Latest / Worldview Matters With David Fiorazo / Jake Weidmann: Combining God-Given Creativity & Spiritual Disciplines

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Jake Weidmann: Combining God-Given Creativity & Spiritual Disciplines · Worldview Matters With David Fiorazo

• 0:00
  One of the longest oldest romances is between the eye and the hand.
• 0:24
  There's a lot of young penmin coming up and that's what I hope to inspire. To get more people involved in this and to fall in love with writing by hand.
• 0:34
  Welcome to World View Matters, discussing controversial issues, discerning current events, defending biblical Christianity. No topic, off limits.
• 0:58
  And now here's your host, David Firazzo.
• 1:03
  Hey friends, exciting topic today and a little different than what we usually tackle on the podcast. We're going to talk about spiritual spirituality, creativity and how we can use our talents for God.
• 1:16
  And we're blessed to have Jake Weedman with us and he's got a brand new book out called Old Soul, New Creation.
• 1:24
  That title for some reason that drew me in right away, Old Soul, New Creation, experiencing God through a life of art and faith.
• 1:34
  Jake, I just want to bring you in right now because there's so much to talk about. Good to see you brother. Thanks for your time.
• 1:40
  Yeah, thank you so much for having me.
• 1:42
  Yeah, so let's start at the very beginning and then I'll tell you a little bit about my grandfather who was an artist and amazing. I can't draw stick people, but some people are just gifted and obviously it's obvious you are.
• 1:56
  And so over a decade as a master penman and you are one of only nine in the world, you're the youngest by over 30 years.
• 2:06
  So tell us about how what drew you to your trade and your craft being a master penman.
• 2:14
  Yeah, absolutely. I think falling into the world of calligraphy was a little bit like following through the proverbial rabbit's hole. It just happened somewhat by accident while I was in college.
• 2:28
  You know, I had developed this lifelong love for handwriting. You know, my mom had beautiful cursive penmanship and so I always wanted to like practice mind. So by the time I got to college, my handwriting looked rather ridiculous.
• 2:44
  I mean, it was just super ornamental and I even got many of my professors that would ask for my handwritten assignments at the end if they could keep them forever.
• 2:56
  So it was like, it was a really sweet thing and there was even one day in incognitive psychology class and there was this girl sitting next to me.
• 3:06
  And she said, she said, Jake, I've just gotten engaged to be married. I've been going through a whole slew of wedding calligraphers trying to find someone to create or wedding invitations.
• 3:17
  And nobody's handwriting compares to your class notes, which I've been looking at all semester. She said, is there any way that I can get you to actually design my wedding invitations.
• 3:30
  And I was like, you know what? I'm just working with a ballpoint pen here. I don't know any of the traditional methods.
• 3:36
  And so I said, I'll do some research and that evening I went back to my dorm room, opened up my computer and just started scouring the internet for old history and all these different historic forms of handwriting.
• 3:49
  And I stumbled upon this video of an old of an older master penman, John DeColibus, and he was writing in this like beautiful way using this dip style pen.
• 4:03
  And you know, he would write with like this faint hairline stroke that would swell into this great big shaded stroke as they call it and then write back down to a hairline all by the pressure of his pen.
• 4:17
  It was like watching a beautiful ballet on paper. And from that moment, I knew that I had to pursue this art.
• 4:26
  It was like, you know, finding the woman of your dreams and knowing that you would go to the ends of the earth just to make her yours.
• 4:35
  And so that's what calligraphy was like for me. And so I found this small association that was keeping the art of penmanship alive and the tradition of master penman.
• 4:47
  And so I pursued it with all that I had and got my certificate way back in 2011 and in order to become a master penman, you actually have to create your own certificate.
• 5:02
  And that's that's finally judged. And if it passes muster by the other sitting masters, then it's signed and presented back to you.
• 5:12
  Wow, this is fascinating to me. And I wanted to ask, by the way, my mom and my sisters, their penmanship was beautiful. And I would say perfect.
• 5:23
  And I mind doesn't measure up. No, I mean, I haven't seen a lot of really good, especially anymore. And this is off topic slightly.
• 5:31
  What are your thoughts on just how kids do not know how to write anymore because of the machines and the texts and everything else and the computer age.
• 5:41
  There's no cursive and no writing technique taught much anymore. What are your thoughts on that?
• 5:48
  Yeah, I think it's a really it's a really sad thing that has fallen by the wayside.
• 5:52
  I mean, the two pillars of what it meant to be literate was to read and to write.
• 5:58
  And there's there are plenty of kids today that are graduating from school kind of being pushed through the educational conveyor belt without that critical second pillar of being able to being able to write.
• 6:13
  And some of them can can barely read it. So I think out of the top 40 countries, it's no wonder that we're ranked at the very bottom at number 40th.
• 6:23
  And so right now you're actually seeing a major shift back about 10 years ago, I actually gave a TED talk on the importance of handwriting in the 21st century.
• 6:34
  And you know, at that time, 41 out of 50 states were not requiring cursive handwriting as a part of their curriculum.
• 6:41
  And in some states, they weren't teaching handwriting at all, such as in Indiana, it was basically like a send home packet with the parents.
• 6:49
  And so they they they would forego handwriting for typing class in on the keyboard or the iPad.
• 6:59
  But actually what I learned in that cognitive psychology class all those years ago is that handwriting is critically important to the development of the brain.
• 7:09
  That by writing, we actually gain a greater familiarity with the letter forms because we're drawing all of the different anatomy of the letters by hand.
• 7:20
  And that cements it into our memory and you don't have that same tactile differential when you're typing on a computer because all buttons are the same.
• 7:31
  And then they found, you know, there's more research showing that there is a solid connection of linking the letters one to the other as you do in cursive handwriting that actually helps children not only in the spelling process because it creates this visual relationship between the letters.
• 7:52
  But it also, you know, exposes, you know, different learning disabilities such as dyslexia or dysgraphia where they're flipping the letters.
• 8:01
  So a lot of these a lot of these like learning disabilities actually go undiagnosed because kids are just learning to type on the keyboard and not right by hand.
• 8:14
  Well, that makes a lot of sense. And by the way, you had me when you talked about literacy, the two basic things, reading and writing.
• 8:22
  So we're going to talk so much about, but I want to show some of your sketches and some of your creations to, by the way, and the old soul new creation features 10 of your creations along with in progress photographs and stories of the artistic and spiritual struggle behind each.
• 8:43
  So Jake, talk to us about that because that's for a very creative way.
• 8:48
  Not only you're a creative person, multi-talented, but you found a very fascinating way to put that into book form.
• 8:56
  Tell us about that and the 10 you selected for the book.
• 8:59
  Yeah, you know, writing this book has was turned out to be a much bigger blessing than I could have ever imagined.
• 9:07
  And it was something that really stretched me because while I wanted to write down so much of my own story and be able to talk about the way that God has worked through my life, I didn't want it to become just the Jake show.
• 9:26
  I didn't want it, I didn't want to be the hero of my own story.
• 9:31
  So just like Saint Augustine's confessions, you know, Saint Augustine wrote this beautiful autobiography about himself, but all the way through you gain this understanding that the ultimate hero of Saint Augustine's story is not Saint Augustine, but is God himself.
• 9:49
  And the same is true in my story. As I look back, I just see all of the amazing brushstrokes of God's faithfulness just throughout my life and how he has formed me using so much of my my gifting as an artist to speak to me in my first language of worship.
• 10:10
  Because it is, you know, in the studio that that is where I encounter God in the most powerful and most intimate ways.
• 10:18
  And so, you know, it was something that it was like I just had to write it down. I had to share it with people because I think a lot of times, especially in this modern day and age, we become so satisfied with just being consumers and not creators.
• 10:33
  And so what I hope to challenge people with in this book is to become true creators.
• 10:39
  Well, Jeff, let's show a couple of Jake's works and start with Be Thou My Vision. I was going through your website. I absolutely love that one. Explain this. I see the words to the song are the strings of, is that a harp and then a sword? Explain this, Jake.
• 10:56
  Yeah, absolutely. So this is one of my series of hymns that I've done. And, you know, I wanted to approach the hymns the same way that the ancient scribes approached writing the earliest manuscripts and the very word of God.
• 11:12
  You know, they dedicated their lives to telling the story of the gospel. And so as I looked back at all of these hymns, I find that they are just laden with such incredibly rich theology and beautiful imagery and amazing backstory as well.
• 11:30
  And so I wanted to actually compose those into art pieces, but using the same materials, I'm working on calfskin vellum and using precious materials like, like gold leaf and lapis lazuli and other precious paints and, and being able to compose the lettering into an actual picture.
• 11:53
  And Be Thou My Vision is one of the oldest hymns in existence that we still sing. And it was actually, it came from Ireland. It was written by a little, a little known man who was actually believed to have been converted to the faith by Saint Patrick.
• 12:11
  But his name was Dalin Forgail, and Dalin Forgail wrote this hymn towards the end of his life when he was actually going blind. And so it was just such an amazing, it carries so much more amazing weight when here this man who loved scripture so much had this deep abiding relationship with God, wrote this hymn Be Thou My Vision.
• 12:37
  And then it's adorned in all of like the beautiful elements of Ireland, you know, you have, you have a Celtic harp and you have an old Irish sword and a Celtic shield because in the hymn itself, it says, Be Thou My Shield, My Sword for the Fight.
• 12:54
  And so using those elements, and even the tune itself is set as a going to battle tune that they used to play. And so all of that comes together in a composition of an art piece that's, you know, I can share with others as an Ebenezer of God's faithfulness, not just only through My work, but through, you know, the communion of saints that goes all the way back to Dalin Forgail.
• 13:23
  Hundreds of years ago.
• 13:25
  Wow. Good stuff, brother. Oh, it is inspiring. I want to have Jeff bring up a couple of the images that are in the new book. Jeff, go ahead and bring up explain to us what this is.
• 13:41
  Of smoke and sea. This is this is a portrait, you know, for being a guy from Colorado, I just have such a deep love for this sea, which is kind of strange, but I wanted to create a piece that really spoke to the idea of, you know, of legacy and going through this life.
• 14:02
  And so what this piece really tells, though it's a, you know, very beautiful composition, there is a story which undergirds it, and it basically says to the viewer that the rough waters that pass beneath you today, become the wisdom that form who you are when you are older.
• 14:20
  And from that wisdom, you will see others on their way because the composition is cyclical and sort of ashes to ashes in that ecclesiastical sort of framework. And, and so it's a, it's a beautiful old romantic idea, all done in charcoal and pencil.
• 14:40
  Wow. Fantastic. Now, I'm not sure if this one is in the book, Jake, it is well. It's on your website. Is that in the book?
• 14:49
  I don't believe that one did make it into the book, which is a little bit surprising, because that was the first hymn that I wrote, but it is a very special one and has an incredible black, incredible backstory to it, because Horatio spaffered.
• 15:07
  He was basically like a modern day job, and he lost his four daughters in a horrible shipwreck at sea. And so I composed, it is well, as a seascape, where the letters of the hymn are actually written as the waves of the sea.
• 15:26
  And they grow as they get closer and closer towards you. And that particular script is called Spenserian script, which was originally inspired by flowing water.
• 15:39
  So now being able to put it back into that context, it absolutely works to sort of complete the composition of this seascape.
• 15:48
  Wow, I fascinating because I knew the story too. And just a heartbreak, he went through by losing his daughters at sea. And just the hymn is so inspirational. It is well with my soul.
• 16:02
  So we've got to take a brief pause. We're with Jake. Is it Weedman?
• 16:06
  Weedman, like I said, Jake Weidman and friends, it is W-E-I-D-M-A-N-N dot com Jake Weidman dot com. You can see all of his work and more videos as well there. We'll be right back on World View Matters.
• 16:37
  Get free activation now with promo code, David.
• 16:50
  Hey friends, thank you so much for sharing the podcast. I wanted to ask Jake before we look at some more of his images and art pieces.
• 17:05
  By the way, the first thing I thought of was Ephesians 2.10, how we are God's workmanship, God's masterpiece, created in his image. I mean, we are created by God to do good things that he prepared in advance for us to do.
• 17:19
  But I do want to ask you and hold the answer. If anyone else in your family is creative, artistic, talented, and then I wanted to show the audience something my grandfather did 100 years ago.
• 17:34
  This is from 1922. I wanted to show that to the audience. 1922, my grandfather did this. He was a believer. He would often have dreams about meeting Jesus and he finally met him in 1981.
• 17:48
  But this was 100 and this is 103 years old. And then Jeff, if you would just humor me and bring up a couple of the oil painting my grandfather did just just so proud of that legacy.
• 18:02
  Like I said, I can't even draw stick people. There's a winter scene and then there's another one with me when I was a little boy with the puppy and just use of color. I don't understand how anyone can do that.
• 18:15
  Anyway, and then the next one is called Moonlight. And that was I believe Lake Michigan just it's just phenomenal. So that was my grandfather, his daughter, which was my mom played violin and was in an orchestra played piano top piano lesson for years.
• 18:33
  Oh my gosh, my sister did some basic painting and sketching and then I ended up playing drums. So I had rhythm. But Jake, anyone else in your family and did anybody influence you?
• 18:46
  My siblings will tell you that I actually robbed the womb of all the talent that existed there. And so none of my siblings are artistic, but I will say my mom has like really beautiful handwriting as I mentioned before.
• 19:05
  And she used to do a little bit of like drawing and some some formal calligraphy back in the day. So if anybody has that that bent, it is definitely my mom.
• 19:18
  My dad, on the other hand, has handwriting that would make a chicken blush. It's just terrible. But but yeah, so it so growing up in that house, while there was a little bit, it was just very much, you know, kind of my own thing. And I used to just always explore explore on my own and stir my passions in various ways by looking certainly beyond my siblings.
• 19:46
  Amazing, really amazing. So before we jump into another couple of pieces from your book, old soul, new creation, tell us about your podcast with your wife Hannah.
• 19:58
  Yeah, that's actually been a brand new venture for us. And it's been really wonderful to just get to sit down with my wife. I mean, we so much of our relationship is just, you know, talking over coffee. And so that's very much what our podcast feels like.
• 20:15
  It's an opportunity to talk about the different things that that I create and the things that we create together. Hannah is intimately involved in the in the business and and actually back in 2018.
• 20:31
  She and I launched a collaborative jewelry brand where she basically she comes up with the design and she tells me exactly what to do. And I think she really likes that.
• 20:44
  And so she she has like just these unbelievable backstories to the to the pieces that we create. And it's an opportunity for her to write and speak to the hearts of women about God's love for them and how he wants to adorn his beloved.
• 21:04
  All these are available these links to the podcast and the jewelry and all these other things are available at Jake wide men.com wide men with two ends at the end.
• 21:16
  The podcast Academy, the book gallery and about Jake about your background. So let's bring up another piece that's in the book old soul new creation Jeff bring up that next one. Have a talk about it. There it is. That is beautiful. And that is just amazing.
• 21:34
  Well, thank you. Yeah, this is a this is a very special piece. It's obviously a portrait of Christ very similar to your grandfather's and but it's the I call it the suffering servants and a single stroke.
• 21:49
  Because it is one continuous line. It's actually a spiral which starts in the center of Christ knows and then it goes outward around itself 175 times contouring the face, getting thicker and thinner to create shadow and highlights. And then in the end evening back out to a perfect oval.
• 22:11
  That is amazing. Oh my goodness. So something like that. How long does it take from start to finish to do something like that.
• 22:23
  It takes it takes quite a while. I mean, I did that over the course. A lot of people ask the question like, you know, so how do you do that without lifting the pen. The fact is I had to lift my pen. I'm using a dip pen, which can only hold a very limited amount of ink, you know, per dip.
• 22:41
  And so it'd be a lot easier if I didn't have to lift my pen so much during the piece because you're having to carry this wet ink on the tip of the pen that's held together basically just by its surface tension, clinging to the nib and lay it down and write with wet ink in this spiraling fashion.
• 23:03
  And and I'll tell you like early on, I thought I had completely messed it up because it looked strange, you know, it's like it's like someone's nose and mouth starting to appear out of a vat of milk.
• 23:15
  And it looked really weird and distorted, but I figured, oh, well, maybe it'll just be like good practice. But in in the end, you know, it's like it all starts to take form.
• 23:27
  And while it's a lot to it's a lot to consider, it's sort of like trying to hum three songs at once with all that you have to keep in mind of moving in a circle, contouring the face and shadowing it as you go.
• 23:41
  There's just much to consider, even though it is one line.
• 23:46
  Talk to us about how as an artist, a believer in Christ, prayer and worship is a part of your creating these things.
• 23:56
  Yeah, absolutely. I, you know, and I believe that that is not, you know, it's not exclusive just to me being an artist. I think it's, it's very easy to see in my life as an artist, but we were all called to create.
• 24:11
  Being made in the image of God, bearing, bearing that image, we are creators as he is the ultimate creator.
• 24:21
  And so just in that sheer act of stepping into that God giving capacity, you know, that's where I, I get to, I get to learn so much about, about God, about myself and enter into a true state of worship for me.
• 24:39
  And what I consider my first language of worship, you know, being able to just capture the truth in beauty and lay it down in love.
• 24:50
  So what would you say to encourage someone? I probably don't have a lot of listeners under 10 or 12 or 16 watching or hearing this podcast, but adults, people that have maybe, you know, gone on to a career or maybe not.
• 25:06
  But that yet have artistic desires or some talent, what would you say to encourage maybe them to cultivate that or to maybe, you know, go on down that road a little bit to use those, those gifts that God maybe gave them.
• 25:21
  Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I would say, you know, find, find that way in which your creativity is really sparked. It may not be in painting a picture in my, it might be in the, in the sort of legacies you create with your family.
• 25:38
  It might be in the business that you build. I might be in the, in any various skill that you might put your hands to, you know, it's like God is going to meet you where you are at.
• 25:50
  And we see that time and again throughout scripture that he takes the mundane and he turns it into the miraculous.
• 25:57
  You know, he took David sling to slay a giant. He used Moses who had retreated into the desert to be a shepherd and he used his shepherd staff to lead his people into freedom.
• 26:12
  And so, so in that way, like you don't have to do anything great and grand and that is the story of my life, you know, I was, I never thought I would make it as an artist, though I loved creating art my whole life long.
• 26:28
  I just sort of brushed it aside, something that was sort of an auxiliary passion to what I would ultimately be called into for surely God could not use just an artist to do good things in his kingdom.
• 26:44
  But he does that, you know, it's not, it's not by my strength, but by his strength that he works through me. And so that's what I would encourage others is to find that place where God wants to enter in where you naturally meet God and lean into that place.
• 27:01
  It's not a matter of inviting him into that space. He's already there. It's just a matter of acknowledging that he's there and he wants to be with you in it.
• 27:11
  Good advice, brother. Thank you so much. This is just fascinating. It's just people can go to your website. It's Jake wideman.com W E I D M A N N dot com and friends, check out the book, old soul, new creation, experiencing God through a life of art and faith and beautiful cover, by the way, and that's just it's just awesome.
• 27:35
  Jake, so good to connect with your brother. Good success, continued good success in your career and personally. Thank you. Thank you so much, David. God bless you, friends. And as always, keep speaking the truth about things that matter.