I’ve been working this summer in the budding arts ministry at Gateway Community Church, and this last weekend, we just opened our new visual art exhibit: “Fruit.” The goal of the exhibit is to creatively explore and enflesh the “Fruit of the Spirit.” But we tried to do this in an untraditional way. Alex Villareal did an excellent job of conceiving the exhibit, and encouraging everyone to create. One thing he urged us to try to do was to contrast the “fruit” against whatever its opposite would be.
This was my first time to create a piece to be hung in any exhibit. Visual art is not a skill I have spent a long time developing in myself. I have always loved to draw. I wanted to be an animator for Disney when I was a little kid. But I soon discovered that there were far, far better artists (like my friend Scott Hickmon!) than myself, and they could produce art much more quickly than I could. That’s about the time I started focusing more on acting. But art is still something I enjoy doing, whenever I actually do it. So I thought I’d give it a “go.” I’ll try to post an image of my piece, and tell about the process that went into making it in another blog.
Anyway, I really enjoyed observing people checking out the art in our exhibit. I especially liked watching people’s reactions to Alex’s installation “In Search of Peace” (snapshot by Elizabeth Wright pictured here). Installations are so big, they demand people’s attention. And how could you not take a gander at anything surrounded by hundreds of black ants? He was trying to capture the way people try to find peace in the midst of anxiety through escape, such as the escape of watching TV shows like Leave it to Beaver.
While people’s reactions to Alex’s piece were most acute, it seemed like all of the pieces in our exhibit had the effect of somehow bringing people to life—especially Sunday morning. People didn’t really come to church expecting to see a new art exhibit. I think they were pleasantly surprised. Some people were bothered by some of the pieces. Others were amused by those same pieces. In both reactions, I think there was a kind of “waking up” involved. It gave people something to talk about. It caused them to think. It stimulated their senses and imagination. It helped bring them alive, I think.
What better way to start a week?
