the unlikely orange

  "the crucifixion of Robert Lewis" mixed media collage with leaves, acrylic paint, and found objects by gregory a milinovich october 2023 this october i was invited to participate in a three day trip which was called a "pilgrimage of pain and hope."  while that may not sound super exciting to many of you, it actually really intrigued me.  i am the kind of person that wants to feel big feelings, and i am drawn to the deep places, so  i was interested in traveling to the scranton area, where the trip was planned, to see what it might look like to be a pilgrim that was wide-eyed and listening to the pain and the hope in the stories of others.   this trip included hearing the stories of immigrants to the northeastern pennsylvania area, and the work in the coal mines that many of them did.  it included hearing from folks who are working for housing justice and equity in downtown scranton.  it included hearing from those indigenous people who first inh...

  "the broken path: station 8 - Jesus is placed in the tomb" gregory a. milinovich spray paint, broken glass, pottery, tiles, mirror on old farm window march, 2021 this year during lent, i was inspired to design a set of eight pieces of art for a "stations of the cross" installation, which is currently on display outside on the front lawn at St. Paul's UMC and Wesley Foundation at 230 E. College Ave. in State College, PA.  it will be there on display until april 3rd, 2021.  if you aren't able to see it in person, you can see the whole collection here.  i've also decided to write a bit about each one, so that you can find out a little "behind the scenes" information for each one, and hear a little about my inspiration.  here are the posts for station 1, station 2, station 3, station 4, station 5, station 6, and station 7. this brings us to the final station, in which we remember that the lifeless body was taken down from the cross, and then brou...

  "the broken path: station 7 - Jesus dies on the cross" gregory a. milinovich broken glass, ceramics, tiles on old farm window march, 2021 this year during lent, i was inspired to design a set of eight pieces of art for a "stations of the cross" installation, which is currently on display outside on the front lawn at St. Paul's UMC and Wesley Foundation at 230 E. College Ave. in State College, PA.  it will be there on display until april 3rd, 2021.  if you aren't able to see it in person, you can see the whole collection here.  i've also decided to write a bit about each one, so that you can find out a little "behind the scenes" information for each one, and hear a little about my inspiration.  here are the posts for station 1 , station 2 , station 3 , station 4 , station 5 , and station 6 .  this seventh station of the cross is meant to urge us to consider the very last breaths of Jesus' life.  no more do we linger on the agony and tortur...

  "the broken path: station 6 - Jesus is nailed to the cross" rev. gregory a. milinovich broken glass, tiles, stones, sea glass on old farm window march, 2021 this year during lent, i was inspired to design a set of eight pieces of art for a "stations of the cross" installation, which is currently on display outside on the front lawn at St. Paul's UMC and Wesley Foundation at 230 E. College Ave. in State College, PA.  it will be there on display until april 3rd, 2021.  if you aren't able to see it in person, you can see the whole collection here.  i've also decided to write a bit about each one, so that you can find out a little "behind the scenes" information for each one, and hear a little about my inspiration.  here are the posts for station 1 , station 2 , station 3 , station 4 , and station 5 .  in this post, we turn our attention to station 6, in which Jesus is nailed to the cross.  the whole idea of a body being nailed to a piece of wood...

  "The Broken Path: Station 5 - Jesus is Stripped" gregory a. milinovich broken glass, tiles on old farm window march, 2021 this year during lent, i was inspired to design a set of eight pieces of art for a "stations of the cross" installation, which is currently on display outside on the front lawn at St. Paul's UMC and Wesley Foundation at 230 E. College Ave. in State College, PA.  it will be there on display until april 3rd, 2021.  if you aren't able to see it in person, you can see the whole collection here .  i've also decided to write a bit about each one, so that you can find out a little "behind the scenes" information for each one, and hear a little about my inspiration.  here are the posts for station 1 , station 2 , station 3 , and station 4 .  in this post we are turning to station 5, in which we remember that Jesus was stripped of his clothes, and of his dignity.  in this piece, i wanted to create a sense of nakedness without being...

  "The Broken Path: Station 4 - Jesus Meets the Women of Jerusalem" gregory a. milinovich broken glass, tile, sea glass on old farm window march, 2021 this year during lent, i was inspired to design a set of eight pieces of art for a "stations of the cross" installation, which is currently on display outside on the front lawn at St. Paul's UMC and Wesley Foundation at 230 E. College Ave. in State College, PA.  it will be there on display until april 3rd, 2021.  if you aren't able to see it in person, you can see the whole collection here .   i've also decided to write a bit about each one, so that you can find out a little "behind the scenes" information for each one, and hear a little about my inspiration.  here are the posts for station 1 , station 2 , and station 3 .  today we turn our attention to station 4: Jesus meets the women of Jerusalem.  we meet these women in luke 23:27-31, where we are told they are following him, along with a huge...

  "The Broken Path: Station 3 - Simon of Cyrene Helps Jesus Carry the Cross" by gregory a. milinovich broken glass and sea glass on an old farm window march, 2021 in case you are just tuning in, i sharing a series of posts about eight different stations of the cross which i created on old windows with bits of broken glass.  you can see the first station here , and the second one here .  (you can also view the whole series, with the prayers, questions for meditation, and a video version here ).   this station is about Simon of Cyrene, whom we read about in Mark 15:21-23, with only the barest details.  he was charged with helping Jesus to carry the cross, but in the end, it was a helpless kind of helping, really.  the man Simon was helping - Jesus - was still about to die, no matter what.  there was nothing Simon could do to really change anything.   this is the same idea lifted up in the prayer for this station by Padraig O'Tuama from "Da...

  "The Broken Path: Station 2 - Jesus Takes Up the Cross" gregory a. milinovich broken glass and tile on old farm window march, 2021 in these art installation i have really worked on creating a sense of brokenness.  my hope was to invite the viewer to consider both the brokenness of Jesus and the brokenness of self.  i want to conjure up images of the broken flesh of Jesus, and the broken spirits of those who bear the weight of too many burdens put on them.  in this station, in particular, i wanted to really convey that sense of broken flesh and spirits and sinews stretched thin.  as i mentioned in my post on the first station , each station is partially inspired by prayers by Padraig O'Tuama in "Daily Prayer with the Corrymeela Community" (copyright 2017, canterbury press, norwich, london).  here is the prayer i used as inspiration for this station:  Burdened God, who bore the weight of wood on torn shoulders, We pray for the torn and the burdened, th...

  during this season of lent, at the church i serve, we've been talking about brokenness.  we've been looking at the ways that our journey is often a broken journey, full of missteps, sidetracks, and dead ends.  and yet, we have been seeing, as clearly as ever, that those broken places are exactly the same places where grace grows.  the cracks are where the light shines through.   so, as a way to continue to reflect on this brokenness, the worship team thought we might do an art installation outside, on the church property, of the stations of the cross, but in a way that expressed not only the brokenness of Jesus' body and journey to the tomb, but also the brokenness of our world and our hearts.  using something i made several years ago, i thought we might be able to use old windows and broken glass to help tell the story.   so, in the end, i made eight separate stations of the cross, each one on an old window that came from an old farmhouse...

"ash wednesday 2020: where is God?" mixed media collage (acryclic paint, found papers, masking tape, glue on hardcover bookboard) gregory a. milinovich february 2020 where is God in all of this?  it's a question we've been asking for millenia.  just as we may look at intense beauty and see God as clear as the light of day, we may also look at tragedy and despair and see the absence of God like a dark fog.  in fact, it is this darkness like a fog that the prophet Joel writes about in Joel 2.  he writes of a darkness during the day.  like a blanket covering the land.  like an approaching army of death.  it's a stark image, but don't act like you can't relate.  from the atrocities of our human history to the sense of impending doom in our world today (mass shootings, natural disasters, violence, racial hatred, pandemic virus worries, and more), we have all felt like the darkness is an approaching army, a falling fog of hazy hopelessne...

"bread alone" mixed media collage (bread tabs, cut paper, acrylic paint, glue on stretched canvas) february, 2019 gregory a. milinovich "one does not live by bread alone," said Jesus, when he was out in his own spiritual wilderness, feeling hungry and tempted to use his power to satisfy his own wishes.  the voice of the tempter came to him, saying, "c'mon....look at all these stones...if you wanted, you could easily turn them to bread...you could satisfy your hunger, and instantly meet all the needs of the world."  it had to be tempting.  but Jesus knew that there was more than just bread and stones at stake here.  he knew that "easy fixes" wouldn't really be an answer to the problem of evil and brokenness.  he knew that bread was going to need to be broken, in order to really provide the wholeness that the world was so desperately hungry for.  so he quoted scripture.  he recalled deuteronomy 8, where the israelites we...

"games" mixed media collage (found papers, glue on cardboard [album cover]) february 2019 gregory a. milinovich no fancy commentary today.  just happy to be back to the process of gluing things together again (after two and a half years of making almost nothing).  collaging is both spiritual practice and sabbath self-care for me.  sometimes when i am making something very particular and specific, or as a response to a particular text or idea, it is more spiritual discipline.  but sometimes, when i just let all my preconceived ideas go, and just glue things together, it is absolutely good for my soul.  i've made several collages over the last few weeks, which i will continue to share, if for no other reason than to encourage you to keep doing (or go back to doing) the things that make you alive and abundantly you. 

"better together" mixed media (puzzle pieces, found papers, acrylic paint) on hardcover bookboard february, 2019 gregory a. milinovich i finished up my "better together" series a couple of weekends ago with this idea that we really need each other. honestly, it's that simple for me.  we need each other.   but that doesn't mean i'm always really good at it.  i shared an example in my sermon (which you can listen to here ), about my experience this last november going to vote.   i wanted to vote before work, and i had hoped that by going early i could just slip in and out quickly.  but unfortunately there was a long line.  and it was cold.  and on the verge of raining.  and i stood there in line without an umbrella or an overcoat over my suit.  i put on my headphones to listen to something, and pass the time, when (of course) it started to rain, lightly at first.  the man behind me tapped me on the sho...

"black and white" mixed media collage (found papers, acrylic paint, glue on hardcover book board) february 2019 gregory a. milinovich i've been thinking a great deal about race and racism recently, reading a fantastic book by Austin Channing Brown called "I'm Still Here," and preaching a sermon on january 27th about how race divides us in our country, in our communities, and in the church.  i've been thinking about the way that my color has positively impacted my life.  and how i so often so carelessly participate in a system that impacts others negatively because of theirs.  i've been thinking about justice, and that long moral arc on the universe.  i've been thinking about how i've always had a soft-spot for the underdog, but have so often failed to consider my own fortunate place in a world full of underdogs.  i've been thinking about how i might be a part of changing this.  of erasing some small part of the line th...

"democrats and republicans" mixed media collage (acryclic paint, found papers, ink) on hardcover bookboard january, 2019 gregory a. milinovich as i continue to preach about what it means to be 'better together' in a culture in which we are deeply fractured, i preached last sunday about the political divisions that riddle our country.  left and right, red and blue, urban and rural: there are countless fault-lines of division that live in some sort of fearful tension of the quakes that might result should they really bump up against one another. one issue i see is that rather than discuss the issues and problems that our nation (or our states, cities, churches, etc.) faces with differing opinions and various ideas, we have instead chained ourselves to political parties, and what they seem to represent to us.  we make it our identity.  so, if hannity says something, we either agree with it or despise it, before he opens his mouth really.  same with madd...

"that they might be one" mixed media (found papers, ash, shoe polish, acrylic paint, glue) on bookboard january, 2019 gregory a. milinovich last week our church began a new sermon series in which we are exploring how, in spite of our increasingly-polarized culture, we are in fact better together.  that's what the series is called: better together.  i am going to be addressing some pretty divisive topics in this series, like politics and race, but we began last week with a prayer which Jesus prayed, that we get to sort of eavesdrop on, as recorded in the gospel of john.  in this prayer, he prays for his followers, both those around him, and those who will one day hear about him through others, and he prays that we might all be one, just as he and his father are one.  he prays for unity.  and he prays for this unity, so that the world may know of his love for us.  i've been thinking a great deal about unity over the last few weeks, in preparat...

"faceless immigrants 1-13" mixed media collage (found papers, acrylic paint, glue) on hardcover bookboard november, 2018 gregory a. milinovich i know that this is a divisive subject, and i don't mean to divide.  in fact, my sincere hope would be to build and connect.  but as i continue to glue things together in a way that expresses what is going on in my soul, i cannot help but deal with some of the discord i find there recently.   the news has been full of stories about immigration, asylum-seekers, and how we maintain borders.  these are complicated issues, to be sure, but one of the ways that i find myself struggling as i process the things i see and hear (or sometimes try to avoid seeing and hearing), is to remember that we aren't just talking about an issue here.   when we start painting in broad strokes and speaking in swaths of generalities, we deal in issues and policies and i understood that conversation at that level is...

"behold" mixed media collage (found papers, glue, gesso on hardcover bookboard) october, 2018 gregory a. milinovich behold.  it's an imperative to stop and look.  sometimes we need that, don't we?  to stop and look?  sometimes i need to just behold.  to stop running at breakneck pace, and to pay attention to the rhythm of my breath, to the beating hearts are all around me, and to the presence of the holy everywhere.  "behold, i stand at the door and knock."  but i'm too busy to notice most of the time. and sometimes we need to stop and see what we are really doing.  i need to hear what the voice on the other side of the door is saying: hello?  you've been busy following your own agenda.  you've been busy reading the news and getting angry, or depressed, or numb.  you've been trying to distract yourself.  you've been demonizing the other, even though you aren't even listening.  behold.  look and see w...

""him/her" mixed media collage on hardcover book board (found papers, acryclic paint, glue) october, 2018 gregory a. milinovich "so God created humanity in the image of God; in the image of God they were created; male and female God created them." -genesis 1:27 so, if we are all created "in the image of God," what does that say about us?  about all of us?  and what does it say about God?  i think, as we learn to love our neighbors (and how we love our neighbors IS HOW WE LOVE GOD, according to 1 john 4:20-21), these are important questions for us to wrestle with.  when we read stories about separation of immigrant families; when we hear about mass shootings based on religion or race; when we are led to believe by the words and actions of our leaders that is okay to demonize, alienate, ostracise, generalize, stereotype, exclude or even execute those who are different than us, i think these are critically important questions, es...

"claimed" paper collage (found papers, acrylic paint, glue) on book board gregory a. milinovich october 2018 But now thus says the  Lord ,      he who created you, O Jacob,      he who formed you, O Israel: Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;      I have called you by name, you are mine. "you are mine," says God.  "do not be afraid.  i have redeemed you.  i have claimed you.  i got this." in a messy world full of pipe bombs and synagogue shootings; in a broken mess of hate and fear, i believe a certain kind of fearlessness based in a love that is perfect and holy.  i believe that the light defeats the darkness.  i believe we are claimed.