Advent - Movement and Action

It is December again. The cyclical calendar makes December a natural time for drawing things to a close and looking back over what has made up the past year while beginning to turn and look ahead to what may be awaiting in the New Year. It is also advent - a time, in the Christian tradition, of waiting, expectation and reflection on the meaning of the Christmas season and the events of a story that is a fundamental building block of Christian faith. Advent is a time to reflect on that story and relate to it in our current contexts so that we can take part in a meaningful way in the outpouring of joy on the world that continues to take place through God’s ceaseless expressions of love and grace.

This year the Mennonite Church had a theme for the advent season entitled “Flood of Mercy”. The idea behind this theme was to spend the season reflecting on the water imagery in the seasonal scriptures and pondering the nature of God to both comfort and disturb. To help visually set a scene for this worship theme I created the banner below of two swirls of water pouring down upon an empty and waiting stable.

In these swirls I see movement, comfort, and agitation. I look at them as a physical manifestation of God’s activity in our lives. It is constantly present and available to us if we seek it and let it be poured into our lives. It will sweep us up and carry us along when we need to be moved. It will prod us to action, or at least gently wear us down, when we try to stand still in the middle of the current. And, when needed, it pulls us close to the center and cocoons us in a still embrace in the midst of turbulence. God’s energy is present and always active in meeting us where we are and moving us to where we need to be.

As December draws to a close, may we continue to be aware of where we have been, where we are, and what is coming and may we continue to wait upon, expect, and reflect on the action of God in our lives.

Image - Advent Water Banner

Fabric and Tempera Paint

Top Picture - In Process

Lower Picture - Installed

Attentive Perspective

[The following is the written version of a meditation that I gave at Hyattsville Mennonite Church in Hyattsville, Md on Sunday November 11, 2012. The scripture passages referenced are from the Bible and include 1 Kings 17:8-16, and Mark 12:38-44.]

I recently had the opportunity to travel to India for work.  It took three flights and 31 hours of travel time to make it from the United States to India.  At one point, when the plane was descending towards a layover landing in Dubai I looked out the window and for just a moment I was looking down on the moon.  I could not quite believe my eyes; I had never looked down on the moon before!  Just as quickly as it took me to realize what I was seeing the plane had descended enough to bring us back on level with the moon and then we dropped below it and my brain could again comprehend the sight of the big round orb hovering over head in the sky.  The whole thing got me thinking about how big of a role perspective plays in even the most basic understandings that we hold as truth in our lives.

Perspective comes in many forms: it is a point of view, it is how we think about, categorize, and approach the world around us, it is a literal angle from which, if we are able, we see things in this world, and it is present in literature as stories capture and present insights of a person, place or community. We cannot escape perspective; it is how we measure the world around us and it is how we, in turn, are measured in the world by others.

Every moment of our lives is housed in context.  Into that moment each of us carries a sort of individual life dictionary created out of our past experiences and our current ideas and beliefs.  We use that life dictionary to help us define the present moment and we bump it up against other peoples’ lives to help us learn new things because their experiences have been different than ours and so their dictionary contains a different set of terms.  Because there are so many dictionaries in play in any given setting – we may constantly have to define and then redefine our understandings and actions within that context so that we can effectively interact.      

While in India I was doing some training and in a classroom setting there are lots of opportunities to verify that folks understand what is being taught.  When I would ask do you understand – I would get a lot of verbal yeses – but the heads in the classroom would be going back and forth with what looked to me like a sort of angled head shake meaning no. I was confused – so I would ask again – do you understand and again I would hear yes but see no.  My life dictionary was encountering a mismatch and I needed to get more information so I could revise it.  I asked a co-worker about the cultural signals for declaring yes and no and he shook his head up and down for yes and side to side for no – so I was even more confused.  I then asked him why it seemed like a lot of folks were saying yes but then shaking their heads side to side – he just smiled and said – some people do that too.  I had to adapt my life dictionary in light of these experiences so that I could effectively interact in the training environment at work!  As a side note I later learned that another interpretation of that side to side head shake indicates a person who is in two minds about something – they may cognitively understand it - but they are still in process of letting it sink into their being.

Perspective plays a big role in how we interact with the world around us and as people striving to live out some sort of journey of faith – that faith plays a significant role in shaping those interactions.  Faith has the ability to both enhance and challenge how we approach the world.  Our faith is embodied in our relationships with God and each other.  Those relationships are a give and take of ideas and emotions and, if we are open, they help us grow and see life in new and exciting ways.  In choosing to walk in faith we make the choice to strive to see as God would have us see – that is – seeing not from our own understandings but instead fixing our perspective on God so that God can open us up to new ways of thinking and move us to unexpected actions.

Look at the story of Elijah and the widow we heard this morning in the 1^st Kings reading.   Here is a story telling two perspectives of a desperate situation where faith weighs in and moves both parties to action. These actions do not seem logical from a perspective of basic survival needs, however, the actions are the best options from a perspective that takes into account God’s faithful promise of continued provision and care.  Elijah, the widow and her son are all in need of one of the most basic essential ingredients of life – food.  Due to a drought that is ravaging the land, Elijah has no food of his own, and the widow has only enough left to make a final meal for her son and herself and is then prepared to lie down and die. 

Elijah, in need of any food, asks the widow for a piece of bread, and even after finding out that she has very little left for her family, instead of being the good martyr and letting others have what little is left of the food – he selfishly asks for her to go on and make the food she was prepared to make and bring him the first piece!  But this is not a selfish action in light of the promise of God which Elijah makes known to the widow “For thus says the Lord the God of Israel: The jar of meal will not be emptied and the jug of oil will not fail until the day that the Lord sends rain on the earth.”  Elijah is acting out of faith in that promise and is extending an offering of hope to the widow and her son.  And, what does the widow do?  She accepts that offering of hope and faith.  In spite of what appears to be certain death in her immediate future for not only herself, but also her child, she makes a choice. Whether she makes that choice out of desperation or determination we do not know, but she too chooses to approach the moment with a faith fixed on the vision of that promise, and she goes and bakes and brings the first food to Elijah.  And God is faithful in return, providing food, for all of them, for many days.  Both Elijah and the widow were attentive to the presence of God and the dynamic factors of the situation and chose to respond from a perspective of faith.

How can we also learn to keep our perspective fixed on God in all situations so that we are lead to act in faithful ways?  One option I have learned is from the visual arts where perspective is used as a tool to create depth.  One method of doing this is through what is called linear perspective.  Linear perspective relies on a fixed point of view versus a constantly shifting viewpoint which is what we experience in our daily lives.  In linear perspective there is a point designated in the image where all lines converge – this is called the vanishing point.  When using this system of perspective – it creates an image where things that are supposed to appear closer to us are larger than things that are supposed to be in the distance.  I tell you about this method of perspective, because sometimes I like to envision God as the vanishing point in my perspective on faith.  If I am attentive to aligning my vision towards God – then God can make the most important things come to the forefront and draws the distractions and less important things into the distance.  In doing so I become aware of what to focus on and I can also start to see when things that should be in the distance are taking up too much space and I can actively work to realign my perspective.

Perspective can be a tricky business, as my encounter with the moon on the airplane shows, from the right angle almost anything looks possible.  In fact, this past summer Becky and I were with some friends at Bengies – a drive in theatre in Baltimore to see a screening of the movie Brave.  Before the movie there was a short film called La Luna, in which a young boy is in training under his father and grandfather to care for the moon.  At one point, the young boy pulled out a ladder which filled the screen from top to bottom and started climbing it towards the moon – from our parking spot on the grounds of the theatre – the boy’s ladder was in perfect alignment with the real moon which was hanging right above the top of the screen.  In our experience of that moment – the perfect alignment of perspective allowed two worlds to collide as art mixed with life to create a magic visual gift for us.

It is important to be open to the gifts and cautious of changes that perspective can bring.  Being open to the positive power of perspective allows us to experience unexpected moments and see things in new ways.  Yet being somewhat cautious about what perspective we choose reminds us to continue to strive to fix our focus on God so that we can act securely out of faith and not out of illusions.  For we, as humans, are susceptible to suggested changes in perspective – which is beautiful and frightening.  It is beautiful when openness to different perspectives enhances our relationships with others by promoting understanding across the divide of differences.  It is beautiful when we learn new and unexpected things and see in new ways that help us grow closer to God and to each other.  It is beautiful when a shift in perspective can bring about healing or allow a small space for grace.  Yet, this human susceptibility to opinion and influence can be frightening when we accept new perspectives without intentional consideration of those perspectives.  It can be frightening when tunnel vision is used in irresponsible ways to bully people into a single point of view.  It can be frightening when we fall into the trap of forgetting that ours is not the only valid perspective in any given situation, regardless of how noble.   This power of perspective to enhance or harm us is why it is so important for us to practice what I am calling attentive perspective.      

To practice attentive perspective is to be aware of the context of any given situation and to be mindful in one’s approach to that situation.  It means that we must be active in continuously working with our life dictionaries to determine how we will receive the multitude of messages life sends us and, in turn, how we will act on those messages.  We have all had to be on our guard in recent months as we waded through another electoral season, where perspectives were presented to us as facts in the hopes of capturing an unquestioned place in our systems of belief.  But to be attentive to perspective is to acknowledge how our own points of view are interpreting and being manipulated by a moment and to remain faithfully engaged in intentionally choosing a response to that moment.

Jesus gives us an example of being attentive to perspective in Mark 12.  Sitting down and watching people putting their offering into the offering box, he is not merely concerned with the amount of money each person offers.  Many offer large sums, which is lovely when looked at from the perspective of the physical needs of the synagogue, but that isn't the perspective Jesus is looking from. What Jesus notices is the context of the person in relation to their offering.  When the widow comes to the offering box and drops in only two small coins, he is mindful of her circumstances and can see that she has made an offering of all she has and, in doing so, he is able to see the depth of her faith.    

My trips to India challenged my perspectives in many ways each day that I was there – and continues to do so, just as all of our life experiences do – they linger and shape who we are.  While there I had the opportunity to visit the Taj Mahal, an amazingly beautiful building created out of a desire to express a King’s deep and sincere love for his departed wife.  Any good tour guide will reinforce over and over to you that the Taj Mahal is first and foremost a love story.  On the outer walls of the Taj Mahal are columns of Arabic lettering made of inlaid marble and the letters are smaller at the bottom of the wall than they are at the top so that when you stand and look up they all appear to be the same size.  There was intention in building the Taj Mahal, in many respects, but the fact that the intention included a detailed awareness of the literal perspective in the final outcome speaks to depth of attentiveness involved in the love that inspired that building. 

May we be as intentional in our attentiveness to perspectives within us and around us on our faith journey, for our journey too is a story of love.         

Perspective on the Taj Mahal

Marble Inlay Detail - Taj Mahal

Encaustic Excitement

The past several months have been a whirlwind of adventure and chaos for me due, in part, to two trips to India for work.  While I am certain that some of the experiences that I have had on those adventures will find their way into my artwork and writing in the future - their impact on the recent past has been a break in my ability to post things on this blog.  It remains a constant process to balance the responsibilities, desires, mundane necessities, and unexpected events of life.  Sometimes my artistic endeavors do not bear as much weight in comparison to other events and so they get less space in that balancing act - yet I always am working to keep art present in my world.  Even during the 'busy-ness' of business I have continued to take time and space to make art, including a series of paper cutouts which I hope to have mounted and visible soon.  Now that the work trips have settled down, I find myself once again able to reassess the current state of balance and am finding that excitement for trying out a new to me medium is bearing a lot of good weight!

The medium causing me so much excitement is encaustic painting.  Encaustic is painting that is done with heated wax mixed with pigments and resin which is painted, poured or molded onto a ground to create a piece of art.  It is a versatile medium that can be built up in many layers, carved into for texture, or collaged with to create mixed-media pieces.  The potential of encaustic to incorporate so many different layers, colors and textures is what intrigues me.  In recent years I have done work in scratchboard, oil stick painting, paper cutouts and wood collage - here is a medium that may allow me to bring aspects of each of those together into one space to create a rich image.  While I have not yet had the chance to actually attempt this medium I have taken the time to gather the supplies and set up a workspace so that, at the first opportunity, I will be ready to dig in and create.  It is with a healthy sense of balance that I share with you my excitement about encaustic and my hope that the medium will provide the expressive output I anticipate. 

Encaustic Palette

Encaustic Palette Ready to Go

Recognition & Reflection

A couple of weeks ago I pulled into the parking lot at a grocery store.  As I got out of the car and was shutting the door, I looked down and did a double take - in the paint of the parking spot line there was a design that looked familiar to me.  My brain's initial response to this sight was to ask me - why did you drop one of your cutouts in the parking lot - to which my brain responded to itself by reminding me that I did not have a cutout with me and how could I drop a cutout if there was not one there.  Needless to say, this momentary internal confusion forced me to stop and took a closer look at the shape I had stumbled across:

It is not a whole lot to go on, nor does it seem that special now - but something about this image struck me in that moment.  I saw a bit of my own visual voice reflected in those lines and the recognition of that reflection made me stop and take it in.  There, in the pavement, was both identification and inspiration.  I brought home that moment of inspiration and used it to create the mixed-media cutout in the post Image - Pavement Reflection.  Out of the recognition of a small moment of lines that reflected something of my compositional voice I was inspired to give life to those lines in a visual composition of my own that reflected the lines in the pavement.

In the creation of this piece I began to think about the cycle of recognition and reflection and how it is one of the ways I believe we as humans grow in God in the world.  If we look for God we see God around us and we find God within in us.  When we see moments of God around us we are drawn to those visions because they are familiar to what we know of God within us.  They are a reflection of our internal understanding of God and of ourselves if we live with God in our lives.  So if we live with God we began to see more of God because we recognize God reflected in ourselves and in that which we encounter.  And just as we begin to see more of God reflected in the world around us - the more we live with God - the more we become a reflection of God that others will recognize when they encounter us.

Seek out the reflection of God in the world - recognize it and, when able, reflect it.

Image - Pavement Reflection

Paper Cutout with Ink

Out of the Box - A Progression of Transformation

The image Out of the Box is currently on display (through mid-May) as part of an Alumni Art Show at United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities entitled "Thresholds of Transformation" - the writing below explains some of the motivation and meaning explored in this cutout.

Since my graduation from the Theology and Arts program at United Theological Seminary in the spring of 2005 I have continued to explore the intersections of art and theology through the creation of works of art both written and visual. Hand cut paper cutouts is a medium that I have returned to in several seasons of art making during that time. I enjoy the process of cutouts because I usually sketch out the image, then reverse it and draw it on the back of the paper that it will be cut out of and finally I cut the piece out, flip it over and mount it on a backing. By the end of this process I literally know the image backwards and forwards – yet I am still constantly surprised by the outcome when I step back to take a look at the finished product. Sometimes there are shapes that pop out visually in the cutout form that were not the focus of the initial composition. Likewise, the relationships between lines and negative spaces can take on new meaning in a sharp-edged cutout versus a blurry-lined sketch.

As I have worked on cutouts for the past several years I have always kept the compositions confined within an outer box – a frame of sorts that contains the composition. The box started as a utilitarian way to hold the pieces together – a binder of sorts that provided a structure for each element of the image to attach to and a way to define each line within a preset context. Recently, I have started to explore the idea of literally pushing the boundaries of that border to have lines that break the border and extend beyond the box. Initially this exploration was all about shrinking the box but still having it remain as part of the structure of the piece. Since then I have begun to realize that maybe the box itself is limiting the potential of the compositions. Perhaps the cutouts need to be free of the boundaries that the box has provided and open to the opportunity to be active, free-form compositions.

My approach to composition is currently on a threshold of transformation. I can see great potential in opening myself and my art up to this transformation and yet I still retain a warm spot in my heart for a composition cocooned within a box. This, to me, is a sign of healthy transformation – it is a transformation that respects its origins while being willing to step into the risky realm of the new. Echoes of past elements can be seen in the new creations, while the things learned through the openness to transformation have the potential to be introduced into revivals of the traditional form. Likewise, the lessons learned through this creative process can be applied to living a life that is aware of opportunities for growth and challenge that come with openness to transformation. I am just beginning to dive into the pool of borderless compositions and the cutout made for this show explores the beginning of that progression of transformation from the boxed composition at the top of the piece, to the space of re-construction in the in-between and finally pulls itself together in a small borderless composition at the bottom.

The box has been opened – may this transformation open even more.

Image - Out of the Box

Paper Cutout

Found Installation Art

While on a walk around a lake the other evening I came across a sight that delighted me. It was a small channel on the side of the lake with a shallow pool of water in it. In that channel I saw, spaced out in an aesthetically pleasing manner, a series of square cinder block bricks. I immediately stopped to admire the scene and realized that the sight was awaking in me a response similar to the viewing of intriguing art.

I have a hunch that this site was not set up as an intentional piece of installation/environmental art, but it translated as art to me in my encounter with it. I love moments like this - when art takes on a life of its own and manifests itself without conscious intention. It is like running into an old acquaintance in an unexpected context - the experience can be jarring and yet full of joy.

In November of 2010 I wrote a post entitled Found Collages on how I like to be on the lookout for unexpected and pleasing compositions found in the world around me. I reflected then on how having my eyes open for found collages is a method of keeping me engaged in constantly looking at the world around me in new ways and seeing things in light of their surrounding context. This experience, of finding art in the placement of cinder blocks, was a wonderful treat springing from the openness to see and acknowledge art in unexpected places.

Be on the lookout my friends, there is joy to be found in the most unlikely of moments.

Images - Found Installation Art

Documentation of Found Art

Purple Martins for Paul

My dear Uncle Paul passed away this month after a several year journey with cancer. One celebrated attribute of Paul was his passion for birds - and in specific his love and care for Purple Martins. I myself am not well versed in the language of birding and I will admit that I am not certain I would even be able to distinguish a purple martin flying by from any other swallow. I do, however, appreciate birds very much and I keep my eyes open in the hopes of spotting something special even if I do not really know what I am seeing. I take comfort in this practice because I know the joy that birding has brought to the lives of my uncle and cousin and the countless others who have been inspired by their passion for winged beings.

In light of this, it seemed very natural to spend some time reflecting on Paul's life through the creation of bird inspired cutouts. Below you will find five images roughly inspired by Purple Martins. While they may not, in actuality, capture the essence of the Purple Martin, they do represent a moment in time of reflection and honor for a beloved uncle and his beloved bird.

Purple Martin Cutouts

Paper Cutouts

With Caution

The past week has been a challenging one for me. It has been a week full of emotional turbulence rooted in the grand experience of being utterly human. What does that mean? It means I am living in the aftermath of having behaved unfortunately in a situation and causing pain to someone I dearly love in reaction to being hurt myself. It means I am staring humanity in the face as I grapple with the reality of death as a part of life as I grieve and come to acceptance of the impending loss of a different loved one. It means I am trying to graciously accept the change being dealt to me in my life while simultaneously grasping for a handle on what has been in my world so that the future and all of it's constant newness does not seem totally foreign. It means that I have over and over again been reminded of the imperfections of being a human and am being challenged to move forward in my life in the light of those imperfections instead of struggling to live in spite of them.

To live in the light of human imperfection is to accept the good and the bad, the broken and the whole, life and death and to celebrate them all with equal abandon as expressions of what it means to live life in the fullness of humanity. I have written about the beauty of imperfections in art - and how imperfections add a quality of uniqueness to the work which opens up layers of depth and interest. Yet to translate that lesson in terms of my own humanity takes an extra spoonful of sugar to swallow. It means knowing and accepting that my actions will sometimes cause pain in others and in myself and that I too will be hurt by the expressions of others. It also means that in the healing of those moments of hurt new insights and stronger bonds can be formed leading to deeper and more meaningful relationships.

My partner, while walking with me through the challenges of this week, suggested we wrap ourselves up in caution tape - and my dear in-laws in an act of delightful support and love actually sent us a roll in the mail this week. I am taking the suggestion to heart and while I may not physically wrap myself up in the caution tape - I think it is a powerful reminder of living in the light of imperfection. It is a reminder to myself to move, speak and act with caution and awareness when things are less than perfect. It is an acknowledgement that I have the potential to hurt others and will do what I can to prevent intentional pain - but being human means that I will make mistakes. The caution tape is also a flag of notification to others of my precarious state and a request to treat me gently as I work to be gentle too.

Caution Tape