The mission of art: W. David O. Taylor grounds his aesthetic passion in the local church.(WHO'S NEXT: PEOPLE YOU SHOULD KNOW)(Brief biography)

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Growing up as a missionary kid in Guatemala, David Taylor was learning the meaning of beauty before he even realized it. Taylor names the tropical landscape as one of five key elements in shaping his own identity as an artist. The others: listening to his mother play classical music on her grand piano; watching his father tend orchids in the backyard greenhouse; reading "books outside my tradition" recommended by his Regent College professors, including Eugene Peterson; and "being given permission to try and fail--again and again--by the leadership of Hope Chapel [in Austin, Texas], as I sought to discover what an arts ministry was supposed to be about." …