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For me, railroad tracks have always been a prime spot for treasure hunting. I learned this from my mom when I was very young. She would take me for long walks along the old railroad bed that ran alongside the river in the small town of Elizabeth, MN. There I would hunt for old railroad spikes (an object of great importance to me at the time, and to be honest, the thrill has never quite worn off).

These days I'm raising my own family along a very active set of train tracks in Rice, MN. I have the great privilege of walking with my own kids to and from school along these tracks. It's been a treasure hunt for us from the very first day. There are piles of various metal pieces that they have collected deposited all along the way. Agates are another highly sought after object. In this photo an old glass power line insulator shard catches the sun among crushed granite. Don't neglect a daily treasure hunt, the practice of searching for the unexpected.

I am both a religious thinker and an artist. My undergraduate work was in the graphic arts, and my graduate studies were in the philosophy of religion and theology. As the son of a high school art teacher, I was raised in an environment that held as sacred the simple act of slowing down and noticing that which we typically take for granted. My work in theology has taken this insight into its very heart. I've been fascinated with the idea of salvation and the way that forms of prayer which emphasize stillness, silence, and release make room for its experience. These theological sensibilities are almost identical with the generative moment in the creative process. Creativity is, in its essence, the bringing of newness into the world. It's...