Artist led community art

For many years, at Interfaith Community Sanctuary in Seattle, Washington, where I am an Associate Minister, I led an artist inspired, community created art piece at our spiritual retreats. We would then hang them in our sanctuary.

For inspiration I would, as I always do for creation, go into prayer and meditation. This pathway gave me ideas and directions we could use for community art. The themes were spiritual in nature and filled with the symbolism found in diverse spiritual paths.

We had such joy filled deepenings in creating these pieces with no worry about how they would turn out.... and they all were wonderful and so different! They were created in love and joy and friendship. As with many community pieces, no one owned any one area, so all parts could be altered or added onto by everyone as we traveled our creative path together. The art was originally designed by me....... and inspired by Spirit...... but painted by everyone! The completed piece was birthed by us all!

Until 2017 all the community art was hung in the Sanctuary and loved by all. Many people commented about the beauty of the community expression in the paintings. And the members who created the pieces used to like to sit with the pieces and remember the experience of the painting’s birth. But in 2017, there was a change, and all the community art was taken down. Change is a part of life and all the love and positive intent and creativity that was created in them still exists with all the co-creators and is still in the paintings now. They all now live at my home and what a blessing it is to have all that love here!

Here is a sampling of the spiritual art created together as a community and Descriptions of the creations.

The Spiritual Infinite

In this creation, I designed 2 spirals one going energy in and the other going energy out or one going left, one going right. The two spirals are meant to balance each other in the energy of those spirals. On each spiral I drew, and then a member of the community painted, a symbol that represents various spiritual and faith traditions here on earth. I’m sure you are familiar with each of the symbols but if not, this is an excellent opportunity to learn about them. All are honored paths that lead to the Divine.

Our Thoughts and Words are our Energy

In this creation, you will find Pangea at the bottom being showered by sacred words that we can find from many spiritual and faith traditions. The words are pouring out of a rainbow star that represents the Flow of the Multiverse from the Heart of Love and Light to our home here below.

We All Are One

This creation, represents that everything that is, shares the same Spiritual DNA in a helix of Creation. Everything, known and unknown.

Dove of Light

In this creation, the idea was simple. It was to show that we all overlap and are connected in our community as well as the world. So those are the hands of those co-creators who were present that day. At the end of the process, I noticed an amazing gift. That of a dove that presented itself in the form of the overlapped hands! This was not planned or conscious at all. It was a gift from Holy One to remind us of our mission here on Earth. Love, Light, Peace and Compassion.

Tree of Life

The Tree of Life is something that we can find represented in different ways in many spiritual and faith traditions. This is my Interfaith Tree of Life with 19 symbols representing various spiritual paths. Can you find them all? And yet at the crown and at the base, all are connected like all our energy from all the different paths are connected.

Interfaith Mandala

For this creation I created rings for each person, or several persons to share and create their version of a prayer to Holy Creator. At times with chanting, at times with instrumental music, at times with meditation, at time with conversation about the Divine, at times in silence this mandala was created using colored pencil and a lot of patience.

Aboriginal Interspiritual Creation

With this creation, my general idea was influenced by Aboriginal art and the Divine Feminine and how She breathed Her spirit and seeds across the Multiverse. Part of the middle section was done before the community started and then each person was given a section, the same colors and a round sponge and miraculously an amazing expression of Divine Love was born.