Artist/iconographer William McNichols dedicated this icon of Matthew Shephard to the memory of the near 1500 gay and lesbian youth who commit suicide each year, and to the countless others who are harmed or murdered for their sexual orientation.

It is common when painting/writing icons for the artist to use a historic model for reference, as Luiz Coelho has written in a two-part series for Daily Episcopalian this week. Without an historic model, McNichols turned to the reports from police who found Shephard bound to a fence post, left for dead, covered in blood, save for the white trails on his cheeks where his tears had fallen.

Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am in distress;
my eye is wasted with grief, my soul and body also.
Strong, as I am, I stumble because of my inequality,
and my bones waste away.
I am the scorn of my adversaries, a horror to my
neighbors, an object of dread to my
acquaintances; when they see me in the street
they turn quickly away.
1 have passed out of mind like one who is dead; I have
come to be like something lost.
Yea, 1 hear many whispering -terror on every side! -as
they scheme together against me, to take my life.
But 1 trust in thee, O Lord, I say, "Thou art my God."
Rescue me from those who persecute me!
I will rejoice and be glad for thy unfailing love,
because thou hast cared for me in my distress
and thou hast not abandoned me
but hast set me free. ~ A Rereading From Psalm XXXI (RSV/NE/SE)

Shephard's tragic story has received consistent attention from the press in the 10 years since the vicious hate crime that took his life erupted the quiet veneer of the Wyoming plain. Episcopal Cafe writer Ann Fontaine has her own reflections on the person of Matthew Shephard, before and after his death here. Fontaine's questions lead me to my own questions about the appropriateness of titling this icon 'The Passion of Matthew Shephard' - simply because of the title's stark similarity to the Passion of Christ. Surely Christ's Passion was quite different from this young man's. Or was it? My inability to measure the suffering of another answers my own questions. And I conclude, for myself, that this use of the word 'Passion' is appropriate when it broadens our collective memory for all those who suffer for the truth of their own identities, regardless of how long that suffering endures.

On View:
Above and Homepage Masthead: The Passion of Matthew Shephard, icon by Fr. William Hart McNichols.
Homepage Daily Episcopalian: Beato Fra Angelico, Patron of Artists, icon by Fr. William Hart McNichols.
Homepage Speaking to the Soul: Jesus Christ Extreme Humility, icon by Fr. William Hart McNichols.

About the Artist: William Hart McNichols has been "drawing and coloring in his room" since he was five years old. In September 1990, he moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico to study the technique, history and spirituality of icon painting (technically "icon writing") with Russian-American master, Robert Lentz. He has also been assisting with sacremental ministry in the Archdiocese of Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Father Bill lives with his cat, Nino and hens, Rose and Catherine. In January 2007, Father Bill began to work on the Publication Ministry of the Icons. Artist representative and director of daily communications of the ministry is Pamela Scalora.

Read Luiz Coelho's articles, The Sinai Pantocrator: Iconography 101 here and here.

The Disappeared/Los Desaparecidos

"The word "disappeared" was redefined during the mid-20th Century in Latin America. "Disappeared" evolved into a noun used to identify people who were kidnapped, tortured and killed by their own governments in the latter decades of the twentieth century in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Uruguay and Venezuela. Colombia with its fifty-year civil war and Guatemala with its own thirty-seven-year civil war further expanded the meanings and uses of "disappeared."

"The exhibition contains work by more than fifteen contemporary artists from these countries, who over the course of the last thirty years have made art about the disappeared. These artists have lived through the horrors of the military dictatorships that rocked their countries in the mid-decades of the twentieth century. Some worked in the resistance; some had parents or siblings who were disappeared; others were forced into exile. The youngest were born into the aftermath of those dictatorships. And still others have lived in countries maimed by endless civil war.

"This traveling exhibition, curated by the North Dakota Museum of Art, will be exhibited jointly by the Stanlee and Gerald Rubin Center for the Visual Arts, the Centennial Museum and the Union Gallery, all on the UTEP campus. Campus departments and bi-national community arts organizations will participate in collaborative programming over the course of the exhibition, inviting broad community dialogue on the issues presented. Funded in part by the Lannan Foundation. " Text courtesy of the Rubin and L Galleries and Project Space, University of Texas at El Paso Dept. of Art.

"These artists have lived through the horrors of the military dictatorships that rocked their countries in the mid-decades of the twentieth century. Some worked in the resistance; some had parents or siblings who were disappeared; others were forced into exile. The youngest were born into the aftermath of those dictatorships. And still others live in countries maimed by endless civil war. Disappearance was inevitably linked to torture. Laurel Reuter, curator of the exhibition and director of the North Dakota Museum of Art, was struck by the timelessness and truthfulness of the art. For example, when Identidad, a collaborative installation made by thirteen Argentinean artists, opened in Buenos Aires, three people discovered their long-hidden identities. They had been taken at birth from those who opposed the government and adopted into military families. Through their art, these artists fight amnesia in their own countries as a stay against such atrocities happening again." Text courtesy of the original exhibition website at the North Dakota Museum of Art.

Current show curated by Laurel Reuter
June 18 - September 11, 2009
Rubin and L Galleries and Project Space
University of Texas at El Paso Dept. of Art
500 W. University, El Paso, Texas

On View, Homepage Masthead: Empty Shirt, 1997 diptych by Luis Gonzáles Palma, (Guatemala, lives in Argentina).
One frame contains the frontal image of a Mayan woman, the second, an empty white shirt which stands in for the disappeared husband. Image courtesy of the North Dakota Museum of Art.

On View, Homepage Daily Episcopalian: Luis Camnitzer, (Uruguay, lives in New York). Image courtesy of the North Dakota Museum of Art

On View: Homepage Speaking to the Soul: Luis Camnitzer, (Uruguay, lives in New York) Image courtesy of the North Dakota Museum of Art.

"Making art is the highest form of hope" is how artist Chuck Hoffman describes his work with Genesis Art Studio.

On creating the work on view, Borderless World, Peg Carlson-Hoffman writes: "Inspired by the Creation story in Genesis and the New Jerusalem images in The Book of Revelation, I became aware of what falls “in-between”. Not only the books in the Bible, but what goes on in the “in-between” spaces of my life. My work of late reflects those Holy spaces, where distance between God and me thins, or narrows, and where my relationships become precious and transparent. Exploring the Alpha and Omega in paint becomes a form of prayer and meditation, that in-between place where I go to meet God."

Her collaborator Chuck Hoffman adds : "I believe community creates a space where it is possible to engage truth. Community also presents for those who dare the possibility to become transparent and to interact with each other. This spiritual dimension in turn brings us to Holy ground where we encounter each other, beginning a dialog between the Divine, the artist and the viewer. In this creative, prayerful dialogue I not only connect with creation, but find out about who I am in it, and who I am in relationship to others. For me, making art becomes the highest form of hope. "

He and his partner Peg Carlson-Hoffman are exhibiting artists in 'Gifts 2009', an open-studio exhibition of The Artists Registry. The exhibition was organized by Jan Neal. ECVA Communications Director C. Robin Janning designed and published the online show. Episcopal Life Online carries an informative article by Julia Fleming here.

On View: Borderless World by Chuck and Peg Hoffman. Acrylic on canvas, Sept 2008, 30 x 30 inches.

In the film"Who Does She Think She Is?", Director Pamela T Boll brings together the stories of "five fierce women who refuse to choose" between motherhood and working, between partnering and independence, between economics and art.

An interactive website provides all kinds of access to a film synopsis, behind the scenes photos, a 'Fan Map' that is very cool, and more.

Screenings of "Who Does She Think She Is?" are happening around the country. A special web page shows the schedule here.

To schedule a screening at your cathedral or your campus, shoot an email to the co-producers here.

Oh, and the title of this blog post - Can you name 5 women artists? well, can you?

An Interview with Ms. Kaze Gadway
Lay Diocesan Youth Minister
Episcopal Church of St. George
Holbrook to Winslow, AZ

by Sue Reynolds

Ms. Kaze Gadway works with at-risk Native youth ages 12-18 from several parishes in Arizona’s Northeastern high plateau country. It’s an area of dying towns. The economy’s railroad lifeblood has drained away, leaving an already-challenged Native population struggling with deepening poverty, domestic violence, addiction and continuing racism.

She observes, “Native ceremonies give an important spiritual connection to the whole community.”

The youth Gadway works with are in Probation Court, or Juvenile Detention, or they’re calling her for a ride home from the hospital after a severe beating from a relative, because their parents are drunk, broke or both.

The youth are mainly Navajo, Hopi, Kiowa. They are from St. Paul's in Winslow and St.George's in Holbrook.

50 are in a recovery addiction program Gadway runs. About 40 come to events – hikes, retreats and music jams – she organizes.

In charge of the only Native American program in the Diocese of Arizona, Gadway believes meeting Native people’s challenges begins with programs, not donations.

Reservation retreats connect youth separated from their Native identity with traditions that rebuild it. Kids visiting the all-Navajo Church of the Good Shepherd see Native culture everywhere in parish life there, and they’re impressed.

Gadway has integrated storytelling – a skill at the heart of Native life – with today’s video and computer technology that teens love.

The result: a grant-funded program put video tools and training in the hands of Native youth who need to discover – and tell – their tribal and personal stories. The movie they made of Native, Hispanic and White “tribes” may not be ready for Sundance, but it’s made a world of difference in how these young Native filmmakers see themselves.

Their new sense of self and growing confidence is powerful medicine. They hope to tell more video stories to heal, about what they know too well: addiction and suicide.

A recent trip sent Native youth to serve the homeless in Southern California soup kitchens. It changed how they see themselves, for the good.

“We’re Native Americans and we’re giving something to someone else,” is how Gadway puts it. They’ve gained dignity from realizing that homelessness isn’t a disease, and that, for some, it’s not a disaster either.

Racism in this region, Gadway says, is unbelievable.

Even today, a high school graduation rite of passage – 30-plus years after the American Indian Movement held Alcatraz and Wounded Knee and got America’s collective attention – is white teens beating up drunken Natives in alleys.

But Gadway looks ahead, gathering music and sound equipment so her kids can jam in the new Drop In center when it’s finished. It will have crafts – like tagging (graffiti) in a safe place – and maybe the tutoring parents want for their kids.

She says, “We take lots of trips. We go to Diocesan Convention, National Convention, so the kids can see alternatives to their own lives.”

About the Author: Sue Reynolds is a documentary photographer based in the San Francisco Bay area. Since 2005, she has photographed and interviewed Native people across the West. Her "Proud People: Nations within a Nation" book, "On the Powwow Trail" article, and slide lectures have touched many and received enthusiastic reviews.

On View: Blurring Drum Beats, Montana, photograph by Sue Reynolds. This image and two dozen others, are on view at Gallery 1055 through July 24, 2009. Gallery 1055, 1055 Taylor Steret, San Francisco.

If we are not careful, when we use the word 'war' we unconsciously depersonalize a complex set of events, humanly made and humanly lived. War is composed of acts of bravery and courage, senseless destruction and depravity, physical and mental injury, costly and at times unachievable rehabilitation, loss of life, civilization and history, the reclaiming of justice, small victories, monumental defeats, un-rightable wrongs and ungrateful beneficiaries.

Photographer Suzanne Opton removes the whitewashing from the some of the tidiness of the word 'war.' She photographed American soldiers returning to Fort Drum between tours of duty in Afganistan and Iraq. She then traveled to Amman, Jordan, where she photographed Iraqis who fled their homes since the US-led invasion.

Ms. Opton's 'Soldier + Citizen' project was been featured in Witness: Casualties of War at Stephen Cohen Gallery, Los Angeles. Her Soldier Billboard Project was blogged here at Episcopal Cafe.

The Art Blog joins with the staff of Episcopal Cafe in remembering with deep gratitude and abiding thanksgiving those who have given their lives so that "the freedom of the human spirit shall go on."

“I am interested in emulating the art of other epochs with which I feel an affinity, and without apology,” says Ruth Weisberg. Weisberg’s appreciation for the history of art is a particularly intimate one, as seen through the lens of her own experience as a painter-printmaker. Implicit in Weisberg’s work is the assertion that contemporary art is not separable from the art of earlier periods. She says: “Art history becomes part of the imaginative life of the artist; we are in what I call a ‘dialogue’ with the past.”

Weisberg’s dialogue with Cagnacci’s masterpiece began in 2006. Contemplating this painting, Weisberg created a series of more than 20 paintings, monumental-size drawings and monotypes. Cagnacci’s ambitious pictorial narrative weaves together a number of emotive themes, including repentance, anger and the triumph of virtue over vice—all of which were topical subjects during the Catholic Reformation of the 16th and 17th centuries. Weisberg explores and transforms these themes through the tradition of figurative art and the personal arena of memory and relationships. Indeed, she depicts herself and her family members as Cagnacci’s characters. In so doing, the artist reconfigures the emotional power of a specific reference by modifying it through her own beliefs and experiences.

~ from the press release for Ruth Weisberg: Guido Cagnacci and the Resonant Image , organized by Gloria Williams Sander, Curator, Norton Simon Museum. On view concurrently to Ruth Weisberg was Under the Influence: Art-Inspired Art, a complementary exhibition that explores the ways in which artists have been influenced by and responded to the works of others. More than 45 artworks from the Norton Simon collections were featured in the exhibition.

On View: Top, Martha Rebuking Mary for her Vanity by Guido Cagnacci, after 1660, Oil, Norton Simon Museum of Art, Pasadena, CA; bottom, “The Blessing,” 2008, Ruth Weisberg, Oil and mixed media painting on canvas 80" x 96".

Catherine Robles Shaw is an artist who learned about 'santera' as a child. She writes, "My first exposure to this art form came when, as a child, I visited the churches in the San Luis Valley. My family had been among the first settlers in the Conejos land grant and lived in Mogote and Las Mesitas, Colorado. After visiting old churches in Chimayo and northern New Mexico, as an adult, I came to realize the meaning of the little retablos that had been in our family. In 1991, I began making retablos for my family and friends. Then in 1995, when I was admitted into the Spanish Market, I became a full time artist."

Her award-winning work has been documented in a short film, viewable here.

Robles Shaw continues, "As a Santera (Saint Maker), I hope to preserve some of the unique traditions of my Hispanic culture. Retablos are the story tellers of my ancestors. They are the natural extension of the beauty and simplicity of our Spanish lives. My husband, Michael and I aspire to represent our work with as much historic accuracy as possible.

"My art process uses the same materials that were used in the 18th and 19th centuries. Retablos are flat hand carved wooden boards made from local woods, such as pine and aspen. Bultos are three dimensional carvings made of cottonwood root and local woods. Next I coat the piece with gesso, which is made from gypsum and rabbit skin glue. This is the foundation for the natural paints. I use plant and insect extracts as well as mineral colored earth’s for my paints. The painted piece is then coated with the Pinion Sap Varnish which is made by dissolving pitch nuggets in grain alcohol (mula). The finished pieces are waxed and prepared for display. Each piece is one of a kind."

On View: The Passion Altar Screen Installed in Grace Episcopal Church, Carlsbad, NM by Catherine Robles Shaw

See more of Catherine Robles Shaw's work In: Gifts 2009 An Open Studio Exhibition of The Artists Registry, a division of ECVA.

Contemporary artist Ross Bleckner is interested in the human states of memory and loss. Through his use of 'soft-focus ambiguity', Bleckner's paintings often initiate a dialogue within the viewer. And his exhibitions are exceedingly worthwhile.

Bleckner's imagery leaves room for the viewer at the table of interpretation. In this way Bleckner invites the kind of collaboration with his audience that is essential for art to breath on its own. If Bleckner's paintings stand on their own outside his New York studio, it is because Bleckner bridges his abstraction with just the right amount of realism. He gives his audience opportunities to connect with their own experience and ideas. A student of Chuck Close, he has solo exhibited at Mary Boone Gallery NY, SF MoMA, the Milwaulkee Museum, the Carnegie Museum, and the Guggenheim, to name a few. Bleckner has also participated in numerous international shows both solo and group, including the Guild Hall Museum East Hampton NY and the Kunsthaus Zurish Switzerland.

“A spiritual search in art is looking for meaning outside of yourself”
- Ross Bleckner.

Bleckner is also interested in social justice. Earlier this year he brought art materials with him when he traveled to Uganda. Once there he worked with children from Uganda's war-torn Gulu region, introducing them to expression through color and brush. The New York Times tells the story here. Paintings from that trip will be auctioned at a benefit this spring in conjunction with the announcement of Bleckner's appointment as Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.

On View: Top: "Birdland", 2000, Oil on Linen, 96"x96", by Ross Bleckner. Courtesy of Ross Bleckner. Above: "Inheritance", 2003, Oil on linen, 72" x 72", by Ross Bleckner. Courtesy of Ross Bleckner.

As editor of the Art Blog at Episcopal Cafe, I learn about a lot of ways that art is being used for the sake of goodness. This week I am writing about an organization that is using art to change lives, one person at a time. They are called Life Pieces to Masterpieces (LPTM).

LPTM is a non-profit, arts-based, comprehensive youth development organization, serving boys and young men ages 3 to 21 living in low-income and public housing east of the Anacostia River in Washington, DC. Their program includes art, poetry, and photography that expresses the life experiences of the participants.

The mission of this award-winning organization is to provide opportunities to discover and activate the innate and creative abilities of the members to change life challenges into possibilities. And their outcomes are measurable and impressive. Their website cites these statistics:
* Over 90% of LPTM participants have not become involved in the juvenile justice system or fathered children
* Approximately 90% have shown improved behavior at home and in school
* 75% have significantly increased their overall GPA
* LPTM Apprentices have created over 1000 pieces of art over the past 11 years, exhibited locally, nationally and internationally, including The World Bank, Children's Hospital, the Smithsonian, and charitable foundations throughout Washington, DC. and FIDDEM in Paris, France

LPTM’s continuing goal is to nurture, embrace, encourage, and elevate African American boys and young men. Daily participation in LPTM’s artistic, academic, spiritual, and mentoring activities help turn the many challenges in the lives of these boys into opportunities for success, self-reliance, and resiliency.