Artist Profile

Stephen Thompson

Stephen Thompson has been an artist and art teacher most of his life. He's now 61 and still excited about the gift God gave him to explore creative, visual things, alongside the best tutor imaginable - the unorthodox, unpredictable, often spontaneous, and remarkably "alive" (in the small as well as big areas of life) Holy Spirit.

Stephen has lived and worked in international schools in the UK, Turkey, China, and now Thailand. He loves God and God loves him. They share secret things, which is as it should be in any relationship! Stephen is married to Yasmin and they live with 3 children in a part of the world where butterflies range in their garden and life is not over-regulated by the worst of modern society's laws and rules!

On the Web:Sumo Fan Mag

Stephen Thompson

I believe that God personally enjoys creating every day, not necessarily to reveal that which he does to human beings (think snowflakes in Alaska, or cocoons under a leaf etc, or whatever it is that you are astounded by). Like, that’s not his main aim in enjoying what he does, although it can happen that we end up marveling if we look for things regarding where he is for us as individuals amidst daily routines and responsibilities and all the stuff around us each day. God is a God who hides himself, right?!

My experience is that there are no norms or formulas to follow about being creative….no “how to” or “do this and then that will happen”….because God can circumvent formulas of creative working procedures regularly, and does do so. It’s us who have to flow with Him, not the other way round. If he’s in us, and as followers of Christ, he is, then we can flow with Him creatively. Sometimes he’s pretty quiet, sometimes aflood with ideas and new energies and directions we are to follow. Seems to be sort of seasonal, in a way. If we are surrendered to him, we can go where he goes and when he goes! A hand in hand activity.

It was to my great surprise when God started to lead me to create humorous drawings about sumo characters, based on an interest I had in Japanese sumo, the National sport of Japan. I’ve been observing it on and off since 1989. At first, it was just God and me and the drawing process. Sometimes it would be on paper using a pen, and sometimes on a white-board using a board marker. A few times it was on serviettes (not cloth ones!) in restaurants. The drawings are transferred via a digital camera to a computer where they are played with and developed in Photoshop program.

I need to get a bit subject-specific now in order to lay a base for what I want to say later…I like sumo because it has slow build-up based on discipline and personal commitment, contemplation, eventual fast action, tremendous skill shown sometimes, and winners and losers where both the two combatants exit with honour. But mainly I like that in sumo the winner, by his movement and balance and creative efforts, overcomes the “form”, the restriction of the tight circle of the small fighting ring, and it’s not just about beating his opponent. It’s about balance and movement, believe it or not! A bit like doing a good drawing. There have always been “characters”, unusual rikishi (wrestlers), fun, controversy, scandal, and absurd events, as a backdrop to the tournaments held every two months each year. It is these things that I enjoy having as subject matter for my drawings rather than the more “traditional” Japanese portraits showing the world of sumo in a formal way. A lot of my sumo artwork is tongue-in-cheek, but is not disrespectful of the people and personalities. For this reason my characters are mostly invented and do not usually depict any particular individual, although some “connections” can be made in some cases by those “in the know” in the sport!

I suppose that the main thing I want to express in this short piece of writing is that God is beyond our pigeon-holing of who he is and what he can do and also what he likes. One thing he really seems to like is doing different creative things with people so there’s lots of variety. Just between him and that person is ok. No-one else needs to know! It’s a sharing which is him giving of himself and not necessarily so that we can make money with our gift, or so that the world can see it as a sort of forced “use your talents to serve God” thing in ways which one too often sees happening in Christian circles where the gifts are pushed forwards too fast and too soon and then they reach a wall and perhaps atrophy. It ends up not being a sharing-with-God-one-on-one activity but rather a compulsive “perform” procedure within strictures of method and technique and “this is how it worked before”. And before you know it there is formula rather than life! I like to relax to be creative. God does too. No forcing of anything.

So, I’ve been through a “no hope” of my sumo artwork going anywhere regarding worldly acknowledgement (success in worldly terms) and I came to be at peace with that. It’s just been a peculiar activity which hardly anyone can share with me….but God does! And that’s the whole point to make to anyone else out there who is enjoying creating / making/ experimenting / innovating with artwork….which is that you are doing it primarily with and for God and yourself as an activity which has other benefits than just financial gain. He gives to you and you give back to him. No application other than that and into the world is necessary. It’s probably best that stage is reached before there is any public acknowledgement, if that is to happen, and it may not. Then you can continue with the proven (to Him) relationship with God whatever takes place after that. If God opens it up, His way, where financial blessings accrue, then that’s a by-product of the intimate journey with the Lord and you won’t get carried away with money! If money is not your goal, but relationship with God is, then anything can happen or not as he leads! It makes for contentment in creative endeavor. You can be who you are made to be because you are free inwardly to do the “oddball” (and I regard my artwork as oddball, in a way) art activity God wants to do with you!

After a “lull” in drawing this past year when I felt the sumo involvement had died, God has re-directed me to try and market my sumo artwork produced over the last 5 years or so. I currently don’t know where this will go, and it’s an unexpected turn. I’ve started to assemble a list of sumo-orientated restaurants and bars in USA and Japan with a view to contacting them. I may create an online gallery where I sell high-quality prints. It’s an unfolding process and God’s got the reins!

Another thing about Jesus is that we can forget that He is immersed in and knows all about other cultures than our own home base one, wherever that is. We can get a bit myopic if we are not careful. I’ve never been to Japan, but God has and he’s told me a bit about it. He’s been to the planets and stars too, and loads of other places and dimensions which he can share with us and enjoy exploring with us. All I need to do is to open myself to Him and listen to the Holy Spirit beyond the expectations or formulaic standardizations of culture around me, including the “how to do it” aspects of Christian culture which also do exist to restrict that “narrow” but happy way with the Lord!

For those who may want to see some drawings you can go to:- http://www.sumofanmag.com/Right_Menu/archives.html Click my name under the list "SFM Cartoons". You can see how the drawings mature as time goes on. I share a staff cartoonist role there with another artist. It’s not a Christian publication but that’s not an issue with God! The real issues for God are not “out there” but transformation IN me through relationship with him and what we’ve done together! You don’t have to like sumo or the drawings or understand the texts that go with the drawings to “get” the way God connects to people through mutual endeavor! What’s your oddball co-creator thing I wonder?!
To conclude….I still get a huge buzz from my involvement as a co-creator with God and it seems to me that is how it should be. Thanks to God for allowing me and you and the kids I teach the opportunity to know more of His incredible and unrestricted creative nature, and to learn from him whatever “unusual thing” he might want to share with us as a process of developing relationship with him!