Tag: adventword

by jad

Advent I

Today is the first Sunday of Advent, the start of a season that’s become a bit of a barometer of my mood every year. There have been years when I was energized and engaged, turning the weeks before Christmas into an art project or two, often using the prompts made by @adventword. And there are other years when I felt the exact opposite: drained, dejected, and disengaged. This year feels different in a new way. I’m somewhere in between. I’m busier than ever before, but I don’t want the same old rituals. Or maybe I want to engage with them … Continue reading “Advent I” →

by jad

#AdventWord 2022: Maya

These double exposures are from my very first #filmswap: I shot the roll in Bellingham, then Maya, whose poetry I feature here, shot over it a second time in San Diego. We had a vague idea of what each of us was planning, but every composition you see here and in the next two posts was completely accidental/providential. I love everything about this. I love how our images were taken in two borderlands on the two far ends of this western coast; two liminal spaces mirrored and refracted in our contrasting choices of locations—public and impersonal landmarks in mine, private and intimate spaces … Continue reading “#AdventWord 2022: Maya” →

by jad

ADVENTWORD 2022—PURIFY

Today’s #AdventWord is not one I’d have picked myself; there’s almost no choice but to read a word like PURIFY in, well, puritanical terms, and, if you’re anything like me, maybe even a James Hetfield twang: TRUTH AND DAREPEELING BACK THE SKINACID WASH GHOST WHITEULTRA CLEANWANNA BE SKELETON Metallica’s “Purify” perfectly captures the unrelenting reductionism of how we tend to hear & deploy the concept of “purity”: a sweet turpentine to burn off all excess & filth. PURIFY OUR CONSCIENCE! cries this Sunday’s collect: “Purify our conscience, Almighty God, by your daily visitation, that your Son Jesus Christ, at his coming, may … Continue reading “ADVENTWORD 2022—PURIFY” →

by jad

AdventWord 2022—TRAVELER

Today’s #AdventWord is TRAVELER, and for the longest time, I’ve been fixated on a phrase that came to me repurposed from an album title, a phrase that became a kind of philosophy of life in molecular form: “I am traveling with another.” I ran that through a readability analyzer and it apparently corresponds to a 10th/12th grade level, which makes sense, because in many ways it captures a high school senior’s style of overthinking the world. Like an essay about serendipity that compares the concept to looking over the school yard fence and noticing a storybook style house you describe like a … Continue reading “AdventWord 2022—TRAVELER” →

by jad

#AdventWord 2022: Corinne

Corinne isn’t really on Instagram anymore, but this is how we connected: pouring our little hearts out into this app until we became friends a couple years ago around this time, after a chat about some #AdventWord posts I’d made. Since then, we’ve worked together on a couple of things, including the coolest battle vest you’ve ever seen and that gorgeous set of portraits that David took for @inconjunct. Though I’ve known her primarily as a visual artist, I’m touched and honored to share Corinne’s moving poetry in the next three posts: x WILDERNESS by @cascadiacore Once a wolf swallowed me, andcarried me in … Continue reading “#AdventWord 2022: Corinne” →

by jad

#AdventWord 2022—Messenger

Today’s #AdventWord was meant to be a collaboration, but it didn’t quite come together that way. And yet, even though someone else picked this word out for me, MESSENGER just happens to be one of my more favored from this year’s list. Charlie Brown wasn’t the first to wonder about the meaning of Christmas. From day dot, the Christ event has been the riddle that somehow turned the key on a cosmic mystery; everyone could sense it, but few had the words to describe what it meant, and we still fumble with the language til now. For me, the meaning of Christmas … Continue reading “#AdventWord 2022—Messenger” →

by jad

#AdventWord 2022: Sabrina

Sabrina and I worked on a video project called SANCTUS deep in the belly of the early pandemic that relied heavily on pieced together footage recorded at a distance, so we thought it would be poignant to reference & recall that time and visual grammar in this year’s Advent collaboration. In these next three posts, we will combine recordings of Sabrina’s liturgical action with imagery I’ve captured to illustrate Sabrina’s written words. BREATHE Breathe, and let thislifebloodinfuse every oneof your (30 trillion)cells,bodyandsoul x FIRE The flame flickers, shrinks, then leaps and grows, ready to kiss my fingers. As I hold … Continue reading “#AdventWord 2022: Sabrina” →

by jad

#AdventWord 2022: Christine

// Every year for many years, I took part in an Instagram ritual called #AdventWord, first on an old account, then here—every year except the last, when I just couldn’t; the very idea of ritual exhausted me. // A few weeks ago, I checked in with myself to see if anything had changed. Things had. I wanted to mark the season again, but only if I could do it with others. So that’s what I’ll be doing this year; not every day – just when it feels right. I hope it feels right for you too. // Today’s word is WALK. … Continue reading “#AdventWord 2022: Christine” →

by jad

#AdventWord 2021

It’s November and in a couple of weeks, it’ll be Advent, the countdown to Christmas that for the past five or six years, I’ve marked by participating in #AdventWord in some shape or form. I looked forward to this time and task much as I look forward to the long stretch of autumn rituals and feasts. Last year felt strange, as though Advent had arrived too quickly or something; I wasn’t ready, but I was still inspired. This year feels worse. I thought that maybe I’ll gain motivation by meticulously planning what I want to say; I looked over the word list … Continue reading “#AdventWord 2021” →

by jad

#AdventWord 2020, Week 4

#Rejoice And Mary said, “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour.” (Luke 1:46-47) It’s become quite common for me to hear Mary’s Song, the Magnificat, spoken of as a revolutionary hymn; this wasn’t the case when I was young, though the air I breathed then was fragrant with Marian devotion. So it’s been incredibly eye-opening to be reintroduced to this part of the Christmas story in a very new light. The other trope I now see quite often this time of year is the enthusiastic bashing of “Mary Did You Know,” a sweet song … Continue reading “#AdventWord 2020, Week 4” →