“Like a Great Warm Blanket” and Other Reviews of ‘Life After Art’

April 5, 2013 — 2 Comments

I’ve been all over the place this week.

If you read any blogs at all besides mine, you probably ran into me one or two places.

A ton of people posted amazing reviews for Life After Art.  I am so thankful to them for their generosity with their platforms and their kind words. A few of my favorite excerpts:

“As someone who always wants to create, but doesn’t feel ‘good enough’; as someone who has been stuck in the mire of depression, and still struggles sometimes; as someone who strives to be childlike, but wrestles with the grownup world – this book was like a great, warm blanket wrapped around me.”

- Lauren Dubinsky

“All in all, Life After Art nicely fills a void evident in mainstream Christian publications. With a glut of existing texts written to be encouraging, give five paths to, or superficially illustrate how we can do things with God, it’s refreshing to find an author like Appling willing to exemplify how we have the freedom to simply be with God.”

- Sonny Lemmons

“Can I be honest? I wasn’t expecting much. Which makes me sound like a terrible person, I know. And it’s NO  reflection on Matt as a writer. It’s just that when you deal in words for a living you get a bit tired of words. And are harder to impress.  Needless to say, books (and blogs for that matter) have a very hard time holding my attention these days. So I was surprised by how engaged I was with Matt’s book before I even got out of the introduction.”

- Jessica Bowman

“Life After Art is not as much about art and creativity as one might suspect judging by the book cover. This book is more so about how to learn the art of making life beautiful, though it is not an instruction manual. Believe you me, you are going to find yourself immensely challenged and asking yourself a lot of questions about how you can live a more beautiful life after you’ve closed the cover . . . but you’re going to be insanely happy about it.”

- Sarah Elizabeth

There were a ton of other people who generously shared their thoughts on Life After Art: Blake Atwood at Faith Village, Addie Zierman, Michael Perkins, Stephanie May, Paul Angone, Jeremy Statton, Clark Roush, John Smith, Glynn Young, Caris Adel, Jessica Bowman, Eileen Knowles, Stephanie Spencer, JR Forasteros, Create with Joy and Wes Molebash.

Right now, the book has racked up over thirty reviews on Amazon with a 4.8 star rating (and no bribery involved.)

Another bunch of people kindly hosted me for guest posts on their blogs, including Sarah Bessey, Jeff Goins, Sammy Adebiyi, Tyler Braun, Prodigal Magazine, Ed Cyzewski, Joe Lalonde and Andi Cumbo.

I am so grateful for the conversation the book has started, and I hope you will join with me, not on a journey to becoming better “artists,” but to become more human.  You can still pick up Life After Art for just ten bucks and get three free resources when you email your receipt to LifeAfterArtBook@gmail.com

In Life After Art
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How I Went from Participant to Spectator in Life

April 3, 2013 — 9 Comments

I was one of those kids who was picked last for teams in gym class.  Or maybe second-to-last.

If it was dodgeball day, I just kind of quietly moved toward the back wall.  Which seemed like a good strategy until I was one of the last kids left on my team, and suddenly it was me against three gorillas on the other team, with everyone watching.

I started to get performance anxiety…about almost everything.  

Because I learned that participating wasn’t always safe.  If you didn’t have what another kid had, if you weren’t as tall or as strong or as talented, then you would fail in front of your peers.  And failure wasn’t a safe option.

Participating meant failing more often then not.  It meant embarrassment.  It meant looking stupid.

And that’s how school started to transform me from participant to spectator in my own life.

Student Spectators

I see students in my classroom who are on this same path.

They aren’t as talented as the kid sitting next to them.

And a pre-teen’s view of the world has shifted so much since they were in kindergarten.  They are obsessed with how their peers see them.  So many of them hold back, try to shrink, try to stay invisible, so they won’t be called on, or their work won’t be seen, or they won’t feel the familiar sting of inadequacy.

They would rather be spectators than actual participants.  They would rather watch than do.

Spectator Spirituality

And look there at the church down the street.

Why, what are all those people doing?

That guy looks like he really wants to raise his hands during the worship.  But he just can’t draw that kind of attention to himself.  So he kind of bobs back and forth.  And that woman, there in the third row.  I bet she would love to lead a Bible study or a prayer meeting.  But she stays silent.  And that twenty-something, near the back.  He’s heard all of his life that God has a great purpose for him, but he still can’t find it.  He looks like he’s positively itching to get out of dodge and go on a wild adventure for Jesus.  But fear of something is holding him back.

These people, they are spectators, not participants.  I recognize them, because I’ve sat in all of their seats before.

All the World’s an Audience

Everywhere I go, I see spectators.  Someone once said that all the world’s a stage.  I think all the world’s an audience, with most of us too afraid to get up on stage.

People who are afraid that they missed out on God’s purpose for them.

But they are even more afraid to step out and participate.  They hang in the back, like the dorky kid in gym class who can’t throw a ball to save his life (me.)

That’s increasingly my heart in my work and in Life After Art - helping people not be spectators in their own lives anymore, but fully participating in everything God made them to be and do.

I’m done watching from the sidelines.  What about you?

In faith, Life After Art, religion, work
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Buy Life After Art Today, Get Four Resources for the Price of One

April 1, 2013 — 3 Comments

Life After Art Sharable4Hey friends, today’s a big day for me.  After over four years on this blog, and probably 450,000 words, I am finally releasing my first book Life After Art.  The endorsements and early reviews have come in, and people are having a great time with the book.

What You’ll Get Out of Life After Art

Life After Art isn’t about becoming a better artist or a more creative person.  It’s about becoming human, a human being that bears the image of our Creator.  Along the way, you’ll rediscover a bunch of stuff that you forgot from your childhood, get some fun stories from me, and even learn why beauty isn’t actually in the eyes of the beholder, contrary to popular belief.

Four For the Price of One

Today, Amazon is offering Life After Art for about ten bucks.  Plus, when you purchase the paperback copy online, email your receipt to LifeAfterArtBook@gmail.com to get three free resources:

The deluxe edition ebook (with bonus chapter).

The Life After Art Field Guide, designed to help you get the most out of the book.

The Art of Storytelling

life-after-artBuy Life After Art This Week

Ten bucks for all four of those is a heck of a deal, and this book has been a labor of love for me for many months now.  I’m so excited to share this with you guys, but I’m not getting rich off this or anything.  If I wanted to get rich, I wouldn’t have pursued writing, of all things.

But I am asking you to pick up a copy of the book this week to help it gain the momentum it needs so other people can get its message.

Go to the Life After Art site to watch the video preview (if you missed it), and grab the book from your online retailer of choice.  I hope you’ll tell me what you think too!

In Life After Art
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We Are Not Called to Be Relevant: An Easter Post

March 29, 2013 — 15 Comments

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Life After Art is available next Monday! Remember, when you order your copy, forward your receipt to LifeAfterArtBook.com for three other freebies from me and Moody Publishers.

The customer is always right.

That’s the saying.  Even though it’s not true.  Customers are usually wrong.  But we say that the customer is right and set out to satisfy them so we’ll keep their business.  It’s really a mantra of capitalism.  Give the customer what they want so they’ll keep giving us their money.  Whatever it takes.

But the smartest businesses don’t give customers what they want.

And neither should churches…especially this weekend.

Continue Reading…

In culture, faith, holidays
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Why We Must Redefine Christian Unity

March 27, 2013 — 20 Comments
UnityIcon3

Before Christians invented side-hugging, they expressed Christian unity by awkwardly hugging and nuzzling each others’ faces. Thankfully, expressions of Christian unity were redefined.

Just a few more days until Life After Art releases on April 1!  Pre-ordering is open, but remember that starting April 1, forward your receipt to LifeAfterArtBook.com to get the deluxe ebook, the Life After Art Field Guide, and The Art of Storytelling from Moody Publishers.

I spent two years at a small Christian college…

…before I had to get out.  I transferred to a state school to finish my art degree.

The first reason was because a Christian college isn’t really the place to learn art.

But honestly, those two years at Christian college was one of the spiritually darkest times in my life.

Now, how could a small town Christian college, with its chapel sermons and curfews and the guys playing exactly three guitar chords all over the quad, be one of the darkest places for my spirit?

It was because of how a place like that defined Christian unity. 

And the further I get away from college, the more I realize how many Christians define unity in the same way – a definition that actually creates disunity.  I have realized our desperate need to change how we think of Christian unity.

Continue Reading…

In church, philosophy, relationships
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Who Should Read ‘Life After Art?’ (Everyone Who Likes Free Stuff)

March 25, 2013 — 1 Comment

Just who am I hoping will read Life After Art?

Is it just for artsy-fartsy, creative, eccentric, Type B, right brained people?

Actually, no.

In fact Life After Art is not about being a better artist.  It’s not about being “creative” in the way you’ve learned to define the word.

It’s about being a better human being.  It’s about being the human being God created you to be.  Whether that means you’re a calculator-toting, left-brained, type A personality or the exact opposite, I wrote Life After Art with you in mind.
First GradeOne of my favorite things in the book is this drawing.  It was done by my brother, Aaron when he was in first grade.  Yes, it’s humorously bad, and no, he hasn’t gotten much better at art since this drawing was made twenty years ago.  We searched together through his scrapboxes to find one of the lousiest drawings he ever did on purpose.

It will all make sense once you get your hands on the book.  Life After Art is for guys like my brother who haven’t picked up a paintbrush or drawing pencil since they left elementary school art class.  It’s for people who don’t consider themselves creative or “artistic.”  (Don’t worry, it’s also good for people who are creative and artistic.)

In my art room, no student gets left out.  No one gets laughed at or criticized for being “uncreative.”  And the same is true with this book. I wrote this book for high school graduates, for twenty-somethings who can’t seem to get their lives together, for thirty-somethings who still can’t get their lives together, for artists, for truck-drivers, for preachers and teachers, moms and dads who are watching their children grow up too fast and people who are afraid they missed God’s purpose for their lives.

It’s also for people who like free stuff!  When you order Life After Art (or pre-order), starting April 1, you can email your receipt to LifeAfterArtBook@gmail.com to get the deluxe edition ebook (with bonus content), the Life After Art Field Guide, and The Art of Storytelling from Moody Publishers.  Neat-o!

I hope you’ll hop on over Life After Art now and place your pre-order.

In Life After Art
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