Holy Week Art Installation using Poetry, Painting and Prayer
March 21, 2016
Art Journal Post March 2016 by Jenny Meehan aka jennyjimjams
I’m posting this up in addition to my usual once a month post, as it is Holy Week now and I want this up in time! I am hoping that those in the area who are interested in creative communications and the Christian faith, and would like to invest some time into drawing closer to themselves and God over the Holy Week, will be encouraged to use St Paul’s Church in Hook during those times when it will be open for prayerful reflection, meditation and contemplation. (or just one of those would suffice!!!!)
Between 7 and 8pm… Monday to Thursday the church will be open.
On Good Friday the installation will be taken away, but in the evening there will be a performance of Requiem by Gabriel Fauré which starts at 7pm.
Images from St Paul’s Church, Hook “Holy Week” Installation
First of all there were lots of different areas in the church building used by many different people, and all wonderfully put together and conceived which will provide lots of opportunity for people to guide their prayer experiences…I am just focusing on my own contribution here as this is the focus of this blog, but I will be posting more images on Facebook which will show others work as well.
This is how I chose to use the Chancel area of St Paul’s Church, Hook. It’s my own place of corporate worship, so it was very lovely to bring myself into the space and express thoughts and feelings in a visual way.
Love Bade Me Welcome inspired Altar Piece by Jenny Meehan Holy Week art installation in St Paul’s Church
Love Bade Me Welcome painting displayed as part of art installation at St Paul’s Church of England Church
st pauls church holy week art installation jenny meehan
st pauls church holy week art installation jenny meehan
(not very good quality pictures unfortunately… I really need a better camera!… Looks like I need to pop back and adjust the candles too! These were not part of the original idea, but as is often the case, when you are there you use what you can and how you can.)
st pauls church holy week art installation jenny meehan
On the Altar – I used a white paper table cloth, a sheet, and a long piece of white canvas. I dripped some paint, which I made using acrylic medium and a lot of red iron oxide pigment, along the canvas. Initially this was in separate spots, but I decided to drip them into each other to create a line, not unbroken, but leading into itself in places. This led from the centre outwards to a plate and knife and fork at each end. In the middle I had a single red rose in a single stemmed glass vase. The rose is open and the petals may start to fall at the end of the week. I felt these symbols to be very common and not particularly innovative, however, they were there to help engage people with the poem by George Herbert, which I put on display near by.
George Herbert. 1593–1632
286. Love
LOVE bade me welcome; yet my soul drew back,
Guilty of dust and sin.
But quick-eyed Love, observing me grow slack
From my first entrance in,
Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning
If I lack’d anything.
‘A guest,’ I answer’d, ‘worthy to be here:’
Love said, ‘You shall be he.’
‘I, the unkind, ungrateful? Ah, my dear,
I cannot look on Thee.’
Love took my hand and smiling did reply,
‘Who made the eyes but I?’
‘Truth, Lord; but I have marr’d them: let my shame
Go where it doth deserve.’
‘And know you not,’ says Love, ‘Who bore the blame?’
‘My dear, then I will serve.’
‘You must sit down,’ says Love, ‘and taste my meat.’
So I did sit and eat.
Two chairs on each side of the Altar. Cushions on them, to be comfortable! Maybe this could be identified as a “Table for Two” !!!! Altar rail open, of course, as broken, it is the entrance into the area.
I put my painting “Love Bade Me Welcome” behind the altar. Very pleased that the colours worked well.
love bade me welcome painting jenny meehan
The Pews
On just one side of the Pews I had a pot of Chrysanthemums; lovely daisy single petal types. Then another pot from which all the flowers had been cut off. Then a couple on stalks lying out of water, a couple more in some water, and a few flowers which had been taken apart.
st pauls church holy week art installation jenny meehan
Then I displayed the two poems I wrote when thinking through things. The first to go with the flower on it’s stalk, out of water, and the second for the flowers in the pot.
A Poem for Chrysanthemums in Holy Week 2016
Cut
from my roots
I lie and wait. Someone will pick me up
tear me apart.
But what difference will it make, to me?
A stranger from my source
with no future destiny.
Another Poem for Chrysanthemums in Holy Week 2016
Gathered together
Clamouring for space;
Dreaming of re-potting,
Positioning, in a different place.
Some golden, garden, Summer
may be our future lot;
Yet, in the present, happily,
nurtured in our pot.
You may come and take one,
and tear the life apart,
And what is done to one of us
will shake us from the heart
Yet this brings opportunity,
new hope and faith to know.
Because where one is broken
another two may grow.
(The ones in water are there simply so I can replenish when need be!)
The meditative activity, if anyone wanted to do it, was taken from Stephen Cottrell’s book “The Things He Carried – A Journey to the Cross: Meditations for Lent and Holy Week” This had several points and suggestions to it, which included a reading from Romans 5. 1-11, and a suggestion for breaking up a flower and after holding it for a while, then trying to reassemble it as best you could. Part of this was feeling “how hopeless it is” (to try and reassemble it) and also watching “it fade”.
Other Areas
I had the Hymn “What a Friend we have in Jesus” also displayed in another part of the chancel. No surprise there…I have been thinking about this Hymn for around the last three years!!!!!!
What a Friend We Have in Jesus | Joseph M. Scriven
1. What a friend we have in Jesus,
All our sins and griefs to bear!
What a privilege to carry
Everything to God in prayer!
Oh, what peace we often forfeit,
Oh, what needless pain we bear,
All because we do not carry
Everything to God in prayer!
2. Have we trials and temptations?
Is there trouble anywhere?
We should never be discouraged—
Take it to the Lord in prayer.
Can we find a friend so faithful,
Who will all our sorrows share?
Jesus knows our every weakness;
Take it to the Lord in prayer.
3. Are we weak and heavy-laden,
Cumbered with a load of care?
Precious Savior, still our refuge—
Take it to the Lord in prayer.
Do thy friends despise, forsake thee?
Take it to the Lord in prayer!
In His arms He’ll take and shield thee,
Thou wilt find a solace there.
4. Blessed Savior, Thou hast promised
Thou wilt all our burdens bear;
May we ever, Lord, be bringing
All to Thee in earnest prayer.
Soon in glory bright, unclouded,
There will be no need for prayer—
Rapture, praise, and endless worship
Will be our sweet portion there.
Our vicar Luke kindly offered his Father, Iden Wickings’ sculpture for use as part of the installation.
st pauls church holy week art installation jenny meehan
I responded to this sculpture like this:
“Holding On” A poem by Jenny Meehan in response to the sculpture ” ‘Raising the Totem’ by Iden Wickings
Holding on
Substance of my self
standing, but with force, drawing away.
Welded, in baptismal fires
ordained for me.
The effort of this slope of life
is too much…
The gravity and weight of it
beyond my ability to sustain.
Yet
you, Oh Christ…
Within and around me
hold on.
Holding on.
In a single step,
the weight of your love lifts me.
The strength of a hundred men
in just one,
says
“This will last forever”
then
“My work is done”.
And I used one of my paintings which I felt worked well with the sculpture visually. It’s an untitled painting right now… but was painted alongside the Resurrection One and Resurrection Two paintings. It’s still eluding me a little… I realise the logical and predictable thing is to call it “Resurrection Three” but I might settle for relating it to it’s use in this context, maybe “Resurrection Three/Holding On”
I enjoyed the process of putting it together, especially stretching my arms out when leaning over the altar to smooth out the table cloth. This has got to be the most profound part for me.. to serve, to bow, to stretch my arms out, maybe there was there a small echo which resonated with my identification with what Christ has done for me.
It’s all part of the service…
Considerations
This strikes me. I have read it many times before…
“If the Church gained more confidence in the figurative languages on which it is built, it would feel more able to befriend the artists, writers and poets of today with more open and trustful willingness. Like birds hovering on the strong currents of the air we breathe, people of art and people of faith are keen to discern something of these currents which pull and shape our lives. It is an exciting task and one that might create many friendships and maybe even some agreement. It does not surprise me, then, that it is our cathedrals that, by their beauty of stone, liturgy and music, are housing some of the most reflectice and lively partnerships between the contemporary arts and faith. It is also our cathedrals for the same reasons, that are attracting many people’s interest in the possibilities of God. Human beings need intimation as well as specification.”
Mark Oakley in his book “The Collage of God” 2001.
Art Journal Post March 2016 by Jenny Meehan aka jennyjimjams
The best thing about long titles for WordPress posts is that when you want to refer back to your content it is easy to find it on the internet, wherever you are.
Firstly, my inspiration of the week.
Wow, I have to share this! What a find!
As a mother and a fine artist, I have invested some time into grappling with what is happening at the moment in our society with respect to women, and I sometimes grapple, in thought, with how the powers/systems that be have an impact on artists, but this lady says it all, in the wonderful article “Liberating Motherhood and the Need for a Maternal Feminism” Here are some extracts, but you can read the whole brilliant article here: http://discoversociety.org/2016/03/01/viewpoint-liberating-motherhood-and-the-need-for-a-maternal-feminism/ (link now extinct)
Liberating Motherhood and the Need for a Maternal Feminism by Vanessa Olorenshaw
“Motherhood has been a minefield for feminism since the inception of the women’s movement. We have fought for reproductive freedom, we have pushed for economic equality, we have called for universal childcare and we have worked towards greater success in the ‘public sphere’.
However, we remain faced with one problem. There remain a sizeable proportion of mothers who actually want to care for their families. Not all mothers want to be liberated from mothering their children. Those who take time out of the workforce are penalised financially; and those who return to employment against their wishes face strain of a double shift.
We refuse to see that what mothers do in reproducing the human race and caring for vulnerable, dependent children is important and necessary work. Indeed, ‘dependence’ has become a dirty word, rather than acknowledged as an intrinsic part of the human condition (1). Having children is not a lifestyle choice akin to keeping lizards: it is socially imperative to produce and raise the next generation (2).
Women who are mothers are at higher risk of poverty. Mothers who care for their families may not have an income in their name: they remain – as highlighted by the women’s movement – at the financial mercy of a partner and thereby vulnerable. While the answer to this predicament has effectively been ‘get a job’, feminism has failed to answer what we are to do with about mothers if we are to ensure that they do not sacrifice economic autonomy or full citizenship when they care for their children. Childcare and ‘sharenting’ answers the question only for those families for whom that is preferred or suitable.”
Best to read the whole thing, to understand properly in context, but shining out for me :
“Feminism has moved towards a capitalist equality which has no room for women’s liberation.”
“…feminism and politics has failed mothers who want to care for their children.”
“…. the State penalises care and marginalises carers. As though feminism had never happened.”
“….the necessary work of family remains one of the most neglected areas of feminism and politics.”
“Feminism fears that it would institutionalise or ghettoise women into domesticity; Capitalism refuses to see what women do in the home and in raising families as ‘work’.”
Regarding what happened with Family Allowance/Child Benefit in 2011; ” It was a feminist failure that the assault on the payment was carried through.”
“feminism has to start to ask itself: are we ever going to find creative ways to protect, support and empower women beyond simply pushing for paid employment?”
“…..mainstream politics and feminism continues to apply the new gender contract: whereas once our place was mandated to be at home, it is now firmly in the workplace. There is no flexibility. No recognition of the diversity in mothers’ wishes, skills, inclinations or needs, or the validity of mothers taking a short or longer period of time out of continuous workplace participation in order to do the important work of care.”
In her book ” Liberating Motherhood – Birthing the Purplestockings Movement” you can read much more… She writes about this; “I argue for feminism to mobilise with mothers. When mothering is on our terms, it is a liberating motherhood. Yet, we need to liberate motherhood from patriarchal neoliberal capitalist constraints so that mothers can finally enjoy economic autonomy and self-determination.”
YES!
“Vanessa Olorenshaw is a mother of two young children. She is a friend of the organisation Mothers at Home Matter and was a founding member of the Women’s Equality Party UK. She is the author of The Politics of Mothering, a political pamphlet. Her book Liberating Motherhood – Birthing the Purplestockings Movement, will be published later in 2016 by WomancraftPublishing. She tweets on @VOlorenshaw and blogs here.”
Well Spring 2
in progress images
You might remember Well Spring…
And so good to see it used on the cover of “Recovery Of Hope” !
http://www.brfonline.org.uk/9780857464170/
Here is the Well Spring painting, (the first one), which I thought would be the only one. However the image of water spurting upwards from the ground below seems to be a reoccurring one for me!
Well Spring…
And now some extract images from something I am working on…
detail well spring two, random way up
well spring two painting section
bit of textured wall paper here
Well Spring Two has a light, flying kind of feeling going on, rather than a resounding warm light, but I quite like it. I have applied several materials to it, as you can see. It’s not finished yet… I have put it to rest for a while, as it needed some space. And so did I!
As usual, I have a lot of paintings in progress, and have put them to rest for the next few weeks, avoiding the temptation to start working away at them. I have far too much sorting out of stuff, household tasks, and organisational things to be doing at the moment. I used to see this as a curse sometimes, but I am learning it can be a blessing. Forced separation from your work when you are an artist can give you much needed perspective. The idea that one should be working away with the same intensity all of the time is very unnatural and probably not a very healthy thing to do. I always find that plenty of other things, often creative, fall into place and come into being when I stop working (at least in theory!) So, even when taking a conscious break in a series of paintings, it never turns out to be a break, or in any way a ceasing of creative activity.
The Studio Tent
Well, it’s still standing!
I am worried about my acrylic paint freezing in the Studio Tent, and have been out to put more insulation over them. The whole process of putting the paints away at the end of last year has been helpful to me. What was not so helpful, towards the end of last year, was to find that the wind had dismantled the extension to the tent which I put up in the Summer. It had crept underneath the tarpaulin and LIFTED OFF the two horizontal bars.. I am so surprised.. they were jammed in! I was relieved to find that the framework was not damaged….When I went out and found the tent lopsided, my heart missed a beat for a moment. The wind is so strong! My husband was away, but fortunately I am quite strong and managed to re assemble it with a bit of effort. I have now tied down the horizontals, all of them, on both the original and extension tent, with thick nylon tights. Thick nylon tights are rather good for tying things. Unwanted items from a teenage daughter do come in handy. I kept them by feeling sure they would be put to good use, as I don’t like to waste things. Thankfully they were! And then we had Storm Imogen didn’t we, which brought some very strong winds across southern parts as it moved eastwards over the UK on Monday 8 February. I was ready for her!
deluge painting jenny meehan
This earlier painting of mine, Deluge, pretty much sums the experience up! It was raining and windy, when the Studio Tent dismantled itself, with the help of the wind!!! I still have “Deluge” and it’s still available to buy. I feel my paintings are like children who need to leave home. They are welcome to stay but there comes a point when I would like them to find themselves an owner who can give them an adult life, away from the womb of the artist who created them. It’s nice to look back at this painting and still think, wow, yes, I got that, and it still looks living and alive, it’s still got it’s punch and it was successful. There is nothing like the test of time. I sell my paintings for around £400 each. It varies according to size. I only sell about two a year. It keeps me in art materials! Sometimes it helps pay for further training. The paintings normally hang around for a while and then their owner finds them, and hopefully decides to buy them. I’m not interested in generating business or profit. I simply need to continue my work, and in order to do this I need to sell them from time to time.
Sometimes people are surprised at the price of a painting (either more or less than they expect!) but it’s a great investment of time and effort and skill for me, and also, (I think) a great investment for the person who ends up with one of my paintings. If you love something and it stays with you, it will refresh and inspire you day in and day out. I hope that is why collectors buy my work. This seems to be the case at the moment. I have a few collectors, and I have always been deeply encouraged by their response to my work.
Drawn Together
“Drawn Together” by Jenny Meehan at Southwark Arts Forum & Tower Bridge “Art at the Bridge” #7 “Building Bridges, the Female Perspective” Art Exhibition
Southwark Arts Forum & Tower Bridge “Art at the Bridge” #7
“Building Bridges, the Female Perspective”
in celebration of International Womens’s Day
Very pleased that my work has been selected for this exhibition which starts on the 8th March 2016 and runs for five months!
“Building Bridges, the Female Perspective” 8th March – Aug 2016 organised by Southwark Arts Forum & Tower Bridge Art at the Bridge #7. Tower Bridge Victorian Engine Rooms, Tower Bridge Road London
Here’s some information about the work I have on show as part of the exhibition. I cannot wait to see the whole exhibition soon!
Jenny Meehan – About this work:
“This artwork expresses some of my female emotional experience: the emotion of two
parts of my sense of self being pulled together. A feeling of balance and unity, which holds, even when the two sides are different in some respects. The suspended purple and yellow contrasting colours create stasis and tension. Yet, there is also a mirroring of the same essential structure in my composition, drawn together in a pivotal centre, which may suggest movement. This piece resonates in relation to the Tower Bridge; an engineering achievement involving among other things, precision, balance, and design. Creative energy, both within and without, in both engineering and art. “
Drawn Together will be exhibited at the Tower Bridge Victorian Engine Rooms this year. © Jenny Meehan All Rights Reserved
Drawn together being part of this exhibition is certainly one of the highlights of this year for me!
There is also, coming up the Anagrams Exhibition at Kingston Museum:
“Anagrams” at Kingston Museum, Kingston Art 2016: Wheatfield Way,Kingston upon Thames, KT1 2PS. 29 April 2016 to 2 July 2016
This is a free to see exhibition, with a variety of work from many local artists. I am sure it will be a delight!
I also have some work (just postcard sized prints) in the Art of Caring Exhibition:
“The Art of Caring” Exhibition at The Upper Circle Gallery, The Rose Theatre, Kingston-upon-Thames, from the 12th to 24th May 2016.
There will be a taster exhibition for this years Kingston Artists Open Studios, not sure on the details of that as yet.
Formed by the Spirit
where earth and sky meet painting – jenny meehan
Where Earth and Sky Meet © Jenny Meehan
Genesis 2 verse 7 “then the LORD God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being.”
Text below quoted from Formed by the Spirit
Formed by the Spirit
The Newsletter of the Southwark
Diocesan Spiritual Formation Group
Opportunities, events, resources and articles
on prayer and spirituality
Issue 27: February 2016 Written by Chris Chapman
“Here we have a beautiful and intimate image of our making. God bending down to take humble earth in his hands, working the clay until form began to emerge. And then cupping his hands and breathing on what he had created. And so humankind has its beginning. We are made, the story-teller suggests, of clay and breath. Even the Hebrew word ‘Adam’ has its roots in ‘Adamah’ – from the clay. We are earth, formed form the dust of the ground, and we are also air, spirit, breath since God has bent down to breathe his life into us. God took what was before him and desired that it be something more – full of being and beauty. He valued and used the simple, humble earth of the ground and he made it what it could never be but for his breath – a living, loving mirror of himself. “
As I was reading this, my painting “Where Earth and Sky Meet” came to mind, and I have been thinking about this recently and asking myself what the painting meant to me. What a painting “means” is of course a changing and evolving matter, and depends on the individual person to a very large degree. As a painter of paintings, I do find, as the painting is the produce of my own mind, heart and hands, that there is an intention in the painting which is, for me, at least, with my own technique and process, largely subconscious at the time of painting. I very rarely set out on my painting pilgrimages with a very focused idea of what I am doing. (Though it does sometimes happen). And if it starts focused, then it soon gets lost and looses its way! This is the way I like it and the way I love to paint. It is not the conventional route to achievement, for sure. But it is an opening and a breathing. And as the painting opens up, it does, at some point, begin to develop focus, and narrows down sometimes quite quickly, and sometimes very slowly, into a state of resolution where I sense there is some point of it! Then after reflection and contemplation, which are also often part of the journey, I can feel a settling inside of myself, and know instinctively if I have achieved what I wanted, even though I didn’t quite understand with my head what that was.
Back to the quote! When I read these words from “Formed by the Spirit”, it gave me a deepened perspective on my relationship with “When Earth and Sky Meet”. While my painting is showing an epic landscape image, rather more in the romantic tradition (romantic and abstract; that single figure surveying the greatness and awe of creation), it was always very embedded in the painting; this idea of earth and sky…hence the ease of title which came quickly. The painting process too, was a rapid one. It wasn’t one of my more common slowly developing works! Earth colours and blue paint, with some purple, pushed across the surface with a squeegee and dragged with a brush; the physical experimentation of ways of mixing the colours was an important objective, and landscape and sky were in mind from the outset. It was a rapid process, in this case, rather than a very slow evolution. The figure just appeared, it was a joyful accident. Though my painting is not an intimate relationship reflection, however these words just sing; “We are earth, formed form the dust of the ground, and we are also air, spirit, breath since God has bent down to breathe his life into us. God took what was before him and desired that it be something more – full of being and beauty. He valued and used the simple, humble earth of the ground and he made it what it could never be but for his breath – a living, loving mirror of himself. “
I feel glad to have found such apt words to relate to the painting, and words from another’s mouth are more fascinating than one’s own.
A painting, which will be displayed (hopefully, while it is shortlisted, the final work to be shown has not been decided as yet! ) the other way up from this image below, will be at the Anagrams Exhibition in Kingston Museum this year, and will be displayed with the initial title, which came about through the theme of anagrams as Artwork title: Ripping Papers and Paint/Paper Pinnata Drippings (took a bit of liberty with the spelling there!)
Ripping Papers and Paint/Paper Pinnata Drippings jenny meehan jamartlondon for anagrams exhibition kingston upon thames surrey
Jenny Meehan - Art Journal 