"An Illuminated Life" Altars

images shot by Sungchun Ahn (April 20, 2010)

Arts & Theology Internship (Works in Progress & Artist Statement)

I have always worked with notions of race, gender, body, sexuality, family, relationships, beauty, time, space, and wholeness in my creative work. As an artist I am primarily attracted to photographic images. Photographs are snapshots of memory. They tell it like it is and tell it like we want it to be. At once, photographs merge the past with the present and—when engaged—can shape future ways of being. In particular, I am interested in the way in which photographs operate within familial structures. Photographs help us to make meaning. Photographs help us to remember. Photographs conjure up moments--those we are eager to cling to and those we long to forget.

I am interested in the ways in which human life, in general, and Black female life, in particular, is—in and of itself—art. This work, using photographic images as a foundation, explores memory, narrative, and the telling of one’s story. There are several life giving traditions from which I drew to create this work: I look to Womanist theologians—Katie Canon, Renita Weems, Lynne Westfield—whose starting point for theology is autobiography; I look to black female visual artists—Lorna Simpson, Clarissa Sligh, and Pat Ward Williams—who combine photographic image and text to bring to bear the stories of black women; and I look to the ancient makers of illuminated manuscripts--especially those who beautifully and artfully recorded critical moments in the life and ministry of Jesus as recorded in the Holy Bible. At once I have merged these traditions and created a work that is unique—An Illuminated Life. This work is the beginning of canonizing my own life, and the stories of my family, as sacred text.

What is now a blessing began as a curse of sorts. Some years ago my older sister made this statement: “Anyone can take their life experiences and make art.” Her words were meant to diminish the visual work that I was creating as an MFA student at Howard University. Initially I shrank in the face of her words. But then, after critical and creative thought, I recognized the grain truth in her statement. I believe that all of our lives are valuable and that all of our stories warrant being told. As people of faith, when we tell our stories, we point to the presence and activity of God in our lives and we place ourselves in the larger Christian story.

It is my hope that the telling of my story—in visual form—will inspire another to take the risk and preach, sing, dance, shout, paint, or write their own story.

Donna Olivia Powell (c)2010

A Travel Advisory for Pilgrims of Love in the time of Terror (by Heather Murray Elkins)

A Travel Advisory for Pilgrims of Love in the time of Terror.

Pack only what you need and are willing to share.

Leave every weapon except Truth at the border.

When it comes to currency, be wise.

Avoid gold.

Carry copper instead.











The guard dogs of Caesar

can’t track its trace until it’s too late.

Any penny is a common wealth

and two cents builds trust.

Every true sense of liberty

(hammered by wisdom

wired with the gospel)

conducts electric vision:

with malice toward none

with charity for all. . . .

the hidden assets of a widow’s might.



Heather Murray Elkins, copyright, Epiphany 20

When Do We Laugh? Where Do We Feel It?(Group Reflections)

• laugh at yourself—entire body
• laugh to cover insecurities—tension in back
• laugh to grieve—heart and eyes
• laugh because annoyed—shoulders
• laugh because of embarrassment—cheeks
• laugh with others (in community)—belly, shoulders, arms, legs, hitting others, slapping tables
• laugh to be polite—top/pit of stomach
• laugh when things are absurd—head shake (back and forth)
• laugh to acknowledge/agree—head nod/bobble
• laugh at inappropriate times—moves from esophagus to throat to lips and halts
• laugh to flirt—pelvis and head
• laugh at self (to reduce anxiety)—gut
• laugh at the elephant in the room/obvious—top of the head

Laughing Jesus Reflection

• Look slowly and deeply at the picture…sit with it.What surprises you?
• what’s new?
• What’s unsettling?
• What insight do you gain about paradise, Jesus, yourself, your ministry?
• What do you want to say to the laughing Jesus?
  
• What do you hear from the laughing Jesus?
• Draw, write, create a response…

"The First Supper"

The idea first came in to my mind when I saw a very interesting painting of El Greco where Christ was driving away the business people who occupied the Temple. In this Christ was shown with anger. I then got the idea about a happy Christ. Secondly, when I saw the Last Supper by Leonardo, I thought about the first supper and imagined how the situation would have been. I was sure that as Christ was human and divine he must have had the quality of humour and wit in him and would have shared this with his followers when he discussed certain things with them I am sure that he must have had many times meetings with ordinary people where he shared his happiness with them.

Artist: Alphonso Doss

Oil on canvas - 80 cm x 60 cm

Chennai, South India

For more Laughing Jesus images, visit http://jesuschrist.uk.com/

Paradise Questions

• What does it mean to be a woman who has access to Paradise?
• For women, and for you, what are the obstacles to Paradise?

Some Humor from Paradise...

Late one morning, as Phil the Mailman is traveling through the neighborhood on his usual route, he noticed that both cars were still in the driveway at one of the homes he knew well. His wonder was cut short by Derek, the homeowner, coming out with a load of empty beer and wine bottles for the recycling bin.

"Morning, Derek, looks like you guys had a great party last night," Phil said...

Derek replies, "Actually we had it Saturday night, but this is the first I've felt like moving since then...We had about fifteen couples from around the neighborhood ovver for some weekend fun & it got a bit wild. We all got so drunk around midnight that we started playing 'WHO AM I'..."

Phil thinks a moment and asks, "How do tou play 'WHO AM I?"

"Well, all the guys go into the bedroom and come out one at a time with a sheet covering us, with only our family jewels showing through a hole in the sheet. Then the women try to guess who it is."

Phil the Postman laughs and says, "Sounds like fun. I'm sorry I missed that."

"It's probably a good thing you did," Derek responded. "Your name came up seven times..."
joke provided by "I don't remember, it was months ago" (now that's funny!)

Some Humor from Paradise...

image supplied by Margaret Burbank (from a greeting card)

catching love

my sudden awareness of your unconditional love brought such joy and presence that I took a deep breath, trying to capture it within, using my lungs as a butterfly net.

On That Morning ( by Donna Olivia Powell)

Below is a poem written by Donna Olivia Powell during the January 2008 Ministry and Imagination Course (Generativity). The studio mentor who guided this process was Rev. Dr. Mariah Britton. The woman who inspired this poem is Anne Spencer, Donna's maternal grandmother. She is pictured in the above images. If you look carefully, you'll see a young Donna sleeping (or feigning sleep) on the couch in the bottom image.

On That Morning

On that morning
final moments mirrored her genesis,
surrounded by life-giving water.
Immersed deep in mother’s womb,
purified in craw-footed tub.
It would be her last bath.

On that morning
there was no sound.
No Mahalia moaning from the record player downstairs.
No vacuum cleaner sucking around hard plastic covered sofas.
No scream if she had indeed felt pain.
I heard nothing.

On that morning
liniment and lavender relieved
aches last night’s whiskey did not.
The smell of thick-rind bacon,
near done eggs should beckon me from slumber.
that moment never came.

On this morning
when we weren’t learning lessons of hard work
we waved and smiled and fought
see who would go for her taste or nip (as she called it).
Some houses down a blind man sold anointed brown waters.
With each swallow she grinned.
Grandma was not the sipping kind.

On this morning
seven years calmed by carolina air.
New York had seen her vibrant, raucous and curious.
Carefree even from seventeen children and three husbands
and some other men of no consequence.
Her hips were magical
birthing babies, brawling in bars.
She did her own thang.

But, on that morning
bluish-green air hung heavy in the house
tasting like sweet bath water.
Fleshy self lay saturated in scented seas
no longer stained, soaking in newness.
It was her last bath.

Ministry and Imagination (Paradise Course Description, Teaching Team, Learning Goals, & Required Texts)

Course Description

We will gather at an ocean front retreat center to better know (experience and critical reflection: mind, body and spirit) paradise in new and needed ways for more effective Christian leadership. This intensive course, graded only on pass/fail basis, will explore the notion of paradise as a Christian spiritual practice, with a focus on humor and ecstasy. An adage about teaching says, “You cannot teach what you do not know.” It is our contention that seminarians must have first-hand experience of and critical reflection of those practices of self-care and wellness that will serve them while pastoring. This course will assist pastors and church leaders with maintaining healthy and vibrant communities who are resilient by being personally better versed and experienced in the goodness of life and living – in the experience of paradise, joy, heaven, rapture, glory, bliss, delight. Previous experience of humor and ecstasy are required.

Teaching Team

Nancy Lynne Westfield, Lecturer

Heather Murray Elkins, Director

Charles Behm, Studio Mentor

Aiken Edwards, Studio Mentor

Ernie Rubenstein, Studio Mentor

Donna Powell, Student Artist

Learning Goals

1. To reflect holistically and theologically on the notion of humor, delight, ecstasy, and paradise.

2. To consider the role the body plays in the experience of paradise.

3. To plan to take paradise as a Christian practice into everydayness, i.e. in prayers, in preaching practices, in hospital visits, in teaching habits, etc.

Required Texts

· The Song of Solomon, Old Testament

· Honey, Hush!: An Anthology of African American Women’s Humor Edited by Daryl Cumber Dance

· The Soul of Sex: Cultivating Life as an Act of Love by Thomas Moore

· Energy Anatomy (Audiobook) (unabridged) by Caroline Myss, Ph.d.

Jesus Laughed (A Poem by Donna Olivia Powell)

Jesus, Jesus, Jesus
They say you wept
must’ve laughed, too.
Can’t have one with without the other...

Belly laughed with friends
(Peter had to be a hoot)
Snicker laughed at religious leaders
(They think they're so serious. They can’t be serious.)
Heart laughed with children
(Maybe that's why you wanted them to come)
So you could get a good laugh,
Authentic laugh,
Healing laugh.

You give me permission to laugh...
snicker/snort/chuckle/guffaw.
Because you live I can face tomorrow
And because you laugh
I can laugh, too…
At home/in class/from pulpit
Jesus, I get joy just thinking about what you’ve done for me.
So you must get joy, too.
Just like Sarah begat Isaac,
Joy begets smiles
And smiles are laughter waiting to explode.

Michelangeo and them saw you
Sorrow/pain/serious/bruised/stretched/hung
I’m glad to know you also
Chuckled/snorted/head high/arms flailing/body shaking
Let laughter overtake you
‘Til you fell from your recliner.

Jesus, Jesus, Jesus
They say you wept
Must’ve laughed, too.
Can’t have one with without the other.

Poem: Donna Olivia Powell (January 2010)
Image: "Jesus at the Bethany Home" by Hanna Cheriyan Varghese

Ministry and Imagination (Paradise Muses)

Ministry and Imagination (Final Session)

Ministry and Imagination (Karaoke, Joke Telling, Line Dancing, Ear Candling)

Ministry and Imagination (Dante's Paradise Studio)

Ministry and Imagination (Body Studio 2)

Ministry and Imagination (Body Studio 1)

Sunrise Sunset (by Prof. Charlie Behm)

SUNRISE SUNSET, SUNRISE SUNSET

WHAT A VIGNETTE ?

MAKES FOR WONDER BOUT THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE 2

SUNRISE……………..WHAT WILL THE DAY UNFOLD- ALL THE ANTICIPATION, EXCITEMENT, UNCERTAINTY

THE SETTLING OF SUNSET- REFLECTION, CALM

SITTING BY THE OCEAN

OH MAGICAL WATER ENERGY

SO MUCH FORCE

THE RYTHMS OF THE WAVES, IN AND OUT

LIKE THE SUN AND THE MOON, IN AND OUT

KITCHUNG, KITCHUNG, KITCHUNG GO THE WAVES

THE SALTY, MUSKY, FISHY SMELL OF THE OCEAN, HMMMMMMMMMM

THIS CONTEMPLATION OF PARADISE ALLOWS FOR THIS WONDROUS DANCE TO UNFOLD

THE GIFTS OF MOTHER EARTH

THE GIFTS OF SENSUALITY, PLEASURE, SMELL, TAASTE, SOUND, SIGHT AND MOVEMENT

WE HAVE SO MANY BLESSINGS TO BE GRATEFUL FOR

GIFTS OF UNINHIBITED JOYOUS LAUGHTER, OF GRACE OR OF A KIND GESTRURE

YET WE MUST FIND THE STRENGHT TO ENDURE THE YANG SIDE OF LIFE

THE HARD ROADS WE TRAVEL

WE MUST PREPARE OURSELVES AND EACH OTHER FOR THE CHALLENGES WE FACE, OUR FAMILIES, OUR CHILDREN, OUR JOBS OR LACK OF A JOB

THE CHOSEN PATHS WE ARE ON

TIME TOGETHER, OUR REFLECTION OUR KEY HAS BEEN HANDED DOWN TO US

WE CAN GO THERE AGAIN AND AGAIN AND FIND OUR SACRED PARADISE!

Critical Moments (Hair Stories)

Below are a few pictures of the hair timelines (process, conversations, products) created during our time in paradise. You will also find a link (thanks June!) to a story on NPR. June writes, "There was a great interview on NPR this morning w/ an author from the Washington Post about combing and styling our daughter's hair. Made me think about our reflections on hair as our most sensuous selves."

Here is the link:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=123271379

Here are the flicks: