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The impulse to experience both beauty and mystery through Creation seems inherent to our human nature. “Though invisible to the eye, God’s eternal power and divinity have been seen since the creation of the universe, understood and clearly visible in all of nature,” St. Paul wrote in one of the first Christian texts we have preserved (Romans 1:10-20a).
It should come as no surprise, then, that so many of the images in this exhibit lift up the beauty of the natural world. There are sunrises and sunsets, including Phoebe Farris’s view of a bright sky behind dark clouds over the Atlantic at Absegami, Frank Logue’s breath-taking drone photo over Tybee Island, Georgia, and John Holliger’s image of an orange sky with crescent moon.
And, also not surprising, there are living creatures—animals including the frog peeking through the cranberries in Judith Davis’s “Frog in a bog” and the tiny turtle in Sally Brower’s “His Handiwork” - and plants including Sr. Claire Joy’s “Fir,” the flowers in Kathy Bozzuti-Jones’ “Veneration,” and even the decaying tree in Julie Bender’s “Beautiful Decay.”
And in keeping with Ireneaus of Lyons’ famous quote, “The glory of God is humanity fully alive,” Lee Whiteman has given us beautiful pictures of men and women standing (or in the second photo, kneeling) before God in “Joyful Celebration” and “Communion.”
There are 22 images from 13 artists in the exhibition, whose title, “Everywhere I Look,” derives from a statement by the author, artist and storyteller Jan Phillips: “Everywhere I look, there God is, looking back, looking straight back.” I hope you will find God looking back as you enjoy and reflect on these images.
-- Cathy Kerr, Guest Curator
About The Curator Guest curator Catherine D. Kerr is a photographer, writer, preacher, Episcopal priest, wife, mother, grandmother, and music lover—all listed in no particular order. Her photography is frequently included in exhibitions near her home in Bucks County, PA, including most recently an exhibition titled Essential Work 2020 in summer 2021 at the James A. Michener Art Museum in Doylestown, the 2022 Phillips Mill Photography Exhibition, and the 2022 Spring Members Salon at New Hope Arts. She has led quiet days on contemplative photography and is a firm believer that all art is spiritual practice. Her own work is a discipline of receptivity to God’s light and God’s grace in the world: Light, like grace, changes everything!
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