Featured Artist: John Rankin.

Introducing our first featured artist: John Rankin. Native to Minnesota, John Rankin is an accomplished vocalizer. His repertoire includes Yoda, Korean traditional pansori, and of course, his original poems and songs. Though the last is the only “in-his-voice” modality, each has its own place in John’s joyous and soulful art. His persona is a sonorous one. Barefooted and unafraid of chew tobacco, John is currently the driving force behind an 18-wheeler. On his free time, he enjoys a canoe ride, solitary camps in the woods, Dostoyevsky, and contemplating the beauty in all things.

He once told me that he sees the laughing Jesus in everything—in nature, people, the very ordinary happenings of his day, and even his own failings. When he's not paying close attention, he'll miss this. He'll be reminded to look ever more attentively and somehow Jesus reveals himself all over again.

John is a close friend of Wheat Twins. He’s accompanied me through some tough and confusing times. I had a crisis of faith, at least a small one, and John was a voice of comfort-meets-kick-your-ass honesty. John is very real to me. He has the truthfulness that comes with humility. When I encounter the real, it’s a challenge to my own unrealities. Great people, and great art too, always seem to do this.        

John is also the subject of the Wheat Twins collection, Holy Rest. More on the meaning behind that collection can be found under its heading. Currently, a book of John’s poems is in the works. We hope to bring that to you as soon as possible. All proceeds from Holy Rest and the book will be used toward benefiting John’s woodland art practice. For inquiries, please reach out to John via YouTube (below), or email us at Wheat Twins.       

Here’s John’s song, in his own voice, Our Love: