New Zealand youth leader creates new set of art cards focused on Jesus
[Anglican Taonga] Brad Wood, youth coordinator for the Diocese of Nelson in the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia, has added 40 new designs to his set of well-received 80 Aotearoa-New Zealand inspired “Formatio” cards. They are designed for use by spiritual directors, youth workers and Christians at prayer.
Wood’s first set of spiritual conversation starter cards have found favor with Christians working in spiritual formation, using their designs of Pacific-centered imagery, mostly from the natural world.
“After releasing the original Formatio cards, I had heaps of encouraging feedback from youth leaders, spiritual directors, supervisors and individuals using them in personal prayer,” he said. “A recurring comment was the desire for more content specifically focused on Jesus.”
Wood added, “So along with my own love for visual prayer, morning liturgies and silent retreats, that led to this new set, centered directly on the stories and teachings of Jesus.”
The new set of cards also depart from the brightly colored painting style of the first set and instead use a hand-colored woodcut style, which Wood says reflects his desire for a simpler format that gives the viewer more chance to ponder slowly on the stories’ deeper meanings.
Once again the images were made using DALL-E and Photoshop, while the new set also comes with a dedicated website that includes discussion starter questions.
