ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, April 4, 1996 TAG: 9604050055
SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: E-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CODY LOWE STAFF WRITER When one thinks of art and church in the
United States, the most recent history seems to be a story of conflict.
Some Christians raised vociferous objections a few years ago to partial
public funding of a few artistic works they saw as hostile to their faith. The
most notorious example was the photograph of a crucifix immersed in a beaker
filled with urine.
In that atmosphere of hostility between religion and art, it may have been
easy to forget that much of the history of Western art is a study of a
symbiotic relationship - one in which both art and religion were dependent on
the other for some of their most sublime expression.
The Rev. John Ashley, pastor of Bonsack United Methodist Church, was
reminded of that relationship at a workshop a few years ago. Ashley was
particularly struck by the concept that a congregation's "spiritual vision is
incomplete" without "artistic vision."
It was a message he took to heart, although it has taken a few years to
come to fruition.
This Easter season, the Bonsack congregation is celebrating the
Resurrection of Christ in a sanctuary decorated with a 4-by-8-foot tapestry
created by local artist Janet Carty.
The brightly colored piece - depicting a series of biblical images from the
creative breath of God to the flame of Pentecost - hangs prominently above the
altar, serving as a focal point for the sanctuary.
The process began in November 1993 when Ashley approached Carty about
creating something for the church.
He gave her three broad guidelines: "It must be colorful. It must have
circles. It must spark the imagination."
Carty, a sculptor by training, agreed to take a look at the worship space
and consider a project. She and Ashley talked about his expectations, about
symbols that could be used.
"I knew I did not want it to look traditional. If it was going to spark the
imagination, it had to include elements that were not in people's visual
vocabulary - and it had to be open to interpretation."
Carty immediately looked to the space behind the altar, "which the whole
worshiping community could use as a point of reference," as the right place to
fill the "crying need for color."
Her initial idea was to create something with colored tiles, perhaps, to
fill the space. Then she saw some stitched pieces - tapestries - that seemed
the ideal medium for the project.
She submitted a color sketch of her proposal to the church. It took a year
for the congregation to give its final go-ahead and to raise the money to
start the project.
As an artist, Carty said, she went through "this incredible process of
coming to terms with the medium and determining how this would be
accomplished."
She spent a year researching the processes of other tapestry artists. "I'd
never even done a small needlepoint project," such as cross-stitching, Carty
said. And, as a sculptor used to working with bronze casting or marble
carving, she was unused to working in colors.
Now she found herself fully immersed in a new artistic world in which she
came to live "a hermit-like existence" at her sister's home in Cleveland, a
few blocks from Lake Erie.
She would go to the lake to look at the water - which a prominent segment
of the tapestry depicts - then go back to her work.
Carty figures the piece must be viewed from at least 30 feet away to get
the full effect, but she was working in a small space and could never get more
than about 10 feet away to see her own work.
For nine months, she stitched constantly. Working on a carpet weave, each
stitch includes seven strands of woolen yarn. She mixed the colors as she
worked. For instance, there are 35 different shades of blue in one expanse of
sky.
Although she is not a Christian - "I'm a sort of everything" - she said she
looked for Christian symbols that meant something to her as well. And
eventually, she said, the completion of the piece meant coming to a faith in
the creative process.
When she was stumped on questions about mixing colors, for instance, "a lot
of decisions came to me in my sleep." She had to learn to "listen to those
internal voices and trust them."
The piece was finished in January. After a brief showing at Hollins
College, Carty's alma mater, the tapestry was presented to the Bonsack
congregation for the first Sunday in Lent.
The congregation is in the final stages of raising funds to pay for the
project, which will have a total cost of almost $7,000.
The process was "like planting a seed under the earth and waiting for it"
to flower, Ashley said.
LENGTH: Medium: 93 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: Cindy Pinkston. 1. & 2. The congregation of a Bonsackby CNBchurch celebrates the Resurrection of Christ with bright colors in
the sanctuary. (ran on E-1) 3. Artist Janet Carty's brightly colored
piece - depicting a series of biblical images from the creative
breath of God to the flame of Pentacost - hangs prominently above
the altar where the Rev. John Ashley preaches at Bonsack United
Methodist Church. color.