Interview: Kathryn Fenton

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I was lucky enough to interview artist Kathryn Fenton about the seven abstract icons that are hanging at CMC through November 22. If you can't get there to see them in person, check out the images below. For more information about the icons, please contact Kathryn at lkathrynfenton@gmail.com.

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Images courtesy of Kathryn Fenton.

Lastly, here's an excerpt from Kathryn's Artist Statement:
My creative process has several components. When beginning a piece, I read through each confession concerning the subject. I then ask myself, why do we care about this? Why is this so important to us as followers of Christ? I read through the confessions again, looking deeper and reading the related scriptures. After grasping a fundamental understanding of the tenet, I then read several articles on the same topic from different Anabaptist writers. I also have conversations with members of different Mennonite churches since our actions speak louder than our words. The conversations are a key part to understanding why this part of our theology is so important to our faith. I can then find an image that is complex enough to speak to our past, present, and future theological understandings, but simple enough to put into one piece of artwork. I work through images as I read and interview, and constantly rework the image to reach beyond traditional symbols and images.

In order to connect with our tradition of folk art, I choose wood panels rather than canvas. Each panel was built by hand, helping me enter into the creative process from the beginning.

To convey my message, I rely on medium and traditional color symbolism consistently so the icons are easier to read.

Gold Holiness, used for God and the Holy Spirit.

White the transfigured Christ

Red the body and Blood of Christ

Blue heaven and cleansing water

Our theme music is "Jesus, I believe you're near," composed by Matt Carlson and arranged for strings by Jeremy Nafziger.

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Community Mennonite Church
70 South High Street Harrisonburg, VA
office@cmcva.org
540-433-2148

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