Reconnecting with former student and brilliant artist/illustrator @susannachap.bsky.social over some nopales at Mas Taco Por Favor in Nashville.

Can it be that 19 years have gone by‽ She came into our lives a few weeks before my graduate thesis show at MICA and continues to bring joy to those around her.

A piece I made while in residence in the Black Hills. My experience of Lakotan culture was a rich and profound influence while I was there. Layers of colored cast concrete with a Lakota evening prayer impressed into the top along with rows of oil clay impressions from hikes around the campus.

Within and without the old pump house my great grandfather built at their farm on Old Quaker in Lewisberry, PA.

Some other favorite parts of the piece. Seeing Peter Greenaway's work (with calligrapher Brody Neuenschwander) when I was in undergrad in the early 90s was certainly formative. #calligraphy #BrodyNeuenschwander #PeterGreenaway

Let the World Be Silent (a palimpsest) YouTube video by plainsinger

A reimagining of the 3rd century Greek hymn found on a papyrus fragment in Egypt. I wrote in early boustrophedon and layered my audio recordings like a palimpsest. The text is based on several translations with some alterations + additions to better fit the melody.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=CsPi...

In the Realm of Algorithms—a song co-written with ChatGPT (for Faculty Development Day, 2024) YouTube video by plainsinger

A song I co-wrote with ChatGPT to share during our faculty development day a couple years back, and then recorded in one take later that afternoon:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzqH...

Train Dreams | Filmmaker Diaries with Clint Bentley | Netflix YouTube video by Still Watching Netflix

I find myself still thinking about it weeks later. Clint Bentley, the director, has shared that Tarkovsky was a major inspiration, which makes a lot of sense: www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODeg...

Could we with ink the ocean fill,
And were the skies of parchment made;
Were every stalk on earth a quill,
And every man a scribe by trade;
To write the love of God above
Would drain the ocean dry;
Nor could the scroll contain the whole,
Though stretched from sky to sky.

Sharing some Doris Mae Akers from a few years back. #gospelmusic

Three skinny horizontal format designs from 2014, 2025 and 2015.

An installation I made in 2013 for the Lenten season at Lombard Mennonite Church. An olive trunk was raised up by a single, unbroken cotton string a mile long. Strips of recycled newspapers became the weft in an irregular loom. It grew and changed week to week. #installationart #weaving

Some Greek boustrophedonic lettering with a bit of overlaid piano and vocals. #wip #firsthymn #listen

Throwback 2023: “Lasciate ogni speranza, voi ch'entrate!” The prompt was Hell-vetica. I set Dante’s famous quote in Christian Schwartz’s (better than Helvetica) Neue Haas Grotesk, laser burned it in a block of wood and set it in the fire pit. #dante #helvetica #lasercutting #inferno #typography

I Welcome Back the Trees YouTube video by plainsinger

Last November, I took a jaunt at my grandparents' old farm. The setting sun was strong and golden and Wendell Berry's poem IX from "Leavings" came to mind. Later we got together with my old friend Bryce Alan Flurie and had a bit of a gospel grass hoedown. www.youtube.com/watch?v=mD2O...

Dear iPhone autocorrect: Someday I may want to type the word Sudan, but in the meantime, my wife's name is Susan.

A video I made five years ago for Lent. I played musical fragments on piano & accordion from: Sofia Gubaidulina's Sieben Worte, While I Keep Silence by David Wright and Jim Clemens, and the spiritual I Want Jesus to Walk with Me. The visual is sugar dropping onto a large sheet of black paper.

György Kurtag 100 years 19.02.26! Signs, games and messages. YouTube video by Knut Erik Sundquist

Happy 100th Birthday György Kurtag! Here are some wonderful miniatures for double bass released just today, played with extraordinary expression by Knut Erik Sundquist and pianist Nils Anders Mortensen: www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLl9...

Robert Duvall's independent passion project "The Apostle." So full of extraordinary scenes, dialog, characters... rich as a Flannery O'Connor short story. As good as film gets, in my humble opinion. Rest in peace, good and faithful artist.

Together, we are America (with the Puerto Rican flag more clearly referenced). A good reminder from Bad Bunny yesterday.

Together! Made with Big Shoulders, Chicago’s official typeface.

A good reminder, Mr Bunny.

a 1930s photo of a wheatfield with a teenage boy shocking wheat by hand with his father driving a team of horses in the background.

A nonagenarian Pennsylvania farmer hand resting on the John Deere combine he has used for decades to harvest his wheat, oats, corn and soybeans.

My grandfather Charlie Bonner shocking wheat with his Dad driving the team of horses (ca 1933), and on the right 80ish years later with the John Deere that did the same job. I think I still remember how to tie a shock with a handful of stalks hooked together, which he showed me when I was a kid.

Just discovered this great drone footage of my grandparents’ old farm in Lewisberry PA, shot by Adam Vogelsong. I painted all those buildings—standing seam roofs and all!—with my brother one summer.

Forgive Forgive: a walked drawing YouTube video by plainsinger

I walked a drawing on the frozen lake yesterday thinking about Shirley Erena Murray's hymn "Forgive, Forgive Us"

Forgive us that our souls are numb
to scenes of terror, screams of pain...
the hearts to ache for justice's sake
the will to stand where Jesus stood.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5Bt...

A wonderful poster by Luba Lukova. #immigrantswelcomehere

Norman Dello Joio and Miscanthus dimensions Gracillimus (maiden grass).

Sweet Hour of Prayer. Playing along with my grandfather on his mother's 1893 Weaver pump organ. #pumporgan #harmonica #parlororgan #hymn