Should Artists Do Free Work for the Church?: Sid O'Niell

This episode is a special, topic based podcast for members of the Catholic Creatives group who have been involved in the recent conversations in the community about whether or not artists should do free work for the church. Because these conversations have happened with a level of intensity online (members can find the thread here), Anthony invited Sid O'Neill, a designer and developer who works mainly with Catholic clients, to come and talk about it. Sid is the owner of Highland Creative Co, and you can also find him lurking in the slack channel. If you want to ask him any questions, hit him up there. He may not do work for you for free, but he will bend over backwards to give you free development advice and to give you free jokes. 

Book Recommendation

Pretty Much Everything: https://www.amazon.com/Draplin-Design-Co-Pretty-Everything/dp/1419720171

Review about the book: http://www.acontinuouslean.com/2016/06/27/pretty/

Ragamuffin Ministry and Burnout: Ennie Hickman

Ennie’s talk at Steubenville

Adore Ministries

The Ragamuffin Gospel

Encounter Young Adult Conference

Why Beauty?: Fr. Don Fischer

Fr. Don Fischer spent over a decade consulting on all new church building projects in Dallas, and his singular mission during that time was to convince the leadership of these projects to invest in good design and art. We spoke about why beauty is so important to us as human beings, and why the church should make the investment to hire true artists to cultivate that beauty. He studied art and architecture before he entered seminary, and his work with the Landrys on the Chapel of the Incarnation won the AIA 25 year award, a prestigious architecture award in Dallas. To read about that project, go here: https://www.aiadallas.org/v/blog-detail/In-Search-of-the-Numinous/lj/

To see more about what Fr. Don is doing now, or to listen to his podcast, you can find him here: http://www.pastoralreflectionsinstitute.com/

Being a Bad Catholic and Making Good Art: John Paul Summers

John Paul Summers of Infinite Focus joined Anthony D'Ambrosio on the podcast today to talk about making amazing art, and about the difficulties of being a bad Catholic. We spoke about John Paul's movement from missionary and youth ministry out of the bounds of the church, and into a quickly accelerating creative career. John Paul is a cinematographer and DP, he is on track to be doing national commercials- he also has a dream to make an actually kick ass Catholic film at some point- in the school of The Mission or Calvary. 
Warning: contains some cursing, and even some content that many Catholics would not agree with. We do not believe that we should silence or censor these words or ideas, but encourage you to listen and understand.

You can see more of John Paul's work here: https://vimeo.com/138922456

Being an Effective Contrarian: Brian Holdsworth

Holdsworth Design

“Why You Shouldn’t Name Your Child Siri”

http://www.commitlife.com/

Fishers Net Awards 
 

Trusting in God, Building a Legacy Agency: Ryan Dellacrosse

Ryan Dellacrosse (middle) owner of Fuzati, is an incredibly inspiring man of faith. He has been a powerful advocate for better Catholic media for many years, and it is an honor to have him on the show. He also happens to be one of the best basketball players that any of you know. See video below for confirmation. 
In this conversation, Ryan tells Anthony about his transformation from pro athlete, to seminarian, to SMS marketing entrepreneur, to owner the largest marketing agency in the Catholic US scene. Ryan is the quintessential big vision thinker. This conversation is inspiring and will be deeply valuable to anyone who has big dreams, or wants to solve big problems. 

From Break Dancing to Spirit Juice Studios: Rob Kaczmark

Rob Kaczmark and Catholic Creatives Host, Anthony D'Ambrosio, talk about Rob's rise to power from his humble beginnings in Catholic radio. Rob, the founder of Spirit Juice Studios, has helped to establish a new level of excellence in Catholic media with his cinematic film work. He and his team recently won an emmy for their short, Salve Regina.  In this hilarious and human conversation, Rob and Anthony talk about the risk and rewards of embracing a creative career, about the challenges and mistakes that Rob experienced during his journey, and about how Rob became a "pretty ok" breakdancer. Rob also gives advice to people who are just getting started, and he gets deep about his own motivations for getting involved in church media.

Topics for the next interview with him will include how he got his show kicked off Catholic radio, and advice on how to look super creative. 
To learn more about Spirit Juice Studios, check out http://www.spiritjuicestudios.com/ 

Also here are two seconds of Rob doing the worm: 

On Becoming Proud to Be an Artist: Cory Heimann

Many of us creative artists grew up afraid of the "artist" label because of the stigma that it carried. We were often told that being an artist was a surest way to end up "flipping burgers," and many of us can recount times when people looked down at  artists as lazy or naive. In this podcast episode, Anthony D'Ambrosio interviews Cory Heimann, owner of Likeable Art, on how he shook off this stigma and became proud of his artistic vocation. We also speak about how his experiences of faith impacted value he has placed on art and beauty. Finally, they also talks about Cory's big and hopeful vision for the future. The conversation was wide ranging-- at moments deeply spiritual, and at others eminently practical. 

Cory is a prolific filmmaker that has been pushing the boundaries of excellence in Catholic media for a few years now.  Here is an example of his work: http://www.likableart.com/2016/01/15/stealingtime/

Recommended Resources: 

Hey Whipple Squeeze This

Fit Bit Knockoffs

Ministry, Money, and Authenticity: Jenna Guizar of Blessed is She

Jenna Guizar, founder of Blessed is She, an incredibly innovative women's ministry, speaks with Catholic Creatives Host Anthony D'Ambrosio about how she got her start. Their topics range from how to be both professional and authentic, and the interplay between money and ministry.

Find more about Blessed is She here: www.blessedisshe.net

Classes:

Skillcrush

People and Podcasts:

Chalene Johnson:  http://www.chalenejohnson.com/

Being Boss: http://beingboss.club/

Amy Porterfield: http://www.amyporterfield.com/

Paul Jarvis & Jason Zook (invisible office hours)  https://pjrvs.com/ 

Collaboration and Why There Isn't More of It: The Vigil Project

I really enjoyed talking with Jon Weiss & Dan Johnson of 4PM Media and Shawn Williams of Papercastle Records about their creative collaboration The Vigil Project. I had an awesome time with them breaking down exactly how they pulled off what they did. We get into numbers, the challenges they faced, time commitment, and return on investment. We also talked about why Shawn doesn't have a tattoo. 

The Bipolar Mortician Turned Artist: Ben Graebner

Listen to Anthony interview Ben about the Catholic take on death, how art carried him through his struggles with mental illness, and why he is a mortician. 

One of Ben's Paintings:

Check out Ben's Etsy here: https://www.etsy.com/shop/kodiakink?ref=l2-shopheader-name

How Anthony D'Ambrosio Went From Emo Kid to Marketeer

Listen to Edmund Mitchell of Reverb Culture interview Anthony D'Ambrosio of D'Ambrosio Creative about Catholic Creatives and about how being in an emo band in high school turned into a career in marketing.

Just for you guys, here's the first flier Anthony D'Ambrosio ever created on photoshop circa 2006.