Gallery Opening Reception Details
When: Friday, Nov. 10 from 6-8 pm with an artist talk at 7 pm
Where: The Gallery at Coram Deo, 8787 Pacific Street, Omaha, NE 68114
Details: Drinks and refreshments will be served and children are welcome.
The exhibit is open M-F 9-4 pm and on Sunday mornings
Weekday viewing reservations are requested: 402-505-4111
The exhibit runs from Nov. 10 to Jan. 14
Michelle Arnold Paine | Exhibition Statement
The mother of Jesus has been a central figure in Western art for centuries, though there has also been debate about how important she should be for Christians. In the three years I studied, lived, and worked in Italy, I found Mary and Eve ever-present as I interacted with Renaissance art, medieval texts, and the rhythms of liturgy and daily Italian life.
This work in this exhibit takes as its starting point these archetypal figures, translating ancient metaphors into a contemporary context. How does one represent Mary in the contemporary world without seeming kitschy, sentimental, or even idolatrous?
Advent is a season of waiting. In our part of the world, after the leaves have fallen and the days grow shorter, it is a time of darkness, void of new life. The truth, beauty, and purity of God’s love seem to be in shadow. Light breaking through darkness is an apt metaphor for the struggle of my own experience to know Christ, who came into the world through the humility and obedience of his mother Mary.
In the midst of the desert and darkness of our world, Mary listened and opened her heart to receive God’s guidance and love so completely that she became one with the Holy Spirit and conceived life in the moment of The Incarnation. Through her obedience to God’s call (though it meant social catastrophe for herself and her family), she became the moment of Dawn for all humanity, the bearer of The Light for all of us.
Mary, as she opened herself to the Holy Spirit, became the threshold between heaven and earth. Through her, God came to earth in the Incarnation, and through Christ humankind may enter heaven. These images of gate, stairway/ladder, and dawn have been part of both Eastern and Western Christian traditions for more than 1000 years. My paintings, drawings, and prints use the same images but in a contemporary context to reflect this idea of a threshold between heaven and earth.
Artist Bio
While living and working for a study abroad program in Orvieto, Italy for three years, Michelle Arnold Paine found her vocation as an artist and also a connection to history and tradition. Images of the Annunciation held particular fascination. Through her own spiritual encounter with Mary, she began to explore painting Mary from a contemporary viewpoint.
She returned to the U.S. to complete a Post-Baccalaureate Certificate from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and then an M.F.A. from the University of New Hampshire. She taught Drawing, Painting, and Design for seven years at various colleges in New England.
She has exhibited extensively in group shows and juried shows in commercial, community, non-profit, and university spaces. Her work has been published in many publications that seek to explore elements of the divine: Evangelism and Culture, Christianity Today, Ruminate Magazine, Edge of Faith, CIVA’s SEENJournal, Dappled Things, Worship Leader, Imaginatio et Ratio and Intruding Upon the Timeless, a collection of essays by Greg Wolfe.
In addition to numerous private collections across the U.S., her paintings can be found in the collection of the Valparaiso University Chapel, Indiana, Rivier College, New Hampshire, and Gordon College, Massachusetts. She lives in northwest Ohio with her husband and two daughters.