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Easter
“From
the house of the Lord we bless you. God is God. He has
bathed us in light. Hang colored banners above the
altar! Oh, my God, I lift your praise.”
—Psalm 118:27
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Easter Hangings
By Tanja Butler |
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The
Easter panels, four acrylic paintings on canvas eight
feet high, presented a different challenge. Painting at
that scale was a new experience for me. In my small
studio I could not see the entire piece from a distance.
This became an exercise in painting by faith, as I
prayed with the placement of every brush stroke and
color change, trusting that the pieces would fall into
place correctly. Ruth Riley helped me install the panels
on the morning before the Easter Vigil, and it was with
trepidation that I walked to the back of the sanctuary
to view the pieces for the first time. What a relief it
was to see that the lines, values and colors that “felt
right” during prayer, but looked incoherent during the
painting process, had created a legible and unified
image.
Each panel presented a different aspect of the
celebration: “The Angel at the Tomb,” “Christ’s Victory
Over the Gates of Hell and Death,” “Christ Appearing to
Mary in the Garden,” and “The Angel Guarding the
Entrance to Paradise,” who has laid aside his flaming
sword and is now inviting us to enter. Responses on the
part of the congregation were varied, with enthusiastic
compliments directed toward me, and some misgivings
expressed to Fr. Liias. “There’s too much to look at,”
was a repeated critique. As the weeks of the Easter
season continued, however, many of those who initially
found the imagery too complex or distracting appreciated
its ability to unfold over time.
Celebration and
Reflection: What Did We Learn?
“God,
your God, has been blessing you in your harvest, and in
all the works of your hands, and your joy will be
complete.” —Deuteronomy 16:15
The
five months of residency culminated in my joining in a
glorious outburst of artistic activity on Pentecost
Sunday. Ruth Riley’s installation, “A Visual Presence”
consisting of over sixty colored silk banners, covered
the ceiling of the sanctuary. Mime artists led by Laurie
Anslono dramatized the visions of Ezekiel, and children
and teenagers danced with silk streamers through a river
of life (constructed of blue masking tape by artists
George Wingate and Anne Pelikan) flowing from the altar,
down the main aisle of the sanctuary, and out the front
door. “These artistic offerings are gifts to the church
from the Holy Spirit,” Maud Warren, a parishioner, said
to me afterward, as she expressed her desire that more
congregations be enabled to receive artistic expressions
of God’s creative presence.
What have we learned together at Christ Church? The
following observations are offered with the prayer that
they may encourage similar ventures in sponsoring
artist-residencies within other church communities.
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Five months is only
enough time to get started in exploring the
potential of an artist working within a
community. A year seems optimal, giving the
artist time to develop working relationships and
a creative momentum. Church members also need
time to adjust to the presence of new work and
explore possibilities for their own
participation. |
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A written proposal
clarifies expectations for all involved. |
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Support from the
clergy is critical. Fr. Liias’ invitation to
join the clergy’s weekly Bible study assured me
that I was welcomed and affirmed as an integral
part of the church’s ministry. It also allowed
me, as I was planning the work, to respond to
the clergy’s concerns and insights. |
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Working in
coordination with existing organizations (e.g.,
liturgical arts groups, altar guilds, children’s
ministries, retreat workshops) offers support
and community participation. The purpose of the
artist residency is not to highlight the
independent activity of an individual, but to
enable an artist to serve the community by
responding to the vision and concerns of
existing ministries. |
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The artist’s
activities should be highly visible during the
residency period. A public commissioning,
organized prayer support, written and verbal
announcements during Sunday services, bulletin
inserts and articles in the church newsletter
are all helpful ways of integrating the
residency into church life. References to the
images within the sermon are highly effective in
affirming the work and clarifying its purpose.
People are more comfortable with new visual
elements when the theological reasoning is
presented to them. |
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Patience is
required, particularly for an artist used to
independent activity and self-determined time
schedules. It takes time to develop work for a
community setting, with stages of approval,
organization, funding, and fabrication slowing
down the creative process. The rewards of
communal involvement, however, considerably
outweigh the inevitable frustrations. |
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Interaction is a key
to effectiveness; community involvement in
planning, executing, and responding to the work
fulfills the nature of liturgical art, liturgy
being “a work of the people.” |
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Responses to the
work should be directed to the leadership, who
can evaluate and sift the comments before
communicating the critique to the artist. |
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A dynamic
tension exists in creating art for community.
The artist must maintain both faithfulness to
her original vision and responsiveness to the
needs and personality of the community.
Paraphrasing a description by Nicholas
Wolterstorff, Professor of Theology at Yale
Divinity School, of his church’s collaboration
with an architect, “Between the artist and the
community there must be mutual love, trust,
forbearance, openness to new possibilities,
honoring and not demeaning one another. The
artist makes herself very vulnerable, getting
feed-back from non-artists. The community is
also very vulnerable, as it may be stretched
beyond what is comfortable or predictable. It is
therefore important that the artist and
community support each other.” |
Conclusion
A word
of thanks is in order to the clergy team at Christ
Church: the Rev. Jürgen Liias, the Rev. Martha Giltinan,
the Rev. Dean Borgman, the Rev. Roger Wootton, and
Pastoral Minister Bart Stevens, for their enthusiastic
support, interest, and insights as they fearlessly
encouraged artistic experimentation and adventurous
exploration. The congregation took its cues from the
clergy. The church’s positive reception of new work in
their midst was in large part a response to the clergy’s
commitment to this ministry.
I also want to thank the generous hospitality of the
parishioners of Christ Church for their gracious support
and kind expressions of thanks for the work of this
residency. This opportunity to serve God in his church
using my artistic gifts was a source of great joy. The
translation from the isolated studio to the center of
community is a profoundly moving experience of God’s
ministry of reconciliation, a call from alienation to
communion. For this I am most grateful.
BE BOLD.
BE ORIGINAL. BE DYNAMIC. BE FAITHFUL. BE UNAFRAID. Amen.
(Passage
in my prayer journal, written in capital letters as an
exhortation and a directive.)
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