A Miller & an Elf walked into a bar—the Iconographer ducked.

This is supposed to be about someone who has done what I’m attempting—create poetry [verbal AND visual] to reflect Truth. I didn’t find a historical or cultural figure who did precisely that, so I’m combining a couple different aspects of folks who’ve inspired me. This is not to say that I’m the first person in the history of the universe to create in the way I hope to; my research was not exhaustive and, like any creative process, I just rearrange existing elements to form a unique whole.

Iconography—the depiction of God or saints—was deemed a “vocation” in the historic church. Just like you could receive a vocation to be a priest or a nun, God could call you to full-time service as His artist. Iconographers did not even attempt to start an image until they felt that God had inspired them with vision to do it as He desired. Iconography is still considered a “vocation” in some branches of the church—a holy art.
I want to be iconographic in that I want the images that fall onto my paper to be instigated by the Holy Spirit.

Calvin Miller grew up poor and fatherless in a dusty Oklahoma town. He somehow made it to college, into ministry, and through higher education. At a point when he was dealing with stagnation and depression, he felt God challenging him to lead a deeper inner life and express to the world a vibrant, robust portrayal of Christ through literature. He awoke one night at 2am with the first line of what would become a poetic trilogy. It was about Jesus. It sprang from focusing on Jesus. And it touched thousands of people.
I want to be like Calvin Miller in his exquisite skill with words and his capacity to cloak eternal concepts in earthly language.

I hope that, in my concoctions of words and images, I somehow express the divine. In The Fellowship of the Ring, J.R.R. Tolkien’s elves state “…we put the thought of all that we love into all that we make.” I guess that’s my heart’s desire and my inspiration to live up to the words of 1 Peter 4:10-11: “Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms. If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God. If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.”