Art and Spirituality Course LSA 16-17

Posted on by Carol Marples

The Art and Spirituality 16-17 class has begun. We are now two weeks in with an interesting and enthusiastic group of students. The Theme at LSA this year is ‘Landmarks’, taken from the book by Robert MacFarlane. We began with a meditation of images considering and reflecting on the many landmarks that are made or represented by stones, their possible metaphors and symbolism.

Stones

Cairns

Ruins

Peebles

Mountains

Walls

Boundaries

Dams

Fossils

Buildings

Towers

Homes

Shelters

History

Geology

Throwing

Casting .. The first

Caves

Carved

Ancient

Millstone

Touchstone

 

Crosses

Altars

Tombstones

gravestones

Standing stones

Ring of Brodgar

Stonehenge

Patina

Fortress

 

Walls:

Adrian’s

Antonine

Great wall of China

Jerusalem

To prayer at

To keep out

To separate

 

Dust

Stour

Jacob’s pillow

(and many more)

 

Week 1.

Celebrating the Ordinary

We began simply by drawing stones – ones that had been brought by the group form favorite places, found on walks and pocketed for their beauty – looking intimately, trying to get to know the ordinary yet extra-ordinary small part of creation in front of us.

Week 2.

At the Cathedral: Intimate and Monumental/Immanent and Transcendant

In week two we visited St. Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral to enjoy the beautiful exhibition by Monica Guggisberg & Philip Baldwin and explore the cathedral stone and space through drawing in our sketchbooks.

  

   

     

    

 

 

Boats and Vessels in the Cathedral.

Posted on by Carol Marples

Last night I went to the opening of a fabulous new exhibtion at St. Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral, Edinburgh.

An installation of works by renowned international glass artists Monica Guggisberg & Philip Baldwin will be exhibited at St. Mary’s Cathedral during the Edinburgh Festival, and curated by Gallery TEN’s Paul Musgrove. Their modern, minimalist aesthetic provides a dramatic juxtaposition against the backdrop of St. Mary’s ornate Gothic architecture. The Cathedral Collection will include new works from their frames series, mobiles, and large scale boat sculptures, including a nine meter long version recently exhibited at the Grand Palais in Paris, and the Applied Arts Museum in Frankfurt.

The work is beautifully made and sensitively placed. One is both startled by its fragility and boldness, its beauty and  unexpectedness. This contemporary work surprisingly brings to life the dark gothic cathedral, whose historical and spiritual architectural canvas adds layers of meaning as countless metaphors are suggested by Guggisberg and Baldwin’s glass and metal boats and vessels.

If you are in or around Edinburgh during the festival – go and see for yourself.

 

St. Mary’s Cathedral, Edinburgh
July 29 – September 19. 2016