• Exhibitions
  • Current
  • Exhibitions Archive
  • How to Exhibit With ECVA
  • Calls to Artists
• The Artists Registry
  • About the Artists Registry
  • Search for an Artist
  • Membership Information
  • Join the Artists Registry
• Image & Spirit
  • Image & Spirit Blog Archive
  • Intersections @ ECVA
  • Visio Divina Archive
• Calls to Artists
• News

~ CONTRIBUTING ARTISTS ~

Margaret Amada 1 2 3 · Sally Brower 1 2 · Alisa Clark 1 2 3 · Kay Vass Darling 1 · Elizabeth de Sherbinin 1 · Tobias Stanislas Haller 1 · Linda Witte Henke 1 · Joy Jennings 1 · Catherine D. Kerr 1 2 3 4 · Karen Loew 1 2 3 4 · Mary Jane Miller 1 2 3 · Jan Ramsey 1 · Zachary Roesemann 1 · Nancy Schofield 1 2 · Claudia Smith 1 2 3 · Kathy Thaden 1 · Jeanne Harris Weaver 1 2 3  

Sally Brower

In the Shadow of Your Wings

Artist Statement: The Psalms use the phrase ‘refuge in the shadow of your wings.’ This feminine image where we take refuge under God’s wings is comforting, especially when we embark on the audacious journey to being an artist, or first claim to be an artist. By comparison, it feels as if we have the delicate wings of a butterfly, easily broken and brought to earth. It is fearing we will be like Icarus with wings of wax and feathers; we can fly neither too high or too low, lest like him we fly too high and the sun melts the wax and we fall to the ocean below and drown.

After crawling like a caterpillar while studying to be an artist, we begin the difficult metamorphosis to become the butterfly, fully transformed into an artist. Beginning to show our work, to accept rejection, to perfect our skills, all take a tremendous leap of faith. And even as a beginning artist, we are like the newly emerged adult butterfly who is very weak and vulnerable. Sometimes I fear that in my striving to be an artist, I may crash and lie broken on the rocks below like a butterfly.

Yet in the hymn based on Psalm 91, we are told:
He will raise you up on eagle’s wings,
bear you on the breath of dawn
make you to shine like the sun,
and hold you in the palm of his hand.
My hope as an artist is that God will use my creative gifts for God’s glory.

Bio: Sally Brower is a retired Episcopal priest, poet, and passionate pilgrim whose work explores the intersection of art and faith, creativity and spirituality. A married mother of two, grandmother of eight, she lives in Mooresville, NC.