About

Long answer (scroll down for short answer)

We are a Rogers and Astaire sort of outfit, only that we are married and plan to keep on dancing together. Only that we probably drink a lot more coffee. We have unpredictable Scottish clouds and a touch of earthy Texas dirt in us. Derek is from North Carolina and Amy is from Michigan so we like to joke about our marriage being the ultimate North and South.

Derek has lived all over the planet, and took Amy with him on mad road adventures. And although we are a lot more "planted" than ever, calling Austin a permanent residence, we do visit various places in the world, sometimes long enough to call those home, too. We've often had trouble keeping up with exactly where we are, despite the frequent requests from people we love who ask "Just Where Are You?" We tried to do it through pictures but we sometimes forget our camera and when we remember it we tend to take pictures of doughnuts and old cars.

We seem to like half broken cameras, like our growing collection of Russian 35mm cameras which don't do so well in documenting us regularly. (In the movie The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Juliette Binoche takes pictures of tanks invading Prague with her "Praktica" camera--we have one of those!!) Speaking of The Unbearable Lightness, that is indeed the inspiration for our website name and its meaning wanders off into all kinds of private associations for us. But we once lived in Prague and our marriage began there. (Although the movie itself is one of our favorites, based on the novel by Czech writer Milan Kundera, it is sad and disturbingly hard to watch in parts. So just a warning.)

If this "about" page seems elusive, we are sorry for that. We all need more lightness of being. Too much of life seems driven over by tanks, quartering us into categories. We have a ministry which we take seriously but it has loose edges. In both religious and art communities (in which we work), people often suffer from feeling that they are nothing more than their job, their title, their creativity, their ideas. Our lives center on sanctifying personal identity and celebrating it.

We work with artists but we always work from a spiritual locus. That is why, you'll notice, that this site is predominantly christian thinking in scope. We want to encourage Christians and encourage them to develop their imagination, spiritually, artistically and intellectually. But we also want to challenge the imagination of our creative culture at large and that includes working with artists of many walks. We are both artists and thinkers and like to connect trends and challenge cultural thought in and out of the church.

To be the fullest, creative, wacky, complex expression of who we were made to be--and to help others grow into theirs--that is our life.

Shalom, Derek n Amy

Short answer:

Derek and Amy come from backgrounds in the arts, ministry, theater and writing. Amy is a former music and theater journalist, Derek a trained art therapist. In our 30s we both devoted our life to ministry but not in a professional way, and not associated with a specific denomination. We have a nonprofit which supports our projects with creative artists and church leaders. Our work is local but also very global and we enjoy connecting people. If you go to the "linky" page you can see some of the friends and creative people that we have worked with or consider our global tribe.

Other stops on the virtual highway:

The Bloom House - artist-in-residency and studio project in Austin, Texas
Mangola - international arts leadership and cultural project
I'm Lefthanded - Amy's author website
Ivan the Dissident - Derek's characters

Our site was designed by Amy, and uses Movable Type to organize the content.