Ministries

Discovering Your Creative Calling: Interview with Visual Artist Tony Snipes Founder of Art Lessons From God


Author, speaker and ministry leader Tony Snipes helps today’s gifted artisans answer questions about their purpose and creative calling through his initiatives Art Lessons From God and Kreative Kingdom.

“What is it that you love doing that you wouldn’t even have to have anybody pay you for… That’s your passion…the beauty of it would be that if you’re pursuing that and you’re getting paid for it then it’s not even like work.” – Tony Snipes


Be sure to check out the resource links at the end of the interview including a free download of Tony’s audio resource “How To Identify Your Creative Calling: Your CALLING, Your CAREER, Your JOB…What’s The Difference?”



Most everyone has asked these questions:

  • Who am I?
  • Why am I here?
  • What should I be doing?

Artists in particular, from painters to musicians, may ask these questions regarding their gifts:

  • Who am I as an artist?
  • Why do I have this talent?
  • What does God want me to do with it?

Tony Snipes, a gifted artist himself and founder of Kreative Kingdom, Inc. a non-profit faith-based art initiative, began asking these questions and created a resource to help other artists discover their creative purpose.

Tony’s project, Art Lessons from God delves into these questions of gifting and calling. The blog, workshops, books and other resources were created with the goal of helping artists and designers discover God’s purpose and plan for their artistic talent. Watch Tony introduce the site below:

Though the site is targeted toward visual artists it has much insight that could inspire artists of any type from writers and performers to musicians and filmmakers. Many of the topics explored can apply to a variety of arts, like “Anointed versus Talented: What’s the Difference?” to “Discovering a “God” idea vs a “Good” idea.”

Often in our society we acknowledge the “how” regarding talents of individuals but may not always consider the deeper questions involved with “why”. In this interview Tony Snipes discusses his background in the visual arts and gives advice to other artists in figuring out their “why” and God’s purpose for them:



Dream in Soul: Hi Tony, thanks for speaking to me today. Can you tell us a little about who you are: What is your background in art and your profession?

Tony Snipes: Well prior to going into graphic design and illustration I have been drawing and painting all of my life but especially kind of training myself to draw and sketch from my comic books as a kid. So I did a lot of drawing back then, and am professionally trained as a graphic designer – graphic design and illustration…that’s pretty much my professional background with art…

Below is one of Tony Snipes’ pieces entitled “Endure.”




DS: What inspired you to start your website “Art Lessons From God”?

Tony Snipes: What really started challenging me is and kind of pushed me towards starting the site was based on a conversation that I had with a young man back in the late ‘90s. He was an artist as well and he was about to graduate from high school, and was contemplating going to art school or taking something else… We were talking in church and both of us started asking, where is the artist in the Bible?







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- “Life’s not about you, it’s about something way bigger than you, you just get to be apart of it…”







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Kierra Sheard and her young adult ministry Bold Right Life are presenting another conference this year, the BOLD RIGHT LIFE Experience 2011. Special guests include Pastor Donnie McClurkin, Pastor Welton Smith IV, Pastor Jonathan Miller, Jonathan Nelson, DA T.R.U.T.H, BRL and many more. The event is taking place August 11-13, in Detroit, MI. Register Online today at www.boldrightlife.com Kierra also has new music coming out on in October 2011 featuring BRL and entitled FREE.

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oraiaspeaks

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Visit www.oraiaspeaks.com for booking information and more videos, from Oraia.

As both a writer and public speaker, Oraia has fused her gifting into a powerful creative tool through the art of “Spoken Word”. This unique anointing has given Oraia a distinct voice not only within the body of Christ but far beyond. Her message has torn down walls of cultural and racial division and is gripping the hearts of young men and women from every walk of life. Oraia has been honored to minister at an extensive collection of diverse churches and venues including The Potter’s House & Teen Mania’s “Battlecry”. She also sits on the Creative Team for Upsidedown Inc. and is the Producer for Youth Explosion Ministries in New York City where she serves under the leadership of Pastors Michael, Adam and Chris Durso.




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