Bloggernacle Back Bench: Blog arts and letters

Blogs and Web sites are becoming more utilized as wonderful tools for exploring the wonders of Mormon arts and letters. I am excited to introduce a few of these new artistic online projects and collections. What a marvelous way to share artistic flair!

Open source: Anyone who promotes new media makes me cheer. Gideon Burton, BYU professor and new media evangelizer, just released his Open Source Sonnets. And cleverly he explained his aims in sonnet form:

I love the sonnet's summons to make flesh
ideas condensed in rhythm's flowing craft.
Each day I hope to post a sonnet, fresh,
or else a classic sonnet from the past ...
Whatever poem posted here is free
for you to imitate, adapt, or take;

Some are fun while others more pensive, such as his beautiful sonnet to "Creation."

Arts wiki: I kept meaning to highlight the Mormon Arts Wiki, and find today's theme perfectly suited. Similar to Wikipedia, it is grounded in the hope that users will update and add to content, collaborating in an ever-growing collection of Mormon Arts-related material. So far, there are 1,899 articles. I love the main page list of linked upcoming and recent events. What a great way to stay apprised of what's going on in the Mormons arts and letters scene.

Facebook group: Log in to your Facebook account. Now click to view the new LDS Visual Arts Group put together by "Mormon artists who want to connect." Joan Merrill Jefferson explains that "Mormon filmmakers now have a festival, Mormon writers have conferences, musicians have workshops, I'm trying to find a way to connect visual artists to share and learn together and discuss relevant issues — so far with no budget or connections, it is simply a Facebook page 'LDS Visual Arts' with a hope of gathering enough interest to join visual artists in a conference by 2013 ... Painters, textile artists, photographers, sculptors, calligraphers, stained glass artists, etc., would be welcomed and find encouragement and nourish each other."

Book of Mormon art: Artist Jay Fullmer is working on a new book highlighting the "Hidden Stories" of the Book of Mormon, which will contain around 150 new paintings. And wonderfully, he has created a diary blog called "Sons of Mosiah Productions". You can follow along his painting process with his videos, or download seminary helps or even learn interesting scriptural connections. Additionally, if you are a seminary teacher, Fullmer welcomes you to download, for free, the full-page images of the character art from his Book of Mormon battles.

Now let's find other creative posts from the Bloggernacle this past week:

Power pick: "Shawni Eyre Pothier" was completely euphoric at the birth of each of her babies, dreaming up future plans for her children. "But my big dreams shifted dramatically with the birth of my fifth baby, Lucy. She politely introduced me to real life."

So begins these beautiful musings on how dreams shift, but "when a dream reaches a dead-end, an alternate dream can and will emerge. As my dream for Lucy shifts, my dream as a mother has shifted as well."

And now as both a mother and an activist fighting against blindness, Shawni is using a blog to get the word out. Click to read more of her story or check out The I Love Lucy Project if you want to learn more about the fight against blindness.

Techie tip: One of the coolest widgets I've seen pasted throughout the Bloggernacle is the LDS Humanitarian Services widget that highlighted ways you can help in Haiti. And now the LDS Charities widget has been updated to included causes such as the earthquake in Chile as well as "reflect the broader humanitarian work of the church. All gifts given via the widget will now go to the Humanitarian Emergency Response General Fund."

If the widget is already on your blog, then it will be changed automatically. If not, consider clicking on the "share" button to further the cause of service!