Cindy, Tim, Andrew, Jedidiah, and Robert
2015 FBAMC Summer Interns
This summer I once again had the privilege of conducting a Spiritual Growth Group for the Fr. Beiting Appalachian Mission Center in Louisa, KY. I was fortunate to begin working as a Spiritual Director there before Fr. Beiting passed away. As a result, the Volunteer Coordinator, Cindy asked me to begin working with her long term volunteer groups for spiritual growth. We have slowly worked our way into using Art and Healing as a mode of spiritual learning. This year's group was the first time I organized the summer to teach with Art & Healing. It was a great experience for me and the results show that it was also for them! Here are the finished products. I challenged them to do a final project at the beginning of summer and then to present them at our last class yesterday. None of them have ever painted before!
This is Robert. He is a Seminarian. It is hard to see the picture, but he made the body of Jesus out of little individual figures. He had lots of symbolism in each of the things he painted. His painting is unique in that he combined his release picture with his transformation picture.
This is Jedediah, he is also a Seminarian. He pictured a storm with a lighthouse and the water. There was a lot of comments about how it looked like different things, like a train smoke, and mountains. He also played an original piece of beautiful music which sounded like rain.
This is Andrew, he also is a Seminarian. His painting was very striking! He read a Tolkien passage which evoked this painting. The figures in the sky are the moon and a wonderful nebula.
This is Tim and yes, he also is a Seminarian. His painting was begun the first day. He has never painted before. This painting evoked a lot of discussion about how it effected each of us.
This is Cindy, Volunteer Coordinator of FBAMC. This is a tear jar. She turned the painting as she talked so we saw that it caught her tears and then poured them out.
This is me. I also did a healing painting. I was reading a book about Art & Healing and also having some physical problems with stress. I sat down to do some artwork and this is the healing picture. There is a figure in the background with what I thought might be a bathtub. Others saw a flower. In this picture I see a giraffe! I am trying to work on having the painting speak to me instead of telling what it is. This is a shift in working with my images that gives the work a different dimension.
Having each person present their artwork at the end and present it is an added dimension that I haven't done before. It was enriching! I found this to be valuable information as I am taking an online course on Renaissance Art. The presentations add a depth that is not always there in just viewing!
On June 27, I participated in @015 "Paint the Town" Paint Out. Artists painted in downtown Lexington from 8am-2pm. Then there was a reception at LexArts where awards were presented. I had a blast. I wasn't sure I would be able to get it done! I met several other women artists there. This building is an iron front building someone told me as they walked by.
Another interest of mine is to paint furniture. I painted the adirondack chair for my son, Mike's birthday. This is a Jimmy Buffet inspired creation. There is a plane and lighthouse, flamingos, parot, whale, shells, a margarita, a shark and that's two manatee's on the arms. These chairs are really expensive so I had thought I would paint the blue chair like this but saw a magnet of mine from Charleston and thought it was a better idea. I will have this chair for sale at the Small Town Art Festival in two weeks.
I showed paintings at Art in the Garden at the beginning of June with my friend Ruslyn who is a photographer!
This is Amelia (top) and E!
A new picture is of Augusta High School's Clock Tower, that's Mom & Dad's house,
Lizzie, and Sunrise/set (two healing pictures
This is John, my husband, and two healing pictures. One is sneaking behind!
The setting was beautiful. A little cold believe it or not!
This is "Wisdom"
Ruslyn had photos for sale!
Ruslyn!
