I believe we discover what we know—and what we care about—through action, especially creative action.
These projects invite people to make, notice, wonder, and participate. Some are quiet and individual; others have involved hundreds of people. I am interested in what can become visible, knowable, or possible through the act of making.
selected projects
What began as a project about community became an experience of community. Three room-sized looms held Abraham’s story as the warp and hundreds of congregants’ stories as the weft. People wove, painted, stitched, told stories, lingered, helped one another, and found unexpected ways to belong.
The work could not be completed alone—and that was intentional.
The default word is “Yes.”
What changes when we begin looking for the Sacred in ordinary spaces?
Open to anyone interested in the challenge, participants were invited to use photography to develop their awareness of the ubiquitous Holy.
How is God revealing Godself here?
Painting Parables: Collaborative Art
What happens when we allow someone else’s perspective to change what we have begun?
This collaborative invitation started with these instructions: Choose a parable. Begin a painting. When you reach a stuck place, release it to the communal pool. Someone else may take it in any direction, provided they don't obliterate what another person has already contributed.
The constraint was “preserve the presence of the Other.” The challenge to participants was to surrender control of something they had begun and respond to what someone else had left them.
The finished paintings belonged to everyone and no one.
What can we see communally that we cannot see alone?
family portrait
A “portrait” captures who we are at a moment in time. What if it could also reveal the ways we are similar and different that aren't always visible?
Over several weeks, people were invited to choose yarn-wrapped stones and unroll their yarn around knobs with statements that were true for them. Each choice added another line to the portrait.
The accumulating threads made two things visible at once: I am not alone. We are not all alike.
What might belonging look like without sameness?
free open community art studio
What if an art studio were an invitation to explore what it means to be human?
The Studio was free and open to the community. We had posted (thanks to the Iona community for the inspiration), “This is for people of all faiths and none, all skill levels and none.” We served over 5,000 people in the 3 years we were open. The staff were spiritual caregivers with no agenda beyond providing tools and safe space for people to express themselves.
What becomes possible when making gives us another way to be with ourselves and with one another?