Middle Ground a new exhibition
April 2022
St. Paul’s Benedictine Monastery, St. Paul, MN
From vastly differing beginnings these two artists meet in concert on the spiritual path. Both come from a sculptural background, well rounded in their art. James Quinten Young works in found materials, Susan Hensel works from a computer foundation to create her vision. Both bring us their vision of our place in the universe.
Here we meet these differing perspectives where their spiritual journey marks the way for us to journey with them along this path. – Kathy Fleming, curator
James Quinten Young and I are both contemplative by nature. I’ve known his work for several years. He is well known for using reclaimed/ recycled materials to make crosses of many types. In fact, I have one of his crosses in my collection of crosses. I did not know I was collecting crosses until I counted them one time. They range from bedazzled kitsch, to my favorite milagro crosses, to driftwood assemblage. Suddenly, they were an unexpected collection.
People who know me well, know that I live a pretty quiet, introspective, even meditative life. Not too much stimulation except for books and anything that can be used to make art. No drugs, not too much alcohol, no big parties. I like my life to have a predictable structure so my creative life can run free, unhampered by chaos or extreme doubt. It is a bit of a cocoon. My work can travel freely across the world online and in person, while I, mostly, am content to be at home. I am not a hermit, by any means…but I am not driven by a need to be elsewhere.
In talking with a friend the other day, she observed that I seem the most content when I can make my own choices and that those choices tend toward the middle way. That really made me think. I truly agree with her. I remember saying to her that everything in how I live my life is designed to allow be to work freely in the studio.
But her comment also made me think about this show at the Benedictine Monastery and how it might relate to The Middle Way in Buddhism, a balanced approach to life. According to Merriam Webster is is the eightfold path, regarded as a golden mean between self-indulgence and self-mortification. It is not a passive way. It takes attention and control. It makes me think of aerialists on tightropes, who practice their steps high above the ground, minimizing wobble and sway in return for style as well as safety for themselves and the community who watches enthralled. Hmmm.
The conversation also made me think of The Benedictine Way. The monastery’s core values are community, hospitality, silence, stewardship, generativity, and social responsibility. It too is a middle way. There are defined times for both monastic and communal prayer, a universal welcome, listening for the voice within, a reverence for the natural world and our human gifts, a commitment to creativity both within and outside of the community, and social justice. It is sort of a flexible structure that acknowledges the necessity for a contemplative life in order to participate wholly in the greater, beautiful, complex community of humankind. Not a retreat from life, nor passive. It takes practice and effort.
So now we come to MIDDLE GROUND, the title chosen for this show by the curator. She noticed that James and I worked with vastly different materials, yet came from and returned to the same core values. James and I meet in a middle ground, observing the world around us with wonder.
FINALLY! You can see these artworks in person that you have been seeing online!
and more… Here is a sampling!
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MIDDLE GROUND will be on display in real life (GASP! Can that be so after 2 long years of pandemic?) for the month of April, 2022, at St. Paul’s Benedictine Monastery, 2675 Benet Road, St. Paul, Minnesota 55109
