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QUESTION #1: ACQUAINT

There’s much more to food than palate and preference. How does a go-to meal at your favorite hometown restaurant reveal the true you behind the web bio?

There are so many amazing restaurants in Philadelphia, many of which I have yet to try, but right now my favorite local spot in our neighborhood is called Wm. Mulherin’s Sons. We sometimes walk there with out-of-town visitors after church.

It’s a classy but unpretentious Italian spot with incredible food, seasonal cocktails and an outdoor garden. The garden sits in the heart of Fishtown with a view of Frankford Avenue, which is the main street in our area that’s lined with restaurants, boutiques, venues and galleries. It’s booming with culture and makes me proud of my home.

The last time I went to Wm. Mulherin’s Sons was with my husband, Aaron; my parents; and my two nephews. It was a special time to spend with my nephews in particular because they live in Nashville, but at ages 9 and 11, are growing up so fast. Being able to show them what we love about our neighborhood and chat with them over delicious food is a memory we will always hold dear. To top it off, Aaron’s plate broke right down the middle for no apparent reason, and even though we laughed and marveled at this oddity, the manager brought us two incredible brunch-style desserts. A sweet memory for sure — in more than one way!

QUESTION #2: REVEAL

We’ve all got quirky proclivities and out-of-the-way interests. So what are yours? What so-called “nonspiritual” activities do you love and help you find spiritual renewal?

Someone once said to me, “When you move, God moves.” I don’t know how theologically sound that is, but I find it to be true in my life. When I travel to a new place, especially in nature, I hear God saying, “I’m here, too.” I think of the psalmist who says “If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me” (Psalm 139:9,10, ESV).

I rediscover the immensity, beauty and kindness of God when I experience an entirely new place. Whether I’m exploring Europe, Southeast Asia or South America, I know I can rely on these adventures to serve as inspiration in my work, which by extension, confirms God’s working in me through the gifts he’s given me.

Through a series of events while I was in South France, my phone died. It was very dead — to the extent that plugging it in did nothing. After a few hours, I concluded that it was permanently dead and I had to figure out how to navigate a foreign country by myself without my phone. In a moment, my fear turned to excitement, and I decided to go hiking. I grabbed a baguette and a bag of olives and went for a day hike through The Calanques National Park just outside of Marseille. That day was one of the days I felt closest to God because I was experiencing his creation and was much more in touch with my complete dependence on him.

As you may have guessed, my phone did eventually turn back on, but I still look back with gratitude on that trip, and especially that day, when I became a little more reliant on the true source of life.

QUESTION #3: CONFESS

Every superhero has a weakness. Every human, too. We’re just good at faking it. But who are we kidding? We’re broken and in this thing together. So what’s your kryptonite and how do you hide it?

It’s challenging to pick just one weakness, but if I could choose one to be rid of, it would be my tendency to fall into despair rather than choose hope and joy. I don’t want to minimize the difficulty of maintaining a dedicated studio practice, but I also don’t want to lose sight of the goodness of it, and despair has a way of blinding me from the sweet abundance of a creative life.

I think my temptation to despair is strongest when I’m focused on the success of my career rather than my intrinsically motivated creative practice.

When I’m pursuing my interests and natural God-given sensibilities, I am more grounded and walk more closely with my Maker.

Conversely, my frequent preoccupation with recognition and sales tosses me to and fro with the inevitable highs and lows of my career. When I’m not selected for a show, a residency or a public project (which happens a lot!), my natural response is to believe that I’m not good enough, that I don’t have what it takes to accomplish my goals, and that my condition is permanent. These self-deprecating and hopeless words are not from God, and believing them is not his will for my life.

QUESTION #4: FIRE UP

Tell us about your toil. How are you investing your professional time right now? What’s your obsession? And why should it be ours?

Without light, we can’t see matter. That may sound obvious, but did you ever think about how without matter, we can’t see light? Light and matter are inextricably intertwined, and I’m interested in this relationship. I think sometimes Christian culture tries to place a de-emphasis on material things, when in reality, God uses things like bread and wine to strengthen our faith.

In the words of C.S. Lewis, “[God] likes matter. He invented it.” God also says “I am light,” which is fascinating to me because even physicists have a bit of a hard time defining light. It’s a wave, it’s a particle, and it travels at — get this — the speed of light. Light is really mysterious, but it’s also imperative to our survival.

Glass has been a huge resource to me in exploring light as the content of my work. A lot of the other materials I work with — like steel, silver and resin — stem from that affinity for glass. While the space between painting and sculpture is less of a battleground than it has been historically, I’m excited by the process of finding nuanced ways to walk the line between image and object.

I was just at an opening for a group show I was in, and a fellow artist came up to me and paid me what I felt was one of the highest compliments. He said that once he took a closer look at my piece, he realized there was something highly technical at play that he didn’t understand, something affecting him that he couldn’t articulate. But he also said that he was content to be lost in the experience of the piece rather than try to figure it out intellectually. I was so flattered by his words and touched by the time he took to tell me this because he honestly defined one of my primary goals: I want to give my viewers permission to embrace mystery and paradox.

I think Christian culture can make us feel that we should have all the answers and have them immediately, but I don’t think that reflects the relational exchange God intends to have with us. I’m not at all putting down intellectualism or discouraging a hunger for learning. On the contrary, I think the more we learn, the more we become aware of the vastness of our universe and of God and how impossible it would be to cram it all inside our heads. There is freedom in realizing you’re not going to get it, but you can experience it, and that is a true gift.

QUESTION #5: BOOST

Cashiers, CEOs, contractors or customer service reps, we all need grace flowing into us and back out into the world. How does the Holy Spirit invigorate your work? And how do you know it’s God when it happens?

There are moments in the studio when I become less interested in controlling my materials and more interested in observing their behaviors — how they enhance, neutralize, conserve or destabilize one another through non-traditional application, caustic removal and vigorously developed layers of material and gesture.

I often sense a nudging (perhaps from God) to take a risk with my materials and techniques, to try something new, and to find in that newness that there is something better beyond my own imagination.

For example, I remember a painting I was working on, and I had become overly invested in the marks I was making. I knew I needed to paint a large, sweeping gesture over the existing wet marks for the sake of the overall composition, but I also knew that a large gesture would eradicate those initial marks I loved so much. When I finally made that broad and gutsy gesture, the paints began to mix and behave in a way that was much more beautiful than I could have envisioned. That large gesture was the final mark of the piece, and it reminded me to hold my own vision loosely. In that sense, I find this process lends itself to metaphors for something bigger God is teaching me in my life.

QUESTION #6: inspire

Scripture and tradition beckon us into the rich and varied actions that open our hearts to the presence of God. So spill it, which spiritual practice is workin’ best for you right now?

In the morning, I roll out of bed about an hour before my husband and come downstairs to make a cup of pour-over coffee. I leave most of the lights off except for a reading lamp that arches over our couch.

I spend this time praying, meditating, journaling and reading my Bible. I try to stay present, deciding which practice I should lead with each morning.

Sometimes I need the physical act of writing out my prayers to keep me focused, and sometimes the act of writing my prayers becomes too much of a task to check off my list, so I oscillate between that and meditative prayer.

While reading the Word, I usually choose a few verses to read over several times, and the Holy Spirit will often press certain words or phrases on my heart, centering and enlivening me for the day ahead and revealing what he is teaching me in this unique season of my life.

When my husband comes downstairs, we have some time in the Word and prayer together. Sometimes we go through a gospel, an epistle or a book in the Old Testament, reading chronologically a few verses or a chapter at a time. We discuss what we’ve read, and then pray together before we start our separate work days. This routine is not always kept perfectly, and I don’t think it’s particularly original, but it’s what has been the most beneficial to me in my walk with God.

QUESTION #7: FOCUS

Our email subscribers get free ebooks featuring our favorite resources — lots of things that have truly impacted our faith lives. But you know about some really great stuff, too. What are three resources that have impacted you?

Two authors whose writing and work I love are Makoto Fujimura and Madeleine L’Engle. This past summer, I read Fujimura’s book titled “Art and Faith,” which was beneficial to me in processing the importance of art in bringing the New Creation.

Fujimura’s Culture Care and L’Engle’s Walking on Water were also formative books for me in understanding my work in the context of faith and culture.

Lastly, a book that’s not related to the arts but has helped me reframe how I think about my work and life is “The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry” by John Mark Comer. Comer helped me to see how much I really crave a slower life as a way of having more depth and richness in my life.

QUESTION #8: dream

God is continually stirring new things in each of us. So give us the scoop! What’s beginning to stir in you but not yet fully awakened? What can we expect from you in the future?

Over the last year, something has been growing in me that I’ve only recently been able to articulate. I’ve been seeking out ways to build more of an artistic community and ways to slow down and meet a need for that community. I’ve been growing tired of the constantly changing demands of Instagram, and I’ve noticed that the views and likes may be going up, but the quality of the engagement has decreased significantly. I’ve realized that I’d much rather send an email to 200 interested readers than send out a flashy video to 10,000 viewers to harness their attention for maybe 10 seconds.

A few months ago, I wrote a small statement for an artist about her work, using language to connect her materials and techniques to the content of her work. The task was simple enough for me — and one I enjoyed. I didn’t realize until she read it how much it would mean to her.

She not only felt seen but now also had a small piece of writing she could use for her website, applications, shows and more. The process was rewarding.

I am planning a project in which I make regular studio visits with artists whose work I admire, slowing down with them, and taking the time required to understand the intricacies of their work. I think artists are some of the smartest and most interesting people on the planet, and so as a way of saying thank you for being given access to that knowledge, I want to write something about their work, publish it on my website and include it in my monthly update. I don’t know how long this project will last, or what it might turn into, but my focus right now is getting to know more artists authentically, meet a need for them and share their work with others who are also longing to slow down as a countercultural response to the fast and flashy spirit of our time.

Isn’t it interesting that God’s first words recorded in the Bible are: “Let there be light” (Genesis 1:3, ESV)?

Perhaps it’s no coincidence, then, that God uses light as a metaphor to teach us powerful truths about who he is throughout the rest of Scripture. For instance, Jesus told the religious leaders of his day: “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (John 8:12, ESV).

This truth adds a new layer of depth to how Laura uses light in her artwork. Her use of diverse materials — glass, steel, silver and resin — create new and beautiful perspectives.

It’s not too different from how God reveals his love and beauty in each of us. As children of the light (Ephesians 5:8), we were made to reflect his goodness — each of us in a unique way.

Laura Sallade is an artist living and working in Philadelphia. Her work investigates the relationship between light and material, creating partially reflective and luminous works through both analytical and intuitive processes, such as chemical reactions, math, optics, memory and play. Ranging from small and intimate to vast and architectural, Sallade’s work has been exhibited in New York City, Philadelphia and numerous other locations throughout the U.S. She’s also completed many public commissions for institutions such as The Ritz Carlton, Vail Resorts, Atlantic Aviation Airport and Temple University.

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