Exploring the Intersection of Art, Faith and the Human experience


Karen S. The Fool

Art as Commumication

-By Karen Swenholt 

I tell young people that exhibition is a crucial component of their work because art is a communicator – a bridge and without that function it is incomplete. For years these sculptures decorated my studio. That was good – but art is not meant to be kept hidden. I am delighted that Convergence has given me the opportunity to allow these sculptures their silent conversations with people inclined to listen.

Visual art exists apart from language and is its own language. It glides past defenses and pre-suppositions. It is not thwarted with words that trip shields of prejudice and already formed conclusions. When it aims for the heart, it goes straight for it.

Art acts like a bridge to the community but it also acts for me as a bridge to my God, using the same MO, gliding past my pre-suppositions. When I ask God in, I think with the medium and He talks to me with it. He gives me ideas through the art that I do not always permit my conscious mind. The figures of Dust Cries Out are metaphors for the Twin Towers. Though tragic, the sculpture gives me hope and that hope exists in the grasping gesture of the male’s left hand. God has caught him. God will catch us.

 

Dust Cries out

I think of art in a culture as an embodiment or proof of its God’s existence. A living God free to roam the arts, welcomed in to the hearts of artists leaves souvenirs of his visits. Memory stones that He has passed this way. Such art stamps a culture. I hope His dialogs with me as I formed the sculptures now at Convergence act as this evidence of His impact because He is willing to impact us all. He loves us deeply and sometimes (such as now), I know it surely.

 

Karen’s work can be viewed as part of our Contemplative Sculpture Garden any time, the garden is open to the community. Please visit the page devoted to the garden for more updates.




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