Like all artists, I occasionally suffer from “creative paralysis”—the visual artist’s equivalent of “writer’s block”—and I struggle to find inspiration for my next project. Then an idea hits me. It may come from something I see in nature. But it could just as likely come from watching a televised how-to show, stepping up to a quilt challenge, or hearing a well-loved hymn or familiar biblical phrase. I recognize that the Holy Spirit uses all these avenues to “call me through the Gospel and enlighten me” with the Spirit’s gifts (from Martin Luther’s explanation of the Third Article).
As an artist of faith, while I hope people appreciate the aesthetics and the sewing details of my artwork, I also hope they can see the deeper meaning of what I create. Quilting, for me, reflects a lifetime of expressing my faith in creeds, hymn stanzas, Bible passages and visual art. Every stitch is an act of creation, an act of belief.
This message is an excerpt of “Patterns of faith” by Kristine A Luber in the November 2017 issue of Gather magazine.
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