Kitty Records in 2008 with the debut album, Welcome To The Welcome Wagon produced by Sufjan Stevens. In this bonus, album drop episode, Vito and Monique share with me about the creative process behind the making of their latest release, Esther. * Patrons of the p...
Nov 12, 2022•24 min
Blaine hogan is a writer, film and creative director and actor. He is the former creative director for Willow Creek Community Church and is currently a full-time filmmaker living in Atlanta, Georgia. His recent memoir titled Exit The Cave: Embracing A Life of Courage, Creativity and Radical Imagination is a brutally honest recounting of his struggle with addiction and the unexpected gift of hitting rock bottom. In this episode, Blaine and I talk about his background as an actor, the relationship...
Nov 08, 2022•34 min•Season 10Ep. 8
Michael Hayes is the founder and director of Umoja Health, Wellness, and Justice Collective. He is a visionary agent of change who has found powerful ways to infuse the art of storytelling and the science of resilience into opportunities for healing and recovery. He is the author of the HOPE module (Healing Our Past/Personal Experiences,) a Certified Peer Support Specialist, a Wellness Recovery Action Plan facilitator and a Reconnect for Resilience Skills Educator. Michael is also the founder of...
Nov 01, 2022•33 min•Season 10Ep. 7
Malcolm Guite is an English poet, academic and priest in the Church of England. He is a fellow of Girton College in the University of Cambridge and has published widely in the field of theology and literature. His research interests include the intersection of religion and the arts and the examination of the works of J.R.R. Tolkein, C.S. Lewis and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. In this episode Malcolm and I discuss what I’ve termed as the poetics of restoration and how poetry and literature hold keys ...
Oct 25, 2022•38 min•Season 10Ep. 6
Rachel Marie Kang is a New York native, born and raised just outside New York City. She is an author, poet and founder of The Fallow House online creative community. Her writing has been featured in Christianity Today, Proverbs 31 Ministries, and (in)courage. A mixed woman of African American, Native American (Ramapough Lenape Nation), Irish, and Dutch descent, she is a graduate of Alliance College with a Bachelor of Arts in English with Creative Writing and a minor in Bible. In this episode, Ra...
Oct 19, 2022•40 min•Season 10Ep. 5
Strahan is a writer, award-winning folk musician and spiritual director from Aotearoa, New Zealand. He founded Commoners Communion in 2017 to explore what it means to become a deeply prayerful people in our times. Since then, he has written three prayer books offering poetic prayers, contemplations and reflections to help readers deepen their communion with God. Today, Strahan runs spiritual retreats, Online Prayer Schools and is currently working on his first non-fiction book titled, 'Beholding...
Oct 11, 2022•31 min•Season 10Ep. 4
Jess Ray is a singer-songwriter-and music producer from Raleigh, North Carolina. Her particular musical brand, has been affectionately dubbed “friendly folk,” and is an enchanting blend of indie pop vibes and lyric-driven sensibility. Jess’ decade-long musical journey has weaved in and out of Christian spaces, mainstream circles, from house concerts to historic venues like the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, TN and from solo shows to sharing the stage with her heroes. Her music, much like herself...
Oct 04, 2022•28 min•Season 10Ep. 3
Lore Ferguson Wilbert is a writer, thinker, learner, and author of the book, A Curious Faith . She writes for She Reads Truth, Christianity Today, and more, as well as her own site, Sayable.net . You can find her on Twitter and Instagram @lorewilbert. She lives in New York and has a husband named Nate, a puppy named Harper Nelle, and too many books to read in one lifetime. In this episode, I talk with Lore about the importance of asking the hard questions and the necessity of cultivating a curio...
Sep 27, 2022•33 min•Season 10Ep. 2
Cathy Loerzel is the Co-Founder of The Allender Center at The Seattle School of Theology and Psychology and co-author of Redeeming Heartache: How Past Suffering Reveals Your True Calling with Dan Allender. She has spent the last 15 years developing a popular new coaching and therapeutic approach called Story Work that moves people through their past stories of heartache to heal and discover healthier ways of being in the world. In this season opening episode, Stephen talks with Cathy about what ...
Sep 20, 2022•38 min•Season 10Ep. 1
This introduction to Season Ten of the Makers & Mystics Podcast offers a brief overview of themes we will discuss in our interviews, artist profiles and round-table discussions. The meta-narrative is “Restoring The Heart of The Artist.” Inside this are three distinct threads. Wounded Healers. In The Splice. Re-storying. Stay tuned and get ready to take the journey. It is time to leave the past behind and lean into the soon discovered!
Sep 13, 2022•3 min
Ryan Diaz is a poet and writer from Queens, NY. He holds a BA in History from St. Johns University and is currently completing a MA in Biblical Studies. His work has been featured in publications like Ekstasis , Premier Christianity , Dappled Things , and Busted Halo . In this bonus episode, Ryan and I talk about the relationship between poetry and prayer, cynicism and the sacramental imagination. Patrons of the podcast can enjoy additional conversation segments featuring four book recommendatio...
Aug 15, 2022•38 min
Portrait Artist, Hannah Rose Thomas has pioneered an incredible means of combining humanitarian work with paintings of refugee women she has encountered. Through her art, Hannah gives voice to the voiceless, lionizes the isolated and prescribes dignity to the persecuted and forcibly displaced. In this episode, Hannah and Stephen discuss her process of portrait painting and advocacy as well as the impact her paintings have upon Western viewers and the women who have undergone intense trauma. Visi...
Aug 09, 2022•34 min
In this season finale episode, Stephen Roach shares on how the past two years have impacted artists personally, socially and creatively. Drawing from his own journey of faith and art, Stephen tells how spiritual practice, community and imagination have played a significant role in re-integrating fragmented parts of himself into a deeper, lasting wholeness. Become A Patron Brightbell Creative: Meaningful Marketing For The Creative Artist...
Jul 28, 2022•34 min•Season 9Ep. 16
Laura Valentine is the Artistic Director and Choreographer for Numinous Flux Dance Company in Nashville, TN. The work she curates is sensory and riddled with humanity, telling stories thru the human form and searching for a shared inner movement between herself, those embodying the work, and those making sense of it. She has crafted and produced multiple full length productions over the past decade, exploring birth, loss and everything plot-worthy in between. A Numinous piece can take years to u...
Jul 18, 2022•28 min•Season 9Ep. 15
Pete Scazzero’ s book Emotionally Healthy Spirituality has had a tremendous influence on our modern understanding of how emotional health intersects with contemplative spirituality. In this episode, our friend Luke Humbrecht talks with Pete about how the artist can live a more healthy emotional and spiritual life. Help us continue to produce these conversations on art and faith! For as little as 10. a month you can be a part of encouraging artists of faith across the globe....
Jul 12, 2022•29 min•Season 9Ep. 14
Chris White is an award-winning filmmaker who has spent over a decade writing, directing, and producing a variety of feature length and short films. His most recent project is the music-centric, coming of age comedy Electric Jesus, which explores the world of a fictional 1980's Christian hair metal band called 316. The film follows the band's journey from playing Bible camp talent shows to larger rock venues and gives an amusing look at youth culture during the time when heavy metal music was ba...
Jul 07, 2022•31 min•Season 9Ep. 13
In this bonus episode, I speak with one of today’s favorite mental health advocates, Dani Parks . Dani is a public speaker, author, minister and mentor of young adult girls. In our conversation, she shares her story about her struggles with depression, suicide attempts, and the mental suffering she endured for over ten years due to the incorrect treatment of her bipolar disorder. Get Dani’s Journal...
Jul 02, 2022•25 min
