Be Still
Be Still is an LED neon Installation located in the glass facade of the Hilliard Art Museum in Lafayette, LA. It uses the words of Psalm 46:10 as a guided meditation and is an opportunity to engage in public conversation and reflection.
Use the white light that floods down from above to signal your breath. Inhale as the light gets brighter, exhale as the light dims. As you exhale, speak the words out loud as you see them.
Each time the text appears the sentence, Be Still and Know That I Am God will reduce, subtly changing the meaning.
Be in the moment and focus on your breathing during each cycle.
My interpretation of this verse as a daily meditation came from the writings of Richard Rohr and the Center For Action of Contemplation, who say “It is a reminder that no matter how we arrive that day, we are called to be, and be still before God.”
Personally I take this idea down a slightly different path. It is my belief that the purpose of a spiritual practice is to seek, find and connect to the universal energy that is God within us. It is my belief that everything, every being and every interaction is connected through this energy.
This work was created to provide a space where people can gather, feel they are connected and breathe.
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The Mugshot Collection
w/ images from the New Orleans City Archives
It is interesting how a silhouette, just like a mugshot captures a person in a moment in time.
Only our interpretation of what we are seeing has changed.
As a lighting designer, I often feature silhouettes in my work, be it dancers, sculptures, or outdoor spaces. The modern term originates from the 18th-century French finance minister Etienne de Silhouette, who was known for his austere measures. His name became synonymous with anything done cheaply or sub-standard, and the silhouette portrait became a cheap alternative to traditional painting, a means of preserving and bringing beauty to the lives of people who were not able to capture their beloveds in oil and canvas.
The choice to use historic mugshots from the New Orleans City Archives was in part to highlight incarceration in Louisiana, which has the highest rate per capita in the world.
It was a conscious effort to select both male and female subjects, as well as a mix of ethnicities, but mostly I chose faces that spoke to me, that grabbed me through the screen and would not let go. The goal of this project is to show the beauty and dignity inherent in people, regardless of their circumstances.. Their imprint on this world is surely more than what remains on arrest cards and mugshots. We are not fossils frozen in amber. We change, we learn, and we grow. A human being should not be judged, and labeled based on one moment. And neither should our ancestors.
And the
Stars
Aligned
Both wave and particle, light can harm or heal, reveal or hide truths, it directly interacts with our hearts, minds and bodies. Humans are made of the waters of our birthplaces, the flesh of animals eaten by our ancestors, the very air they breathed. We are the brothers and sisters of stars. The iron they’re made of, literally in our blood, connects us, with black dirt, with Supernovas, with myths and stories, and with each other. If we consistently ignore our interconnected parts, neither self knowledge or understanding of our world, is possible. The internet connects us as never before at an intellectual level. What is missing is first hand experience. You cannot walk a mile in your brother’s moccasins by reading about his walk online. A person’s hand touching the bark of an ancient Redwood cannot be replaced by an image search. And even the gorgeous photos taken of Orion’s Flame Nebula could never expand a human heart like lying on a blanket, holding the hand of a loved one, and staring at the vast night sky.
“ An unpolluted night sky that allows the enjoyment and contemplation of the firmament should be considered and inalienable right of humankind equivalent to all other environmental, social and cultural rights.”
A portion of all profits from this exhibition will be donated to the International Dark Sky Association. To learn more about their work and light pollution in general visit: www.darksky.org.
In addition each of these pieces can be customized for specific spaces.
Dancing With Aurora Borealis
A collaborative artist residency with poet Kelly Clayton, through the Acadiana Center for the Arts.
Hundreds of years before writing formalized religion as we know it today, Ancient Canaanite people viewed masculine, as well as feminine energy, as vital to their worldview. They worshiped both Yahweh and his Goddess Asherah equally.
Dancing with Aurora Borealis is a collaborative work written by poet Kelly Clayton, and imagined by her husband, lighting designer Brian Schneider. The concerns of long-time couples are remarkably similar around the world. And if we are indeed made in the image of our creators, the original couple must have the same conversations as we do.
When she finally decides to leave the marriage, audience members become eavesdroppers on Asherah, in a woman’s body, and Yahweh in the form of Light itself.
The couple struggles to come to terms with their eternal relationship, shared responsibility of their “kids”, and with their views on the outcome of humanity.
Like children who hide and listen to parents argue, often misinterpreting the conversation, the audience learns to comprehend Yahweh’s silent language; a vocabulary of light through the lens of Ashera’s words.
Dancing with Aurora Borealis is a study in the losses we all suffer in order to reach the joy hiding underneath.
