We are rapidly approaching a decision deadline for the Red Tennies Creative Studio. Do we hang up our red tennies and shut our doors? Was this an opportunity that didn't develop? Was this a test of faith? One of the most difficult decisions of my life may be facing me in the next week.
In the meantime, here's a bit about how this came to be.
The Beginning Concept: aka "You Want Me To Do What?"
I was attending the Willow Creek Global Leadership Summit in August 2011 when it hit me. Art can do amazing things for you. It had been a turbulent year, and I found art to be very soothing and comforting. I also realized I AM creative. I want to do something to help people and it's going to be about art. It doesn't matter that I'm not a trained artist, I simply enjoy being creative and am wired to think along creative lines.
God is our Creator, He made us in His image, therefore we are also creative beings. The entire two-day event had an unspoken but beautifully woven tapestry around entrepreneurship and creativity. By the end of the event, I knew I was being led to open a place where people could experience being creative even when they didn't think of themselves as creative. I wanted to help people connect with the kid inside, relieve some of life's stress and anxiety, and perhaps even find God's love and hope through art and the healing balm it can provide.
I also envisioned a way of selling art in order to fund other ways to help change lives. I was thinking along the lines of providing small backpacks of art supplies to kids after a natural disaster, abuse, or fire. I want them to have something they can call their own that would also allow them to process through some of the trauma. I also hoped to work with victims recovering from sex crimes or sex trafficking through the use of art. I hoped to provide art supplies to a small church in Uganda where a friend is serving God diligently and they have an incredible number of kids they could reach with art supplies.
I was attending the Willow Creek Global Leadership Summit in August 2011 when it hit me. Art can do amazing things for you. It had been a turbulent year, and I found art to be very soothing and comforting. I also realized I AM creative. I want to do something to help people and it's going to be about art. It doesn't matter that I'm not a trained artist, I simply enjoy being creative and am wired to think along creative lines.
God is our Creator, He made us in His image, therefore we are also creative beings. The entire two-day event had an unspoken but beautifully woven tapestry around entrepreneurship and creativity. By the end of the event, I knew I was being led to open a place where people could experience being creative even when they didn't think of themselves as creative. I wanted to help people connect with the kid inside, relieve some of life's stress and anxiety, and perhaps even find God's love and hope through art and the healing balm it can provide.
I also envisioned a way of selling art in order to fund other ways to help change lives. I was thinking along the lines of providing small backpacks of art supplies to kids after a natural disaster, abuse, or fire. I want them to have something they can call their own that would also allow them to process through some of the trauma. I also hoped to work with victims recovering from sex crimes or sex trafficking through the use of art. I hoped to provide art supplies to a small church in Uganda where a friend is serving God diligently and they have an incredible number of kids they could reach with art supplies.
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