What a treat it was to get to know Erin Hinckley, whose artwork is part of the Green Goat Gallery’s most recent exhibit.
If you haven’t been to the “Goat,” now would be a great time to check out the wonderful artwork there.
I have long been a bit envious of all our talented local artists.
OK, a lot envious.
Oh sure, I can write all day long and not break a sweat, but ask me to get into some artwork, actually do some artwork … that is another ball of wax altogether.
Or in this case, a ball of clay.
At our recent Bible study at summer camp, we were each given a lump of clay and asked to make something representative of our lives based on the beginning chapter of Genesis.
Ooooh boy, I thought. Here we go.
I mean, folks, it’s bad. I can’t draw a straight line. I can’t sew a stitch. I can’t paint a …
You get the picture.
But I thought, well, Will and Cindy, our leaders, asked for it.
So I did my best.
I took my little lump of clay out on the Efird Hall porch and got to work.
First, I decided I would do a crescent. Just like the moon reflects light from the sun, so we reflect the light of Christ to others.
Sounded good. I could do that.
After a few minutes, my moon was starting to look like a banana.
(Jesus wants me to be appealing?)
I smushed it back into a ball again.
For a minute, I thought about leaving it as it was … you know, “the earth was without form and void.”
Then looked down at the three-stone ring Mother and Daddy had given me years ago. Hmmm, a diamond in the rough. That would be me. That could work.
I started pressing the sides of the clay into the stone, trying to create a diamond-like shape. Then I mashed the top of the clay down to represent the top of the stone.
I know!
But it was the best I could do!
Then we had “sharing time.”
Will and Cindy are cool that in, if you don’t want to share, you don’t have to.
I decided I would go first. Get this awful thing over with.
The group was, to say the least, very solicitous and most supportive.
Bible study groups are good that way.
Paulette made a whirlpool-like shape surrounded by long arms and a heart. It represented the part about the spirit of God moving across the waters. Were that little piece of art for sale, I would’ve bought it then and there.
She’s a seminary student, and she had a sweet comment for me.
“You know what makes diamonds,” she said. “Time and pressure.
There you go.
That is my artist’s statement.
And I am sticking with it.