a mass like no other

Order of Service for the Bishop's Golden Jubilee Mass of Thanksgiving
© Teresa Newham

I was recently delighted to be asked to provide some artwork for a Mass of Thanksgiving to be held at our church for Bishop John Crowley's Golden Jubilee.  I handed over various designs and was thrilled when I saw the Order of Service; appropriately for a celebration of fifty years of priesthood, The Good Shepherd had been used on the front cover.

choir's-eye-view of the entry procession
© Teresa Newham

Those of us in the choir had a privileged view of  proceedings - although just being there was privilege enough.  How many people can say they've been to a Golden Jubilee Mass?  I never did manage to count how many priests were present.  I was trying to sing the Kyrie and the Gloria without being distracted by He is Risen, originally conceived as an Easter card:

'He is Risen' sandwiched between the Kyrie and the Gloria
© Teresa Newham

I am the Vine, (like The Good Shepherd, one of the Signs quartet),  appeared beneath the Communion hymn - another apt placement, beautifully complemented by the piece we sang while the priests were receiving:

Eat this Bread, drink this Cup, come to Me and never be hungry,

Eat this Bread, drink this Cup, trust in Me and you will not thirst.

'I am the Vine' and the communion hymn
© Teresa Newham

 As regular readers of this blog may remember, Signs is a meditation piece inspired by Pope John Paul II's Letter to Artists, and my first serious attempt at religious imagery following my reception into the Catholic Church in 2011;  a third part of the work, Loaves & Fish, had been used on the back cover, this time to encourage folk along to the reception after Mass:

'Loaves & Fish' on the back
© Teresa Newham

I've always felt that these little images were given to me to share with other people: and I'm grateful that they became part of this unique and special occasion, in honour of a unique and special man.

Light in the darkness

And glory shone around
© Teresa Newham

How fitting that, on the shortest day of the year, I have images to share which have a theme of light in the darkness!  The first is my 2013 Christmas card - a hand-printed linocut of three startled shepherds receiving the news of Our Lord's birth from the angel Gabriel.  Not that you'll see an angel here; I discovered fairly early on in the process that any attempt on my part to depict Gabriel in this scene resulted in something resembling an alien from outer space.  So I kept him out of shot, as it were - which led to an interesting meditation while I was working out the design:  what exactly does glory look like?

candles
© Teresa Newham

Next, some watercolours which I plan to turn into Christmas cards for general sale - this one shows four candles burning steadily.  Are they part of an Advent wreath? a table decoration? or some other display? Whether you'll be burning candles for Christmas, Yule or just because you like to burn candles at this time of year, I hope these brighten your day!

Adeste Fideles
© Teresa Newham

The painting above features the little girl and her dog shown with a Christmas tree in my previous post.  I've come to the conclusion that she represents the way I felt about Christmas as a child.  This time she is carol singing - but her attention has wandered to the star, just as it did when she was in the woods with the Christmas tree!  I've called the Christmas tree pic O Tannenbaum, and this new one will be Adeste Fideles.  The cards will contain a verse in the original language of the carol, along with an English translation.  With a bit of luck there might be a third one (Stille Nacht) by Christmas Day . . .

dove
© Teresa Newham

And finally, a dove of peace, carrying an olive branch.  It's quite a large branch because we need all the peace we can get in the world right now.  Whatever your religion or creed, I wish you every blessing this Christmas season and a joyful - and peaceful - New Year.

Again Jesus spoke to them, saying,"I am the light of the world.  Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." John 8.12

Work Progressed - Signs

Signs
© Teresa Newham 2012

Who does not recall the symbols which marked the first appearance of an art both pictorial and plastic? The fish, the loaves, the shepherd: in evoking the mystery, they became almost imperceptibly the first traces of a new art.   Pope John Paul II's Letter to Artists 1999 

Today is the feast of Pentecost, and feels like the right time to unveil the piece which regular readers of this blog will recall I've been working on since last Summer.   It was just after Pentecost last year that I read Pope John Paul's wonderful Letter to Artists;  the above quote stayed with me for some time.  I remembered a quartet of mounted photos which were no longer needed - perhaps I could make some linocuts of the fish, the loaves, the shepherd, and display them in it with another Christian symbol?    I could call it "four signs". Living water !  of course.  And the vine. Whoops, that's five.  And the lamb.  And the lost sheep . . . seven signs.  It was a bit like  the Spanish Inquisition sketch from Monty Python . . . and what about the Cross?  it needed to be there but I couldn't decide how or where.

And then I realised the Cross was there already, hidden in plain sight.

Having just completed the RCIA course and become a Catholic just a few weeks previously, I should have realised that it would be.  But I must admit, recognising the Cross already physically present within the template I had in mind freaked me out rather.  There was no question now of my not making those linocuts.   And as I've worked on them on and off for the past year I've found myself meditating on those symbols a lot. There are prayers, parables, psalms and sacraments if you look deeply enough.  And the cross is central to them all.

Work in Progress 3

The final element of my ongoing linocut project is now complete.  For many reasons, it was the trickiest image to realise; that of the Shepherd.  Not only did I have to attempt to depict Our Lord;  I had to draw a sheep and a lamb.  I copied a suitable lamb from the internet but struggled with the sheep, until I remembered a photo I took several years ago in Kerry: 

from Valentia to the Skelligs
© Teresa Newham 2012

So my favourite sheep made it into the image; and, having discarded as a cop-out the idea of denoting the presence of the Shepherd by a hand, or a foot,  I did what so many artists do, and plagiarised something else - in this case, the Paternoster statue by Dame Elisabeth Frink.

tracing the image
© Teresa Newham 2012

As you can see from the above photo, I changed my mind about the design halfway through, deciding to omit an unnecessary horizon and swap some of the black and white elements around.  Plus it was vital not to repeat the mistake I made with the previous image in this project - it had to come out the right way round.  So I was understandably nervous by the time I took the first print:

first print of The Shepherd
© Teresa Newham 2012

The half-dozen prints I made of this image required a bit of touching up; but are none the worse for that. The next step will be to display all four images together . . . !

linocut prints: The Shepherd
© Teresa Newham 2012