The Mural Project

As I suspected, I had a great conversation with Susy Bleasby, the mural painter. I took her upstairs to the Sunday Sunday room (AKA "The Godly Play Room") and she was blown away with how big the walls are and how much they lend themselves to this kind of art. Here are pictures of the two walls I have in mind...



Those were taken with a wide-angle lens, so the actual walls look even bigger in person. My initial idea is to have a kingdom of heaven scene on one end (where the doors are) and the kingdom of God on earth on the other wall (where the window is). Susy and then spent time looking at various pieces of visual Christian art that have inspired me through the years. I showed her the vestments that my mother commissioned for my ordinations. I also showed her my copy of the St. John's Bible Gospels. I showed her pictures of the interior of St. Greg's. We talked about the Sistine Chapel and all kinds of cool stuff. She is excited by the possibility of doing something absolutely thrilling....

The price? Depends--she has come up some estimates that will vary according to the complexity of the design (i.e. how long it takes her and her partner to complete). But is probably around $5,000 per wall--so $10k for the whole project. That's actually pretty reasonably IMHO--it's still less than half the price of the piano we are about to buy. I'm also aware of some grants that I can write for that may help.

-t

Synchronicity

Here's an image called "Synchronicity" from the ECVA (Episcopal Church and the Visual Arts) website.



Today is a day for planning and development. It started off with a very pleasant and meaningful contemplative Eucharist. Then I met with Megan to plan our preaching for the last three Sundays before Advent. We are going to take those three Sundays to preach towards the new arrangement of the space I have planned for Advent. Beyond just shifting chairs around, I'm also looking to dress the church in a meaningful way. There was a tradition of decorating the church for Christmas in the middle of December in a very particular way--I'm looking to revolutionize how that process works. Basically, I'm going to make it more liturgical and less decorative.

In a little while I'm having a meeting with an artist named Susy Bleasby that specializes in murals for children. She has done a ton of work at Sick Kids Hospital here in Toronto. She's also a good Anglican and I'm looking forward to showing her our Sunday School room and to hear if this an opportunity that interests her. I absolutely love talking to artists and craftspersons about potential church commissions--it really gets my creative juices flowing--hence my wandering around the ECVA website.

I also put up a big white board in my office. I'm a visual guy and I like being able to sketch out ideas. New bookcases are arriving tomorrow--then I can finally unpack the rest of my books and settle my office. It's going to look great!

-t