RELIGIOUS ART | NEWS OF WEEK

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS
By Gregory & Ernest Disney-Britton
Gregory Disney-Britton, co-creator of the Alpha & Omega Project for Contemporary Religious Art, at home with, from left, Quincy Owens + Luke Crowley's “Prime IV” (purchased 2018) and Tony Melendez’s “Capricorn Greeting the Celtic Moon” (purchased 2014). 
Near the end of 2018’s Advent Fast, a gin loving friend asked, “When is that shit over?” We prayed for him. In Matthew 10:17-22, Jesus said, “You will be hated by all because of my name, but whoever endures to the end will be saved.” We began 2018 with a promise to fast, pray, and praise by collecting art created in His name, but we fell short. We did however have long talks with Quincy Owens about his art of the religious imagination. Creating spirit-filled work despite distractions is why “Prime IV" by Owens & Crawley is our acquisition of the year.

NEWS OF 2008-2018 from across the USA, and around the world:
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On January 28, 2018, Dr. Michael & Leslie Krienes gifted us a mezuzah scroll for our home. These are rolled up and affixed to the doorposts of Jewish homes, designating the home as Jewish and reminding those who live there of their connection to G‑d and their heritage. 
In March 2018, we brought home Gary Gee's "Even With a Cracked Crown, a King is Still a King" (2018). We purchased it in Februaary when it was part of his Art & Soul Exhibition at the Indianapolis Artsgarden.  
This summer, we purchased Kehinde Wiley's "The Virgin Martyr St. Cecilia Beach Towel" this summer, as an 80th birthday gift for the planned beach-front party planned for Ernest's mom along Tybee Beach. Wiley’s 2008 painting The Virgin Martyr St. Cecilia (shown above) riffs on Renaissance sculptor Stefano Maderno’s The Virgin Martyr St. Cecilia from 1600.
We bought "Prime V" by Owens + Crawley later in the summer. The acrylic slices of color and light that Quincy Owens and Luke Crawley use to build their "Prime" light box series brings them together as a spiritual artist and scientist artist.
On Christmas Day,  Ernest was surprised with Kelvin Burzon's "Gethsemane" in inspired by Heinrich Hofmann's (1886) "Christ in Gethsemane," a painting in the collection of Riverside Church in New York. When we lived in NYC, Riverside was one our two regular Sunday morning church homes. Kelvin Burzon is a photographer based in Bloomington, Indiana and in 2017, he was voted at the Alpha Omega Artist of the Year by our blog readers.