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My work began in a small meeting at the Oakland Arena (California) with the heads of liturgy and the administrator of the Jubilee event. What could be done, they asked, to counter the spectator nature of the architecture, and to celebrate our diversity as a dioces with the environment for the big Jubilee Mass. I glanced at the ceiling, and found to my dismay that it was a bowl bottom, not curved or arching to support lovely banners. Nothing could be hung from the center without disturbing sightlines. The floor was gray concrete. We could have a black platform 8 inches high. My eyes looked and found the third and second story balconies. Could their faces be adorned to get the folks looking at something besides the center? Could this enhance the community be encouraging them to look at each other as they looked around? How could I bring something natural into the site also, and counter the dreadful hollowness of the space?
I researched world textile banners and designed a mural of these patterns that would cover the balcony faces of the arena. I taught ten others how to expand the small drawings to full scale, and then to paint them with volunteers. We arranged visits to each parish in the diocese that would host us. In the end, we had over 600 painters.
We had many children to help us create and glaze the banners, with many families working together. There was a happy tone to the hall where we worked that kept everyone involved and even drew in others who were in the neighborhood to enjoy the event.
The day before the event, we went to the flower market in San Francisco to get the flowers. We were told to put them in water, all 250 bunches of marigolds and endless roses. The roses filled my kitchen, the bathtub was full of marigolds, and every available bucket was holding flowers. We also had to control the population of snails that came along with the marigolds.
The day of the event, the 4000 marigolds were stripped and the petals were used to draw the path of the central cruciform between the altar and the ambo, forming processional paths for the movements of the Mass. The roses created a niche for Guadalupe, in a side shrine. All the paintings were hung. About 75 people helped in the set up, which was completed an hour before the Mass began. The paintings have been reused in several other places since.
Lenten Garden
One recent project was an interactive Lenten garden where seeds of intention were planted and nurtured to bloom at Easter.
This was a small project that we did at Evergreen Methodist for Lent. It was a visual garden that we planted with seeds we imbued with intention for the season. We combined the symbols of gardening with our own spirituality for the six weeks of Lent. The seeds sprouted with shoots and roots during the first week. The second Sunday, we thought about our intention and what we had done to nurture it and wrote this on the back of a sunbeam. The next week, we watered the garden with our tears of regret or loss or joy. The following weeks we used confession (manure), learning by reflection (composting) and finally added the grace of God to make the intentions bloom.
