Did you hear the one about the design & illustration teacher?

As a young man, I specifically remember a Timex television ad where spokesperson John Cameron Swayze talks with a priest in some sort of a TV-churchy setting. The priest says something to the effect of, "an advertising man, eh? We don't get many of your kind around here." I was working at an Ad Agency at the time and found the spot to be brutally honest, and of course, hilarious. Although I now teach, I continue to freelance in an industry that "sell[s] fast fashion, fast cars, and fast food; disposable cups, bubble wrap, and unending amounts of single-use plastics; fidget spinners, microwave dinners, and nose hair trimmers. We market unhealthy body images and diets; products and apps that propagate social isolation and depression; the consumption of unbalanced food systems; we sell pills to pop, tiks to tok, and a scrolling feed that never stops…"* Yeah, pretty depressing.

But I was also influenced by the parable of the talents, Matthew 25: 14-30. When I first heard the parable, I took the word talent literally, as in my own artistic talent. I've since learned what a talent is as used in the parable, but the point remained. And although I still really wanted to work in advertising, a seed had been planted.

Fast forward to the year 2016. I noticed a striking image being used on the big screen of our church one Sunday morning during worship. Through a little investigation, I discovered, to my horror, that the image was found online, and no credit was given to the original creator. Google, it seems, makes it all too easy for innocent people to unknowingly "borrow" (the courts call it stealing) the creative works of others. Rather than out the worship leader who "found" the image, I went to our pastor and offered to create a unique and original image each week that he could use to help illustrate his weekly message. It had taken years, but I finally found a way to become a faithful steward of the talents that had been honed through years of service to the marketing and advertising industries.

While I will always suspect that this particular worship leader should have known better, I also suspect that there are thousands of churches who simply do not consider the concept of copyright law as they attempt to create a more dynamic worship experience. It was with those churches in mind that I launched this little ministry: a free repository of original imagery, with permission granted for use in a worship setting.