We want to tell you what we have been wholeheartedly up to for the last few months. We are part of an artist's group called Greenhouse Arts. The group is headed by Mark & Christi Bovee and we have been meeting almost every Monday night for about two years now. The goal of Greenhouse Arts is for artists, both local and abroad, to have a place to grow, talk, experiment and be nurtured. Part of what we do is a monthly teleconference where artists from all over the world get on the horn to listen to a speaker and bat thoughts back and forth. We also pot-luck a bit and love on each other a lot.This spring, we attempted a giant experiment. We had our Pastor, Chris Austin, give us a Scripture to create off of and we worked together within our different mediums for two months to create art towards that theme. Painters, writers, dancers, musicians and film-makers all collaborated around I Peter 2:4-6. We posted our works in progress on an online bulletin board where all the artists could look them over and comment. It was a huge undertaking for so many artists with busy lives. It was a challenge to work together with other people as well. You had to be willing to have your stuff hacked at and critiqued. We were working towards a live presentation on Father's Day.
What became apparent as we all strove together to produce quality, meaningful work for this collaborative, was that this is a vulnerable, scary place for a lot of people. Our friend Roxanne, a visual artist, who admittedly had never painted for pleasure's sake before, faced tremendous fear in her process, which resulted in a stunning painting. Our friend, Marsha, danced to a heartbreaking story from her own life and was literally pushing down walls in her heart as she performed. Our beloved CJ wrote a brutally honest song and sang it live, after much coaxing. There was a lot at stake for so many in this process. Early on, we received a strong admonition from leadership that we must give something of ourselves to others. That we did. Until it hurt, for sure. The result was that when the time came to make our presentation, we were all wrapped up in each other's success and pain. We were all on the edge of our seats to see our friends press through their junk and deliver a piece of themselves. The truth of that Scripture was communicated with grit and passion.

We all drew in closer to each other and kicked fear in the teeth. We will continue to morph this experiment and have big ideas about different approaches. Please take a look at and www.myspace.com/greenhousearts to check it all out! Why don't you join us for a teleconference?
It must be said that the Patterson's would not have made it through the crunch week of this project without serious help. That help arrived on a plane from Houston in the form of Kathleen Maynard. She comes from a long line of people who love us and are nice to us and we honestly cannot believe we have not scared the Maynards off by now. 🙂 She did dishes, bathed babies, cooked, went to Wal-mart & Target with four kids in the same day, babysat for hours and gave Michelle much needed companionship while Barry was hard at work. Our Sammy was truly upset when we took her to the airport; evidence of a job well done! Kate, we love you so much and can't believe you are this nice to us! Thank you for your hard work and kindness to all Pattersons! When can you come back?