Arts and Music at Redeemer

The word “advent” is defined as, “the coming or arrival, especially of something important.” In the church year, the season of Advent is a time of looking forward to something greater. It is a season of preparation, a time of waiting and watching for signs and portents.

Some of these are signs of a beginning. The three kings saw and followed a star to Bethlehem. Mary and Joseph and the shepherds received visitations from angels. Other signs and portents of the season foretell that something is coming to an end: the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, and other visions of John in the Book of Revelation.

But signs and portents aren’t limited to Biblical accounts or religious seasons. Astrologers read the stars and planets. Comets have been linked to life-changing historical events. Shamans seek the visions of the trance. Farmers scan the skies and consult almanacs for signs of rain or drought. Fortune tellers read cards, palms and auras. We all have dreams and visions. We see pictures in the clouds, and have favorite colors and lucky numbers.

Our gallery seeks artwork that expresses the theme “Signs & Portents” for a juried art exhibit that will be on view in our nave throughout the liturgical seasons of Advent, Christmas and Epiphany, with an artists’ reception planned for the evening of December 5th. All genres and media considered. Artwork needs to be two-dimensional – it can extend into the third dimension, but it must be able to be displayed on a wall.

Where: CR Gallery, Episcopal Church of the Redeemer, Kenmore, WA

When: December 2 – February 2, 2010

Artists’ Reception: Saturday, December 5, 6:00– 8:00pm

How: Submit up to 3 jpegs (72dpi, 600 pixels on the longest side) via e-mail to arts@redeemer-kenmore.org. In your e-mail, please include your name, contact information, and a few words about your work. Also include title, medium, framed dimensions, and retail price of each image submitted. Submission deadline is midnight, November 8th, 2009. The work will then be juried and acceptance notifications and delivery instructions will be sent out via e-mail by November 16th.

Entry fee: There is no entry fee for this exhibit.

Please take note of the following:
•Artwork must be ready to hang, preferably from a wire. Photographs and
artwork on paper must be framed with a wire attached for hanging. Canvases
do not need to be framed, but the sides should be painted, either a solid
color or as a continuation of the image, in order to give a neat,
professional appearance, and must have a wire attached to the stretchers
for hanging purposes.

•For work that is shipped, all shipping costs will be the responsibility
of the artist.

•Artwork can be for sale. The gallery will direct buyers directly to the
artist and takes no commission.

•The gallery will take care of advertising and publicity, and artists with
accepted work will receive postcard announcements to distribute
themselves.

•In addition to being displayed in the nave gallery, accepted artists will
also be featured on the church’s website.

•For ease of transport, and so we get to meet you, we are especially
seeking artists in the Puget Sound area, but this call is open to all
artists over 18.

•For more information, please visit our website at www.redeemer-kenmore.org/artsblog.
If you have any questions, please email Angela at arts@redeemer-kenmore.org.

Please feel free to pass this information along to other artists you think
might be interested.

Searching for the Light: an exhibit of recent work by Redeemer’s artist in residence Angela Wales Rockett. Paintings will be on view in the nave August 16th– October 16th, 2009, with an artist’s reception planned for the evening of October 10th. More information about that later.

Caravaggio, The Calling of Saint Matthew, 1599-1600
Oil on canvas, 10′ 7 1/2″ X 11′ 2″
Contarelli Chapel, Church of San Luigi dei Francesi, Rome

My friend (and poet extraordinaire) Gregory Crosby wrote this wonderful poem in honor of the Out of Darkness (Into Light) exhibit, inspired by this powerful painting by the Baroque painter Caravaggio.

On Caravaggio’s Calling of Saint Matthew

The world is its own shadow.

In the house where everything
is counted, nothing gained,

the afternoon’s gold slips beneath
the pane, & dusk raises something

in hearts that will not otherwise rouse.
Someone is at the door. He lifts

his arm from this quotidian shade,
this everyday dark so rich it cannot

exist anywhere but in this world.
The sun seems to frame his head,

casting his profile into deeper shadow,
but it is his hand that gleams: languid,

simple, assured. His companion’s hand
shadows it, though this man’s gray

head as yet only catches the light
of day. Two sharps in sumptuary

turn toward the strangers; two men,
young & old, at the table’s end, see

nothing to stir them just yet from
silver… & a gold coin glints from

Levi’s black cap, glimmers thanks
to a brushstroke as subtle as Christ’s

halo, as the tax collector points
to himself in soft alarm, as if to say

Who, me? But his softer eyes betray him.
He knows, as if across the chapel’s dim

effulgence he sees himself, Matthew—
sees his martyrdom, & accepts it, like a

sum that cannot be wrong. This is how
it is. This is how the light arrives: without

fanfare, like any, every morning; a light
that reveals all darkness is only absence,

only shadow; the hand of light, paused,
midair, just below the terminus of the

shadow on the wall. The light, here;
the world, here; the world, elsewhere.

I hope everybody had a very joyful Easter Sunday. I know I did. This is my third Easter season at Church of the Redeemer, and the second Easter altarpiece I’ve designed (you can see last year’s altarpiece here and here). This year we (the arts committee) decided to add some color to the paper lace design using tissue paper. Turned out to be a very frustrating process, but once the art was installed, it turned out to be so worth all the aggravation.

There were other frustrations as well, largely due to the unusually early appearance of Easter this year. But the biggest frustration was actually me. I had been suffering through some big time burnout issues in regards to my role in the arts committee for months, and was beginning to question whether I’d be able to go on with it once this liturgical year came to an end. This was making me cranky, to put it mildly, and made completing the Easter art that much more difficult. Lent passed with me barely noting it, and Holy Week ended up feeling like such a chore, instead of being the powerfully spiritual journey that I know it can be.

But I’m very happy to report that the Holy Spirit was definitely moving at our Easter Vigil on Saturday night, and I feel all sorts of refreshed now. I feel truly inspired (to breathe life into) and I’ve got all sorts of ideas for next liturgical year’s art. Thanks be to God!

In a few weeks we’ll be starting on art for Pentecost and I’m really looking forward to it. :)

Happy Easter!

-Angela

“Red Sky in Morning”, watercolor on paper, ©Denis Wogan

Denis is an artist living in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He say this about his work:

I was raised in Gloucester, Massachusetts, on the rocky New England coast. I know that much of my inspiration to paint comes from the vast ocean that, as a boy, I saw almost every day. I no longer live there but it is still a delight for me to look out over the water, to imagine the continents that exist on the other side, to see that big sky. This is a place where I truly feel the presence of God.

“Red Sky in Morning” is one of a series of abstract horizon paintings. The title comes from the sailor’s adage: Red sky in morning, sailors take warning; Red sky at night, sailors delight. For me this painting represents calm while facing the unknown.

In my paintings I take the simple, essential forms of a landscape, a sky, a storm, and translate my observation to paper or canvas. But, honestly; I have no agenda, no story to tell, I have no drive to steer the viewer to see something in a certain way, no reason to paint other than a deep passion for my own creative process.

You can see more of Denis’ work at www.wogan.us and he can be contacted at deniswogan@yahoo.com

“Still, Small Voice”, mixed media mosaic, 22″x16″ ©Kathy Thaden

Kathy Thaden is a mosaic artist from Colorardo who has sent us this mixed media mosaic made of a variety of recycled materials including mirror and frame, beach glass, ceramic tile, vitreous glass tile and stained glass.  She says this about this piece:

Contemplating silence I was drawn to the image of Elijah, and the progression of tremendous noise through wind, earthquake and fire. Finally, it is within the dramatic quiet of the aftermath that the Lord speaks to Elijah in the “sound of sheer silence.”

You can see more of her work by visiting her website.

“Misty Cove, San Juan Islands”, color photograph, ©Joe Crookes

Joe Crookes is a Northwest photographer who has traveled the world for the past 25 years taking beautiful photographs, two of which will be in our exhibit. His collection includes photos from Italy, Turkey, Mexico, Burma, Cambodia, Thailand, Indonesia, and Laos. He says this about his work:

I feel grateful for the vantage point that photography has given me through the years. It has enhanced my life. When I ook for pictures, I usually study places for a composition angle. If I see a possibility, I then look for lighting. It’s all about the light.

You can contact Joe by calling 206-632-1224.

“Into Silence” - the Advent altar

Originally uploaded by Church of the Redeemer.

This is the Advent altar for Church of the Redeemer this year. We have a new altarpiece designed by Angela Wales Rockett and the Ecclesiastical Arts Committee that expresses this year’s Advent theme of “Silence”.

“Silence”, mixed media sculpture (welded stand, dictionary, viewer contemplation), ©Marco Rosichelli

This sculpture comes to us from sculptor Marco Rosichelli’s studio in Arizona. It is also the first piece of sculpture that we’ve exhibited in the gallery. Marco says this about this piece:

This work deals with the reverence of books, and the written word. It is my intention to get the viewer to come to a contemplative place where they can consider art and language in a quiet space.

Marco can be contacted by writing to marco@rosichelli.com.