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.
Last night we had our first Art and Music Tuesday and it was great! There was wonderful fellowship and much laughter. Sheila taught us part of a lovely Psalm to sing (we’ll learn more of it each Tuesday in July). And the Christmas altarpiece is well underway. I’m really looking forward to next Tuesday!
This is my sketch for the altarpiece. (on the left is what I hoped to get done by the end of the night - and we did!)
Color Sketch for Christmas 2009 Altarpiece
Here I start the art portion of the evening by explaining some of the materials we’ll be using.
Art portion of evening begins
And here is one shift of my minions painters. You can really get a sense for the size of this thing when you see people working on it.
Ginny, Sheila, Polly, Eric and Kathy painting
Hope you can join in the fun next week!
-Angela
Ron and I have been making a new canvas for our Christmas altarpiece, which we’ll be working on for the “art” portion of the Art and Music Tuesdays which start next week! In the first photo the framework is getting muslin stretched over it, and in the second photo the muslin is drying after we soaked it so it would tighten up. It is now tight as a drum and ready for a coat of gesso.
Many, many heartfelt thanks to Ron who not only agreed to make this, but improved greatly upon the original design. It’s a beautiful thing.
The final size of the two panels hinged together is about 10 feet by 8 feet, and I can’t wait to cover it with rich colors! Check back to watch our progress.
-Angela
| December 6, 2008 | ||
| 7:30 pm | to | 8:30 pm |
Join us for a contemplative evening of Advent readings and music on Saturday, December 6 at 7:30 PM. The service will include Taizé music and Advent hymns, and a beautiful new altarpiece designed by artist-in-residence Angela Wales Rockett and painted by members of the congregation.
Performers this evening include:
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
The Arts Committee is hard at work making the altarpiece for Pascha, also known as Easter. As always, it will be cut paper - though this year, colored tissue paper will be an element.
Here are a couple of photos of the work-in-progress on Flickr:
Christmas 2007: Hanging the altarpiece
Originally uploaded by Church of the Redeemer.
This year’s altarpiece was designed by the wildly talented Seattle artist Matt Whitney, who also came in on a Saturday and helped the Ecclesiastical Arts Committee paint it.
The result is lovely.
The piece will be on display over the altar at Redeemer through the seasons of Christmas and Epiphany.
Matt’s Web site: www.mattsbasement.com
“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”.
This past Sunday marked the beginning of the season of Pentecost. To see more pictures of this altarpiece, as well as of the Pentecost dinner and vigil from the evening before, please visit our photos on flickr. (Can you guess that the color for Pentecost is red?)
L-R: Debi Laughlin, Angela Rockett and Bill McGlinn of the Ecclesiastical Arts Committee work on the Advent altarpiece for 2006.
The May 20th issue of The Living Church, a national Episcopalian magazine, is devoted to the theme of Liturgical Arts. And they interviewed us! They did an entire article on our own Church of the Redeemer in Kenmore, Washington!
It’s a great article, and the online version of the article is up on their website, so check it out!
"We are trying to live out, as best we can, the religion of the heart. You do that with things that aren't very rational, like music, art, prayer, and liturgy - by giving people an opportunity to learn what really matters, which is living in a relationship with God."
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