{"id":4953,"date":"2019-12-18T00:00:12","date_gmt":"2019-12-18T00:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.luthersem.edu\/story\/?p=4953"},"modified":"2021-08-27T18:21:19","modified_gmt":"2021-08-27T18:21:19","slug":"creative-spirit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.luthersem.edu\/story\/2019\/12\/18\/creative-spirit\/","title":{"rendered":"Creative spirit"},"content":{"rendered":"

Deb <\/strong>Gelerter \u201921 M.Div. <\/strong>doesn\u2019t remember a time when she wasn\u2019t making art.<\/p>\n

From her first foray into artmaking\u2014a book about a porcupine that she wrote and illustrated at the age of 4\u2014to the present moment as a second- (or is it third- or fourth-?) career seminarian, she has been captivated by painting, drawing, and writing.<\/p>\n

Still, it was only recently that she began to understand that art was more than a profession or even a vocation; it was a spiritual practice, a way of entering into conversation with and listening to God. What\u2019s more, she began to discern that God was calling her to use her gifts as an artist to form and strengthen Christian communities.<\/p>\n

Hearing the call<\/h2>\n

Gelerter was raised in rural Connecticut. When she was 12, her\u00a0parents drove her into New York City to see a Vincent van Gogh exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. \u201cI connect this experience with my call,\u201d Gelerter said, remembering the way she was captivated by the thick brushwork and finely detailed ink drawings of her then-favorite painter.<\/p>\n

Afterward, the family was enjoying lunch at a nearby pizza parlor when she saw a man come into the restaurant and pick through the garbage.<\/p>\n

Gelerter recalled the story: \u201cI asked my mom, \u2018Why is\u00a0 that\u00a0 man\u00a0 eating out of the garbage?\u2019 Mom replied,<\/p>\n

\u2018Because he\u2019s hungry.\u2019 And I thought, \u2018How could a whole restaurant of people look right through him like he\u2019s not there? Why isn\u2019t someone offering him something to eat?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

That image remained with her for years, and it ultimately fueled her sense of vocation. \u201cThey went together,\u201d she said, \u201cthe painting and the call to people at the margins.\u201d<\/p>\n

Making art in community<\/h2>\n

Gelerter was trained as a studio painter at Elmira College, a small liberal arts school in upstate New York, Reading University in England, and Syracuse University, where she received a Master of Fine Arts degree in painting. During that time, she became an instructor and developed a course on painting and drawing for students who were not majoring in art.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be honest, I liked teaching non- majors better than majors because of the variety of perspectives and experience levels,\u201d Gelerter said. \u201cWhat struck me is that even if you\u2019ve never painted before, if you\u2019re encouraged and given the opportunity, progress happens. Work comes out of it. It\u2019s an amazing and surprising gift to hear students say, \u2018Look at what I\u2019ve made!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

She took this experience with her to Dunedin, Florida,\u00a0 where she opened a small working studio and gallery. In addition to showcasing her own paintings, she featured work from local artists. \u201cA community began to build up around the gallery,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Her experiences led her to seek other ways of sharing art. She began volunteering at a soup kitchen with people experiencing homelessness and brought photocopy paper, pencils, and markers to place on the dining tables.<\/p>\n

\u201cI put the supplies on the tables discreetly, not even sure what would happen, but so many people participated,\u201d Gelerter said. \u201cI still have the drawings. One man with multiple personality disorder made an abstract drawing and had a conversation about it with others at the table. Another person created a landscape. I saw the same wondering, surprise, and delight happening at these tables that happened in my studio. Art gave people an opportunity to express their thoughts and feelings in community with one another.\u201d<\/p>\n

Connecting the threads<\/h2>\n

At the time, Gelerter was not a churchgoer, yet the experience touched her in a way that she knew was somehow connected to God. Through the community she met at the soup kitchen, she began to participate in a local congregation. A few weeks later she was baptized, and it wasn\u2019t long before she discerned a call to Word and Sacrament ministry.<\/p>\n

\u201cI kind of thought I\u2019d have to put the artist away,\u201d Gelerter said, admitting that she left all her paintings and supplies in storage when she moved across the country to attend Luther Seminary in 2017. Yet God wouldn\u2019t let her creativity stay dormant for long. In Summer 2019, she took a course on the Book of Job, and Gelerter asked Elva B. Lovell Chair of Old Testament Kathryn Schifferdecker<\/strong>, the professor teaching the course, if she could paint for the required final project. Schifferdecker agreed.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor the first time I saw how my creative process has always been a way of connecting with the Holy Spirit,\u201d she said. \u201cI hadn\u2019t been able to see how I might reconcile being a pastor with being a painter, but this project shifted my outlook. When God calls us, God calls all of us.\u201d<\/p>\n

A creative experiment<\/h2>\n

After that first painting of Job, the floodgates opened; art began to pour out of her, often in response to biblical passages. \u201cArt is a way the Holy Spirit can open Scripture for people,\u201d she said. \u201cLike Lectio Divina <\/em>and meditation, it is an expression of silence and prayer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gelerter began to consider how others might benefit from art as a spiritual practice. She raised the idea in a congregation she was supporting through her studies. The church loved her idea and hosted an intergenerational art event after worship one Sunday. Although the congregational culture didn\u2019t usually involve much lingering after services, more than 70 people stayed for the experience, and 53 paintings emerged out of it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re still doing it quarterly,\u201d Gelerter added. \u201cNow it\u2019s still-life drawing, wood and soap carving, and other media. Members of the congregation are coming out of the woodwork to take turns leading, and it\u2019s not the same 10% who tend to run everything in the church. It\u2019s engaging new and different people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Just as Gelerter had seen elsewhere, art opened space for a more connected community.<\/p>\n

Inviting people in<\/h2>\n

Gelerter is convinced that art as a spiritual practice is a way of reaching people who might not otherwise be interested in or connected to church.<\/p>\n

In Gelerter\u2019s words, \u201cWhat if we just invited people and gave them a space to show up? A space where they could experience being surrounded by Christian community? A space to feel welcome? A space to give voice to what\u2019s going on in their lives, the joy and the struggles and the grief and the searching? I trust that the Holy Spirit works through that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even more, Gelerter sees value in helping people unlock creative potential they didn\u2019t know they had. \u201cThere\u2019s a real pride and joy that comes from realizing, \u2018Maybe there\u2019s something more to me that I don\u2019t even know about, a sort of hidden reserve.\u2019 If we can build a bridge and come together, wonder together, have conversations in a constructive, supportive way, we\u2019ll be ministering to people effectively.\u201d<\/p>\n

After all, she added with a smile, \u201cGod is a God who is ever creating, and the creative process is one in which all are invited to participate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Interested in experimenting with art as\u00a0a spiritual practice in your congregation?<\/h2>\n

See Gelerter\u2019s practice guide on Faith+Lead with ideas for leading your own intergenerational art event. Visit faithlead.luthersem.edu\/art<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How art as a spiritual practice deepens community bonds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":4942,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-4953","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"issue-winter-2019","9":"entry"},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nCreative spirit - Luther Seminary<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.luthersem.edu\/story\/2019\/12\/18\/creative-spirit\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Creative spirit - 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