About

Jim Bornzin

This website is a result of over sixty years of drawing, painting, cutting, writing sermons and reflections. While my call as a Lutheran pastor has been extremely fulfilling, art has always been my favorite pastime.

As a child with asthma, I spent many hours in bed reading and drawing. Some say my creativity was inherited from my father’s side of the family; my dad was an inventor, my uncle a commercial artist, and my grandmother painted china plates.

During high school I worked for my uncle in his commercial art studio in downtown Chicago. I also painted a large (23′ x 5′) seascape mural in our basement rec room. After four years at Northwestern University I received my BS in Science Engineering and considered following in my father’s footsteps as an engineer. But one of the things I enjoyed most at college was our Lutheran campus ministry and the discussion of theology. I continued my education at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, originally planning to attend for only one year. After two years of study and a year of internship I knew I wanted to be a pastor. Years later I realized the compassion I felt for others was inherited from my mother and her side of the family.

Now retired and living in Silverton, Oregon, I am thankful for the time and health which allow me to continue my creative endeavors. My first large-scale project was designing our hexagon-shaped home and working with our local contractor in many phases of construction. Our floor plan is included on the blog.

When the house was finished, I went back to work on a novel I had in mind for retirement. It took several years of re-writes before I finally decided to self-publish. “Terror at Trinity” was really fun to write, and I’ve enjoyed the responses from family and friends who have read it.

Another large (5’x8′) painting, of South Silver Falls in Oregon, was my next project, also viewable on this site.

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