Virtual Lenten Small Group session 7

I had been releasing my videos on Thursday each week during Lent, and that meant the last one was released on Maundy Thursday. It focused on the crucifixion, with a little glimpse of hope. This was our artist's reflection.

Virtual Lenten Small Group session 6

 The theme for this session was "night," using a verse from Psalm 19. Our artist used this as his reflection.

Virtual Lenten Small Group session 5

 The word for this session was "slow," with music by Florence Price and and modern art piece by Eric Pause. Our in-house artist created this reflection on all of that.

Virtual Lenten Small Group session 4

 The fourth week of our small group used Isaiah 40 as its jumping off point. This was our artists reflection on all the material for that week.

Virtual Lenten Small Group session 3

 This was our artists take on the material from our third session of the virtual Lenten small group.

Virtual Lenten Small Group session 2

I facilitated a "virtual" Lenten small group this year. "Something music- or art-related," was about all I had to go on. I decided to keep it simple: select a lectionary Bible verse and then curate a piece of classical music and a piece of visual art to go with it. I created a weekly video in which I introduced the Bible verse, music and art piece. With each video I provided links to listen and view the art and music I emailed the link to that to all the participants. Their "participation" in the group consisted of viewing my video and then exploring the music and art piece on their own. I encouraged participants to use the comment section of each of my videos to share their reflections, whether they were on the Bible verse, music or visual piece. Ultimately it seemed to go well. There were some humps getting everyone comfortable with the format, but most everyone managed to get involved eventually.

One of the participants is a visual artist, retired now, but still quite active with his work. Once the small group was announced, along with the format, he said he would offer his reflections on the Bible verses in the form of a piece of his own visual art. I thought this was very cool. I placed his image files in my photostream and put links in the video comments for everyone to click through and view.

Below is his first reflection (week 1/session 1 was an overview with instructions and without links to other art). I'll share his other work in separate posts.

 

 

Art Installations Lent 2019

To begin, our art installations this year were characterized by two very different formats for our two worship spaces. We envisioned a set of five pieces for the sanctuary that spanned the (liturgical) east wall of the nave, the lectern, table, pulpit and were complete on the opposite wall. Thematically it was one large-scale piece, in 5 segments. The idea was that over the six weeks of Lent, elements of the pieces would be let go as we passed them in the Sunday readings. We used a similar color scheme in the fellowship hall, and used a six-part plan, but the panels were much more closely configured on a single pole hung on a wall. For the thematic elements we selected vivid images from any/all of the weekly lections though in reality most Sundays we actually hear only the gospel lection read in worship. Because of the peculiarities of our worship life we switched Lent 2 and Lent 3 this year. What follows is based on how we executed everything. From the Bible readings we got, in order of the weeks: eagle/wings (Psalm 91); water (Isaiah 55); stars (Genesis 15); fence (the prodigal son story in Luke and the imagined fence that must have corralled the swine with whom he dwelt for a time); oil/pitcher (when Mary anoints Jesus in John 12). Finally the tree will be removed to reveal a cross that will carry us through Holy Week. Here are some pictures of the final products. We are much-indebted to the many hands that helped bring this off!

The sanctuary:

The fellowship hall:

Folk immediately noticed the missing eagles in the sanctuary. With the blue (water) gone for the second week, things look rather stark already. Some folks have had a bit of a hard time wrapping their heads around "letting go" of certain Bible images, but we hope that repetition of the concept that we are letting go for a time as an act of spiritual discipline will begin to resonate more fully with them.

Lenten art 2019

We are using resources from A Sanctified Art this year during Lent and Eastertide. The theme is "cultivating and letting go." We opted to split the theme and are using the "letting go" aspect during Lent and will switch to "cultivating" during the great 50 days. Working with our worship committee and our resident artists and crafters, we have devised two unique installations for our two worship spaces (above). Today was a big workday (below) with lots of people involved, plus the thrill of seeing concepts getting fleshed out. Here are some pictures so far. Updates will come when the finished works are installed.

Good Friday Experience 2016, part 3

I'm not sure what kept me from writing this installment for so long, other than a wish to convey how deeply affecting the whole experience was. I believe I have covered the background and development of the undertaking, so here I will lay out the various stations, with photos.

In the narthex folks could pick up a brochure which would guide them through the rest of the experience. They could also attach pieces of tissue paper to a cross-shaped installation on the window which was made from double-sided clear contact paper. From here the sanctuary was available (quiet and dimly lit, with a sheet of simple prayers and readings) for quiet meditation.

Upstairs we had squares of aluminum foil available to shape into animals. Ideally these would have been animals mentioned in the Bible narrative (donkey, rooster, etc) but we got a variety, and as the evening wore on even non-living sculptures! With one of our resident artists located here, this went much better than one might expect.

In another room persons could use wire and nails to make a cross, of sticks and yarn to make God's eyes. This seemed to appeal to older folks, as I found many of them in this center chatting together all evening!

I asked on of our carpenters to build a wood frame and add nails to serve as a base for weaving yarn as prayers. Over the years our supply of yarn has increased exponentially, and this was a great way to put some of that to use.

I asked one of our other elementary art teachers to create a mural-sized depiction of the Palm Sunday narrative: Jesus, donkey, town, villagers, etc. We provided paints (and smocks) for persons to paint that mural. We also had smaller pieces of paper and markers of various types available for individual, small-scale projects.

Outside we explored the labyrinth as a device for prayer. We had supplies available to make a labyrinth out of paper and sand to take home, and a kid-scaled version to walk in our lawn. It included prayer suggestions along the way. The outdoor aspect helped the children who were participating considerably by providing a place to release some energy.

Finally, we had a simple dinner of soup and bread (and peeps) available in our fellowship hall.

I was delighted with the turn-out, and gratified that folks found meaning in the various stations. I hope we can do something like this again.

Floral arts at Lent and Easter 2016

This was the second year we did a slightly different take on floral arts during Lent. The concept was a progression for "poverty" to "abundance." The flowers in our two worship spaces began the season very starkly and evolved over the season to a glorious display for Easter Day. This year Ash Wednesday for us was a joint service with another congregation, so we didn't provide an arrangement. If we had, the plan would have been to drape the wooden urn in black fabric. We opted to use two separate arrangements for our two worship spaces, except on Easter Day. Fellowship hall had a brass urn and the sanctuary a wooden urn. Here is how the program developed:

The first Sunday of Lent was simply canes and twigs with moss, in unadorned urns.

For the second Sunday of Lent the floral arts team simply added eucalyptus branches, while retaining most of the material from the previous week.

We added alstroemeria to both arrangements for the 3rd Sunday.

Forsythia and other flowers added for the 4th week gave a hint at what was to come...This arrangement was striking simply for the height provided by some of the branches.

Palm-Passion Sunday saw the forsythia in full bloom, now with some white flowers and palm branches.

Sorry the light was bad for the Easter arrangement, but it was glorious. Lots of flowers in a trumpet-shaped glass vase.

We concluded the series on Easter Day with a reprise of our indoor Easter garden. It included a flowered cross. Individuals purchased plants in memory of or in honor persons, and were able to take their plants home after worship.

Good Friday Stations, part 1

In spring of 2015 the local paper ran an article about an artist with an exhibition taking place around Easter time. Without going back to re-read and get the details, what I recall was that the artist had a series of works that invited the viewer to consider the Easter story and the renewal of creation as individuals walked through the installation. I never even got around to see the exhibit, but something about the article struck me and stuck. A month later I was talking with our worship committee about an idea for an interactive Good Friday experience that relied on art to let/help persons recall and meditate on the Good Friday story. I wanted an experience that would be meaningful for adults, but 100% approachable by children. Our committee worked on the concept all year.

What evolved was an evening-long experience in which persons could drop-in, participate and leave on their own, much like those horrid drop-in communion services we've all heard of! We wanted a series of "stations" purposefully recalling the "stations of the cross" model of Good Friday worship. Each station would be an art project, based on a Bible verse which persons could complete quickly and either take home of leave for others to view. We wanted to provide food, as we anticipated that we would run the event throughout the dinner hour. We wanted older, traditionally-minded folks, to feel like they had experienced something substantive when they were done; and we wanted children to feel like they had encountered the Bible story in a mode they could comprehend. We knew we would need the help of committees apart from our own to bring it off.

The event was last night. Upcoming posts will deal with it in some detail. We feel it was a success, though we are waiting to hear more from those who participated. It's the nature of the event and how it was billed that we didn't do much debriefing as folks departed.

Blessing Wall, Lent

When I began planning for music and art during Lent, the word "blessing" seemed to crop up several times in the appointed lections. I discussed with my worship planning colleagues if "blessing" in the sense of being blessed by God and being a blessing to others might serve as a thematic focus for the upcoming season. After some good conversation in relation to the Bible readings and in relation to how we have observed the season in the past, we agreed that this could be a nice theme for us to explore.

My mind coupled this thematic focus with an image I had seen from a youth event some of our kids attended last year or the year before of a prayer wall. Kids wrote prayers and intentions on small pieces of paper and adhered them to a make-shift wall. I spent some time wondering how to put the two, "blessing" and the wall, into one undertaking for our congregation.

Ultimately I thought a series of fabric-covered panels, each with a letter from the word "bless" could be used as a temporary wall in our narthex. Folks will be invited throughout the season of Lent to write how they have been blessed and/or how they have been (or how they can be or intend to be) a blessing for others. We'll use special pens to write on scraps of fabric and then glue those small swatches to the wall.  My hope is that the finished project will look somewhat like a mosaic of fabric-on-fabric, nicely filled in. Herewith how the project has developed:

These are a set of wood frames that we use for a variety of undertakings, most often to create backdrops for dramatic productions:

I decided to put a base layer of black fabric (flat sheet) on the panels first. I simply stapled them in place:

I purchased an array of five hues of purple (cotton twill), appropriate for the season to serve as the top layer on each panel: 

I used white felt to cut the letters of the word "bless." Each letter uses a different font; we used the photocopier to enlarge each letter to a suitable size. I purchased a new rotary cutting tool for this project, which worked really well, and used a permanent fabric glue to adhere the letters:

Here is the set of five panels, mostly complete, after I finished adhering the letters to each. The height and centering of each letter varies purposefully:

Coming soon: the panels in place in the narthex and how they evolve as folks add their "blessings" to the project. To date I have done most of the work, but we have artists on board to select the fabrics we'll use for the attachments and to actually help folks on Sunday mornings to create their individual swatches Our print publicity for the upcoming season uses this same five-panel concept to make a nifty tie-in.