Contributed by NVC’s William Keith
Well over a year ago, I was selected to participate in an art exhibition titled, “Beyond Words – a contemporary art exhibit on grief, hope and the Resurrected Life.”
The curator of the show, Ashley Miller, gave 20 artists a Bible verse to interpret. She awarded me Psalm 23, “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want…”
I looked at this as a challenge because my art is non-representational, as opposed to narrative. Yet these challenges often spark creativity that has not yet been explored and encourage artists to discover something new about their work.
I remembered how impressed I was while touring the monuments and statues in Washington D.C where every little bitty thing about each one had meaning; the position of their hands, the direction they were facing, if their hat was on or off – everything had significance. So in my piece, I split Psalm 23 into three parts and wove a very abstract description, yet one, I believe discernible.
Covid-19 delayed the exhibition held at the Park Gables Gallery in Harrisonburg, Virginia, but it eventually went up on the walls and will stay on exhibition through March 22.
Ashley Miller recorded a wonderful explanation of the exhibition. It is a lengthy 30 minutes, but if you want to go directly to minute 21:44 she will explain in full detail the reasoning behind the way I created this weaving and give a short notice of who I am. This is the best way to understand the weaving. Additionally, Ashley prepared a wonderful booklet for the show. The link is here, with my work being on the last page. The Park Gables Gallery is located in the very large and expansive Virginia Mennonite Retirement community. To know more about it, view this link.