Reverend Ethan Acres

Reverend Ethan Acres was born in 1970 in Ft. Payne, Alabama. He began preaching at the age of ten. He urged people to attend meetings conducted by his stepfather who was a preacher. At the same age his interest in art also began. He attended the University of Texas at Austin and received a BFA in painting in 1993. In 1996 he attended the University of Nevada in Las Vegas and received his MFA for multimedia. In 1996 he also got his Doctorate of Divinity from the World Christian Ministries and he currently lives and works in Los Angeles, California (In the Making Creative Options for Contemporary Art, Linda Weintraub pp. 244).

He is very passionate about art and most importantly about God. I believe that what he does is art. I may not enjoy his works, but I believe that it is art. Most people these days would say that anything can be art now, but that’s not true. Just because someone says something is art doesn’t mean it’s successful. I feel that art, if done right, makes you stop and think and causes a reaction. His art does that and he clearly puts thought in each and every detail of his pieces. For instance he was extremely detailed in his Pearls 2 Pigs piece in how he created them.

His work is different to me because he tries to create art in such a way that it teaches people about the Bible and he tries to push people in the direction of God rather than what most other artists do with religious related works where they are mocking religion and such. He wants people to laugh hoping that they will follow a better path because of his art. Being an artist and a preacher causes him to strattle a very delicate and uncomfortable line. Some people might see his work as mocking religion and be offended or even enjoy that, so if he doesn’t convey the message he wants to in the right way it may create problems for the goals of his work.

His work is like preaching because he takes stories from the Bible and recreates them in a way to try to get people to be interested. He says that it is his mission “to be a fool for God’s sake, a holy fool.”(In the Making Creative Options for Contemporary Art, Linda Weintraub pp. 244-245). I also think his work is like preaching because the fact that he is taking stories from the Bible and recreating them in satirical ways may help people to understand them better. People tend to understand things and become more interested in them when art is involved. Also they tend to pay attention more when they think they are going to get a chance to laugh.

He seems to be very serious about his work and God perhaps because he makes the two relate. If he wasn’t serious I don’t think he would continue doing what he does. He may not seem like it because of the way he dresses, acts, or anything else, but his passion for God and his art make it serious. “By combining the social roles of this grand triumvirate of professions, Acres uplifts the spirits of his world-weary congregants—including members of sophisticated art audiences.” (In the Making Creative Options for Contemporary Art, Linda Weintraub pp. 244-245).