Hi, my name is Karl Fay. I’m a Jesus follower, an artist, a husband, a dad, and a pastor.
I earned a B.A. in Studio Art and completed the Pre-Seminary Program at Concordia University, Seward, NE. After four and half years in Seward, I took a gap semester to be home with my mom, who was dying of a degenerative brain illness, and to get married to Kendra.
I am married to Kendra, who I’ve known since 2nd grade. 2025 is our 20th wedding anniversary.
We have four kids, June (16), Ruben (14), Iris (11), Ezra (9), and a dog named Luna.
Then we moved on to St. Louis where I earned my Master of Divinity at Concordia Seminary and went on to become a pastor. I currently serve as Senior Pastor at Prince of Peace in Palatine, IL. We’ve been here in the Chicago suburbs for about 12 years.
Why visual art + faith? It’s a potent and important yet underrepresented and underexplored combination in our church body. Visual art is another language beyond words or alongside words. When I started to learn how to express my faith in Jesus visually during my college years, I discovered a deeply meaningful way to spend time with God and share or show my faith to others. It totally changed my life.
When I clarified that I wasn’t using my art to earn a living, as a professional artist, I rediscovered creating art as an amateur, which really means “for the love.” There’s a lot of beautiful freedom when you do things for the love of the gift you’ve been given and the people with whom you get to share that gift.
I have been exploring the intersection of words and images for about the last 20 years.
I’ve tried about every art medium imaginable, but I love drawing most of all because it is relatively inexpensive, very portable, and requires little cleanup (ideal for fitting into busy family life across multiple moves!).
As a pastor, I use art as often as I can. Here are a few specific ways:
1) I have created printed takeaways for people on special occasions like Christmas so that my message can be remembered long after I speak it. People have kept and collected these takeaways over the years as well as shared them with others.
2) I’ve also explored different ways to actually create art in worship, painting or drawing while preaching or using time lapse videos to help people witness the creative process.
3) I’ve used our campus as a canvas by creating large murals or immersive installations to transform, revitalize, or temporarily activate spaces. Bonus, if you take video of the process, you can also create time lapses and social media can also become a canvas and videos can be shareable content.
Check out details for each of these slide show images ("Allegiance", "Roar, "A Dandy Sunrise," "The Gospel According to Butterflies," and "A Easter Prayer" at http://revdraw.art.
You can find more of my artwork at my portfolio website: http://revdraw.art. This is my dedicated art space. I’m also on Instagram: RevDraw and Facebook: Karl Fay. Here I post a mixed bag of family happenings, devotional moments, nature and outdoor cycling photos, and new art creations. If I can encourage you in your creative journey, feel free to reach out pastorkarl@pop.church
If you have. a story at the intersection of Art + Faith, let us know and we would love to share it!
Comentarios