Sometimes something influences your life unexpectedly. You read a book, meet a person or experience a loss or illness and your life changes. If the influence is profound enough, your world view may even change. For Raleigh artist Kathy Ammon, it was a sermon (or to be exact a series of sermons) she heard at her new church, Apex United Methodist Church, that moved her life and her art into a new direction.

Descend unto My Heart © Kathy Ammon

A major turning point in Kathy's faith walk was the painting Descend unto My Heart. It was inspired during a communion service while her pastor stood before the congregation, hands stretched out, reading a scripture reference about communion. Kathy envisioned a strong, bright light shining upon his face. She was inspired to create a painting of this moment of worship which she saw as sacred and humble.

Sunday after Sunday, Kathy began experiencing a need to go to her studio on Monday morning and paint what she heard each week. Her painting sessions began a walk in the dark towards the light of spiritual renewal. She and her family had been looking for a new church and wanted to reconnect with their faith. Kathy and her art were profoundly changed but she was without a language to express what was happening within herself.

The result of Kathy's spiritual awakening is a group of paintings called The Road to Damascus, a reference to Saint Paul's conversion experience in the Book of Acts. Kathy's personal road to Damascus is beginning yet another portion of her journey of faith as she prepares a booklet for publication this year. The booklet is partially funded by a United Arts Council grant, her former pastor Bob Bergland and fellow artist Linda Ruth Dickinson. Kathy hopes to share her story and expand the viewing audience of her work. She has nationwide exhibits in mind but is open to God's call on her life. Whatever doors He will open for her work, she is preparing herself to walk through. She believes the church would benefit in seeing how art can be used in teaching and worship. Most importantly, Kathy wants to begin a long overdue dialogue within the arts community about the legitimacy of faith in art, by her own account a fine line to walk. Her art is not evangelistic in the traditional sense of the word, but an invitation for the viewer to begin to see the stirrings of faith in their own life. Her paintings are moving works with an interesting story behind them. Kathy confesses the idea for the booklet has been in her heart and mind for years, but she has needed time to learn the language of her faith both artistically and verbally. She recently decided that although the body of work stands alone it could be enhanced with the written word. The booklet she is writing and publishing incorporates the story of how the paintings came about and the new direction her paintings are taking.

The Road to Damascus

The Road to Damascus © Kathy Ammon

The process for Kathy was troubling. She doubted the direction her art was taking because it was so new. Kathy wanted a confirmation that there was a real and active presence in her new church and wanted to know that it was where she and her family needed to become involved. So Kathy decided to meet with her pastor. She had already completed several of her new faith paintings which she called the "Spirit Series." She took photos of them as she sought some explanation as to what she was experiencing within herself. She showed the copies of her work to Pastor Bergland and asked, "What is going on with me?" Bergland examined her art and told her, "I think God is trying to get your attention. He is speaking to you through your art." This rocked Kathy's world. Her pastor encouraged her to continue to paint and to continue to let God speak to her through her art.

The Dream

Kathy�s confirmation became her "God moment." It came in the form of a dream, but not her own dream, someone else's dream - someone she didn't even know.

"A few days after I visited my pastor, Carolyn, a very dedicated, active member of the congregation, was compelled to share a very vivid dream with him. In the dream, Pastor Bergland was standing in a large beam of yellow light touching members of the congregation with a shepherd's staff. They were standing all around him, and when he touched them on their foreheads, their faces filled with light and bright colors. Bob immediately thought of my work and suggested that Carolyn contact me and see my art.

"A few weeks later, Carolyn called and told me she was interested in meeting me and in possibly buying a small painting for Pastor Bergland's birthday. She told me that a dream of hers had reminded him of my art. As she described her dream to me I was overwhelmed with emotion and I sank to my knees, shaking all over.

"The description of her dream matched the painting that I was working on in my studio. I had painted the pastor bathed in a bright, yellow light with the congregation standing all around him. Some of the people were in the dark, others in the light, but all of them searching and longing for a connection to God. Except for the shepherd's staff, her dream was the exact depiction of that painting.

"Carolyn came to my studio the next day. When she saw the painting on the wall, she gasped and stated 'That is my dream!' Stunned, we both just looked at each other and felt an incredible sense of wonder and awe that this was not simply a coincidence. This was God's work. It was an amazing and profound moment. For both of us, it was an important marker in our journey of faith and the beginning of new directions. For me, it was an answer to prayers and a sign from God. It was God saying, 'Yes, Kathy, I am in this church and yes, I am here with you. Come, I have many things to do through you.'"

Both women were changed by this encounter. Since her meeting with the painting, Carolyn felt called by God to become a pastor and is now studying at Duke Divinity School. Kathy continued to paint in the direction she had for years; painting powerful nuisances of relationships, but was determined to open herself up to this new direction. She continued to explore in earnest the vertical dimension of the relationship between God and man.

Kathy's awakening began in the spring of 2000 with her attendance at Apex United Methodist Church and the subsequent paintings it inspired. She hung a few pieces of this new art in her studio during the next year but did not take any of them to shows until November 2001. Then she showed a few of the new pieces she felt comfortable with at her show, but offered no explanation of her work. They fit in with her paintings about love and family. She called the show "Spirit." She was referring to faith, hope and love; the things that she was beginning to see were the most important things in life. Kathy didn't realize she was referring to Paul's letter to the Corinthians. A friend pointed out 1 Corinthians 13:13 to her.

Pressing Onward © Kathy Ammon

"And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love."

Kathy was new in her faith. People who visited her studio in the Artspace in Downtown Raleigh didn't understand her new paintings. They were dark and edgy images of what Kathy describes as people searching. The show came right after 9/11 and people identified with the message although it was not Kathy�s intent to paint about 9/11. They would tell her the paintings were about the reaction people were having to the attack on the World Trade Center. Kathy knew they were not because the paintings were painted before 9/11. She began to see God had prepared her for the change of focus on faith. She began to see the paintings as prophetic works of art. Kathy found in the reverberations of 9/11 a window of opportunity to talk about faith, to question why we are here on earth and to search for something more. It seemed like everyone was searching and talking about God.

Kathy decided to hang on to these new works. This went against the way she normally does business. As the successful artist she is, Kathy paints with the idea her work will be sold. She does not get attached to it. But the "Spirit Series," she realized, was of a different nature. Kathy planned for the collection, which now numbers near twenty-five pieces, to be kept together for exhibition.

As Kathy's perception of selling her work changed, her ideas about money and the reason she painted changed also. It was at this time the idea for the booklet began to form as a way to communicate the message behind the paintings. This new purpose replaced her view of her work as a means of self expression and a way to contribute to her family. Kathy began to share her story of the dream along with the paintings and related Scripture through a notebook she put together for an exhibit at Crossroads Fellowship Church in Raleigh. That notebook became the genesis on the booklet.

Day of Blessing © Kathy Ammon

Then something unusual happened. One of the newer paintings sold. Kathy hadn't planned to sell the painting called "Day of Blessing," but when a woman returned the next day after first seeing the painting, things changed. The woman insisted that Kathy sell the art to her. With a smile on her face and tears in her eyes, the woman told Kathy, "I couldn't stop thinking about the painting. I have just gone though the worst year of my life and I want to use your art to tell others how God has blessed me throughout this year in spite of my difficulties."

Kathy relented and sold the piece to the woman to memorialize God's faithlessness in her life. Kathy says, "How could I refuse? It was so obvious God was at work and it was His will for the woman to have to the art to give testimony of Himself."

The "Day of Blessing" was one of the first paintings to represent her new direction and embody the new sense of mission Kathy has to help bring the arts back into the church and to take her faith into the world. Her new work has started to sell and it gives Kathy the hope that people are looking for something more in life. The new paintings speak of the fruits of faith; being content with Christ. Kathy believes that is what people are hungry for. Her new series is called "The Calling." She believes God is calling people to Himself and they sense that message in her work.

How God Uses Kathy's Art

Kathy now has her own studio at ArtSpace with plenty of room to hang her paintings. She often talks about the message behind the work, using the notebook to tell the story and share her faith.

Kathy has exhibited her work in the church, but even that was not something she sought out. The churches found her through her connections in the arts community in Raleigh. The booklet helps her show fellow believers the progression of her faith and her art. In the notebook, it is easy to see how the paintings at first are dark and the people appear to be searching for something. They become lighter and full of color. Next you can see that there are more people in the paintings. The next step in the progression of her work is the incorporation of images of the sacraments of the church. Kathy�s notebook is a pictorial documentation of someone seeking God and becoming joined to a community of faith. Kathy has used her paintings and the notebook to help several of her friends to return like she did to a relationship with God and to the church. The progression of the art continues as the paintings have become peaceful expressions of how people live out their faith. They show how people move outward and forward with comfort into a more spacious place as the paintings show the figures within them in bright open landscapes.

Kathy�s work can be view in her studio at Artspace Studio #207, 201 E. Davie St. in downtown Raleigh, NC and on her website www.kathyammon.com


Faith series
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