Lamentations

HORIZONS

March/April 2010

"Every painting is a voyage into a sacred harbour."
Giotto di Bondone
1267-1337

Horizons, The Magazine For Presbyterian Women requested the use of one of my wife's paintings, I Am Not A Tourist Attraction, to be featured in the Mar/Apr issue. The focus of the issue is Human Trafficking, a crime against humanity that the United Nations Population Fund states could count as high as 4,000,000 souls.

When we lived in Memphis, Terri organized an art exhibit in a midtown gallery to raise awareness of human trafficking and to benefit the International Justice Mission. Shortly thereafter she was named Abolitionist of the Week by Not For Sale Campaign, another organization striving to end trafficking and human slavery. Some might ask, "Why use art?" Paul Gauguin said, "Art is either plagiarism or revolution." Webster defines revolution as a sudden, radical, or complete change. Art causes change. Good art can cause radical change. Images have a way of going deep. Some art has even caused revolution.

Captive

by Teresa West-Carter

I teach young people the history of art. The stories behind the paintings always intrigue me. Here is part of the story behind I Am Not A Tourist Attraction by Teresa West-Carter, my bride-
Several years ago while meditating on the book of Joel, Terri began a season of lament; she mourned the plight of the abused and the helpless. One day she envisioned a father holding a lifeless child, a picture of tragedy, surrounded by newspaper and magazine clippings of injustice and cruelty. As she collected actual clippings, one of the faces haunted her; the face of a little girl trapped in the sex slave trade stared back at her. The picture of that little girl caused a revolution in my wife's art.

Lamentations
The Death of Innocence

In the painting Lamentations, the father is supported by the hands of God. As Terri was looking at the painting, still on the easel, the Spirit of God said, "It's not finished. Paint My promises on My hands."

Lamentations
Detail

And so, a picture of a little girl led to a series of paintings- one of which is I Am Not A Tourist Attraction.

I Am Not A Tourist Attraction
available as a print from
Not For Sale Campaign
all proceeds go to Not For Sale

Kindergarten Field Trip, c. 1961

(I'm in the 2nd row)

syn·er·gy (sĭn'ər-jē) syn-ergos, συνεργός

The interaction of two or more agents or forces so that their combined effect

is greater than the sum of their individual effects.

Little boys weren't made to sit still.

While in elementary school, I was convinced that my desk was devised by someone evil, intent on breaking my will. Last week I decided to 'take a day off'. So, I drove down to Andrew Jackson State Park, in Lancaster, SC., birthplace of Andrew Jackson. There I discovered a peaceful trail. I also stepped inside a one-room school replica. The effect was profound. I walked to the back of the room and sat at a desk. I pondered the differences between this room and my childhood classrooms. Then I considered three changes in education I have witnessed;

the end to segregation

the end to prayer in school

and, the evolution of the evil school desk. In this one-room school there were desks, gathered from different time periods, the oldest being a table and bench from the 1700s. I sat there and wondered about the students who called this table 'home'.

Cyanotype Print
First Patented School Desk
U.S. Patent #400,738
Anna Breadin
April 2, 1889


"A student doesn't get a better desk than her teacher."
Matthew 10:24
The Message

I teach art. While teaching at Westminster Academy I built tables for the art room- simple, sturdy, 2x4 constructed tables. They were large enough for four students, and, they could be pushed together to form one large workspace. When I began at Trinity Prep in Charlotte I decided to build the same. A bonus I had not considered was provided by one of the parents, Brian Crutchfield, - dry erase board tops, on which the students could draw with markers.

Brilliant! Thank you Brian! He also built several counter tops, providing even more surface area to move paint and ink and glue and... stuff. Here is the napkin specs (available free to the first person who asks, just email me and I will send it to you. My email address is shekhinah@juno.com) and one of the tables. Here are a few desks I found online, proving that school furniture has evolved.

And, the teacher's desk in the one-room school.

Maybe my art table will be found among the images one day.