Podcast - Catholic Creatives

Hello, creatives, and welcome back to the podcast! You all know Cory Heimann of Likeable Art, and today we’re discussing creative education with Cory and Likeable Art intern Mark Guiney, who just finished a three-year stint as a middle school teacher. Cory and Mark recently led a Catholic Creative Meetup event to discuss creative education and how to raise up the next generation of makers to communicate the beauty of the Faith to the world. One of the main takeaways from the event was the need for new creators to get real-world experience in work as well as the inspiration to undertake a creative life. Likeable Art has been embodying this belief with its intern program, which several Catholic Creatives have participated in. We wanted to find out from Mark what the program’s been like, what he’s been learning (and unlearning) about creative work, and about his first task at LIkeable art, which was the very serious job of renovating a dollhouse for a video shoot. Let’s jump right in and hear how Mark got the internship.

Hello, creatives, and welcome back to the podcast! So sorry for being out for a while, but we have been busy with this 8beats project. Which we will be talking a bit about today. We’re talking with Sam Sorich, director at Glass Darkly Films….the guy who came up with the whole project. I can’t wait for you to meet him. Ever since he and I met at seminary, his radical commitment to being different has inspired me, including his stint living in a van and his passion for a new wave of Catholic cinema. The subject today is the crucible of collaboration, and how to get through the insecurities of art making. If you’ve ever worked in a participatory art like film, theatre, or music, you know the challenge of bringing an idea to life at a high level of quality, within practical limitations, and alongside other people. This is something that Sam and I and the whole team 8beats team were experiencing intensely last month. It started with a big idea, and we invited the community to collaborate. We got excited, got into teams, those teams grew to about 130 people in total, and we got to work. We put this gigantic promise out into the world, released the IndieGoGo… and then we had to rewrite a bunch of our scripts, and our IndieGoGo plateaued, and we were hit with tons of fear. Can we really do this? Will the church actually support this sort of risk? Can we trust each other to stick out the challenges and creative conflict? This conversation is about that journey and what we learned from it: that through trust and commitment to each other, a new creative energy is discovered that brings about better art and creates deep relationships at the same time. Before we start, if you haven’t shared our IndieGoGo campaign for 8beats yet, please head over to the 8beats Facebook page and share our latest post. All the regional teams begin filming the stories this month, and we need your help and the help of the Catholic community to see the project through. Please collaborate with us by spreading the word, donating, and praying for the project. Create something awesome this week, and enjoy the podcast.

Hello, creatives, and welcome back to the podcast. Today we’re talking about modernism and the philosophical and theological questions posed by modern art. Joining us today is Jonathan Anderson, an artist, art critic, and associate professor of art at Biola University. We all know that modern art gets a bad rap in the Catholic world. When we compare a traditional icon to a contemporary abstract painting or traditional chant to some modern musical compositions, we find the stuff made less than about 500 years ago a little difficult to appreciate. But instead of calling for a wholesale return to tradition, we need to find a way to understand and access modern art and participate in the conversation it inspires. Jonathan is all about the theological implications and underpinnings of modern art. He recently co-authored the book Modern Art and the Life of a Culture: The Religious Impulses of Modernism. Our conversation today gets into some of the serious philosophical and theological implications of modernism, and Jonathan provides a great context for understanding contemporary art in the modernist movement. He tells us the best way to start our own personal quest to appreciate modern art. And perhaps most importantly, he gives a definition of art that we need to all think about and discuss. So strap yourselves in and get your thinking caps on. Before we get started, Catholic Creatives just launched it’s first major collaboration! Our team of over 100 Catholic artists and filmmakers have begun work on a groundbreaking film made by the millennial generation, for the millennial generation. The film is called 8beats, and it is an anthology film, exploring the collision of the Beatitudes into our human experience. We believe these challenging stories provoke a reexamination of happiness, suffering, and the meaning of life. We’re looking for people to join us in generating stories that matter through the power of film. Go check out the project on indiegogo, like us on facebook, twitter and instagram. Please share our Indiegogo link to help spread the word. By supporting this project, you will be putting a world-changing idea into motion. As always, create something awesome this week, and enjoy the podcast.

Hello, creatives, and welcome back to the podcast. This is our first ecumenical episode and it’s going to blow your mind. We’re talking with Mingo Palacios, Pastor of Evangelism & Culture at Saddleback Church, which was the church of Pastor Rick Warren, author of The Purpose-Driven Life. In our community, we’re constantly asking how we can creatively refresh and reframe the experience of the truth for people who haven’t encountered it in that raw, life-changing way. We see the beauty of tradition but don’t want tradition to be an arbitrary stumbling block for people who need to hear the Church’s message. I think Mingo shares some incredibly important ideas that we can use in our creative ministry to the Church and the culture. I encourage you to listen and brainstorm what we could learn from his example and what we can bring to our local churches and the Church as a whole. Mingo also tells us how Led Zepplin helped kick off his first youth pastor job, how his church started an incubator program for young entrepreneurs and creatives, and how he helped his church reach out to the unreachable with microsite services in parking lots and laundromats. Before we get started, if you haven’t signed up to participate in 8 Beats yet, the deadline is July 21st, which in real time is tomorrow. Over 80 filmmakers, designers, marketing professionals, and artists from across North America are creating 8 short films inspired by the themes of the eight Beatitudes. There’s still lots of opportunity for collaboration, and you definitely want to be a part of this, so sign up! As always, create something awesome this week, and enjoy the podcast.

Hello, creatives, and welcome the podcast, where we talk to leaders working out in the world about how they bring their professional skills and faith together to change the culture. If you’ve ever been to the official Vatican website, it might tempt you to despair of good design in the Vatican. However, there is top notch work being done out there, and today we are talking to someone who is making it happen. When Matthew Sanders looked at the design coming out of the Vatican and didn’t just critique or groan, he said, I think I can help. So he moved across the world to do something about the church’s communication problem. Matthew Sanders has served in the military, worked at an archdiocese, and now is the founder and managing director of Longbeard, a digital design agency based in Rome and Toronto. Today, we’re talking to Matt Sanders of Longbeard about what kind of approach we need to take as professional lay people to help the Church’s message spread in the world and on the digital continent. We also talk about why there should be more homilies about Captain America. I’ve personally worked with Matt and the Longbeard team in the past and can testify to his humble leadership. He puts his words into action, so take heed! Before we get started, we just went live with our first group wide collaboration. It is called 8 Beats. Over 80 filmmakers, designers, marketing professionals, and artists from across North America have been divided into eight regional teams. Each team will produce and distribute a 5-12 minute short film inspired by the themes of the eight Beatitudes, done at the highest quality possible and distributed with all the power of modern marketing strategy. Why? We want to build community. This movement isn’t a Facebook page- it's like minded people creating deep and lasting relationships with each other. We want to see lifelong friends, professional teams, or partnerships created here - and who knows, even marriages. We wouldn’t be Catholic if we didn’t want to help people find their vocations amiright? So this collaboration is an important next step for us in developing real relationships, going beyond a Facebook group. You can find out more at www.8beatsmovie.com As always, create something awesome this week, and enjoy the podcast.

Hello, creatives! We’re here to talk about something awesome that happened this week and the people who made it happen. We’re talking about the launch of Anthem, rebrand of the youth and young adult office of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. Joining us are Megan Mastrioanni and Jacob King, who are leading the charge up there in the diocesan office. While you’re listening, unless you’re in the car or something, go visit anthemphilly.com, which was designed by our friends at Glass Canvas. You need the full experience, because this is like no diocesan office you’ve seen before. There’s literally a grunge-style GIF of Our Lady of Guadalupe. It’s amazing. This launch is so important not just for Philly but for the mission of the New Renaissance. The need that the Church has for this kind of branding, strategy, and vision is exactly what we talked about at the Summit. But as you’ll hear from Megan and Jacob, this isn’t just about graphic design or videography or branding. All those things are built on a basis of vulnerability and authenticity. It’s an expression who Megan and Jacob and the rest of the team in Philly are, and how they approach living an authentic Catholic life in the modern world. Community in faith and collaboration in mission is what makes this happen. That’ exactly why Catholic Creatives exists and why we’re excited to have these two as our guests today. In this podcast, we talk about the process of the rebrand, the risks they’re taking in pushing the envelope, and how vulnerability and community have made all of this possible. So listen to their story, and then visit the website, like their Facebook page, and say a prayer for them. They’re doing something incredible for the Church and they need all the support we can give them. As always, create something awesome this week, and enjoy the podcast.

Hello, creatives! This week, you’ve got a question to answer, one that you probably don’t ask yourself enough, something that is challenging and maybe even daunting to all of us. And that question is: just how big is your dream? Our guest and the person who inspires this question is Ashley Crouch, founder of Appleseed Communications. Ashley was homeschooled in Arkansas, studied theology at the University of Dallas, was a founding team member of Verily magazine, and now runs a PR firm that brings the power of media to the stories of women entrepreneurs around the world. As you can hear from that quick description, Ashley has had some interesting changes in her life. Going from raising chickens in Arkansas to founding a PR firm is a pretty dramatic shift. I don’t know about you, but I can definitely relate to not always knowing where my life is headed and sometimes wondering what God is working for me. As entrepreneurs, even as members of Catholic Creatives, we can’t know exactly how things are going to work out, but as people of faith, we need to have a huge vision for the future. We have to believe that the businesses we’re starting, the projects we’re creating, and the work we’re doing is going to change the world, and that God will bless that work and make it fruitful. In this podcast, Ashley talks about why business can be the greatest catalyst for cultural change, how dreaming big guides her work each day, why celebration and having a tribe is essential for entrepreneurs to avoid burnout, and why Catholic Creatives need to be multilingual when it comes to talking about beauty. Before we get started, a huge thank you to all of our patrons on Patreon. You’re the ones who are pushing us to the next level with the resources to grow and become sustainable. If you haven’t signed up yet, go over and think about becoming a patron yourself. And while you’re listening, think and pray about that question: how big is your dream? Because it’s probably not big enough. The world is more open than ever to entrepreneurs and creatives. Let’s not put a limit on what God can do through our lives. Create something awesome this week and enjoy the podcast.

Hello, creatives! We are back with a little bit of a twist on the podcast: this week, I am being interviewed by Therese Bussen with the Archdiocese of Denver. Therese was one of the first members of Catholic Creatives. We got to know her through her work on the FOCUS blog, where she wrote some of the most forward thinking and honest articles in the Catholic world, with titles such as, Jesus Doesn’t Alway Fill Your Emptiness, and Why That’s Ok, so it was an honor to be talking with her today. One of the major questions we get asked as a group is why beauty and creativity is so important for the Church. With all the big problems we’re facing as Catholics, it seems like worrying about websites or branding and liturgical music should be the least of our problems. But we believe that the greatest force of evangelization and social change in our world is beauty. It isn’t about making things pretty -- it’s about creating an authentic experience of truth that has the power to change someone’s life. Today, we're discussing why Catholic Creatives exists, why beauty is essential for the growth of the Church, how to create an experience of truth rather than just preach to people, and what we as creatives can do to take our calling of creativity more seriously. For those of you who have joined the group recently or haven't heard the full story of how we got started, this conversation is a crash course. A quick reminder: one of the most important aspects of our group is community, getting to lend each other support and insight for our creative endeavors. If you’re a new member or just haven’t seen it yet, you should check out our Patreon page. Patrons get access to monthly online meeting and discussions with fellow creatives and guest speakers, as well as first dibs on tickets for the next Summit which, if you talked to anyone who went to the first one, you won’t want to miss. So go sign up on Patreon! I hope you all have an incredibly productive week, and that this discussion helps get you thinking about how to fulfill your personal vocation to creativity in a more complete and authentic way. Enjoy.

This podcast is a very vulnerable conversation between myself and Benji Vega, Art Director at Pyro, a branding agency whose clients are some of the largest brands in the world (Lucas Arts being one). He has consistently produced award winning work, and specializes in directing teams of creatives, enabling them to operate on the highest level of excellence. In this conversation we talk about his conversion to Christianity- how the Holy Spirit has impacted his career, and about how he saved a million dollar production by riding on a cop’s segway. Quick Announcement: We believe that Catholic Creatives as a movement is called to be the connecting point for creatives and the people who need them. Ie. we want to pair you with the JOBS, Gigs, and collaborations that will help you achieve your dreams. We are currently getting about 4 post requests in the FB group PER DAY for freelance gigs and full time jobs. But we can’t all be wading through 5 job posts that may or may not be relevant to us in order to find the cool conversations, so we haven’t been pushing them out to the broader group. So for for us to help connect you (dear creatives) to potential work opportunities, we need to build and maintain a new site for you that is capable of this. For this, we need funds and manpower. So if you would like more jobs gigs and access to collaborations, support us through patreon. OR… you can volunteer your time with us to help build it. Since I have the mic, I am totally going to make my own job/ collaboration pitch, and no one can stop me. Catholic Creatives is forming a team of developers and designers to do a kick ass website redesign. If you are interested in being a part of that team and working with some incredibly talented developers / designers get connected with us at hello@catholiccreatives.org.

This conversation was between myself and one of the most eminent scholars in the early church fathers- a man who also happens to be my father: Dr. Marcellino D’Ambrosio “The Greyer” as we call him. He was the valedictorian of Catholic University of America, he holds a PHD in Theology, is currently is professor at Catholic Distance University and is a renowned speaker. He runs Crossroads Initiative, which started out doing youth and young adult ministry as a rock band in the 80’s, and that is transmuted into an organization dedicated to helping the world rediscover the adventure of the Christian faith. We asked him to come onto the podcast because, one of the major conversations happening in the group and in the Church at large is centered around the question: How should we deal with secular, pagan culture? Implicit in this question is another- There is this tension between tradition and creativity- how do we value the treasures of the church that we know and love, while at the same time valuing and adapting to modern secular culture for the sake of innovation? This tension is especially present when we grapple with conversations about liturgy. For those of us that are grappling with questions of how how do we integrate cultural art with our Catholic heritage, I wanted to bring Dr. Italy onto the cast so that we could talk about how the early church approached these questions. The conversation was deeply enlightening. Crossroads Initiative Christians, The Soul of the World - Letter from Diagnetus News: As a community of creators of artists of freethinkers, we are seeing our movement grow in the church. Unity between artists and people within this grassroots coalition is happening: collaborations between members have sky rocketed in the last year. But for all of this to move to the next level, and for us to really see the New Renaissance realized, we need to connect with the Medicis of our age- the successful business owners, executives, and financiers who can invest in the ideas and projects. Finally, big news- as you know, we have pledged to pick a single project that we believe could make massive impact in culture and that could facilitate collaboration across all types of creatives within the group. So the news is that we have found that project and been working behind the scenes to get it ready for your involvement. SO. We have a huge collaboration stewing right now. We will have news for you on that in the coming weeks. But consider this the teaser. If you want an opportunity to work with amazing people, to grow in community and in your skill sets… its coming.

Marcellino interviews, Steven Lawson, the Director of Communications for Dynamic Catholic, a fast growing nonprofit that develops innovative learning-systems to inspire people to rediscover the genius of Catholicism. While working towards his childhood dream to become an animation director in New York City, Steve had a profound conversion experience that lead him into his current work. This conversation is at once startlingly frank and incredibly hope filled, as they speak about creating a better wold, about management, and about how healthy conflict creates healthy culture in organizations.  What would happen if the Church was hopeful and creative and inspired? Steve's advice: Awareness of self will make you a more effective leader and manager. Take ownership over your problems. It is very freeing to achieve self-mastery over one's subconscious reactions and communication.  Everything we do has to align with hope. Creativity is a hopeful experience. "Catholicism is inherently creative and life-giving"

One of our guests may be familiar to you-- Dan Johnson from 4pm Media, winner of the Collaboration of the Year Award 2017.  But the other two interviewees are perhaps less known in this group- yet they have had a powerful influence in the Catholic world, albeit from behind the scenes. Jack and Jamie McAleer, major players in the growth of the Krispy Kreme dynasty, are the Financeers behind 4pm media.  They are board members of Legatus and Life Teen, and they started 4pm Media with their son inlaw in order to set a new standard for art and media in the church.  

Kate Hazen is one of the most excellent creative directors that I have ever met, and she has so much to offer our group in terms of pushing us to think bigger and with less constriction. In this convo we talk about the time she designed a LARPing game for her company’s conference. We also talk about how she became cool with being weird, about tattoos, and about the CC Summit.

In this interview, Marcellino talks to Patrick Langrell (Adjunct lecturer in Philosophy & Senior Digital Media Analyst for the Arch Diocese of LA). They talk about the importance of Analytic thinking and of digital marketing for reaching more people with better messages. They get into the ways that Patrick has used this to grow a pro life clinic and target abortion minded women. They also talk about their personal difficulties with technology and their desire to bypass it in search of authentic personal communication. Patrick is a Renaissance man with an international reputation for successful engagement in communications, events, and digital & social media. He also is a sought after public speaker, a researcher and consultant in policy and ethics. He contributes to high-level diocesan and public policy…. and to the development of the Catholic intellectual tradition and evangelisation initiatives. His work with Matt Meeks and the others from the Archdiocese of LA is really exciting, and we are looking forward to hearing about that at the Summit, where he will be giving a workshop specifically about digital marketing.   But he is not the only one who we will be present from the Archdiocese of LA. The Diocese of LA has become one of our major sponsors- coming on as a Patron of the Arts. They will be sponsoring the first session of the summit, "The New Renaissance."  As you probably already know, LA has a reputation for being one of the epicenters of innovation for communications in the church. They have (by normal diocesan standards) a huge team with what I believe is around over 15 employees totally dedicated to helping churches and Diocesan branches market themselves better. We are excited to partner with them to make the new Renaissance happen. Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/plangrell Linked In:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/patrick-langrell-51539225/ 

This podcast features an interview with Director Julio Quintana. Julio just released his first feature film- which is always a big deal, he also raise 1 million to do it, got Martin Sheen to act and had the master Terrence Malik as executive producer. Their influence in the film is visible, giving it a spiritual, cinematic gravitas that is really undeniable. (Here is the trailer) So in this not only do we we talk about the film, we get into all sorts of other good stuff like beauty and perseverance and the hard work of making it as an artist. The struggle with making money making good art. Btw, the the vessel came out in digital release yesterday, so if you haven't got a chance to watch it yet highly recommend doing so. the links are in the show notes. Blue Ray Itunes Hulu A quick announcement before we get into that, as many of you know the Catholic Creatives Summit is developing and moving very quickly in terms of being materialized and we're excited to announce a new sponsor that just jumped on board. Word on Fire just decided to become a sponsor. We are so grateful to them for their support for good media in art they've always been a leader in that in the church so I'm we're just excited to have them as a partner.