Each of Spark and Echo Arts’ curators, artists and staff will be creating new works for 2012 based on these themes which run throughout Biblical text. Watch for the new work!

Friends of Spark and Echo Arts, Kenyon Adams & American Restless will be performing their new songs on Friday March 23rd, 8pm at Rockwood Music Hall.

I really liked the idea of contending with God for His name’s sake – as if to say, “I know I am not worth helping, but You have to help me because of who You are.” So the song is sort of exploring that and this idea of being completely out numbered and surrounded in a Psalm 91 sort of way, with nowhere to turn but to the Lord.
-Noah Lekas

Listen to Shame

This song is copyrighted by the artists and is featured here by their permission.
Buy the EP after March 23, 2012 here.

Click here to listen to the original demo Don’t Let Me Be Put To Shame (solo version)

Spread the word, and consider Donating to help keep Spark and Echo Arts going.

Spark & Echo Midwest Tour
Book a show for the Midwest Tour Today
April/May 2012

Following a successful West Coast Tour and the release of their debut album, Spark & Echo the band will be touring the Midwest April 18-May 7. Hear duo Jonathon Roberts and Emily Clare Zempel play original art songs and piano rock featuring beautiful vocal harmonies, baritone ukulele, clarinet, and Emily’s trusty steed, Boris the Bassoon. Interested in booking a show? Email info [at] sparkandecho.org.

Check out their YouTube channel www.youtube.com/sparkandecho and website www.SparkandEchoBand.com where they’ll be posting updates.

Clips from their new album

Clip from the West Coast Tour

Sponsor a Performance
One of our ongoing goals is to bring live concerts and similar events to venues that normally wouldn’t be able to afford it. If you would like to support this effort please consider a Donation. Your generosity will subsidize an exciting performance for a new audience that will greatly appreciate your gift. We will let you know what event you helped facilitate. Thank you for supporting our community of artists and audiences!

I felt called to respond to this theme because I have been experiencing a period of beginnings in my life. Most tangibly, my husband Jonathon and I moved to a new apartment in the Bronx. We packed our things, said goodbye to the East Village: to restaurants on every corner, to a shower in our kitchen, and to the three tiny rooms that comprised the first home we shared together. We said hello to an unknown neighborhood in the Bronx, space, empty streets, room to breathe, and new possibilities.

With the energy of a fresh start, I made my “New Years Resolutions” in February, a little later than usual. As my body began to unwind from that compact 300 square feet to a spacious 1,000, my mind began to clear, and I began to fill the time and space now given to me by searching for the next step in my professional and creative life.

For me, this has involved a lot of theological exploration, discussion, and journalling in my new found subway time. I have also begun to develop new areas of my life, areas that I have always wanted to explore, but that have been put on the back burner due to restraints in time, space, and finances.

Physically, I began training for a marathon. I have enjoyed running for several years now, but I am amazed at how the structure of a training program is allowing me to thrive. Combined with my proximity to Central Park, I am ready to be amazed by what the human body can do, and how we can challenge ourselves to use it more fully.

Artistically, I am hoping to expand my interests into visual art (mostly drawing and painting) and dance. I know that growing in these areas will feed my artistic spirit and deepen the work I do in both music and theater.

Last weekend I was told that there are two deep sources of pain that we as humans habitually cultivate; impatience with other people and everyday worry. Realizing that these two instinctual reactions are a choice that I make has been a powerful factor in this new chapter of my life. Highlighted in this realization is the fact that when I try to control my life, these two monsters are constantly looking over my shoulder. When, in some rare moments, I am able to trust and let go, those monsters lose their hold on me as well.

Rivers in the Desert is in response to Isaiah 43:18-19, “Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and river in the desert.”

The above pieces are an exploration of my visual sense of newness, creation and beginning. Compiled are photographic elements from a few series of photographs: a perfect witch hazel plant in full bloom, our new apartment stacked full of boxes, and New Years Resolutions scrawled on sticky notes. This series of four photographs explores the struggle between God and myself to create new beginnings. I cloud His purpose with my will, my busyness, and my frantic pace, trying to create my future and force it into submission. Meanwhile, God presents me with this “new thing”, which I am only able to see if I let go of my cluttered mind. I found it fitting to explore these themes in a very unfamiliar medium, forcing me to relinquish my control and my ego, and to begin expanding my vision.

-Emily Clare Zempel

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Listen Deep Calls to Deep

Read Psalm 42, the inspiration for the lyrics.

Deep Calls to Deep
As the deer pants for water,
so my soul thirsts for you
My tears are my food day and night, while all I hear is “Where, Where is your God?”

These things I remember as I pour out my soul:
How I used to lead the multitudes
in the house of God,
O, with shouts of joy, what a festive throng

Why are you down, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me?

My soul is down, but I remember the heights and the rivers where
Deep calls to deep and all your waves sweep over me
By day its love, and at night a song

I say to God my Rock, “Why have you forgotten me?
Why must I go on mourning, oppressed by the enemy?
O, my bones in agony and all I hear is, ‘Where is your God?’”

Why are you down, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me?

I will praise, my Savior and my God
I will yet praise, my Savior and my God
With hope for my soul
I will praise, my Savior and my God

Composed by Jonathon Roberts
Performed by Spark & Echo

*Tributes are a great way to participate in our project of illuminating the whole Bible AND honor someone special in your life. To learn more and commission your own tribute click here.

Here is a composition by Jonathon Roberts for saxophone quartet and voice setting part of Apostle Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians. Depending on what he thought people needed to hear, Paul used many different ways to speak to the people he served: love, discipline, humor, anger… We see in this passage a tender, regretful and sad side of Paul as he alerts the Corinthians of his change of plans.

Reading 2 Corinthians 1-2 gives more background on Paul’s difficult decision and the complexities surrounding it.

Listen Response

Saxophone Quartet: Chris Clouthier, Allison Davis, Mark Determan, Kim Reece
Voice: Jonathon Roberts

This piece was written for vocalist Charlie Christenson
Click Here for a live excerpt from the premiere performance with Charlie in 2004.

2 Corinthians 2:1-4
So I made up my mind that I would not make another painful visit to you. For if I grieve you, who is left to make me glad but you whom I have grieved? I wrote as I did, so that when I came I would not be distressed by those who should have made me rejoice. I had confidence in all of you, that you would all share my joy. For I wrote you out of great distress and anguish of heart and with many tears, not to grieve you but to let you know the depth of my love for you.

Click to see the SCORE for Response

If you would like permission to perform this work or are interested in the full score or saxophone parts please Contact Us.

Image: Evgeni Dinev / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

We were excited to work with the arts group EMP in their new space in downtown Baltimore. We encourage friends of Spark and Echo Arts in the Baltimore/DC area to supporte this exciting arts collective that is part of an exciting artistic revitalization in Baltimore.

Visit E.M.P. Collective at 306 W Redwood Street, Baltimore, or on the web at empcollective.org

Esther, a behavioral psychologist who thrives on keeping her life in order, is faced with a situation beyond her control when her mother falls into a coma. In a desperate attempt to wake her mother up, Esther forces herself to read the ancient story of Queen Esther aloud to her mother–a story Esther hates and has avoided for years, but one that her mother loves. As she revisits the story of her namesake and begins to lose control, she finds herself face to face with the woman who was challenged by the same question she now faces–can she let go and trust?

Check out this clip of Jonathon and Emily talking about the show. “A Girl Called Esther” will be further developed in NYC in 2012 with future performances to follow.

Produced by Spark and Echo Arts
Written by Chris Cragin
Original Concept by Jonathon Roberts and Emily Clare Zempel
Directed by Emily Ernst
Music by Jonathon Roberts
Movement by Deborah Wolfson
Set and Lighting Design by Rachelle Beckerman

Featuring Emily Clare Zempel and Jonathon Roberts

This production is made possible through a grant from the Harbor Christian Foundation.

Annie then created a portrait of Jason through her lens.

When thinking about making Jason’s portrait, Annie connects her experience to a passage in Deuteronomy (30:19-20): “This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the LORD your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the LORD is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob”. She says,

“I have read this passage of Scripture so many times that I had almost missed the irony that when actually told that there is a CHOICE of life and death, God has to exhort: choose LIFE. In some strange way I almost imagine Him standing behind me, the chooser, not raising His voice but rather in that same whisper that Elijah heard, saying moment by moment, choose life… so that you and your children may LIVE.”

For more about Jason DaSilva visit www.wheniwalk.com

Annie Levy is a photographer/artist who conceives, creates and exhibits projects that tell stories to transform the way we see things. Her work has been exhibited, among other places at the United Nations, commissioned by The Frick for their art of observation program and has been awarded the NY Post Liberty Medal for Leadership for work with young people at the Bronx’s Montefiore Children’s Hospital. She has recently been expanding the work of putting cameras in the hands of different groups of NYC’s young people. For more about Annie Levy see www.annielevy.com

This work is copyright by Annie Levy and appears here by permission. If you are interested in this work please contact Annie Levy directly or contact us for assistance.

“The next day as they were leaving Bethany, Jesus was hungry. Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to find out if it had any fruit. When he reached it, he found nothing but leaves, because it was not the season for figs. Then he said to the tree, ‘May no one ever eat fruit from you again.’ And his disciples heard him say it.” Mark 11:12-14

Cameron notes about his song:

“Fig Tree” is about being unable to reconcile things in the Bible with the character of God. Normally, I use Jesus as my primary reference to discern the nature of God, but Mark 11:12-14 is an example of a passage where Jesus said something I didn’t know what to do with, and still don’t.

Listen to Fig Tree

Jon Roberts, who designed the cover for Cameron’s album, has created an artwork specifically responding to this song and we’re so pleased to share it along with Cameron’s piece. It is inspired by John 15:5: “I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.”

Jon explains:

God does some offensive things sometimes. Take these delicious figs, for example. The only way they can be pollinated is by a wasp, who squeezes inside through the hole in the top – breaking off her wings in the process – lays eggs in some of the flowers (which are inside the fig), pollinates the rest of them, and then dies. Her body is consumed by the fig, and the fig is consumed by us, after the new generation of wasps has hatched and escaped the fig to continue the cycle. How interesting! How bizarre! Something that upon first sight strikes most of us as disgusting, creepy, and definitely a sign that that fruit is not fit for consumption, is actually the way God has chosen to provide for these two organisms, and in turn, to provide for us. It’s another witness to the fact that God works in us in ways we would not predict, and in ways which may strike us as painful or offensive at first. But if we remain in his love we can have faith that, unexpected as it may be, God will be faithful to bear good fruit in and through us.

Jon Roberts is from Netarts, OR. He plays jazz trumpet and piano and frequently collaborates with Cameron DeWhitt. He currently lives and worships with the Circle of Hope community in Philadelphia. Cameron DeWhitt is a songwriter from Newberg, OR. He released his first album, Foxglove Inc. last May, and hopes to record his next album, Salvation Songs, sometime in 2012. Cameron completed his BA in Music Composition in April 2011 at George Fox University in Newberg, OR.

The image is copyrighted by Jonathan Roberts and used here by permission. If you are interested in using Jonathan’s image in any way please contact Jonathan. The song is copyrighted by Cameron DeWhitt and is featured here by permission. If you would like to use this song for any reason contact Cameron directly via his website or contact us for help.

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Notes from the Artist about his Process

I want to know more about our sensory experience of God’s creation, and how we can use our imaginations to experience this world in new ways. I think we take for granted what is right in front of us,  so in my paintings I try to counteract this inactive approach to seeing. I use planar space to distort common objects to show that although things may appear to be ordinary, they are not. I not only depict what my eyes see but I also paint spatial anomalies in my work that do not happen in reality. I contrast representational and planar painting space because it is foundational or “common” to the picture plane – like objects are to this world. For, a new perspective on common experience only requires an active curiosity to see one’s surroundings as unique, magical, and new.

Connecting the Real with the Ideal

We are reminded of Paul (the Apostle)’s well-known chapter about love that he wrote to the Corinthians. Though most people – able to cite the reference or not – may be able to quote, “Love is ___, love is ___, …” there is a seminal passage in that chapter that we draw in reference to Paul (the artist)’s thoughts on perception: 1 Corinthians 13:12 “For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.” Perhaps the Apostle Paul was pulling from his philosophic background, drawing a reference to what Plato muses on regarding the ideal nature of things. We see in Paul Trapp’s paintings both the ideal and the real, parts of the whole – a vibrating connection between what we know to be rooted in this world and what we find in moments of beauty and transcendence.

Paul replies in his artist’s statement:

I parallel the visual aspects of my work (representational and planar space) with the concepts involved in my work (perception and intentionality). This contrast is intended to raise questions concerning subjective experience in the objective world, and to suggest that actively observing objects in daily life leads to a new awareness of daily surroundings. Ultimately, I use this visual conflict to create an unexpected visual experience where something new can be discovered within something familiar and to bring to consciousness the experience of seeing.

Paul Trapp was born in Madison, Wisconsin and has studied at Minnesota State University and in Florence, Italy. Currently he teaches at Illinois State University. His studio work investigates perception and the phenomenological concept of intentionality. His work has been shown in Washington, New York, Italy, and Malaysia. His work is in the collection of Penang State Museum & Art Gallery and Bethany Lutheran College.

See more of Paul’s work at paultrapp.blogspot.com.

*Above image: “Substantiate”, 2010, acrylic on panel, 24″ x 24″
*Below image: “Behind”, 2010, acrylic on panel, 24″ x 24″

The images are copyrighted by Paul Trapp and used here by permission. If you are interested in using Paul’s images in any way please contact Paul Trapp for permission.

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