May 2002 Quaker Thought FRIENDS and Life OURNAL Today the- B10LOCJ1St'S € ~ q () 0 3 -o .. 0 lJ VI IJJ ;o.m (.1) (/) 5' ~E-St: VAR!_Ety the- n~snc · s Friends in the Arts An Among Friends independent magazine serving the Reconciling the Irreconcilable Religious Society of am deeply grateful to the staff of FRIENDS JoURNAL for doing another arts issue­ Friends the first since 1979-and for involving me as a consulting editor. Since Chuck I Fager (p.9) has covered most of what I could say about the Fellowship of Quakers Editorial Susan Corson-Finnerty (Publisher and Executi~e in the Arts, I feel liberated to speak of how I experience being an artist and a Friend. Editor), Roben Dock.horn (Senior Editor), Lisa The person most responsible for my becoming a Friend was my Quaker aunt, Rand (Acting.AJsistant Editor), Judith Brown Mary Loomis Wilson, a painter. After she became convinced in the 1950s, I saw her (Poetry Editor), Ellen Michaud (Book Revino Editor), J. Brent Bill (.AJsistant Book Revino Editor), art become steadily lighter, more joyous, freer, more abstract, more Spirit-led. Yet she Joan Overman (Book Revino .AJsistant}, Christine told me, a few years before her death at Foxdale in 1999, that she had kept her Rusch (Milestones Editor), Julie Gochenour, Roben Marks, Cameron McWhiner (Nnos Editors), Kara Quakerism and her art in separate boxes until she was past 80. Newell (Columnist), Marjorie Schier (Copyeditor) Only when I began attending Friends meetings in Philadelphia 20 years ago did I Production Barbara Benton (Art Director), Alia Podolsky become aware of the historic Quaker antipathy to the arts. I have been laboring to (Assistant Art Director), Manin Kelley (Web understand it ever since. I find the scruples and insights of early Friends worth taking Manager) seriously. My sense is that their premises were valid, but that the bounds of historical Advertising, Circulation, Development Nagendtan Gulendran (Advertising Manager), circumstance and their 17th-century worldview led them to draw the wrong Nicole Hackel (Circulation .AJsistant), Pamela conclusions. Nelson (Development .AJsistant), Kay Bacon, Ruth Peterson, Roben Sutton (Volunturs) Modern liberal Quaker attitudes toward the arts are full of paradox. Friends Administration integrate art with the fabric of their common life in forms that are spontaneous, Marianne De Lange (Office Manager), Tom McPeak Spirit-led, ephemeral, and cooperative. All are artists; aesthetic excellence doesn't (Accounting Services), Tom Hartmann (Volunteer) Board of Trustees matter any more than it matters to vocal ministry. The testimonies loom large; art Barbara Andrews, Lucinda Antrim, TylaAnn serves the prophetic functions of truthtelling, healing, and celebration. Burger (Treasurer), Katharine Clark, Linda Coffin, John Darnell, William Deutsch, Mary Ann All this is healthy and good, as far as it goes. But it isn't much help to the Downey, Walter Evans, Marsha Green (Recording individual Friend who feels called to be a serious artist, who has worked hard to Clerk), Dan Hewitt, Linda Lyman, Larry Miller, master a craft. There appears to be a strong disvaluing of artistic excellence among Julian O'Reilley, Ruth Peterson, David Runkel, Jonathan Tamez, Wilmer Tjossem, Elizabeth Friends; the idea that one would put one's energy into mastering a craft rather than Yeats (Clerk), Anne-Marie Zilliacus into something socially useful (such as committee service) is seen as an un-Quakerly FRJENDSJouRNAL (ISSN 00 16-1322) was established in 1955asthesuccessorto TheFriend(I827-1955) obsession with trivia. and Friends lntelligencer (1844-1955). Yet for many Quaker artists, the Spirit means the Muse. I wait on the Muse at the • FRJENDS joURNAL is published monthly by keyboard. The process ofartistic creation is one of Holy Obedience, of ongoing Friends Publishing Corporation, 1216 Arch Street, 2A, Philadelphia, PA 19107-2835. Telephone dialogue with the Spirit. To be cut off from my art is to be cut off from that dialogue. (215) 563-8629. E-mail [email protected]. As Friends we are called to live in the tensions, to keep connected to both poles of Periodicals postage paid at Philadelphia, Pa., and additional mailing offices. a seemingly irreconcilable conflict; to resist the temptation to seek ease by opting out • Subscriptions: one year $29, two years $54. Add of one or the other. Living in the tensions is an internal manifestation of the Peace $6 per year for postage to countries outside the U.S., Testimony. It is the way of the Cross. Canada, and Mexico. Individual copies $3 each. • Advertising information and assistance is available Reconciling the irreconcilable is what my art is about. I am continually trying to on request. Appearance of any advertisement does say at least two mutually exclusive things at once. The struggle to find ways in which not imply endorsement by FRIENDSj OURNAL. the medium will allow me to do so is one way I -to use a venerable Quaker • Postmaster: send address changes to FRJENDS JouRNAL, 1216 Arch Street, 2A, Philadelphia, PA phrase-"keep in the daily cross." Being a Quaker and an artist is another. 19107-2835. • Copyright © 2002 by Friends Publishing Corporation. Permission should be received before reprinting excerpts longer than 200 words. Available on microfilm from Bell and Howell Information and Learning. PRINTED ON RECYCLED PAPER Min. 20% post-consumer Esther GreenleafMurer, guest editor for this issue, is a writer, composer, and literary translator. She is the editor ofTypes & Shadows, the quarterly journal ofthe Fellowship ofQuakers in the Arts, and Moving? Let us update your the FQA publication Beyond Uneasy Tolerance (see excerpts on p. 11-15). Her most recent FJ subscription and address. article on the arts was "Quakerism and the Arts: And Now, the Good News . .. A Dialogue with the FRIENDS JouRNAL, m6 Arch St., 2A. Past, "FJ October 1994. Philadelphia, PA 19107-2835 • (215) 563-8629 Fax: (215) 568-1377 • [email protected] Web: www.friendsjournal.org 2 May 2002 FRIENDS JoURNAL May 2002 FRI ENDS Volume 48, No.5 JOURNAL Features Additional Visual Artists 6 Art as Soul's Sanctuaty: The Making of a Leading 15 Trudy Myrrh Reagan Jennifer Elam 16 RonNuse Her quest to understand the power ofart almost ended in second grade. 24 Cathy Weber 30 Danid Coston 9 An Interview with Chuck Fager Robert Dockhorn 32 James Turrell The clerk ofFellcwship ofQuakers in the Arts comments on his experiences. Poetry 10 Quakers'-and Everyone's--Need for the Arts Janet Mustin 17 Care Committee Art is vital to spiritual health. Liz Oppenheimer 11 Quakers on the Arts, 1658-1995 Departments Esther Greenleaf Miirer These excerpts from Beyond Uneasy Tolerance reveal an evolution 2 Among Friends from antipathy to acceptance. 4 Forum 18 Reflections on the Life and Art ofAsa Watkins Viewpoint Manuel Macarrulla 5 Vigilance is necessary Asa Watkins sart was influenced by his CO service in a mental hospitaL 34 Witness A promise to Aiyat 22 Music and the Spirit of Creativity Jim Dragoni 36 Reports Creating music is similar to being in a meeting for worship. Convergence: poems for peace Sharing the Peace Testimony with our 24 A Celebration of Life and Death community Robert C. Murphy Overcoming griefmeans opening up to the depth ofour spirits. 38 Books 26 Jack's Last Day 45 News pansy bradshaw 48 Bulletin Board Present reality mixes with recollected moments 50 Milestones ofa friendship. 56 Classified 28 Reflections on My Creative Journey Caroline Balderston Parry Her artistic awareness has been heightened by julia Cameron s Cover art: "Quest, "by Trudy Myrrh writings. Reagan, is an exploration ofthe search 31 Light Made Tangible for meaning throughout history by Phyllis Hoge scientists, artists, and spiritual seekers. What is it like to worship in a work ofart? The eclipse in the center shows that no one person or group ofpeople will ever know the whole pattern. It is a watercolor with incised white lines. f----- FRIENDS JOURNAL May 2002 3 Forum Scott Simon, war is the way? In the camp I met Walter Alexander, a them have no doubt been well-aired in the fellow university graduate, who was U.S., so I almost hesitate to reopen this When individuals go public in the media receiving literature of the Wider Quaker issue. advocating a position relative to a high Fellowship. Through this we learned of the I read Scott Simon's comments and was profile public issue and make a claim that Quaker initiative to recruit a number of CO very disappointed. I was disappointed they are a Quaker, such as Scott Simon did volunteers to do relief work in China. because here was a fellow Quaker wimessing in his article "Reflections on the Events of Walter and I volunteered and in due course, against two of the most important truths in September 11" (Fj Dec. 200 1), that the government approved our release from the Quaker faith: unity and Christian individual has the responsibility to explain alternate service to join the Friends nonviolence. How important it is that we the relationships of his or her position to Ambulance Unit in China. Along with eight can share the unifying experience of hearing fundamental Quaker beliefS and principles. other volunteers, we had brief, intensive God's leadings together as a fellowship. If their position is supported by their training in Chinese language and culture, Scott Simon's comments reveal something Quaker faith and beliefs, well and good. If, plus some Quaker indoctrination at Pendle about how we have allowed "diversity" to however, Quaker testimonies are to be Hill. On December 19, 1943, the first three get in the way of that experience. Doesn't ignored, then why state one is a Quaker? of the group, Walter Alexander, Jack Dodds, the stand he has taken illustrate the end The strength of the Religious Society of and I, left from Philadelphia bound for result of diversity: a watered-down witness Friends comes from those who put their China by a route veiled in rnilitaty secrecy.