creative team
Rev. Lisle Gwynn Garrity
Founder, Creative Director
Pastorist ⋅ Retreat Leader ⋅ Creative Entrepreneur ⋅ Mountains Enthusiast ⋅ Live Painter
Lisle Gwynn Garrity (she/her/hers) is a Pastorist (pastor + artist) and creative entrepreneur seeking to fill the church with more color, paint, mystery, and creativity. In the midst of a rapidly reforming church landscape, she is convinced that new models for ministry are emerging all over the place, we just have to be willing to discover and pursue them. She founded A Sanctified Art with the conviction that, in order to thrive, the Church needs more creative expression and art-filled freedom.
After many years away, Lisle and her husband moved back to her hometown of Black Mountain, NC. A graduate of Davidson College, where she majored in English (and unofficially minored in visual art), Lisle has a long history of formal and informal art training. After being offered a wild and unique fellowship to attend seminary, Lisle completed Master’s degrees in Divinity and Practical Theology (with a concentration in worship), all with a sense of wonder and openness to the unique work she is called to offer to the world. She is ordained as a Minister of Word and Sacrament in the Presbyterian Church (USA).
As a visual artist, Lisle loves to get her hands messy using just about any medium, but primarily creates art through acrylic painting on canvas, photography, silk painting, and digital drawing using her Ipad and stylus pen. She is passionate about re-claiming worship as a sacred form of art and inviting all to participate in creative faith.
In addition to working with the talented creatives and guest collaborators at A Sanctified Art, Lisle also seeks ways to serve the larger Church. Lisle frequently facilitates retreats and workshops, and when time allows, creates commissioned art for worshiping communities. She is passionate about the intersections of art, faith, and justice. She also enjoys nerdy conversations on how to foster productive collaboration and and how to build sustainable organizations to bring new and needed ideas into the world.
Creative specialties: painting, drawing, project management, retreat-leading, writing, photography & film
Street cred: Bachelor of Arts in English, Davidson College; Master of Divinity and Master of Arts in Practical Theology (specialization in worship), Columbia Theological Seminary; Ordained Minister of the Word and Sacrament in the Presbyterian Church, USA
For hire: retreats (congregational, youth, women’s, art), silk painted banner commissions, live worship painting, workshops & seminars on art & faith, banner creation workshops
Based in: Black Mountain, NC
Check her out: lislegwynngarrity.com
Rev. Lauren Wright Pittman
Founding Creative Partner, Director of Branding
Artist ⋅ Graphic Designer ⋅ Visual Exegete ⋅ Workshop Leader ⋅ Pantone Enthusiast ⋅ Doodler
Lauren (she/her/hers) is an artist, graphic designer, and visual exegete. She studied Media Design at Middle Tennessee State University, worked as a wetlands advocate in Southern Louisiana, and went to seminary to piece together her passions for artistic expression, design, and Creation Care.
While pursuing an MDiv, Lauren was invigorated by the classes she took at the intersection of scripture, art, and worship. Instead of sticking tightly to the curriculum’s required exegesis papers and presentations, she began wrestling with scripture with her paint brushes, acrylic paints, metallic sharpies, and colored pencils by her side. Visual exploration offered her a holy space to ask questions, find footing in her voice, take risks, and make bold statements. Once she began this journey in visual self expression, she became determined to create spaces where others could find this freedom and sense of assuredness in their voice, whether it be in the creative process or in visual meditative practices like Visio Divina.
Lauren is available for banner and painting commissions, logo and print design, theologically-grounded coloring pages, and Visio Divina workshops. To check out more of her artwork, visit lewpstudio.com
Creative Specialties: painting, drawing, logo & print design, workshop facilitation
Street Cred: Bachelor of Science in Journalism & Media Design, Middle Tennessee State University; Master of Divinity, Columbia Theological Seminary; Ordained Minister of the Word and Sacrament in the Presbyterian Church, USA
For hire: banner & painting commissions, logo & print design, meditative coloring pages, Visio Divina workshops
Based in: Anderson, SC
Check her out: lewpstudio.com
Hannah Garrity
Founding Creative Partner
Liturgical Artist ⋅ Art Teacher ⋅ Banner Creator ⋅ Visual Choir Director ⋅ Developer of Creative Confidence ⋅ Mother
Hannah (she/her/hers) is an artist and an athlete, a daughter and a mother, a facilitator and a producer, a leader and a teammate. Her hobbies and her professions are one and the same. The joy in her life is deep and wide. Trained in art at Cornell University, in teaching at Pace University, in reformed theology through her work at the Montreat Conference Center, Hannah is called by God to blend her talents. She is an art teacher at a middle school, a Sunday school visual choir facilitator at Second Presbyterian Church in Richmond, VA, an art in worship workshop leader wherever she is called, and a liturgical installation artist at the Montreat Conference Center, Montreat, NC.
Hannah passionately believes that in God’s images we were each born to create. In all facets of her professional work as an artist, she strives to lift up and support the innate ingenuity of each person in the studio. She is a developer of creative confidence.
Hannah wants to lead your church art team or visual choir in beginning, or forwarding the presence of creation in your congregational community, and is available to design and produce commissioned, text-based, varied media installations or banners.
Creative specialties: painting, drawing, printmaking, liturgical art leadership training, group art and banner consulting, liturgical art workshop facilitation, pottery
Street cred: Bachelor of Fine Art in Painting at Cornell University; Master of Science in Teaching at Pace University; Liturgical Artist at the Montreat Conference Center (Montreat, NC)
For hire: banner art and installation commissions, banner creation workshops, art Sunday school leadership workshops
Based in: Richmond, VA
Check her out: hannahgarrity.com
Rev. Sarah (Are) Speed
Founding Creative Partner
Presbyterian ⋅ Extrovert ⋅ Poet ⋅ Enneagram 3 ⋅ Book Worm ⋅ Coffee Shop Junkie ⋅ Optimist
Sarah (she/her/hers) is an ordained Presbyterian pastor in the PC(USA), a coffee-lover, and an optimist. She graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University with a degree in Social Work, and holds a Master of Divinity degree from Columbia Theological Seminary.
Sarah is a cradle-born Presbyterian, raised on sweet tea and in church pews. She re-microwaves her coffee every morning and treasures books like pocket-sized art. Throughout her life she has invested herself in the church, pouring her energy into acts of activism and creativity. This journey has led her down many beautiful and wild paths, including that which led her to A Sanctified Art.
Sarah loves to combine her love of all things creative with her passion for God. She believes that the Church has a responsibility to open every door to God, so that those of us who are visual, kinesthetic, or relational learners all have equal opportunity to engage God to the fullest of our abilities. Sarah feels called to live her life welcoming people into the church by using her energy and passion for beautifully-scripted words, raw and relevant liturgy, and hands-on worship experiences to engage our longing for God and the need for justice in this messy world.
Writing is Sarah’s most beloved spiritual practice. You can find her daily poems on Instagram and on Facebook at: @writingthegood | writingthegood.com.
Creative specialties: Poetry, liturgy writing, youth & young adult ministry, creative worship
Street Cred: Bachelor of Science in Social Work, Virginia Commonwealth University; Master of Divinity, Columbia Theological Seminary; Ordained Minister of the Word and Sacrament in the Presbyterian Church, USA
For hire: Workshops on Poetry as a Spiritual Practice, creative liturgy writing, creative worship planning consultation, general keynoting and workshop leading for all ages
Based in: New York City, NY
Check her out: writingthegood.com
REV. Anna Strickland
operations support & content creator
Design Enthusiast ⋅ True Crime Junkie ⋅ Native Texan ⋅ Planner ⋅ Dreamer
Anna (she/her/hers) is Baptist to the bone. Born and raised in Austin, Texas, she grew up in the kind of Baptist church that’s hard to find outside of Austin, the kind that has women and LGBTQ folx in the pulpit and still serves corn casserole at monthly potlucks. The “four fragile freedoms” were all woven into her spiritual upbringing so tightly that not even seminary was able to unravel her Baptist roots.
As a child, Anna always leaned toward messy activities. She still loves getting her hands dirty with paint, charcoal, gardening soil, flour, and sugar, watching the raw materials take on a new life which is greater than the sum of its parts. This draw toward creative mess took her all the way to seminary at Iliff School of Theology, where she graduated with her Master’s of Divinity in June 2020. Anna feels called to creative ministry, both ministry involving the arts and ministry done in new ways, so she is excited to have joined the team at A Sanctified Art.
Anna is always seeking the Divine in the everyday like treasure in clay jars. Though raised in the Church, she first encountered the Living God in the integration of her spiritual self and artistic self at a worship service for college students and young adults. Every Thursday night, the holy entered in through spoken word and journaling, musicals and movie clips, Alanis and Sufjan, fine art and doodling.
These formative experiences led her to return to the space where she first felt the pieces of herself click into place. While working in college ministry, Anna was blessed to explore her love of planning meaningful worship services, preaching, facilitating opportunities for spiritual formation, and witnessing the profound transformations of her students. After giving birth to her first child on Easter Sunday of 2022, she felt called to be as present to her daughter as she had been with her students and passed the ministry she cultivated onto the next generation of ministers to lead.
Creative specialties: spiritual formation for children through young adults, art meditation, painting, worship planning, hand lettering, college ministry
Street Cred: Bachelor of Science in Applied Learning and Development (Early Childhood–4th Grade Education), University of Texas at Austin; Master of Divinity, Iliff School of Theology
For hire: art curriculum for children’s and youth camps, spiritual formation program consultation, original hymn texts set to old hymn tunes
Based in: Austin, TX