Easter Resilience Resides in Your DNA
Erin and Sarah helped me with the art show by folding one hundred origami sparrows and cranes!
I reflected with two friends this week about my recent master’s presentation I gave in Vancouver, British Columbia, which included writing a book (forthcoming in the U.S.) and a gallery exhibition. “You showed resilience in all the work you did, and it shows through the art,” responded Erin.
Certainly, in my life, I strive for resilience, which I define as a persevering adaptability. However, I had failed to consider that resilience occurs within my artistic process.
The project itself took me two years to complete, so perhaps the length alone is a great indicator.
Erin was also referring to the flexibility I had to find in order to get 50 books printed and figure out how to transport them to Canada cheaply. Then I had to print and frame 25 large photos without causing my husband to cancel our credit card!
The project
The overall project (and show) was called Martyrs in Monochrome: The Witness of Women, Christian Resilience, and Photopoetry. I explored the connection between the accounts of early Christian martyrs and the lives of nine resilient women, captured through black-and-white portraiture. Combining meditative, bold poetry with photography, I highlighed themes of tragedy, beauty, and wisdom.
Setting up the show in the gallery.
However, I strongly discourage writing a book, doing a gallery show, and trying to graduate all in one semester. I am plumb tuckered out.
As I decompress from this intense season of creating and also consider what it means to live with resurrection hope…Hello Eastertide! I wonder if resilience resides in our DNA as Christians.
One of my interviewees from the project reminisced that when faced with cancer, she knew she would persevere because she believed resilience ran in her family. It was already part of who she was.
Smilarly, I remember encouraging my daughter many years ago that she came from a long line of resilient women—women who had faced loss and pain, and come out stronger because of it.
Layout wall in my daughter’s bedroom
Our spiritual ancestors
Think of the disciples. How utterly disillusioned they must have felt when Jesus died, but then how dumbfounded they were when he appeared in his risen body! And then he left them with a strange new friend called the Holy Spirit.
They constantly had to be adapting and accepting a new reality. Not to mention, the unusual lives they would live from that point on. This would only have been possible with the power of Christ through the Spirit! These examples point to a Spirit-igniting resilience in the lives of Christians.
As I studied female martyrs in this project, I noticed how they drew strength from their new Christ-given identity, from fellow Christians, and from a breathtaking hope in God’s kingdom as a death-defeating reality.
I tried to portray resilience in the art because that was the focus of the project, but what does it mean to reflect on resilience in my artistic process?
Resilience in the artistic process
In this project, did I have to accept uncertain realities and outcomes? Yes.
Did I overcome obstacles? Without a doubt.
Did I have to adapt as the project took on its own life? Absolutely.
Did I have to encourage myself with kind words? Oh yeah.
Did I ask for help? You betcha.
Did I have to choose to forge forward? Heck yes!
I even had a major surgery in the middle of it all.
Framing fun
Does this sound like your creative process?
The surges and valleys—the immediate need for inspiration—the long walks to find courage to keep going—the need for friends to speak life into you again and again—the “what am I doing moments?” and the “does this matter anyway?” spells—and the showing up because you’re compelled by a greater story.
I posit that God implanted resurrection and resilience in our human DNA, and the Holy Spirit’s presence activates it. That means me too—in my daily living, breathing, and making.
Easter resilience lives within every Christian as a persevering adaptability of resurrection hope. I reckon that means you too. Whatever God is beckoning you to create, get to it, because you come from a long line of Easter people.
If you’d like a virtual tour of the gallery show, send me an email.
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