God is Still Speaking to Me:
A Graphic Artist
by Marlene Gasdia-Cochrane
October/November 2005
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| Charlie Davis and his family who served as inspirations for
his God Is Still Speaking artwork. |
Churches have many treasures – sometimes in their historical documents, sometimes in their long-maintained
buildings, sometimes in
the collection of bequeathed objects,
and sometimes in the hidden talents
of members.
Charlie Davis, a
member of the
United Parish in
Lunenberg, UCC, is a
member with a talent
for art. Davis provides
graphic, design,
illustration and web
design services to the business
world. But he also provides those
services free of charge to his church.
Last March, Davis was baptized
and became a member of the United
Parish church the same day; and
soon after volunteered to conduct an
arts and crafts session for the members.
The Rev. Andrew Burr of
Lunenberg knew Davis had a background
in the arts and asked him to
help out in visually tying together
the then upcoming Lenten sermons
with the StillSpeaking Initiative, and
the book club series held at his local
church. “I couldn’t say ‘no,’” said
Davis.
Davis designed and produced a
series of six service order covers to
... coincide with the
Lenten/Easter sermon
series which focused on
the suggested book by
the MACUCC Massachusetts
Conference
Reads Program, ‘The
Heart of
Christianity’
by Marcus
Borg. (Burr
points out
though, that
the book
was chosen
before the
MACUCC
program was introduced.)
“Each cover addressed that
theme as well as included the
StillSpeaking ‘comma’ logo in a
strikingly creative way,” said Burr,“and we may be applying those
images to cups or t-shirts as a
fundraising campaign for the United
Parish.”
“When Rev. Burr told me about
the book, I did some research on it
and the StillSpeaking initiative.
Although we worked together, Rev.
Burr left it up to me to interpret the
passages and messages. When I sat
down to work on this topic; ‘Thin
Places: Opening the Heart,’ I had no
clue what to do. How does one illustrate/design something with this
as your topic?”
“I did a little research and discovered
that ‘thin places’ was an
idea that came from Celtic
Christianity between the 5th and the
12th centuries. According to Rev.
Sam Alexander of Old First
Presbyterian Church in San
Francisco, ‘thin places’ was a
moment in your life when God was
present to you – where you have felt
the touch of God.’
“Never really thinking about it
until now, I realized it had happened
to me … while finding my wife
Jennifer and during the birth of our
children: Kendra (9), Benjamin (7)
and Ruthie (3),” explains Davis.“That is when the image formed in
my mind for the Opening the Heart
theme.”
Those inspirations can be seen
in each of the six covers Davis
designed.
“Charlie is clearly a gifted artist
and really incorporated the God is
Still Speaking campaign into his
work,” says Burr. “All you need to
do is look at Davis’ covers and you
know ‘God is Still Speaking’ to
Charlie and to all of us here in at the
United Parish in Lunenberg.”
Note: All six covers can be seen
on Davis’website at
http://www.davisimages.com/.
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