Clay with a Conscience

Clay with a Conscience

by | Apr 12, 2021 | Community, Studio, Uncategorized

Many Christian artists take the time of the 40 days of Lent to engage in an artistic spiritual practice. I have never felt called to do that…until this year.

Hearing that 43 US Senators had blatantly abandoned their oath to uphold the Constitution and voted to acquit Donald Trump of his involvement in the January 6 storming of the Capital, I knew I needed to respond to that with the power of art. But social commentary has never been the focus of my work. I was quite at a loss to respond and yet found it absolutely necessary to do that.

Eventually the memory of what I had seen in Olympia, Greece surfaced.

There, just outside the ancient Olympic stadium, was a WALL OF SHAME to expose those who had cheated. Each on a pedestal had a plaque that included their names, their fathers’ names, their crimes and the city-state they had represented (and embarrassed).

That seemed the perfect approach to highlighting the blatant dishonesty of those 43 Senators, only rather than include their own names…which I did not want to incorporate into anything so permanent as high-fire clay…instead included only the names of their fathers, since their crime echoes back and forth through history.

And so I began as Lent began, setting out to create 43 5”x5” 1/2 thick tiles. One side included the necessary words…the other, abstract gouges and impressions, and as the project evolved, I knew what I was creating was really “A Study in Orange,” and so glazing on the other side of the tile was settled.

My plan from the outset was to share these with the community on Good Friday: a kind of communal Way of the Cross for us as a nation. I was very uncertain that I would complete this project and, as a friend assured me, “it will take a lot out of you dealing with all that duplicity and hypocrisy,” because, not only was it necessary to focus on the betrayal of those 43, but authentically acknowledge the ways that shows itself in me. 

Remembrance is important; my hope is that recognizing this COMMUNITY DISHONESTY calls us each to action.

My intention going forward is to have the installation exhibited in more formal spaces that have a sensitivity to social consciousness; then to sell each tile and donate all of the proceeds to a national organization that works for justice.

The Maturing Artist, Part 1/2

The Maturing Artist, Part 1/2

by | Feb 12, 2021 | Uncategorized

My interest in the arts began very early; going back to my single digit years and my parents’ amazement at my ability to draw “freehand,” in the phrase of the day. In elementary school if art contests were had, they often resulted in prizes for me. In one notorious year when ‘art’ meant coloring in a pre-drawn page, I was given the page Thursday afternoon and assigned to do the coloring; then Friday afternoon the class was directed to ‘color as Linda did.’ Ahh, art it wasn’t, and while embarrassing, it did build my confidence.

High School brought the possibility of really studying art. One of my fondest memories comes from sophomore year and my sweet-talking the registrar to change my schedule from business math to junior-senior art. That was a coup! Of course there was an art club, and senior year I was president and devised all kinds of new activities to engage and enliven the group. 

Music, theater, dance, poetry, all of the arts were very alive in that all girls high school in Baltimore in the early ’60’s, and so performance covers, drawings for poetry magazines, posters, stage scenery, even yearbook ‘end sheets’ in addition to regular art class assignments filled my four years. 

I was in love with the ability to create, found it a useful and much valued skill and knew by then it would always be a major part of my life. Art was about creating beauty, a useful kind of beauty and I believe that simple reality remains at the root of my understanding of art. And the words on the art room bulletin board (never changed in four years and so I remember it to this day), “Art is Right Making,” underscored that. 

The Maturing Artist

The Maturing Artist

by | Jan 11, 2021 | Uncategorized

When Nancy Ori invited me into a collaboration with her, I was very skeptical. I truly did not see how we could collaborate in any meaningful way. But continued conversation over several months developed into an idea about which I am genuinely excited.

The review of my own journey in art, beginning at the very beginning, was quite shocking. It opened up to me the reality of just how firmly rooted my work has been in my earliest approaches and understanding of art. As each of the installments are published, I invite you to consider your own life’s journey through art, if that is appropriate, or through some other specific focus.

Even as we will have a link to Google Docs with the entire presentation from both of us in the Newsletter, and I will feature Nancy’s reflection in each of my newsletter, my Journal, for each subsequent month, will include my own installment for that month with a few additional comments.

I hope this conversation proves insightful and beneficial for your own beginning to this year.