Creation Series
BELFAST, NORTHERN IRELAND
Skainos Chapel

The artistic direction for our Skainos Project and the East Belfast Mission prayer paintings took into consideration the intimacy of the architectural form created for this sacred space. The size and treatment of the painting surface and color were created to give a sense of prayerful intimacy. Each piece of our art began with our own prayers penciled onto the raw canvas. Beneath our many layers of paint, the prayers began a dialogue with the Divine, blessing and invocation calling the viewer into a glimpse of the mystery of God’s intimacy, love and grace. We offer our paintings as a visual pathway to prayer and contemplation. 

Our inspiration is grounded in the writings of Glenn Jordan of Skainos titled, The City of God in the Here and Now; the re–imagining of a sacred community in East Belfast that birthed Skainos. Its many mystical references to imagining, thin places, creativity, transformation, garden paradise and renewal conjured portals to the divine and of a space where we find walls soaked with stories.

 The mystical references drew us to the creation story and garden paradise narratives of Genesis, seeing God as creative author. We were also inspired by John’s proclamation in his Book of Revelation of a new vision and imagining of the heavenly city breaking into this world. The thread that connects these stories is love. And in Song of Sol 4:15 “Thou art a fountain of gardens, a well of living waters, and flowing streams from Lebanon.”  We have worked with these texts for inspiration and the central element for the larger painting. Water is a vital component to East Belfast, (meaning river mouth) and creations element that allows life to abound both physically and spiritually.

New Jerusalem Series
MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA 
Bethlehem Lutheran Church

Why should we move towards understanding of one another? Can changing our lens from seeking differences to finding understanding lead us to new truth? What stereotypes do we use at the border of unknowing? And how might we speak with healthy imagination and creativity for the other in order to seek what we have in common? In this series we explore what can happen at the edges and boundaries of shadow and light. It can sharpen our focus to see the gifts in both and move us forward together.

Intersections: Art as an act of reconciliation

Being trapped by the same way of thinking or safe, tried and true ideas of the past can become the walls that cut us off with a false sense of security. Perhaps what walls do most is separate us from the possibility of participating in relationship. Over and above our diversity, seeking relationship with one another can lead to growth and inspiration and together, lead us into new territory. Holding creative tension in this meeting place offers an alternative from extremes and prevents us from rushing to judgment and demanding a complete resolution to things before we have learned what they have to teach us. Light comes from elsewhere as we remain in this creative tension, drawing out the unique bit of heaven’s mystery in each other to form a new beginning. Through the use of archetypal shapes and symbols we seek to create a visible sign of invisible grace.

This is the Hour of Change
ISLE OF IONA, SCOTLAND

In this grouping of paintings, we feel awakened to our environmental crisis. We have begun to think of it as a move to a disciplined pursuit of less. There will be dire consequences and suffering for our human community, especially the poor, if we do not undergo a radical re-imagining and begin to rethink our consumptive patterns. Letting go of our fear that might rise will also let us imagine something new together and re-form our relationship to the earth and one another.

This is the hour of change.
Within it we stand uncertain on the border of light.
Shall we draw back or cross over?
Where shall our hearts turn?
Shall we draw back, my brother, my sister,
or cross over?
This is the hour of change, and within it,
we stand quietly
on the border of light.
What lies before us?
Shall we draw back, my brother, my sister,
or cross over?

– From the Hebrew Prayer Book

Beneath the Surface: Exploring the Layers

PALESTINE + ISRAEL

While we have tried to draw deep inspiration from our first journey into the ancient world of Palestine and Israel, we can in no way represent the realities that we encountered. Our creative process, like our journey, is not to render something but to allow the texture, layers and paint to suggest an ancient path through the work as it develops. Our abstractions are memories, spiritual reflections and prayers forged in color, shape and form.

SEE THE INSPIRATION