Link of the Day: Art Along the Way

This occasional series, Link of the Day, features either links from my sidebar or from places I've discovered in my internet travels. Today's link comes from my searching for graphics in preparation for Lent. That's how I found Stitched into Lent by Virginia Wieringa which you can see at the top of my sidebar.

(As much as I liked the art, I was equally drawn by the piece's title, Stitched into Lent. Click on the sidebar image for a larger version and the artist's commentary.)

I encourage you to visit Virginia's website, her blog and her resume.

Whether or not your ministry includes art and environment for worship, I encourage you to visit this Calvin College site and to follow the link to a PowerPoint presentation of sanctuary art at the Church of the Servant where Virginia chairs the Art Committee.

From the Artist's Statement on Wieringa's website:

My pieces often reflect the mysteries I perceive in the world. I’m inspired by things I read and hear as well as things I see. One quote that inspired a series is by Rainer Maria Rilke from Letters to a Young Poet:

Have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves... Don't search for answers now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer.

As a Christian, I marvel at the salvation story, wonder about the way things are and about the way our lives are tied together across time and space. The people in my work could be communities of faith, a cloud of witnesses, disciples or just people. The Celtic knots, puzzle pieces and labyrinths are my way of contemplating the twists and turns in life and the surprising way things fit together. When I’m working with the layers in acrylics, mixed media, icons or photos I feel like I’m ‘living the questions’...

I hope you'll find that this artist's work draws you into contemplation as it did me. I'm grateful for Virginia's permission to use her Stitched into Lent on the sidebar and I encourage you to explore more of her work.