As a Liturgical artist, I want to live an authentic life of faith that is connected to Christian community. This means being an active art-maker in daily life, creating original altarcloths and sanctuary art for worship settings. It also means being an advocate for ‘community-made’ Art for Worship, that is, to search for tangible ways to engage multi-age church members in the creation of visual faith-art.
Being a Liturgical artist and art-facilitator for ‘community-made’ Art for Worship requires observing a process of meditative, prayerful ‘unfolding’, informed by God’s Word, the Holy Spirit, and the gift of observant awareness and sensitivity to Christian worship and daily life.
Why pursue ‘community-made’ Art for Worship? Why venture into the process of art-making with community? Tremendous potential exists to open up an avenue of personal faith expression for all Christians, not just ‘talented’ artists. Worship is an ‘equal opportunity’ occasion for expression of faith and praise to the Triune God; just as community ‘sings’ their praises during worship, with the help of a musician, community also has the potential, with the help of an artist-facilitator, in pre-worship, to express their faith visually, that is, create a corporate work of art. (In some cases, community may express their faith visually during worship, as well.)
Modern art has introduced new forms of visual expression, such as performance art, and installation art; these have great potential for service in Christian worship. Worship settings, typically large in scale, can easily accommodate ‘community-made’ art, in a wide range of media, from paper and pencil, oil pastels, faith-symbols-from-home-made-into-worship-installations, to technology-related art, like photography and media-screen formats.
As a Liturgical artist-facilitator, I am interested in exploring and growing art processes and directions into a Liturgical aesthetic of change and renewal, while striving for clarity and continuity of thought in the effective use of the visual elements of worship across the Church year calendar.
Creating artist and ‘community-made’ Art for Worship is a way to integrate art-making ‘process’ and worship art ‘product’ for all participants; what ensues is individual, personal, faith-building participation and a building up of the whole Body of Believers – all while creating a corporate, visual worship-offering to God. This is authentic life-living, God-pleasing worship, in its truest sense.
To read more about ‘community-made’ Art for Worship, see the following excerpt,
‘Community-Made Visual Expressions of Faith for the Worship Setting’, a workshop presentation given at the 2007 Valparaiso University Institute of Liturgical Studies: Healing in the Christian Assembly.
For Karen Godecke's resume, click here
