UNBLOCK
God creates in 7 days.
God creates humans; He creates us to create with Him.Each of us images God in being His creation and in creating using the gifts He gave us. Some of us engineer complex systems. Some of us formulate scientific advances. Some of us teach and open worlds of knowledge to students. Some of us bring new life into the world. Some of us plant, cultivate, and harvest, bringing beauty and nourishment to those around us. Some of us follow the Good Shepherd in watching over and leading His flock.
And some of us make art.
Callie Mechelke makes art; during her time as Holy Cross’s first resident artist, she chose to make art about making art. Specifically, she made art about the creative process, breaking it down into 7 stages, moving from initial spark and desire to actually beginning the work, and then to a unique thing that happens to human creators: block.
What do we do when the good we try to bring into the world gets stuck? How do we navigate out of failure, un-inspiration, frustration, even defeat? How do we unblock ourselves and bring good things into our world? The only way out, it seems, requires us to press on. Good art might try to resist being made, but that resistance invites us to go deeper, to find ourselves relying not only on our wisdom and expertise but to reach toward the Spirit to guide us through.
Callie’s work draws us deeper, past creative block into selah, into liberation, and into release. By allowing what she creates to germinate in us, her audience, her work seems to call us to create, using the gifts God gives to each of us, where He placed us. We learn from her images the freedom that comes when we rely on Christ as we persevere in moments of resistance; like Callie, we might find our hard work growing good things.
Using collage, embroidery, and poetry, Callie walks us through the creative process. Each piece proves complexly layered, offering moments of delight and wonder to those who lean in and look closely. Her words guide the viewer into meditations on each stage, not judging, but offering hope for the journey.
I invite you to take this journey; to walk alongside Callie’s work, to learn from it, and to allow it to inspire your own creative process in whatever ways that manifests.
Welcome to UNBLOCK.
Artist Statement:
Art, in essence, operates autobiographically, expressing itself in an amalgamation of realities (internal, external, divine) which manifest through the artist in abstract and literal iterations. Though I find this true in most of my artistic endeavors, this project, UNBLOCK, reaches a new level of autobiographical substance.
As a multi-disciplinary artist, I know the daunting subject, creative block, intimately. In my venture to discover some form of remedy, I resolve to create through it – detail the journey, the emotion, the continuity like a field journal – and express my insights through the creations themselves. This pursuit birthed the concept for this meta-project, UNBLOCK.
The 14 pieces in this installation explore what I see as the 7 stages of the creative process: desire, ideation, creation, block, selah: vision, liberation, and release. The time spent on each stage varies depending on the piece. Strangely enough, the phase of the arc at which I lingered while creating almost always matched the phase I was expressing (hence why I used the term “meta-project” above). I call that a “God wink”.
The stages in UNBLOCK arose through contemplation and divine revelation. I believe their structure reflects that of a literary narrative arc, with the climax of the narrative being “Stage 4: THE BLOCK” and the resolution, “Stage 7: RELEASE”. I find it humorous and fitting that the number of stages naturally came out to 7 specifically, which mirrors the creation story of the Bible.
The varied materials used in these collages result from both spontaneous and intentional selection, reflecting the interplay of my equally intuitive and visionary creative style.
Collaging broke me out of a landmark creative block with music, so it feels befitting to lean into the medium to explore even further the depths and mystery of the creative journey.
Artist Bio:
Callie Mechelke is an interdisciplinary artist, practicing as a singer-songwriter and collage artist. Born and raised in St. Louis, Mehelke graduated with her BFA from Pepperdine University in December 2021, and now resides in the Los Angeles area. She began playing guitar and songwriting at the age of 6, and started sporadically releasing music in January of 2020 with her debut single “Honey”.
During an artist residency in Spain last fall, Mechelke turned back to her adolescent roots in visual art during a prolonged creative block with music. Her work in Spain led Mechelke back to her hometown of St. Louis, to be part of yet another residency, focused entirely on the medium of collage. Her time in this residency birthed the project UNBLOCK, displayed in Intersect Art Center’s Bridge House Gallery from April-June 2024.
The Work:
The Exhibition:
