Joel Schoon-Tanis is the artist-in-residence at his church in Holland, Michigan, and this past summer, established a mobile studio Montreat Conference Center for a two-week stint as the artist-in-residence for the Presbyterian Association of Musicians’ Worship & Music Conference.
Schoon-Tanis recently joined hosts Sarah Abushakra and Jeremy Roberts for their “Sounding Board” podcast. Follow their 73-minute conversation here. Schoon-Tanis is introduced at the 7:50 mark.
“I have always loved church and felt home in church, and I am super thankful to have two daughters who feel the same,” he told the hosts. His younger daughter arrives at church early every Sunday “to make sure everything is OK, and then she rings the bell,” he said. “She appointed herself bell-ringer,” which she does every Sunday 10 minutes ahead of the start of worship.
The son of a professor at Hope College in Holland, Schoon-Tanis attended the Christian liberal arts institution tuition-free. Halfway through his studies, he realized that “all I’ve ever wanted to do was paint and make stuff.” During his senior year, he met a woman in a painting class who was preparing to open an art gallery. “We became friends, and the next thing you know, I was her sole employee,” he said. She allowed him to show his work there. “It was the last time I held a real job,” he said, “but at the same time, people started buying my work.”
He said he’s always enjoyed the juxtaposition of painting childlike images “and the realistic.” He told the hosts he’s convinced “there are colors in God’s Creation we don’t know about yet.”
“I have this ache sometimes to find a color I expect to have on my palette but it’s not there,” he said. “To me, the new creation should be better than the old creation. That’s my hot take, and I’m sticking to that.”
Asked by Roberts about the intersection of his work and his faith, Schoon-Tanis summed it up in one word: wonder.
Take a child on a hike and they’ll notice the tiniest things, including bugs, he said. They often describe what they’ve found “through a different angle, so a zebra is a horse with a striped suit. They’re piecing it together, which ends up being delightful and whimsical.”
When Schoon-Tanis prepares to paint something he’s done a thousand times, such as a tree, he’ll try to do it “in a whimsical, fun way so we notice it differently” and “so it doesn’t become just a bland thing that we’ve seen before.”
Similarly, when we study Scripture, “we can get locked into how we think a biblical passage should go or what it should mean,” he told the hosts. “If you hear a sermon on a specific passage enough times, you say, ‘Oh, I’ve got this.’ I know I can sometimes not listen as well then. I’m always thankful when pastors can prove me wrong and guide me in a different way.”
“What eyes of wonder or this whimsical approach can do is it can take on a passage from a different angle,” he said, “and help us look at the same story we might think we know deeply with fresh eyes and a slight change in perspective.”
That reminded Abushakra of Mary Oliver’s “Instructions for Living a Life”: “Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.”
Children are especially good with the “telling” part, Roberts said. While working with a children’s choir one day, the term “merciful” came up in a hymn the children were singing. He asked them: what does “merciful” mean? A first grader raised her hand and said, “My mom loves me all the time. Even when she gets mad, she still loves me, no matter what.”
“I thought, yes, that’s what merciful means,” Roberts said. “The way kids can break things open is so wonderful.”
Fatherhood “has absolutely reinforced my philosophy of wonder,” Schoon-Tanis said. He used to watch the way his daughters drew things and would sometimes steal their techniques. “Not anymore,” he said, “because they’ve both gotten pretty accomplished.”
Find the work of Schoon-Tanis on Instagram or through his website.
“Sounding Board” is available on YouTube, Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
Mike Ferguson, Editor, Presbyterian News Service (Click here to read original PNS Story)
Let us join in prayer for:
Rachel Anderson, Global Ecumenical Liaison-US, Global Ecumenical Partnerships, Presbyterian Life & Witness
Molly Atkinson, Senior Administrative Assistant, Financial Aid Service, Presbyterian Life & Witness
Let us pray:
Gracious God, we praise you and also wonder at the great need we see around us. Forgive us for our failure to love our neighbors as ourselves. Strengthen us to work for a world where all are fed. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
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