During this season of Lent we were privileged to enjoy artwork created by Hope Church member Kari Miller-Fenwood on our bulletin covers and displayed in the gathering area. The artwork will remain during May, with one more piece being installed on May 10th. The following is part of a conversation I had with Kari about this body of work.
JB: Can you tell us a little about how these pieces came to be?
KMF: I’ve been working on this “resurrection work” for about 23 years. Each year in the weeks before Easter I find myself returning to it, creating new pieces and meditating on Christ’s journey to the cross—how he confronts his awful task and becomes the capstone of God’s redemption.
In the medieval cathedrals, the capstone—the final top piece of an arch—bears the pressure of the columns and holds it all together. Jesus, through his death and resurrection, becomes the capstone of our hope. Spring is the time when things reawaken, and during Lent we confront the shadows in ourselves and seek a renewed relationship with God. In this work I am trying to create an atmosphere that reflects the trajectory of God’s work through Jesus Christ in our lives—that unseen power that is around us all the time. It is not so much a representation but rather a quality I’m seeking to capture.
JB: What was the artistic process behind these pieces?
KMF: All of the resurrection work—I’ve done probably 200 to date—is done with paper and watercolors. I fold the paper, rather like origami, and then pour water colors of different strengths and hues onto it. I do this on a surface such as a plastic or metal table, or sometimes outside on the earth, so the pigment can flow through the paper and then infuse back into it.
The marbleizing and patterns that form are amazing, and the intriguing part of this process is that you never know exactly what will appear. The wash of color, how it bleeds sideways and through the layers, and how the folds create the different lines of the piece, are revealed as you unfold it. I sometimes add pastel drawing on top of the unfolded pieces as well.
JB: Worship Ministry chose this year to use color to symbolize the attributes of God that we meditated on during Lent. Can you talk a bit about that?
KMF: I researched how color has been used—in the Catholic Church, in our Protestant tradition, even by the writers of scripture at times—as a means to understand who God is and to express truths about God. It was rewarding to see how it all came together for our Lenten exploration of God’s attributes of mercy, fidelity, wisdom, steadfast love, and new life, and how we can tend these in our own lives.
When working with this medium I identify with women who through the centuries create useful pieces with wonderful aesthetics. I think of quilting, or batik, and I like that tie-in to art in the developing world. I love seeing how the pigment will puddle between the layers and form different intensities in various places. I can see hints of butterfly wings in some of the shapes that appear or the duskiness of the color.
We thank Kari for sharing her artwork with us, and also for sharing these thoughts about her process to help us appreciate it even more.
~Judith Boogaart, Worship, Prayer, and Spirituality Ministry member