Prayerful beginnings

Twelve Tribes © Genesis+Art Studio

FROM OUR JOURNAL PAGES:

The artistic direction for our Skainos prayer paintings took into consideration the intimacy of the architectural form created for this sacred space. The size and treatment of the painting surface and color were created to give a sense of prayerful intimacy. Each piece of our art began with our own prayers penciled onto the raw canvas. Beneath our many layers of paint, the prayers began a dialogue with the Divine, blessing and invocation calling the viewer into a glimpse of the mystery of God’s intimacy, love and grace. We offer our paintings as a visual pathway to prayer and contemplation.

Skainos: Where life abounds

Living Waters © Genesis+Art Studio

FROM OUR JOURNAL PAGES:

We recently completed and delivered our series of painted prayers for the Skainos Project and the East Belfast Mission in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Our inspiration is grounded in the writings of Glenn Jordan of Skainos titled, The City of God in the Here and Now; the re–imagining of a sacred community in East Belfast that birthed Skainos. Its many mystical references to imagining, thin places, creativity, transformation, garden paradise and renewal conjured portals to the divine and of a space where we find walls soaked with stories.

The mystical references drew us to the creation story and garden paradise narratives of Genesis, seeing God as creativity. We were also inspired by John’s proclamation in his Book of Revelation of a new vision and imagining of the heavenly city breaking into this world. The thread that connects these stories is love. We have the living waters of Christ found in the Gospel of John and the love poems of Solomon. In John 7:37–38, Jesus refers to himself as the living waters of all creation. John writes, “On the final and climactic day of the Feast, Jesus took his stand. He cried out, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Rivers of living water will brim and spill out of the depths of anyone who believes in me this way, just as the Scripture says."  And in Song of Sol 4:15 “Thou art a fountain of gardens, a well of living waters, and flowing streams from Lebanon.”  We have worked with both of these texts for inspiration and the central element for the larger painting. Water is a vital component to East Belfast, (meaning river mouth) and creations element that allows life to abound both physically and spiritually.

The Song of Songs, are the sacred and sensual love poems of Solomon. We see these love songs as figurative in how they speak to the great mysteries of God’s shared intimacy with us, where we’re witness to love, and also to love’s response. Beauty and sanctity in human love becomes a reflection back of God’s Divine love for us. Embedded within Solomon’s words, we find the One who most intimately holds our hearts and binds us to one another.