Our People
Michelle Arnold Paine
Michelle Arnold Paine
Throughout Michelle Arnold Paine’s painting career she has sought to serve arts communities through connecting people with opportunities and relationships. Her art’s Christian themes have led to collaborating with and serving churches, colleges and non-profit organizations exploring the convergence of art and faith.
Most recently, Michelle served as a staff member for Christians in Visual Arts (CIVA). During her three years as Community Ambassador at CIVA, she coordinated the Heart to Heart program and nurtured artists by developing online programming for members.
During the three years she spent in Italy, she found her vocation as an artist and also a connection to history and tradition through the Catholic Church. After her return, she received a Post-Baccalaureate Certificate from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and went on to earn an MFA from University of New Hampshire.
Her work has been published in many publications which seek to explore elements of the divine: Evangelism and Culture, CT (Christianity Today), Ruminate Magazine, Edge of Faith, CIVA’s SEENJournal, Dappled Things, Worship Leader, and Intruding Upon the Timeless. She has participated in podcasts, panels and artist lectures focusing on the intersection of art and faith as well as being an artist in residence at the St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, Toledo, OH, Valparaiso University Chapel at Valparaiso University Indiana, North Shore Chapel, MA and at the Center for Faith and Inquiry at Gordon College, MA.
In addition to private collections across the U.S., her paintings can be found in the collection of the Valparaiso University Chapel, Rivier University, Gordon College, and St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, Toledo.
She lives in Ohio with her husband and two daughters. Find her artwork at michellepaine.com and on Instagram @paine.michelle.
Steven Homestead
Steven Homestead brings genre-spanning creativity to life, whether composing music, incarnating art projects, writing and speaking on creativity and faith, or curating generative events and programs.
From 2017-2021, he served as President of the American Composers Forum of Los Angeles (ACF-LA), a nonprofit for composers in Southern California. In that role, Steven supported the development and appreciation of new music, garnered numerous grants, and created dynamic programs. Steven helped launch the inaugural Compose LA Festival in 2019, partnering with the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs.
In the visual arts, he has been the force behind numerous interactive installations, including work at the Laguna Beach Festival of Arts and the Downtown Santa Ana ArtWalk. He’s had solo shows at Fuller Theological Seminary, TEDxMission Viejo, and Life Pacific University. Most recently, he presented at ArtPrize with his project “Be My Neighbor.” He has also led numerous projects for Saddleback Visual Arts, where he has served as one of the ministry’s key arts leaders over the past decade.
His creativity, thought leadership, and ability to engage intellectually, emotionally, and empathetically have led to a variety of leadership roles, including co-hosting the 2018 Creative Church Arts Conference alongside Marlita Hill; co-facilitating the Church of the Brethren’s Southwestern Division Retreat with Rev. Dr. Mellisa Hofstetter; serving as a retreat facilitator at Fuller Theological Seminary; guest speaking at Mako Fujimura’s studio at Fuller’s Brehm Center; and presenting at the 2021 CIVA Biennial (among others).
Since 2021, he has curated for the Boca de Oro literary Festival of Arts, taught Data Visualization at Coastline College, and served as a Creative Consultant for Shepherd Heart Ministry.
In all, Steven works to promote honor, champion voice, share wonder, and develop unity. Discover more at stevenhomestead.com and on Instagram: @scubahomie.
Adrienne Reedy
Kent Larson
Kent Larson has been involved in ministry for over 40 years. His experience includes youth ministry, inner city ministry, missions, children, inner healing, pastoral counseling, worship, intercession, prophetic/healing art, and worship dance. He has been an associate pastor at Vineyard Community Church in Laguna Niguel, California since 2000. His primary oversight has been prayer, establishing HOPE – House of Prayer for Everyone, the VCC Healing Rooms and the Mercy Arts Community.
In 2020, Kent helped start a program that would grow to become Creator Circles alongside Barbara Lidfors, Steven Homestead, and Michelle Paine.
Kent and his wife Cathy teach as a team in VCC’s Kingdom School of Ministry as well as adult training classes and seminars. They also oversee pastoral care/counseling, inner healing prayer and the VCC Mercy Transformation Center (MTC).
MTC is a comprehensive healing, recovery and transformation ministry based on Life Model Works. Kent and Cathy are both certified Life Model Works trainers and have done thousands of hours of inner healing ministry over the last 30 years, and hundreds of hours of Immanuel Approach Healing since 2012.
Donna Kemper
Primarily a painter, Donna Kemper also works in drawings, mixed media, as well as installation pieces. Her artworks tend to establish a link between visual art and contemplative spirituality, connecting with something larger than ourselves in an understated way.
She started her art career in the 80s but put it aside in the early 2000s to care for a parent she hadn’t seen in over a decade. That experience deeply affected her spiritual and art practices. Previously working in a representational style, her work is now drawing more from abstraction (color, calligraphic, and gestural mark-making) while often retaining a link to nature and the landscape.
Her works directly respond to the surrounding environment and use everyday experiences from the artist’s life as a starting point. Things that might go unnoticed in their original context become a point of meditation – looking for the sacred in the ordinariness of life.
Donna and her husband currently live and serve in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
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