First Person with Wayne Shepherd

First Person: Timothy Botts

Artist Tim Botts explains his calling, his unique art, and his strong desire to mentor young artists. Send your support for FIRST PERSON to the Far East Broadcasting Company: FEBC National Processing Center Far East Broadcasting Company P.O. Box 6020 Albert Lea, MN 56007 Please mention FIRST PERSON when you give. Thank you!

Duration:: 23m
Broadcast on:: 19 May 2011
Audio Format:: other

Artist Tim Botts explains his calling, his unique art, and his strong desire to mentor young artists.

Send your support for FIRST PERSON to the Far East Broadcasting Company:
FEBC National Processing Center
Far East Broadcasting Company
P.O. Box 6020
Albert Lea, MN 56007

Please mention FIRST PERSON when you give. Thank you!

One thing we need to understand especially in the evangelical church is that we don't have a whole lot of history with the arts and we can't expect great art to come tomorrow. We need to be patient and learn our craft, Lord willing, we will have another renaissance. That was artist Timothy Botts, our guest today here on First Person Hi Everyone, I'm Wayne Shepard. Looking forward to introducing you to a friend today who is not only a very talented calligrapher and artist, but also someone with a deep desire to mentor other young artists. We'll meet Tim Botts in just a few moments. First person is here each week at this time as we talk with people who remind us that it is God who is at work within us for His good pleasure. And if you'd like to listen to past interviews which you may have missed, they are available in the archive on our website, firstpersoninterview.com, and they're also available as a podcast on iTunes. Now if you're on Facebook, you can join with us on our page located at facebook.com/firstpersoninterview. Chances are you have seen the art produced by Timothy Botts. For many years now, Tim has been creating his own distinctive style which most often starts with a verse of scripture. Tim loves to illustrate the word of God, communicating its meaning in a fresh, colorful way. As we talk with him today, you'll find links to his website gallery online at firstpersoninterview.com. He came to my studio recently, and we began talking about the first time he was conscious of his ability. That for me would be first grade. When the art teacher came just every, I think once a week, she told me that I was a great artist. And that meant a lot to me because I was also the kid that was last to be picked on the team. So I had a pretty low self-image, but I had something you could say. This is me. That's right. So you were the guy that all the other kids, you know, they struggled in drawing pictures, and you probably were doing the Mona Lisa over in the corner. Well, that's, I guess, that's a flattering way to say it. I know that back then I was drawing a lot of Disney characters. Of course you were, of course you were. But when did this gift that you have, when did it really begin to develop? This same teacher really was an encouragement to me because she gave classes in her home on weekends. I had that opportunity in addition to what little art I learned in school, and then when I went to high school, amazingly, this same teacher switched to the high school, and I had her again. And she told my parents to send me to the best art school that they could afford. And for me, because I lived in Pennsylvania, that was Carnegie, then it was Carnegie Tech now, Carnegie Mellon University. And when I got there, I was introduced to calligraphy as part of my graphic design training. And the calligraphy brought together two things, two great loves of mine, one for the word and the other for art. When did this love for the word come in? When did the Lord come into your life, first of all? I came to faith very young through a neighborhood Bible club, so young that it's mostly what I remember from my parents telling me about it. But I did go to church camp, I think three years, and I remember distinctly the call to follow Jesus, and each time I responded. And that was a very good thing for me. I'm thankful for that call and challenge, but I lacked the assurance of faith. And so the following year, I went to a place called Hilltop Ranch in Maryland, and there I got the assurance from 1 John 513 that we can know that we have eternal life if we believe in Jesus. I think most people, when they hear the name Timothy Botts, they recognize the artwork that you have done through many years now. I mean, I walk into churches and it's there on the walls of the church, either as a mural or as something that's been hung there, and we have some in our home, and I know many people have it in their home. But how do you describe your particular style? What do you call it? That's a good question because most people, when they think of calligraphy, think of decorative lettering, and that's certainly the tradition, I think, for example, that the medieval scribes, when they were decorating scripture, what they were really doing is they were trying to illuminate or bring attention to it to celebrate and honor, especially holy words. But in addition to that, which is still a part of me, because that's my classic training, is to bring more contemporary graphic design communication skills so that I'm making the words look like what they mean. So I'm trying to combine the art with the communication in my work. I wish we could show it right now, but of course we do have the web and we can point people there right now, and we've placed links to your work in your gallery at firstpersoninterview.com. So even as people listen to our conversation, they go online and peruse the gallery there that you have the beautiful things online. You mentioned the word and your love for the word. You really focus on the word and much of what you do, right? That's true. I've never made a statement that I would only do scripture. However, what I've found through the years is that it's not by accident that the word truly is great, and the greatest inspiration comes from meditating on it. It is the word of God. That's right, given to us. So I'm happy to do other great words, especially if they fit in with my worldview as a believer, because those are other ways of connecting with people as well. In truth. Yes, that's right. So when you select a scripture verse and you decide that you're going to represent that scripture verse artistically, only the way that you can, what's going through your mind? What is the process involved in presenting that? I've seen you do this as a part of worship services, even do it on the platform live, and it's very worshipful. Thank you. I like to talk about this because it really is, it combines worship and art making together for me. I've learned to meditate what it means to meditate on scripture by these word pictures that I make. And I think to simply explain it, it would be to try to put the words into my own words, so the principle of paraphrasing, and sometimes I even mind the words. Then I use, again, what I said about my graphic design training, use things like color and direction and movement and different styles of lettering to put down on paper what I'm receiving as I read. And this internalizing is the word for me as a visual person in a way that nothing else did before. And it does for those who drink it in as well. If they're a visually oriented person, it could be that that's what God uses to communicate the truth of that passage of scripture in a way that they had never considered it before, simply because of, as you say, the color and the movement. Talk to me about color. I've always loved your work, Tim, because it is so colorful. You just have this rainbow available to you, and you must see the world in a different way than the rest of us. Well, I think as far as color is concerned, there are a lot of associations that I make, and I think some of them are somewhat universal, and so I, for example, use brighter colors for more joyous messages, and if it's a warning in scripture, for example, then I tend to use more somber color palette. But it is interesting, as I've learned about other cultures, my work doesn't necessarily communicate the same because I remember one time I did a Bible verse in English, and a Russian ministry wanted me to do that in Russian, which in itself was a challenge because I had to work with a different alphabet. But I did a sketch for them to prove, and they said, "Oh, the colors are all wrong." They said, "You treat the word like a circus, and for them it needed to be more somber." So I changed the color scheme, and they were much happier. I never considered such a thing. The color can be cultural. That's right. Wow. What a lesson to learn, huh? Yeah. So when you produce a piece of art, and it's this scripture verse, and it's got this flourish to it, and this movement, and this color, and do you see the end at the beginning, or does it kind of develop creatively as you go? Both situations happen at different times. I find the creative process so mysterious because sometimes I will actually get a picture in my mind of the way it's going to look, and that I tell you is really the gift of the spirit, just like I'm dumbfounded that a melody of music. Where does it come from? And that's how I feel about sometimes when I see these pictures in my mind. There are other times, though, to be honest, that I wrestle with the text a lot more, and I may do as many as five or six different sketches, give up, and come back to it the next day because I'm just not getting anywhere. So could I look at your waistbasket sometime? I'd like to frame some of the things that you probably throw away. You mentioned that there is actually worship taking place between you and the Lord when you're creating like that. Does it ever overwhelm you? Does it cause you just to sing a verse of praise or stop to pray? The process itself helps me to feel more strongly about the truth than I have in other ways, like through traditional preaching. I don't feel it as deeply oftentimes. And then one of the things I'm particularly amazed at the gift is, and I mean this in a humble sort of way, that I realize that the visual artist has the gift to be able to bring a face to spirit. That is to actually personify or make an incarnate in a lesser degree, of course, so that I actually feel like I see God and that I can help other people see God in this way. It's almost like another language, isn't it? Oh, that's a good way to put it. Yes, definitely. A visual language. And we're all different. We all have different ways of, we know how we can each read a verse of scripture one day and come back to it a few days later. Suddenly it means so much more to us and maybe that's part of what's going on. Yes, I think so. Coming up with Tim will learn about his camp program for high schoolers called Master Peace Ministries. That's next on First Person. Next time you'll hear Shelly Welch of Awana Ministries. I'm just excited to see where God takes us in the future and I've used this analogy. I said the train has pulled out and I am holding onto the caboose for dear life because God has just taken it fast and I'm excited to see where it's going to go. When we talk with Shelly, we'll learn about Awana's international ministry of reaching at-risk children. That's next time here on First Person. [music] Master Peace Ministries is what Tim Botts calls the summer program to encourage young artists. We continue talking with Tim now about his art and his desire to mentor young people. Teaching is something I've always loved doing but I have to say now that I'm over 60, I especially recognize the value of passing on to another generation, especially since people weren't writing as much as they used to. That's true. Yeah, that's true. My first experience of teaching out of college was, well actually it started in college. My senior year, my teacher gave me the opportunity to teach the freshman class in calligraphy under his directions. So I had a really good start for teaching. Then I went to Japan and was that strange. My wife and I were teaching conversational English for three years and here I am 24 years old and I'm teaching businessmen, some of whom are in their 50s and they're calling me Sensei, which of course is Japanese for teacher. And you were the recipient of some mentoring even as a young person so you have to harken back to that and be grateful for that as well. That's a good point. When a person reaches a certain point in life, there is a tendency I think to want to give back. And that's what you're doing. You're wanting to give back. Yes, and I've enjoyed doing it both through a local community college and also through churches which want to do workshops relating art and faith together. And one of my favorite things to do in that particular venue is to help other people make word pictures. I've discovered that after I demonstrate the process of making a word picture on large poster paper, then I give people crayons and colored pencils. I give them a list of Bible verses and I encourage them to take one and make their own word picture. And it's wonderful. I've had children and people in their 80s doing it and actually it's the people in between that do that are the most reticent. I understand that. But I enjoy seeing light bulbs come on with some people. I don't know how I would do if Timothy Bus were standing over my shoulder watching media and try that. I'm not sure how I would do. But mentoring and teaching is very important to you. As a matter of fact, it's so important that you and some others have really formalized a summer program for young people. Tell me about Masterpiece. Gordon and Sherry Rogers had the vision first for a camp that would mentor young people in the arts. And they were friends of ours at church. They invited us over one night and shared that vision. Sherry comes to it from a counseling standpoint, having been a counselor to high school students for many years. This is a really wonderful part of the ministry because high school students in the arts oftentimes don't fit in because our larger culture doesn't make room for them sometimes. So the counseling component is just huge in our camps. And then the other part of it is of course affirming and developing those gifts that they have. And I might mention that we work in four major areas of the arts in drama, in creative writing, in music, and visual arts. So this is a summer camp program? It is a summer camp. It's a week. And Lord willing, we hope to expand to more weeks in the future. But we usually have between 30 and 40 students, which is a really nice number because there's a lot of interaction one-on-one that goes on that way. So you and other professionals give your time to be the teachers? Yes, that's right. And the word professional is good because we have people who are very successful in their fields that are teaching for us. And so it's a professional level camp. But there's also the spiritual dimension is very equally important in the camp. Where does this take place? Our camp is located in Scottsville, Kentucky, which is about an hour and a quarter north of Nashville. So, but you have people who come from all over the country or just that part of the country? How does that work? Well, we owe a lot to radio. I've had the opportunity to be interviewed and people have responded from one year we had people from ten different states and one foreign country. So if they can get there, you would welcome them to the camp for the week. Oh, yes. Tell me more about the vision for this and where you would like to see it go. The idea would be if someday we could work with another age group as well. We started with high school because that's where Sherry's expertise lies in counseling. And also because high school students are at a critical point where they're making decisions about what they're going to do after high school. So they're making that vocational choice. But when we share this ministry with other people, we find that there's so many adults who either say, "Well, can I do it?" Or they say, "But what about my little children?" So I know that there's a need for this through all the ages, but we just want to be good at one thing first. So if we have people who are listening to this conversation, who have a high schooler, who has a propensity for art and interest, and that gift needs to be encouraged and developed, this would be one opportunity to take a week during the summer and go to camp. Yes, and I enjoy especially seeing how the students find each other. They find other like-minded individuals who are seeking God and also seeking His will for their artistic gift, and they become fast friends. We've been going on now for- this will be our ninth year of camp. And the neat thing about it for me is to see how they keep coming back, and of course we kick them out when they graduate. And then they still want to come back as interns. They want to give. Yes, that's right. And my favorite story is about one- well, just last year, one of our students who's now as a graduate of college, and she has a very successful job. And she decided to give a scholarship, and she wrote to us saying that she wanted to pass on to another student of the opportunity that she had. Nice, nice. You don't have to name names, but tell me another testimony or story of one of the young people and how they've been encouraged, or maybe it's sort of set the course for their life in a way. Yes, another young man is now working in the film industry in Hollywood, and he told us that he really appreciated that at camp, we gave him the affirmation that that was something that he could pursue with the rule of God's spirit in his life. And it was something that he didn't receive encouragement from those around him, so he needed that from someone. I'd like to share with people that when God gives a gift, he doesn't give it in vain. So that's one of the important things that the church needs to do today is to affirm that gift in young people and to cause that seed to grow. Sports are great. Music is great. Lots of good and healthy things, but we do kind of neglect visual arts, drama and that sort of thing, don't we? Yeah, that's right. So where do you find the mentors who come to camp and help the teens? Well, oftentimes they already work with high school students as teachers, because that way they understand their level. Do they volunteer their time? No, actually, we offer four to five different tracks each year at camp, and those teachers are paid. That's one of our ways of making a statement of the worth of what they do. Everybody else is volunteer, though, that works with us. And in addition to some high school teachers themselves being part of us, we have, for example, Steve Leeper, who worked with Big Idea on Veggie Tales, was a teacher several years for us. And oh, I also have to brag about Michael Card coming and speaking to our students one night. So in addition to the people who do studios, we do bring in two or three other people working professionally in the various art fields to come and speak to the students. I'm thrilled to hear about this. It's called Masterpiece Ministries, and for our first-person listeners, we're going to put information on the website, so you can go there at firstpersoninterview.com and learn all about this. And hopefully there'll be some high schoolers maybe attending this summer because of our conversation together. Are you encouraged about the life of the arts in the church? We seem to have gone through a sort of a dismal period for so many years, and it seems to me that things are coming to life again. That's right. That's a very true way. I grew up in a church that wasn't, it was fairly supportive of who I was as a young artist. It's just that there wasn't anything in place to encourage me, whereas I know that some young people from my era actually returned away. They were told to shun the arts. I am very encouraged by where we've come, but I think one thing we need to understand, especially in the evangelical churches, that we don't have a whole lot of history with the arts. And so we have to be patient, and we can't expect great art to come tomorrow. It's going to take some time. We need to be patient and learn our craft well. And then someday we will blossom, we will have, Lord willing, we will have another renaissance. My thanks to artist Timothy Bots for the conversation today and for his art that hangs right here in the studio. I'm also very excited to hear about this summer's camp for young artists, which Tim and other volunteers are putting together. The camp for high school age young artists will be held in late July in Kentucky, and there's plenty of time for you to download the brochure and sign up for this wonderful opportunity. Just go to our website firstpersoninterview.com, follow the links for all the details. That's firstpersoninterview.com, and follow the links to Masterpiece Ministries. Today's interview with Tim and all previous interviews are online at firstpersoninterview.com and also on iTunes as podcasts. Our calendar of upcoming guests can also be found at the website, and you can follow us online on Twitter and Facebook. Our Facebook page is facebook.com/firstpersoninterview. And thanks for listening today. Next week our guest will be Shelley Welch of Awana, the children's ministry. Shelley will tell us that Awana's international work of reaching at-risk children. Now with thanks to my producer and friend Joe Carlson, I'm Wayne Shepard. Join us next week for First Person. [music] (gentle music)