Fellowship & Communion

The Episcopal Church and the Visual Arts has a new online exhibit up as part of a year long series devoted to baptism. The current exhibit is based on this affirmation from the service:

Will you continue in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in the prayers?

The image above is James Mangum's "Prodigal Son" a painted wood carving relief based on a painting by Van Gogh. You can see all of the work of the exhibit here: Thumbnails.

Victoria and I will be curating an Advent exhibit. My contribution to the current exhibit is a photo I took in the Dominican Republic earlier this year: And in the prayers. A better version of the same idea was included in the exhibit. Steve Polston tells of his photo below,

Marge has been a member of this congregation since birth — 1923 — and worships in the church several times a week. She is present as often as the doors are open. She does continue in the prayers and the fellowship and the breaking of the bread. Even when there is no literal bread to be broken, Marge offers her prayers as a sacrifice. In this photo, Marge is waiting for the other worshippers to join her in the choir pews.

Recognition and Return

During winter times of the soul,
it is hard to believe it, but God is there too.
The above acrylic by RaRa Schlitt is from the latest online exhibit from the Episcopal Church and the Visual Arts. You will find the thumbnail gallery of the exhibit online here: Mosaic Thumbnails.

Victoria and I will be curating an ECVA online exhibit later this year called "Seek ing Christ in All Persons" which is one of a year-long series based on the baptismal covenant. Artists should get thinking on that theme if you want to take part. We'll get more information out around Easter.

peace,
Frank+
The Rev. Frank Logue, Part-time Online Curator

Full of Grace

Episcopal Church and the Visual Arts has a new online exhibit up for Advent. You can read the Main page with a Curator's Statement and from there select a slideshow of the art, or select the art by artist's name. There are also small thumbnails on that main page which one can click to see the art.

The best way to experience this exhibit is to watch the slideshow in Flash, which takes you through each image. The link for that feature is here: Exhibit as slideshow.

My daughter, Griffin, and I curated an Advent show for ECVA in 2005. That exhibit remains online here: Venite Adoremus.

peace,
Frank+
The Rev. Frank Logue, Curator

Imaging Ubuntu

Episcopal Church and the Visual Arts (ECVA) has a new online art exhibit "Imaging Ubuntu." Ubuntu is the Bantu concept that the identity of the self is understood to be formed interdependently through community. For this show, the jurors "looked, not only at the art work that was submitted, but at the underlying stories, seeking evidence of bridges being built, of barriers being crossed, and of the common threads that unite humanity and call us into action on one another’s behalf."

Victoria, Griffin and I were asked to enter images and didn't feel we had anything to match the theme solidly. You can see the work that did at the thumbnail gallery then click on any image to see the art and the story behind it.

Gifts

Corinne Collymore Peters' The Widow of Nain

The Episcopal Church and the Visual Arts (ECVA) has a new exhibit online called "Gifts." The Call was ECVA's first Open-Studio Exhibition, meaning artists were encouraged to submit art, not based on a preset theme, but a favorite work which had not previously been shown at ECVA. The name of the show is taken from "a primary characteristic of the artist's life, of the spiritual life, that of gift-giving and gift-receiving."

You can see a small picture of all the art at the thumbnail gallery and may click on any of the small pictures to see a larger version together with the artists statement. My contribution to the exhibit is Planted by Streams from a portfolio of infrared black and white photographs I took in Israel.

peace,
Frank+
The Rev. Frank Logue, Pastor


Margaret Parker Adams' Winter Stream

Light of the World

The Episcopal Church and the Visual Arts has a new online exhibit for Advent and Christmas called Light of the World. At right is Krystyna Sanderson's photograph from the exihibit, Places of Light #3. The full exhibit shows work in a variety of media including textiles as well as paintings and photographs.

There is a Thumbnail Gallery of the images or you can enter through the Curator's Statement, where she writes of the exhibit saying in part,

For Light of the World, ECVA invited members of The Artists Registry to engage in a visual exploration of these images of light, asking them to submit works that “give vision to the longing for light in the darkness and the growing anticipation of the birth of Christ,” reflecting “our search in darkness for the mystery of life-giving light.” In selecting images for the show I looked for works of artistic excellence which give visual expression to the theme in ways appropriate to each artist’s chosen medium. Many of the submissions are appropriate for Christmas and Epiphany as well as for Advent, and the selected works constitute a celebration of all three seasons.

Portraits of the Self

The latest online exhibit of ECVA—Episcopal Church and the Visual Arts—is now up at Portraits of the Self. The 40 self-portraits are thought provoking, particularly some which deal with coming to terms with cancer or other life-threatening illness. The portrait above is a detail from the entry by Pat Merriman. I find the second face in the top right to be haunting.

Feasts for the Eyes

The Episcopal Church and the Visual Arts has a new online exhibit called Feasts for the Eyes. Curator Judith McManis writes,

My own reaction was probably much like your own.
I looked at all the images, really connected with a few, had almost no reaction to some and thought I actually disliked others. I then read all the stories, knowing how much I needed to know about these wonderful artists and their offerings. I happened to have scheduled a weekend retreat at Holy Cross Monastery in upper New York state and left the images and their stories to ‘simmer’ over that time. Upon looking at them again, I found I really did have ‘new eyes’. Particularly with those that had previously troubled me, I saw new aspects, new layers and new connections with the Spirit.

Her full statement is here: Curator's Statement. Click on any of the pieces shown here at the blog to go to the page about that work. Then you can click on other artists' names in the left column to see more pieces from this exhibit.



Another Feast for the Eyes
Our daughter congregation, The Episcopal Church of Our Savior at Honey Creek, held its first worship service this past Sunday with 75 people present including the King of Peace Ensemble. Photos are online at their blog Sunrise on the Marsh.

Image and Likeness

The latest exhibit from the Episcopal Church and the Visual Arts is now online: Image and Likeness. The curator, Carole Baker notes in her exhibit statement,

Just before Lent ECVA artists were invited to observe Christ’s presence in the world in which we find ourselves. Where might we see Christ as he continues to be present with us through the worship of the Church, our spiritual practices, our daily habits, our homes? As the curator for this exhibition, Image and Likeness, I too allowed this invitation to guide how I experienced the holy season and I found myself pondering several questions:

• What role does the image of Christ play in our understanding of Christian discipleship?
• How do we learn to look for Christ in our lives?
• And how does this practice of intentional observation affect how Christ might be present not only in the things we observe but – and perhaps more importantly – in ourselves?
• Is there a reciprocal relationship between seeing Christ in others and others seeing Christ in us?