Really. Really I 'm going to catch my blog up to date, REALLY! I am abandoning the approach I planned to take- which involved going back in time and writing about November, December, & January. Let's just say it was a busy time for us all, we've moved on, and maybe one day there will be nostalgic blogging about it.
SO without further ado, let's talk about something really cool that is happening right now:
My friend Elizabeth is an artist. Over the past several years she has worked creatively with a pretty broad range of materials. I admire the way she has not limited herself to a singular category of visual art- she is a photographer, a craft artist, a printmaker, an installation artist- she is whatever she puts her inventive mind to.
In February she was commissioned to create a large scale installation for the Downtown Presbyterian Church. Due to it's large scale and an immediate deadline, it became somewhat of a group effort. Elizabeth designed a template that was used by her helpers to assemble hundreds of folded paper starlings. I had the opportunity to assist with the starling making on a couple occasions and I loved it! It was inspiring to be a [tiny] part of such an endeavor and to be surrounded by such imaginative friends.
More pics (source E.Streight) and info on the project:
Placeholders
Elizabeth Streight
Lenten Installation, Downtown Presbyterian Church
D. I. G. 2012
Artist Statement
"The way of love is not a subtle argument.
The door there is devastation.
Birds make great sky-circles of their freedom.
How do they learn it?
They fall, and falling, they're given wings." -Rumi
Transformed space, even in exquisite environments, invites new dialog, interest, and reflection.
In the great tradition of Lenten travelers who began their practice of solemn preparation for Christian Holy Week in the second and third centuries, and also in the tradition of parishioners of the Downtown Presbyterian Church, this installation art piece—in transformed space—offers an invitation.
See lonely roads flanked by power lines and a few black-winged birds. See great murmurations of starlings swept up in aerobatic displays. Remember the many metanarratives of black birds used in literature, film, and song. Also, let these birds serve as symbols of the ashes, placeholder travelers on the lonely roads of this Lenten season.
This transformed space is a reflection of the search and longing for reinvented meaning in our own immediate worlds.
“Longing. Longing for a wave of love that would stir in me. That's what makes me clumsy. The absence of pleasure. Desire for love. Desire to love.” -Wings of Desire (Der Himmel über Berlin), Wim Wenders, 1987
Often clumsily, we make the road by walking.
Addendum—Many, many hours were given by willing crafters, “hand”-maidens and sirs, in accomplishing the immaterial labor required of this project (approximately 250 hand-made paper birds). They are the searching students, the holders of babies, the alternatively employed, and the successful dreamers, whose hands give life to the work. Many thank yous go out to the following lovely persons: Beth Gilmore, Grace Gilmore, Bethany Hill, Sarah Shearer, Samera Zavaro, Sarah Dark, Beth Cawthon, Jon Cawthon, Carrie Gilmore, Janet Streight, Dennis Streight, Lenae Chambers, Cassie Ponder, Ashleigh Rakestraw, Johann Sorensen, Jude Mason, Susan Enan, Nina Cardona, Dorothy Dark, Anthony Doling. (Note: Photographic documentation of the temporal event will be gifted to the church for the D. I. G. permanent collection.)
Elizabeth Streight is a Nashville-based visual artist and one of DPC's eight artists in residence. Streight's works apply a focus on the humanity found in otherwise barren landscapes and objects within our immediate worlds, creating images meant to question, endear, and emphasize our needs for human connection. Streight holds a master of arts in Marriage and Family Therapy and continues to find ways to integrate photography and other arts into her practice as a children's therapist.
