REL 321 Faith and Art
Course: REL 321 Faith and Art
Term: FALL 2018
Instructor: Jeany Snider
Student: Katherina Stegerman
Midterm evaluation: Since this is a year-long class, this is just a progress report at the half way point, a “mid-term eval” if you will.
Journal. Took my suggestion and expanded into larger pages and colour.
Cry of the Heart. Katherina had a unique medium and a lovely personal fiction story. I like that she read it out for us. Isn’t it interesting how truth can go down so much easier when put into metaphor or story? It really gave a picture of her love for Cody as well as her need for artistic stimulation. My only encouragement is for Katherina to be more bold, more proud of her creations. She read with pathos, but not passion. I think she could have employed her actor instincts to carve out her read more and risk characterization and greater vulnerability through dramatic interpretation. As the King says, “Listen to your heart; trust your instincts.”
Participation. Early on Katherina tended to interrupt and speak as an expert. I invited her to notice this tendency and after that, she was more tuned to the group dynamic and more sensitive.
Leadership duties. Tricky that the day she was late she was to be the SM. Katherina’s leadership in discussion was a bit general, but the conversation did not suffer for it. Her sharing was great.
Katherina is in a great place to question deeply her love of God and Art and see all the ways that they connect and are one and the same. She has lived long being certain of what is right and now has the opportunity to ponder the Mystery and learn from others who have travelled different paths. She is ripe to embrace more of her own humanness by sitting in the uncertainty of where God may show up next. I appreciate her humility and joy in this discovery time and am so glad that she continues to create to express all that she carries.
Course: REL 321 Faith and Art
Term: WINTER 2019
Instructor: Jeany Snider
Student: Katherina Stegerman
Participation: Katherina went on a journey this year from expounding to listening and sharing and was an intelligent observer and contributor.
Journal: Although small, her journal packed a lot of truth, humour, poetry and a couple visuals as well. She is honest and it does her credit. Her transparency makes her assertions embraceable. She also had some outside-the-box entries where she allowed me to see larger creations visually by sending a picture.
Heart’s Cry: Katherina had a unique medium and a lovely personal fiction story. I like that she read it out for us. Isn’t it interesting how truth can go down so much easier when put into metaphor or story? It really gave a picture of her love for Cody as well as her need for artistic stimulation. My only encouragement is for Katherina to be more bold, more proud of her creations. She read with pathos, but not passion. I think she could have employed her actor instincts to carve out her read more and risk characterization and greater vulnerability through dramatic interpretation. As the King says, “Listen to your heart; trust your instincts.”
Artist Statement: Katherina is a good writer. This is one of my favourite sections: “I found community in art, I found freedom in art, I found refuge in art - but to be an artist would have been giving up on my self, on some sort of “CALLING” to make the world a better place. I loved the arts, but only so far as they would serve a “CALLING” for “THE GREATER GOOD”. I was no artist, I WAS A DISCIPLE - my life was going to make an impact for God and his kingdom. But I was miserable, ashamed of the creative places my heart wanted to go, feeling like I had to harness them into something useful, seeing my soul as something I needed to control instead of something I needed to reveal or unleash.” — Such a relevant theme for an earnest Christian artist and she is courageous for naming it. “…Thankfully, God himself knew better. He knew that I had to learn to stand in the muddy, but life filled, identity of artist. But first I had to learn that art is just as worthy of a calling as any title that might have the word ministry attached to it. “ — Good stuff. And another lovely passage: “I take a deep breath and begin to slide down that slope, the gravity of that truth pulling me gently downward. I am an artist because God is an artist? I desire to create beauty because God desires to create beauty? Not only that, but the beauty that I create will resonate through all eternity? Possibly even continuing to exist when the old earth has passed away.” Her take on beauty is so apt and rare in conversations today, using the image of Mary lavishing Jesus feet with fine perfume and concluding: “Jesus himself spoke to the question of practicality vs. beauty - he leaned on the side of beauty. Beauty that showed love. Beauty that had an impact on a hurting world.”
Another sections demonstrates the growth we hope for in Rosebud students: “…Nothing is as simple as I want it to be: where I expected to find answers I only find more questions. Where I expect to have joy, I now find that I have opened the door to all of the pain I have ever felt in my entire life. But I also find God down there, standing in the mud with me. The more I spend time with him, the more I realize that my life isn’t about answered questions, it is about trusting that he sees the bigger picture. My responsibility is to be faithful.”
This is so good: “My call is to stand tall in the muck of the human experience - the native habitat of the artist. It is a call to be messy, and to have to explain yourself to people, including your in-laws. It’s a call to be vulnerable and put up with people making jokes that come with a side of fries. More importantly, it’s to live your life with your eyes open to the doubt, the pain, the brokenness and the confusion. It’s to see with the eyes of Mary, who was the only one who seemed to know that Jesus had to die that week.” — I could go on. Katherina did a great job and is a great preacher for the artist of faith.
Showcase: Her direction took a bit long to finish, but worked well in the end and had that nice surprise of communion. Katherina was most assertive and striking in the piece that Keisha directed of Rebbekah’s words. I thought she was brave and open. It took a bit of prodding to get Katherina to emerge from behind the text on other parts, but then by performance — she was generous and full.
It has been a special journey through faith and art this year with Katherina. She is willing to look at herself and simultaneously remember what God says about her value. I appreciate her humility and joy in this discovery time and am so glad that she continues to creatively express what she carries.
Grade Breakdown:
(Includes up to 10% for Attendance) Participation: 21/25%
Journal: 22/25%
Heart’s Cry Offering: 11/12%
Artist Statement: 20/20%
Showcase: 16/18%
92/100 A
Thoughts: I am struck by the contrast of this class with Christianity and the Arts in my Certificate year. I have learned to be messy and vulnerable, I have learned that it is not a bad thing to experience pain and wrestle with God. 10 years are reflected in this evaluation, and they were not easy years. I had to unlearn so much about myself and my faith, and then I had to begin to relearn IN FRONT OF PEOPLE. Even in this evaluation there is evidence of my old tendencies of over-asserting myself and the need to be an expert, but that part of me did not have the final say here.