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The
Visual
Artist’s Guild at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in
Greenville, North Carolina, meets “on demand” –
particularly when there is a large energetic project
looming. We are six professional artists with an
additional eight people or so who are enthusiastic about
our projects. Greenville is home to East Carolina
University (ECU) and home to the School of Art and
Design, and the School of Music. Most importantly, St.
Paul’s Church is home to a diverse and vibrant family of
multi-talented people. Our mission statement is, “To
know Christ and To Make Him Known”. We believe with all
our talent that if you cannot find it at St. Paul’s –
start it!
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Our new church was
completed in 1999 and stands adjacent to the older
c.1930 church – now the “chapel”. We have a marvelous
space to house visual art installations with 47 feet of
open space between the floor and the peak of the roof.
Although we have other contemporary fine art in the
church, it is this “floor to peak” space we concerned
ourselves with for our first major installation for
Pentecost 2004. Our project was a 30’ wide by 20’ long
aerial sculpture with over 800 paper prayer doves.
Our assistant rector, The
Rev. Charles Dupree, was the person who led us into
formation for a visual artist’s guild at St. Paul’s, but
he had already left for another position. Our rector,
The Rev. C. Thomas Midyette was retiring shortly after
Pentecost. We wanted to celebrate a passing of clergy.
We had no budget, but we knew our faith would help us to
succeed!
We have operated on the
schema that we will always involve our whole parish in
any project. We believe that if we do otherwise, then
what we do will become nothing more than a nice
decoration. By involving everyone, it definitely springs
from the community for whom it provides liturgical
meaning.
Fabrication preparations
began two months before Pentecost Sunday. A small core
of visual artists met and sketched ideas for the
project. Our prayer doves were copied onto 8 1/2” x 11”
sheets of colored paper. We asked that everyone in the
parish write a prayer, a name, or an issue on each dove;
to cut them out; and leave them in a central collection
area. The artist’s guild members gently folded each one
to affect a rigid, non-floppy stance. The doves were
then strung on 6’ to 20’ varying lengths of rug thread.
(Used to bind the edges of rugs, it is not much thicker
than regular thread and not very visible – a cheap
find.)
We tied 1/2” mirrored
sequins to give the lengths of doves a little “bling”,
as we say. We had 32 strands of prayer doves when we
were finished. The hanging device was a bit of an
investment with a 30’ circle of 1 1/2” copper tubing
that separates into quarters for disassembling/storage.
Eight of the strands were suspended from the quarters.
The circular hanging
device is suspended by four small cables, which are
joined to a small ring that is in turn cabled to the
main hoist and pulley that is normally used for the
Advent wreath. The pulley is in the very peak of the
church. We also have two smaller pulleys in the
transepts, so we were already well supplied with
hoisting equipment. The most challenging part of the
project was assembly on the morning before Pentecost,
paying particular attention not to let the 32 strands of
doves get tangled in the hoisting.
The beauty of the
installation was that after being hoisted, it would
slowly turn and the slightest breeze caused by anyone
would gently turned the individual strands. This project
was surprisingly and delightfully kinetic. It was a
visual statement of faith for over 850 people.
The delight of the parish
and positive feedback meant the project stayed up for
about 6 weeks – a couple of weeks longer than originally
intended. We believe the project was successful because
of who we are as a parish. As stated, we are a vibrant
and diverse community of people including “cradle to the
grave”, college students, blue collar, retirees,
professionals, small children, and youth. What is
appropriate for a liturgical community such as ours may
not be appropriate at another parish. Each community
must decide for itself the best way to enhance their own
worship experience.
Charles
Chamberlain
For St. Paul's Visual Artist's Guild
chamberlainc@suddenlink.net |
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