First Baptist Church of Williamsburg holds Art Show showcasing local artists

On August 29, the First Baptist Church Special Studies Sunday School class played host to a unique and powerful event which collected and displayed the work of 43 local artists and craftsmen.
This special Art Show was inspired by the bestseller Same Kind of Different As Me by Ron Hall, Denver Moore and Lynn Vincent, the inspirational story of the friendship between an art dealer and a homeless artist. After the class began discussing the book, Kim Williams was inspired to reach out to local artists, a venture which unearthed explosive talent and creativity in unexpected and remarkable places.
The First Baptist Church Art Show attracted a huge variety of local artisans. Some were well-known fixtures in the local art world, including Stan West, J. Don Faulkner, Charles Widener and Wayne Hensley. On the other hand, many pieces were produced by area children, including a carefully sculpted nativity set by Tanner and Tyler Bryant, and a series of digital works by Lilah and Selena Mattingly.
One eye-catching series of chalk pieces was created by the FBCW Big Picture Youth in response to a verse from Job 32: “These things are but the fringes of His greatness.” The scripture portrayed in Big Picture Youth’s chalk drawings was appropriate for the event, though the works showed more than just the “fringes” of God’s greatness.
Lee Bryant, local businessman and Special Studies class member, mused that “all artists are spiritual in some way.”
Indeed, many artists seem to agree that the act of creation is a spiritual experience. Local painter Sam Aday, who helped set up the exhibition, described his artistic process. He “smears paint” and then adds objects and landscapes as they begin to form on the canvas, a meditative process which rejects everyday business. While Aday’s works are created “out of memory,” other artists paint landscapes which only exist in their own minds, such as the saturated, idyllic and beautiful works of new FBCW member Mike Ward.
Other artists gain unique inspiration from their natural environment, as shown by Charles Widener’s artistry.
Says his wife Opal, “He goes into the woods and gets all of these ideas.” The raw materials for Widener’s work include twisted briar roots, squirrel bones and sassafras stumps, which the sculptor transforms into wildly creative sculptures and smooth bowls carved out by hand. Widener saw beauty and inspiration in objects others might discard as ordinary or refuse to discard. Truly unveiling the “fringes of His greatness” in the everyday.
Even if it is not openly spiritual, art is nearly always deeply personal in some way. Cortney Moses presented an intimate piece of photography chronicling the death of her grandmother, who passed away during her Photography class at the University of Louisville.
Her hanging sculpture, Creek, one of the centerpieces of the Art Show, presented Moses’s vision of what Jellico Creek looked like as it wound around her family’s farm, sculpted in tobacco stalks delicately woven together to create a piece as ever-changing as a creek bed. The sculpture was part of Moses’s thesis exhibit upon her graduation from the University of Louisville’s art program.
Other students, high school and college alike, brought work they created for class, but some of the most surprising and satisfying pieces were from church and community members who had never before exhibited their art to the public. Some talents we already knew about, such as Chuck Dupier’s new book The Artful Science of Preaching, but who knew he was also so practiced in the fine art of pen-turning?
Or that Donna Mauney created beautiful jewelry, or that Hayley Harris snapped professional-quality portraits? Many of us discovered new talents and connections we had never before seen. Whether it is an imaginary dreamscape, a portrait of grief, or the honest work of a child, art brings out our most cherished memories and our most personal beliefs. The sharing of art is one of the most intimate forms of fellowship.
Sam Aday, who is also a member of FBCW’s Cutting Edge Outdoors program, emphasized the importance of the event, pointing out that many generations were enjoying and participating in the artwork.
“It binds everyone together,” says the painter. Physical connections could be seen in the pieces themselves: In J. Don Faulkner’s painting Faulkner Horseshoe Bent Farm, a white farmhouse is depicted towards the center of the green, hilly landscape. Kristin Smith used a discarded window from the same house as the canvas of an oil painting entitled Party in the Chicken House.
Others could be seen right here in the Christian Life Center – artists clustered in groups, comparing styles, sharing ideas and making connections. Sam Aday himself marveled at the turnout. “I didn’t know there were this many artists in the area,” he confessed.
It’s a sentiment repeated again and again. Josh Prewitt was surprised by the size of the event.
“I didn’t realize it was going to be this big,” he stated. Prewitt exhibited his work for the first time at the Art Show, which includes abstract pieces inspired by Salvador Dali. Other artists were also floored by the sheer amount of pieces and individual artists. FBCW may have forged an entirely new art community from whole cloth with one fantastic event.
Certainly, the children who attended were inspired by what they saw. They were given the opportunity to create crayon drawings, which were hung from a clothesline for display. The drawings, which contain everything from ladybugs to multi-colored starbursts, are exuberant portraits of each child’s personality.
One other outlet for artistic inspiration was the Graffiti board, which asked guests to write or draw ways they could “make a difference.” Gradually, the two white canvases filled with thoughts, suggestions and pictures from an entire community. The graffiti pieces will be hung in the Special Studies classroom.
Lee Bryant mentioned another book he found relevant to the Art Show, Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller. According to Bryant, Miller recounts a group of church planter’s reasons for their success in creating a church.
 “They focused on the unloved,” remembers Bryant, “and they found the artists.”
The Art Show certainly filled the CLC, bringing in about 200 guests, some of whom had never been to FBCW.
Aluminum cans and tin cans of food were also donated by guests to support the church’s Food Pantry program, highlighting FBCW’s other ministries to guests.
The Art Show was an unmitigated success, highlighting established, undiscovered and budding talent in a wide range of artists and pieces. The fact that so many church and community members who had never before shown their art brought their craftsmanship to the CLC is a reminder of our church family and community’s trust in the unconditional love and acceptance of FBCW as a fellowship of Christian believers.
 The church learned more about itself and its community in one evening than what might be found in decades of statistical study. It highlighted the power of love, of faith, and most of all, of the privileged and divine gift of emulating God through the act of creation.

Photo by Jonathan Ramey.