Jim Day

While I was Artist in Residence at St. Stephen's I did regular chalk drawings on the front walk to welcome churchgoers each week.

Sometimes those drawings would reflect the the readings or the holiday.

This particular Easter morning greeted parishioners with a risen Christ

And this particular Pentecost greeted church goers with a vision of the Holy Spirit.

Sometimes the drawings reflected a particular time of year, like the Autumnal Equinox.

I would often still be drawing as people arrived and they would usually stop and talk as I was drawing. Some even made a point of arriving early if I was making a labyrinth so they could walk it before church.

sometimes people would draw with me or add their own ideas. The chalk was always available and there was a standing invitation to participate.

Participation could take interesting forms, as in this one Sunday when the readings included the good Samaritan. I asked people to lie down and allow me to outline them in response to the question "who is my neighbor". It was interesting to see who would and who wouldn't participate.

The Pulse shooting happened just as I began an internship at South Congregational Church. When the county organized a rally in response I was able to show up early and offer the community a non-verbal image to capture the moment.

The tears flowed around the park where we were to meet, and many people voiced appreciation for the effort.

Once the park was surrounded with tears I invited some parishioners to help me vision something to draw in front of St. Stephen's. We decided the tears flowed from the cross.

We also decided that the center of the cross should show the broken heart of God.

While studying at Episcopal Divinity School I did a series of mandalas to decorate the chapel. This one shows a line meditation based on an outline of my hand.

This mandala is also a line meditation but it has a more architectural feeling to it, thinking about the meeting of Heaven and Earth.