Look What We Did! Creation Starburst

When you enter the Scott Building and look up the stairs, you will see the piece of art we all collaborated on for our Black History Art Project back on February 8th. The inscription on the collage is “Creation Starburst” “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the Earth?… When the morning stars sang together and all the heavenly beings shouted for joy? Job 38:4” If you get up close to the collage, you will see the individual items that have been glued to the canvas with great care.

While we worked, we watched and listened to several videos about Mary Proctor, an untrained but inspired artist who frequently glued crystals and buttons onto her artwork in memory of her grandmother or just because she liked the way they looked. Twenty-one of us, including Amanda Becker, a fabric artist and childhood member of our church, and Dory Chasanoff, a talented glass artist, gathered around the canvas and glued buttons and beaded strings and crystals and other objects of all kinds onto the canvas. And now, it has been hung in the stairwell next to the large window where it can catch the light.

Thanks to Mary Ann Robinson for the refreshments and banner. Thanks to my husband Christos for getting up on a ladder in a precarious way and hanging the collage. Thanks to Tom Winters for setting up the monitor for the video, and thanks to Amanda Becker, Dory Chasanoff and everyone who participated!

Submitted by Cheri Christakis