I just rounded off my first year of college and I thought I would share with you the story behind one of my final projects. For my 3D design class, our final was a rope installation piece. We have been challenged to plan, create and install a rope installation somewhere in our three story brick building for the last day of class. I have never been much of an installation artist, but for some reason I had an idea almost immediately after the project was introduced and I was more than excited to start crafting it.
We have complete artistic freedom in almost every aspect at the Savannah College of Art and Design and our professors prim and prime us on how to present our creative being to the world. With this said, it’s challenging to come up with ideas for projects completely on our own. The really awesome thing is that our projects are always allowed, and often encouraged, to have deeper meanings behind them. I wanted to use my rope installation as a representation of faith. A representation of what it looks like to be a Christian, to accept this love that has so freely been given to us. A love that brings us from the darkness into light.
The title of this piece is inspired from the king’s kaleidoscope song “Light after darkness”. The song has always been one of my favorites and perfectly portrays what it looks like when you walk from light into darkness.
“Light after darkness
gain after loss
strength after weakness
crown at the cross
sweet after bitter
hope after fear
home after wandering
praise after tears
seeds after sowing
sun after rain
sight after mystery
peace after pain
joy after sorrow
calm after gassed
rest after weariness, sweetness at last.”
It so sweet to me that god provides us with these promises. He gifts us these comforts when we choose to walk with him. No it’s not always light, and the praise often comes after the tears. The beauty in that is there is A L W A Y S praise after tears. sweetness at last that he has given us with his death on the cross. Christianity is walking from darkness into light.
But don’t get me wrong! We still experience darkness! The darkness is everywhere and its undeniable, but we have this hope! A hope as an anchor for our soul! And what a relief it is to have sweetness at last! Darkness is not created out of Christ but from the world. Christ is not dark, He is PURE LIGHT!
This project inspired me to create something with the most basic representation of walking into something light after being in darkness. I made a canopy. A black canopy, but inside there is something more there is always something further, even if you can’t see past the black canopy. My project encouraged curiosity. There was an opening in the canopy. Why? To reveal the light after the dark. Once you opened the canopy and entered into the space it created inside, you were engulfed by hundreds of strands of colorful yarn and fairy lights attached to an inner hoop in the canopy. The idea was that even though you couldn’t see the joy from the outside, once you entered into the space you couldn’t not see it. You were engulfed in light and things that gave the effect of joy, utter happiness and color. An important element to understand in my project was that even when you were inside the space, you could still see a little bit of the outer black canopy fabric. The darkness still peeked through a little bit. Often you would notice it for a moment, but not a moment more because then you became enamored with the light again. The light beats out the dark. Jesus beats our darkness. HE is love, HE is gracious, HE is L I G H T !
Jesus inspires me to share that light. We are carriers of such a great joy, and I think that’s why the race has been so important to me. How will the people of this world living in darkness know of His light if we won’t share it? This project allowed me to share my faith with my classmates. It has taught me a lesson on how to find and share god in my mundane activities of finals week. He has given me a way to share this sweetness in my everyday life and is teaching me to use my mundane in a meaningful way. Jesus is showing me new parts of my heart every day and is constantly shaping me and giving me tips on how to share my faith when I leave for the race. He is teaching me how to share this light after darkness, how to make my messes matter, and how to bring him glory through it all.
1 John 1:5 “This is the message we have heard from Him and declare to you: God is Light; in Him there is no darkness at all.”
Light after darkness,
SWEETNESS at last.
