Makers & Mystics

What if art isn't simply something we admire, but something that asks something of us?
In this episode, Stephen Roach sits down with acclaimed printmaker, educator, and storyteller Steve Prince for a conversation about the vocation of the artist. Drawing from history, faith, family, and lived experience, Steve shares how his work seeks to preserve memory, confront injustice, and create spaces where genuine transformation can begin.
From the legacy of the Civil Rights Movement to the power of oral storytelling, from New Orleans kitchen tables to ambitious community art projects, Steve reveals why he believes artists are called to help us "remember to remember" and to imagine a more hopeful future together.
Together they explore:
Why artists are called to be truth-tellers
How history shapes both our imagination and our responsibility
The role of beauty in confronting difficult realities
Why storytelling is essential to healing divided communities
Steve's Kitchen Table project and its vision for reconciliation
Creating art that challenges, invites, and transforms
Faith, social justice, and the spiritual calling of creative work
Helping the next generation of artists embrace both courage and adaptability
Whether you're an artist, educator, historian, or simply someone longing for deeper conversations in a fractured world, this episode offers a vision of art as an act of hospitality, remembrance, and hope.
Quote from the Episode
"The artist helps us remember to remember.""Art isn't made to divide us, it creates a pathway toward who we could become.""Every table has something to teach us." - Steve Prince

Resources Mentioned
Steve Prince's Kitchen Table community art project
Trinity City graphic novel initiative
Howard Thurman
Martin Luther
Medgar Evers
Emmett Till
Rosa Parks
Martin Luther King Jr.
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Produced by Stephen Roach.
Music by Some Were at Sea.
Keep Creating. The World Needs Your Art. 
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Can beauty change a person? A community? A culture? 

Sacred artist Kate Capato believes it can.

In this bonus episode of Makers & Mystics, Stephen Roach sits down with Kate to explore why authentic beauty has the power to heal, awaken wonder, and draw people into the presence of God. Together they discuss the modern crisis of beauty, the vocation of the artist, and how sacred art becomes an invitation into deeper communion with Christ.

Kate shares why she and her family travel the country as "missionaries of beauty," bringing paintings and music into communities where beauty becomes a catalyst for transformation.

In this episode, you'll discover:

• Why beauty is essential 
• The difference between beauty and prettiness
• Why modern culture is experiencing a crisis of beauty
• The spiritual practice of creating sacred art
• Practical ways anyone can cultivate beauty in everyday life

About Kate Capato

Kate Capato is a sacred artist and founder of Visual Grace. Through commissioned paintings, exhibitions, and speaking events, she helps people encounter the beauty of God through visual art. Together with her husband, she travels throughout the United States sharing sacred art and music as "missionaries of beauty."

Learn more: https://visualgrace.org
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Animation has a unique ability to carry profound truths beneath colorful worlds, unforgettable characters, and compelling adventure. Beneath the spectacle, the best stories invite us into questions of identity, grief, hope, and transformation.
In this episode, Stephen Roach sits down with animator and storyboard artist Gene Kim, whose career has included work with Pixar, Blue Sky Studios, and major film and television productions. Together they explore why stories matter, how animation can communicate deep spiritual realities, and why genuine character transformation lies at the heart of every meaningful narrative.
Gene also shares the deeply personal story behind his animated short film One Last Monster, revealing how the loss of his mother shaped its themes of trust, suffering, and hope. Drawing from Korean history, classic anime, The Lord of the Rings, and his own Christian faith, Gene reflects on the surprising ways fantasy can help us tell the truth about the human experience.
In this conversation, you'll discover:
 Why animation is uniquely suited for exploring profound spiritual themes 
 The relationship between storytelling and personal transformation 
 How compelling characters become vehicles for hope and redemption 
 How Gene processed grief through the creative act of filmmaking 
 Why the best stories remind us that we are never alone in our suffering 
Whether you're an artist, filmmaker, writer, or simply someone who loves a great story, this conversation offers a thoughtful look at the power of imagination to help us make sense of ourselves and the world we inhabit.
Watch Gene's animated short One Last Monster and follow his ongoing work:
YouTube: https://youtube.com/@onelastmonster
Instagram: https://instagram.com/onelastmonster
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In this bonus episode of Makers & Mystics, Stephen Roach revisits The Pace of Beauty series with artist and designer Jennifer Sturrock. 
Drawing from her background in couture, contemporary art, and theological study, Jennifer shares how fabric and materiality have become a framework for exploring deeper questions of identity, mystery, and communion with God. What begins as a conversation about textiles and clothing unfolds into a rich exploration of the Transfiguration, the symbolism of garments throughout Scripture, and the ways beauty reveals truths that often remain hidden beneath the surface.
Stephen and Jen discuss the theological significance of clothing and how fashion can function as both concealment and revelation. Jennifer reflects on her own artistic practice, including large-scale textile installations that invite viewers into contemplation, mystery, and embodied ways of knowing.
The conversation also explores Jennifer's idea of "rewilding the creative soul,” embracing vulnerability, and discovering the beauty that emerges when people become more fully themselves.
Highlights:
• Jennifer's journey from fashion and textile design into theology and contemporary art
 • How the Transfiguration shaped her artistic and theological imagination
 • Fashion as language 
 • Art as a practice of mystery, contemplation, and unknowing

About Jennifer Sturrock
Jennifer Sturrock is a Scottish multidisciplinary artist, designer, curator, and researcher whose work integrates couture, installation art, and poetry. Drawing on studies at Chelsea College of Arts and London College of Fashion, she later earned a Master's degree in Theology & the Arts from King's College London, where she specialized in the idea of beauty in theology.
Connect with Jen
Website: https://www.jennifersturrock.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jensturrock
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Beauty is one of the most celebrated words in art and faith conversations, but it may also be one of the most misunderstood. Is beauty simply what pleases the eye, or is it something deeper? 
Can beauty exist alongside suffering, loss, and the grotesque? And what happens when we settle for beauty that comforts us while avoiding the realities that transform us?
What if beauty requires darkness, mystery, and even lament in order to reveal its deepest meaning? In this roundtable discussion, Stephen Roach and guests Corey Frey, Liv Ross, and Scott Aasman wrestle with beauty not as sentimentality or surface appeal, but as a force capable of holding together truth, goodness, suffering, and hope.
KEY TOPICS
Why beauty can feel inauthentic when it is removed from struggle
The original meaning of "glamour" as a veil designed to trap and deceive, and why that etymology still matters for artists today
How the three transcendentals — goodness, truth, and beauty — function like a trinity: remove one and the others collapse into vanity, brutality, or cover-up
What Edmund Burke and Kant meant by the sublime, and why terror and beauty belong together rather than apart
The real context behind Dostoevsky's phrase "beauty will save the world," drawn from The Idiot, and why stripping it from that argument changes everything
Thomas Kinkade's stated goal of painting a world where the Fall never happened, and what his private life and Andy Warhol quote reveal about the cost of bypassing Holy Saturday
Why form without substance is essentially pornographic, and how true beauty requires the material and the spiritual coming together
How artistic isolation stunts creative roots the way a tree grown in perfect conditions falls in the first storm and why community, friction, and disagreement strengthen both the artist and the work
About the Guests:
Corey Frey is a multidisciplinary artist, writer, and co-founder of The Well Collaborative, a community dedicated to creativity, curiosity, and culture. He lives in Maryland with his wife and continues to explore the intersections of art, faith, and imagination.
Liv Ross is an urban monk, poet, essayist, and Managing Editor of Traces Journal. Writing from the Ozarks, her work explores place, wonder, memory, and spiritual formation. Her first book, The Blackbird Ballad, was published by Solum Literary Press in 2026.
Scott Aasman is an award-winning illustrator, educator, and co-founder of Salt Cellar Arts, an arts-focused community for the spiritually attentive and creatively engaged. He lives in Hamilton, Ontario, with his wife and two children.
Resources Mentioned
Beauty Will Save the World by Brian Zahnd
The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoevsky
The Thought of the Heart and the Soul of the World by James Hillman
 Works by Flannery O'Connor
 Works by Cormac McCarthy
 Paintings of Thomas Kinkade
 Landscapes of J. M. W. Turner
Connect with Our Guests
Corey Frey
coreysfrey.com
Liv Ross
The Abbey of Curiosity Substack
The Blackbird Ballad
Scott Aasman
Instagram – San Illustration
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