A Look Back: "Transfigured" A Contemporary Art Exhibit through the Liturgical Calendar

Photograph by Pastor Jacob Breeze, Holy Family HTX

Exhale.
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I hit the ground running into 2018. Finally at a real moment where I can breathe, I reflect on the beautiful layers of these January + February days. I have so much to celebrate + tell you about; where do I even begin?

At "Transfigured", of course! In early February, I held my first pop-up art show in partnership with Holy Family HTX. I was both the featured artist + curator. Just typing these words feels surreal.
When I first began my professional art journey in 2014, this never even played in my imagination. It is truly a dream I never even realized I was dreaming, and it all came true!

My first highlight of the show was getting to experience it with Ciona, my sister. Visiting from Nashville, she got to see my studio for the first time + see my art work in person! Her poem, "Do the Crazy Thing," has been my studio mantra from the start, so it just felt right + a gift to have her here for one of the biggest moments thus far in my career.  

Another major highlight: standing in the space and finally getting to see all 9 of the paintings from the "Paraments" series on view. For a year I built this body of abstract work for the weekly public liturgy of Holy Family HTX. For a year, I wrestled with how to invite the community to live into liturgical rhythms through color, textures, graffito, and meditated marks, to experience the Christian story through these aspects of art. For a year, I studied and delved more into the intellectual history of color and how to let it best speak in this work. And there they all were--a year of work & liturgy on canvases in this one wonderful space.

Each piece reflects upon the eight liturgical seasons of the Christian Church and the sacrament of Baptism and has deliberate color choices. I also borrowed from the Japanese philosophy of wabi-sabi in this work, specifically its aesthetic emphasis on subtlety and the beauty of imperfection, impermanence, and “the aged.” I approached each 6ft x 6ft canvas individually even though I knew they represented a whole story together.
But I won't give you all the details of my process right now because another highlight (drumroll, please): we're creating a piece of art to tell the story of these pieces very soon. A book! I'm elated to be able to share this work with more of you in this way. Watch this space . . . more details on the book to come. 

I'll leave you with a final and special highlight of the night, which was sharing it with the the artists in the HFHTX Artist Collective. I invited each artist to create work that explores one of the liturgical seasons, specifically through a contemporary lens. Their work, thought-provoking + profoundly beautiful, interacted with the "Paraments" series so perfectly and added to the contemplative nature of the show. I am honored + grateful to share in this moment with each of them. 

Check out some of their art:

Art Photography by Thomas Parker

Art installation by Ellen Cline

Short Film installation by Chap Edmonson

As you can see, 2018 set an enormously high bar so far. I'm humbled + also confident it will continue to surprise + delight me.

Thanks to everyone who came out to engage our art. 

Special thanks to Holy Family HTX for partnering with me to make space for art to happen + to speak in spaces where all can hear. 
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Click the names below to learn more about the creative journeys + work of the artists who contributed to "Transfigured"

Lindi Bowman
Ellen Cline 
Vanessa DeYoung
Chap Edmonson
Mark Francis
Thomas Parker
Abbie Preston
Alexandria Wallace
Shayne Warhol

Words + Photography by Lanecia A. Rouse Tinsley. Edited by Ciona D. Rouse.