May 22 – The Power of Art
Now the spirit of God departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from God tormented him. And Saul’s servants said to him, ‘See now, an evil spirit from God is tormenting you. Let our lord now command the servants who attend you to look for someone who is skillful in playing the lyre; and when the evil spirit from God is upon you, he will play it, and you will feel better.’ So Saul said to his servants, ‘Provide for me someone who can play well, and bring him to me.’ One of the young people answered, ‘I have seen a son of Jesse the Bethlehemite who is skillful in playing, a man of valor, a warrior, prudent in speech, and a man of good presence; and the Lord is with him.’ So Saul sent messengers to Jesse, and said, ‘Send me your son David who is with the sheep.’ Jesse took a donkey loaded with bread, a skin of wine, and a kid, and sent them by his son David to Saul. And David came to Saul, and entered his service. Saul loved him greatly, and he became his armor-bearer. Saul sent to Jesse, saying, ‘Let David remain in my service, for he has found favor in my sight.’ And whenever the evil spirit from God came upon Saul, David took the lyre and played it with his hand, and Saul would be relieved and feel better, and the evil spirit would depart from him.
In 1697, Williams Congreve penned:
“Musick has Charms to sooth a savage Breast,
To soften Rocks, or bend a knotted Oak.”
To soften Rocks, or bend a knotted Oak.”
Some two and half millennia previously, King Saul and shepherd David played out the same drama. Saul was afflicted by something (The text is clear that the evil spirit was from God, but remember that this was written by somebody intent on upholding David’s greatness and chosen-ness. Thus, Saul has to be “un-chosen.”) and that something tormented him. David’s music was his balm. David was a renaissance person: warrior, shepherd, poet, musician, strategist, and nation-builder. This story highlights his artistic side. It is David’s art that calms Saul’s troubles.
Good News: The gift of creativity heals and renews us.
Subject: Creativity and art are our gifts to make a difference in each other and the world.
Experiential Field: We experience the energy of Life/Christ/God when we are creative
Art has power to change and transform us and the world. Art can soothe us, it can rile us up. Art can reflect the world to us, or show us a whole new vision. Art can draw us into solitude, or unite us in community. Art has power. Our question is how to open ourselves to that power, and how to direct that power in life-affirming ways.
This is the week that Jack Evans will be our featured artist. Jack practices haiku, a Japanese form of poetry that limits itself to just 17 syllables in three lines: one line of 5 syllables, one of 7, and a return to 5. Within this discipline, we are given a very simple approach to writing poetry. It is my hope that we can invite our people to write haikus during the morning. Jack will be able to tell us about haiku, and to share some of his own. He has also agreed to write a couple in the midst of and in response to our worship.
Within that context, I wonder what stories we can tell when art has changed us, or our situation, or the world? How has art helped us address difficult times? When has art enlivened us? I’ve told you before about being in the National gallery with my sister-in-law and her husband. We walked into a gallery that displayed the works of Mark Rothko (large, color field paintings). Rothko is one of my favorites and the paintings literally took my breath away and I had to sit down in their presence. Chase and Cathy were a little confused by it all and wandered off to another gallery. But for me, there was energy, life in that space!
This would also be a good week to run the video about the power of words that I referenced last week. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wgi0t2ap-us
And a couple of random thoughts: we want to be clear about inviting everybody to participate in the art fest on Pentecost Sunday, June 12. And remember that I will be out of town on June 5. We also have 2 artists that we have talked with but not used yet: Chris Brown with his RISE project, and Ted Lyddon-Hatten who has agreed to with us via Skype. We also talked about inviting in vocalists of differing genres, and even possibility a tattoo artist. I’d like to do a bit of looking down the road to the culmination of this series.
We have done this in the past is focus on a single piece of art see what we can learn from it. Maybe we use the piece Doyle presented to the church at his installation. Many in the church have not seen it. Maybe Jack Evans could write a poem in response to the painting. Even as a section in the service we could experience the power of art. It is powerful to hear the things that a piece of art resonates with others and can impact them.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Dan. We need to honor and absorb the new piece of art and share our responses. Having jack respond with a Haiku is a great idea!
ReplyDeleteA couple thoughts came to mind about how to use the no eraser drawings. This Sunday hand them out and maybe people can use them as inspiration for a haiku.
ReplyDeleteor
We collect the Haiku poems and superimpose them on the no pencil drawings and print out and display on Pentecost Sunday. Make a collage.
I also came across a website "the healing power of art - art drawn by Haitian children after the earth quake.
ReplyDeletehttp://africa.si.edu/exhibits/haiti/art.html
with an exercise http://africa.si.edu/exhibits/haiti/haiti-activity.pdf which might help in our planning process.
Along the lines of poetry/musical creativity and healing: Pheobe Snow (Who passed away last month) "Poetry Man" For Example:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdBHpb7HPOc&feature=related
Also.... From Dr Lauren Liefland - http://www.drliefland.net/Creativity-and-the-Brain.html
We can now see that musical activities are biological, not solely cultural or social, behaviors. Music receptivity is on both sides of the brain, and in multiple areas of the brain. In medical settings, music has been used widely to decrease patients' perception of pain, anxiety and depression, and boost their feelings of relaxation.
Playing music to stroke victims helps them regain their speech, memory and motor abilities more quickly. Patients who listened to a few hours of music each day soon after a stroke improved their verbal memory and mood, the researcher Sarkamo of University of Helsinki reported in the journal, Brain (Feb 20, 2008). After six weeks the patients who listened to music were twice as likely to have improved speech and verbal memory which indicates neural repair. Three months after stroke music listeners showed a 60 percent better improvement in verbal memory compared to an 18 percent benefit for those using audio books as a language medium. In addition, the researchers found that the music group experienced less depression and confusion. At three months, there was a significant difference in depression (P=0.031) and confusion (P=0.045).
Likewise in heart surgery patients, music helps to stabilize the erratic changes in blood pressure following bypass surgery. They can lower medications and achieve more stable blood pressure.
Cancer patients have shown improvement in subjective experience of pain and depression. A study from University of Rochester showed that bone marrow transplant patients, who are often hospitalized for a month or more, experienced fewer side effects of treatment, which often involved pain, nausea, fatigue, anemia and dehydration. Music also helped reduce feelings of isolation.
Musical abilities are among the last to be lost with stroke or brain injury and disease. Elderly patients with Alzheimer’s become more animated with improved attention by their favorite melodies, which often bring back memories and increased awareness. Oliver Sacks writes movingly of patients who have lost most of their immediate and delayed memory but can focus attention and regain verbal fluency with music and lyrics they recognize. The man “who mistook his wife for a hat” had, with advanced Alzheimer’s, lost his recognition of words or how to dress himself, but could perform these tasks and word recall with songs. Dr. Sacks describes and I have witnessed Parkinson’s patients move more freely to music.
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Surgical procedures have been shown to be less stressful for patients who listen to music. A study of 500 patients who had major abdominal operations found those who listened to music as well as taking painkilling drugs had much less discomfort. The type of music did not matter as much as patients’ preferences.
Older adults who listened to their choice of music during outpatient eye surgery had significantly lower heart rate, blood pressure and cardiac work load than patients who did not listen to music according to a study by researchers at the University at Buffalo.