Colouring Light
In this, the last of four sessions, we will use stained glass to think about expressing the experience of #SensingSpirituality. We will meet at 1pm in St Michaels church Hall.
Stained glass shapes the way we experience light. As a boundary between the source and viewer it is ambiguous. Does the stain detract from or enhance the experience of light? We are blinded if we look directly at the sun, but that raw experience can be tempered, shaped, and transformed into something wonderful and relatable by an artist.
Andy Brooke is an artist who works with stained glass (and other things!). Those who follow these posts might remember the butterfly he made as part of our Easter Worship at St Johns in 2023.
He will introduce the art of stained glass, and talk a little about the windows in St Michael’s kirk. The main focus of the session will be on exploring creativity using glass that he is bringing. Each person will be able to make their own square of colours. We will then spend some time together arranging everyones squares on a light box.
This is to both explore personal expression and the unexpected connections which arise when people come together.
Religions can become very “wordy”. This can be good, as we discovered with calligraphy last week. We explored the power of written words to record ephemeral thoughts in ways which could last millennia. Words can stress folk out though! This week will be more abstract. Colour can communicate mood and emotion in ways that all the books in the world would struggle to express. So everyone is invited to let go, and experiment with non-verbal communication.
Can’t make it along in person?
This short film describes something of the history and manufacture of stained glass.
https://youtu.be/rkoEqFHhELA?feature=shared
Look out for #febreflection 2025
One reply on “Faith and Art IV”
It was great today to see folk sorting through my old offcuts and “waste” glass and arranging chosen pieces into new expressions of personal inner thoughts.
Some very simple, some pretty complex.
And then arranging the small panels on the light box and seeing the illumination of juxtaposed colours and shapes brought some communal joy to the room.
It was a practical way of worshipping God together. And good fun.