Grace Story Works
Grace Story Works is a 10 am Sunday experience for children in the third through sixth grades. Grace Story Works builds upon the Grace Art Camp experience and follows the same creative approach to Bible stories that we use in the camp. Working out of the Story Basecamp and using the Grace Art Studios we will hear the story, create with the story and share the story.
Grace Story Works has featured local artists leading the classes, including ceramic artist Julie Romberg, theater director Judy Goff-Menegat, and comic book artist and painter Philip Barasch.
Grace Story Works meets on the Lower Level of the Parish House in the Story Basecamp (Mason Burnham Room). Members of the Grace Community can become involved by serving on a story leadership team that coordinates the story and studio experiences for a month. There are also opportunities for high school and middle school youth to participate in Grace Story Works as counselors and counselors-in-training. Email for further information.
Grace Story Works for May 2012
Orchard Pinhole Photograph by Jeffrey T. Baker
Announcing
Grace Story Works in May
Surrounded in Glory: Revealed in Light
with Jeffrey T. Baker, Grace Parish Artist
An Overview for May 13 and May 20
The Easter season is infused with a sense of the redemptive glory of Christ, who escaped the darkness of death to fill our hearts with hope in the knowledge that fearful moments can result in great good. In celebration of this hopeful light, Grace Story Works will meet for two weeks in May to explore the invisible world of light by making the light that surrounds us visible in a two-week exploration of photography with Grace parish artist Jeffrey T. Baker.
What We Will Be Doing
In the first week the Grace Story Works will discuss a bit about the invisible but ubiquitous love of God, and offer some ideas as to why the presence of God is often equated with light. Then, while making their own simple cardboard pinhole cameras, students will hear about how early attempts to understand light and make it tangible led to the discovery of photography. Using their pinhole cameras they will then photograph those objects and places around Grace that inspire them, and remind them of the great creative work of God.
On the second week the youth will first remember the objects and places they photographed, recalling the characteristics of the image they imagined and sharing these characteristics with the class. Then the developed images from the camera will be revealed. Specially created acetate negatives prepared by the instructor from one of each student’s images will then be used to expose lovely cyanotype images that, when dry, will be suitable for framing.
Following Pentecost, the framed work by Grace Story Works youth will be displayed at Grace with an opportunity for parishioners to anonymously write a short sentence or two regarding a personal memory that is sparked by the displayed photo.
Artist Biography
Jeffrey T. Baker is a graduate of the Oregon College of Art and Craft (OCAC) in Portland and worked for eight years as a classroom teacher. Much of his educational career was with Swallowtail School, a developing Waldorf School in Washington County, where he taught middle school for six years. Jeffrey’s artwork is an amalgam of drawing, painting, and photography that often highlight the incredible majesty of nature and the subtle emotional complexities of memory. He holds a deep love of experimental and low-tech photography techniques because, like life, they require a bit of patience and a great deal of faith.
