The Start of SOCC

One day in July 2024, as I was in my small apartment seeking refuge from the Rogue Valley heat, I had a moment of inspiration. Stemming from a video I saw on Instagram about the sound that our diaphragm makes (sounds like YHWH, if you were curious), I sat down at my desk and drafted out a small zine (a play on 'magazine' and typically a short art-based booklet). After I had my draft, I pulled out my iPad and drew a final version, printed it, put it together, and showed my husband.

The whole thing took less than three hours, an impressive pace for someone with chronic procrastination and distraction issues. Seeing a new project to completion typically involves some unknown mental hurdle that takes me 3-5 business months to get over. So, I can only give credit for this one to the Holy Spirit. This six-page zine is about the breath that God gives every creature and my desire to trust Him with every one He gives me. I was (and am) very happy with how it turned out. The question now was - what in the world do I do with this?

I think I first printed a few and gave them out to some friends during Saturday tea time (I miss those, Luke and MacKenna!). Then gave a few to some people at work who I knew were believers. The feedback was encouraging, to say the least. But then I sat on it, unsure what to do. It was eating me up for a few months, before I decided to have a bunch printed at Walgreens and was going to give some out at my first art market in November. Spoiler alert: I chickened out, and pretended to blame it on the lack of customers.

Not satisfied with this existing in such a small scope, the next month I enlisted my husband, the extrovert of our marriage, to hand some out at church. Once again, the feedback was encouraging! But I still felt like there had to be a better way to share faith-based creations with the local Church Body.

I longed for a Christ-centered creative hub. I knew there had to be some way to share this better, without feeling like I'm forcing anything on anyone. Surely, I can't be the only Christian in the area wanting to share their work but doesn't know how to go about it.

What if there was a website, a community, specifically for this purpose? For those who are inspired by the Holy Spirit to create something but don't know where to start, or have a message they want to share, or long to connect with other creatives who have the same heart for God?

So there, in my car after Good Friday service, the idea for Southern Oregon Christian Creatives burst from the ground. And in the months since, I've had the pleasure of talking with a few other creatives at my church who've helped me puzzle out what SOCC should be, while slowly figuring out how to make this a reality.

If you're reading this, I hope you join me in cultivating Christ-centered creativity in Southern Oregon, whether that's by spreading the word, contributing your own work, joining our directory, or helping me behind the scenes :)

God Bless,

Kiely

Over the course of 2024 and 2025, I have felt inspired by the Holy Spirit so many times. I have so many notes and ideas for poems, prose, more zines, but not having an avenue to share (without feeling like "hey, look at me and my stuff! Isn't my art great?") has largely stopped me from putting more effort into these things. What artist wants to make something that stays in the closet? Since the start of this year, I've finished two other faith-based creative projects, one that I utilized my husband again to share at church. The other one, finished on Good Friday, led to a mini breakdown in my car.

the bookmark I made inspired by studying the story of the fig tree in Mark 11