Lisa Marten
Traveling Art Minister
I am a full time Artist, Live Painter, Performance Artist and Producer, Art Business Owner, and Licensed Arts Pastor who travels locally and globally connecting cross-culturally through creativity.
Creativity is like a conversation. There are conversations going on all the time. Conversations with the artist and the work, with the artist and God, with the artist and nature, with the artist and humankind, with the artist and self. Creativity allows me to come alongside others and enter into the conversations that are already happening. I love listening to conversations. If I'm invited into the conversations this brings about collaboration. Collaboration is an invitation to the sharing of ideas. It's able to get past the walls of cultural differences, age, race, gender, religion, politics, economic standing, education, distance, even time. It’s a huge part of building relationship. I believe humankind is a relational people. We need each other. I have found that no matter what culture we come from, art is a diverse language that can be a great way to enter the conversation human to human to build community. It transcends language barriers. Learning to communicate in this way to help foster growth and healing within individuals and groups is what motivates me in everything I do.
I partner with people who are already connecting in their communities in various ways to build relationships. I utilize art as a way of enhancing what they are already doing. I do this through coming alongside them through things like live painting, small group art activities, collaborative art projects, mural work, and conversations to engage with them more intimately. This kind of interaction and collaboration can often lead to moments of healing and reconciliation within individuals and communities. For example, I was asked by some friends to facilitate a collaborative art project with some youth at an orphanage in Lithuania that allowed for therapeutic conversation amongst the group about pain, loss, and identity.
I also approach my art making with this same kind of collaboration through mixed media. Intertwining the combination of styles influenced by abstract expressionism and photo realism, I use numerous layered techniques with mediums such as acrylic paint, latex house paints, chalk pastel, charcoal, graphite, ink pens, printed images on paper, and matte medium. My tools of speech can be brushes, knives, squeegees, rags, my hands and even my feet.
Whenever I enter new artistic opportunities, whether in planning a commissioned painting, entering a project with other artists, or interacting with other cultures, I approach my creative process in the same way allowing the mediums, the expressions, and the people to share in a story together in a more unified way. This collaboration is what inspires me. I believe we've been given creativity as a language to relate to each other with. When we connect into the conversation through creativity and allow for collaboration, we are helping to build community together and this fosters relationship. And the walls become invisible between us.
To learn more about the art I do through my art business revelatorART : www.revelatorart.wixsite.com/revelatorart
a little more detail about me...
I have a BA degree in Youth Ministry (Adolescent Pastoral Care) and a BA degree in Psychology from Northwest University in Kirkland, WA. I have a certificate of completion from Harvest Ministry College in Glasgow, Scotland (a church leadership/missions college). I have experience working as a licensed counselor, ministering within churches, ministering through mission work, ministering to creatives through art ministry (within churches and out in the marketplace).
My religious affiliation is Christian non-denominational. I am a deeply devoted follower of Jesus. My calling is to love God and love people (joining the creative conversation through creative art ministry within relationship with people, which can take me across the street and often takes me around the world). I enjoy ministering ecumenically and appreciate the widely diverse expressions of worship throughout the Body of Christ.
I have lived all over the US and overseas, and have 30 years experience attending and serving through ministry within the context of the local church (encompassing various Christian denominations). I have found that my diverse work, Church, and cross-cultural experiences have given me a better launching point to minister within different settings with all various kinds of people (allowing me to contextualize with compassion).
I have a diverse background within Christianity. My degrees are from an Assemblies of God University. I was baptized as an infant by the Lutheran Church and then as a youth I was baptized by the Foursquare Church. I am confirmed within the Methodist Church and also confirmed within the Episcopal Church (Anglican). I am certified and commissioned out of the Vineyard Church as an Arts Pastor. I am officially ordained as a Minister with American Marriage Ministries (a 501c3 certified non-profit church based in Seattle, WA). Being an ordained Minister with AMM allows me the opportunity to perform legal ceremonies throughout the US.
