Caroline Coolidge Brown
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A pastor, a rabbi and and artist...

2/23/2018

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...walk into a museum.

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People keep telling us that Delaware is such a small state that unlike the six degrees of separation in the rest of the world, here it's only one or two. It must be true because within a few months of arriving, I received a call from the Delaware Art Museum asking me to get involved in a special project!

In conjunction with the new exhibit Eye on Nature: Andrew Wyeth and John Ruskin, the curator asked several leaders from the faith community to offer recorded responses to specific paintings to be used in the audio guide. I was honored to be asked as an Episcopalian artist. Among the others participating are some wonderful folks who are Jewish, Muslim, Quaker and non-denominational Christian.

The exhibition explores how Wyeth and Ruskin, though living 100 years apart, "shared a lifelong obsession with the close observation and finely rendered imagery of the world around them." The question for us was, "What relevance does the work of art, or Wyeth/Ruskin’s act of looking at nature, have for our own day and age?"

John Ruskin, I have since learned, was also a watercolorist and urban sketcher! He took his journal everywhere with him and sketched on all his travels, around home and abroad. My 19th century kindred spirit!

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"The Path at Brantwood" by John Ruskin (1870) on view at the Delaware Art Museum March 10 - May 27, 2018
I look forward to seeing the complete exhibition and the works by these two masterful painters. If you are curious about my response to "Path at Brantwood" please read on...

We are looking at John Ruskin’s watercolor painting, “Path at Brantwood.”  We see a sketch of steps leading along a path in the woods, a paused moment during a familiar walk around Ruskin’s home.
 
I imagine Ruskin tromping around his estate on the well-worn path by the lake and through the trees, taking a break from concerns and responsibilities. He stops, steeped in his own senses – breezes ruffling the leaves; sun seeping through the branches and shadows moving over mossy steps – and he is filled with a love of this solitary place. Of course he stops to sketch, each mark emphasizing the memory of this moment.
 
This world of discord and dissonance can still offer us rare moments of overwhelming peace. I think we often encounter them when we are alone in nature, away from the endless chatter of television and phones -- when we make time to feel deeply and open our hearts to God’s creation around us.
 
I find these moments when I am painting, when I must stop to study the curve of a branch or the colors in a flower. When I stop to really, really look at what is in front of me. As painter Georgia O’Keeffe said “When you take a flower in your hand and really look at it, it's your world for the moment.”
 
I am a travel sketcher, like Ruskin, and I appreciate the urge to stop and pull out my paints. At the beach or along the Brandywine, I remember a painted scene better than anything I’ve ever photographed. Why? Because I have slowed my pace, quieted my worries and stopped to look closely at something I love.
 
My name is Caroline Coolidge Brown. As a printmaker, painter and urban sketcher, my Christian faith guides my curiosity and passion for art of all kinds.
 

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Art Evangelizing in Delaware

2/8/2018

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It didn't take me long to start spreading the art love around here! Kevin and I attended our first Diocese of Delaware annual convention in January and I took the opportunity to create a collaborative project with the 300 people attending.

The piece is called Visual Oratory. It's an idea I first developed at General Seminary in 2006 as a way to embody the prayers of the community into visual imagery. An oratory is a place of prayer and the final installation is meant to suggest the colors of stained glass, the movement of smoky incense, and the music of hymns and songs. 

People were invited to write any kind of prayer on pieces of colored plastic with black sharpies. I combined them with embroidery thread and hung them all together.

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“I call on you, O God, for you will answer me:
      give ear to me and hear my prayer.”
                                             Psalm 17:6
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The 2006 version of Visual Oratory hung from a tree in front of the seminary chapel, casting lovely colored shadows as it rustled in the breeze.
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This Visual Oratory was hung behind the altar for our Eucharist celebration, helping make the hotel meeting room a little brighter. I'm happy to report that these prayers will move to Friendship House, a homeless shelter and ministry at the Episcopal Church of Saints Andrew and Matthew in Wilmington. The staff and guests of Friendship House will keep adding their prayers to the sculpture, making it bigger,  brighter and more layered. Each piece reminds us that we are all connected in our prayers for each other. 

Special thanks to Danny Schweers for sharing his pics from the convention. He is also an Art Evangelist, combining his gorgeous photos with original prayers  on a blog called photoprayer.com. You can see all  his work at dannyschweers.com.
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