she said yes + "what if..." + other things

Yet again...life, relationships, school, and various other projects have kept me away from this little webspace. Since I haven't written in awhile I thought I'd just give a few brief updates on some things that have been going on.

the biggest news
As of October 22nd, 2007, I became an engaged man! The very beautiful and creative, Ms. Margaret Ann Murray of Chicago, Illinois has agreed to take me as her husband. Please check out our site for the latest and greatest updates as we move closer to the big day, which we hope will be sometime in mid-August. Right now the site blaineandmargaret.com features an amazing photo of Margaret's ring taken by my roommate Joshua Longbrake.


"what if..."
A number of months ago, I was told that Mars Hill Graduate School was going to be the national sponsor of Brian McLaren's Everything Must Change Tour starting in February. As the national sponsor we were given 5 minutes to show a short film about MHGS. I was incredibly honored to be asked to produce the project as I really do love this amazing place. My friend from Difted, Sam Sanchez flew in from Chicago to shoot it with me and I have to say that I'm always impressed by his work. My deepest hope when I wrote and shot it was that it would reflect the beauty of MHGS by asking the question, "what if you truly believed the gospel could change the world." Have a look below...


"what if..." an mhgs short film from blainehogan on Vimeo.

collide article
Some of you have wandered onto this site because of my recent article in Collide Magazine, The Art of Tension, about the tension between creating art in the church because you have to and because you must. For those of you who aren't subscribers, I'll be posting the article later this week.

these three things

I have realized lately just how much I love logos and icons. I love how something so simple can suggest something with such greater depth and meaning.

I had a great theater professor once who always talked about getting to the essential meaning of whatever you were working on. You start with a bunch of words, actions, sounds, sketches, etc...and whittle away until you have only the things you need - the essence.

I wrote a couple weeks ago about a new class I was taking - Theology and the Artistic Impulse. The class finished this weekend with an exhibition of our final projects.

My piece, entitled These Three Things, centers around three icons I created for the words "faith," "hope," and "love." When I thought about those three words, I kept seeing water and light, and wanted to create something functional, clean, and iconic. The result was a chandelier constructed with water bottles.

While it isn't entirely complete (I'll be adding more bottles to it in the coming weeks), below is the process from initial sketch to the semi-finished product now hanging in the Mars Hill library.

"And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love."
1 Corinthians 13:13

these three things
july 2007
blaine hogan
seattle, wa
plastic bottles, metal rods, light fixtures, tape