This Lent, the seminary community took a unique journey by creating art together. During Monday evening contemplative art experiences, Steve Thomason created art in real time on the theme of the week while guiding participants into a contemplative space. During Wednesday chapel services, the image created Monday evening was incorporated into worship. Pastor Jeni facilitated conversations throughout the journey. We asked Steve and Jeni to share some insights about their thoughts on this community journey.

How can visual art help us to experience Lent in a different way?

Steve. Visual art communicates and connects with us in a different way than written or spoken text. Language is a complex code that tries to reduce reality to a series of sounds and symbols. It is culturally bound, meaning only those who can speak or read the language can understand what is being communicated. Images, on the other hand, tap into the part of our brain that is more in touch with abstract thought. Images transcend language, because humans with the gift of sight can share the experience of seeing an object and then relating to the image of the object. Visual art is more inclusive than language.

Lent is a week in which we remember the fully-embodied experience of Jesus as he saw, heard, ate, touched, and felt the experience of love, betrayal, public humiliation, and excruciating pain. Words alone cannot communicate these things. Visual art—along with music—provide fuller experiences of remembering and imagining Christ’s experience.

The added dimension of experiencing the creation of a piece of art in real time is important for this experiment. It is one thing to gaze at a fully completed and refined piece of art. We have certain expectations and wonderings of what the artist may have done to complete the work. But when a viewer witnesses the unfolding of a piece of art within the span of an hour, the viewer can feel more attached and involved in the final piece. That final piece of art is not necessarily a great work of art. It was rather the experience of watching it unfold that makes it meaningful. This is closer to our lived experience of story than the contemplation of a masterpiece. This unfolding process helps us live into the remembering and imagining of Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem.

Why did you choose Lent for this kind of multimode, multimedia approach?

Jeni. Lent is a journey, a long process. Many of us have been socially conditioned through our congregations to work through a series of spiritual practices during the weeks of Lent. The weekly practice of gathering, breathing, and creating together seemed to fit the season well.

Did the Monday and Wednesday events connect well? Were Monday participants engaged on Wednesdays too?

Steve. I participated in the Wednesday services, and it was a little strange for me to see the art up on the screen, because, as I mentioned earlier, the work itself, outside of the context of the event, seems like a mediocre work of art. Someone who attended Wednesday, without the context of having watched the creation of the art, may wonder why such a mediocre piece of art was being projected during worship.

So I’m not sure if the art was helpful or distracting to those who attended on Wednesday. My hunch is that the Monday/online viewers were a different crowd than the Wednesday worship attenders.

Jeni. I agree that we seemed to have different groups on Mondays and Wednesdays. I will also say that the work didn’t seem mediocre. I wonder if we could have taken a moment to reflect on the art in a brief way in worship as part as a preparation for the reading of the word. We did have a note in the bulletin about the Monday night gatherings and their connections to Wednesdays.

We are all reckoning with community availability and a balance of offerings. Many in our community who do not attend chapel name being away from campus and being busy during working hours as two primary barriers. Experimenting with an online gathering on Monday nights seems not to have led to a significant change in the community’s engagement.

But it was a meaningful practice that connected word and visual arts in a narrative, contemplative, and faithful way. For me, it was a gift to collaborate with a faculty colleague and add a layer of interaction and connection in our Wednesday chapel worship services.

How does creating art in community in this particular way change the creative process for you?

Steve. Creating live art is truly more like preaching or performing on stage than creating fine art. The typical process for creating a piece of art in the studio is very slow and internal. I can take my time and try something, then undo it, then rework it until I get a final product that I like. It doesn’t matter how long it takes. What matters is the end result.

The process for creating live art is just the opposite. I spend the week leading up to the event pondering the piece and perhaps creating a few thumbnail sketches. When the livestream starts it is “go time.” You start with a blank screen/canvas and whatever happens in the next 45 minutes to an hour is what happens. There is no turning back. It is the process of creating-in-the-moment that matters, not the end product.

I talk to participants while I’m painting, so that accesses a different part of my brain than if I were simply creating art. I am more aware of the viewers in live art than I am when creating a piece in the studio. There is a sense of connection to the viewers that is very special.