Category: Quaker Artists 3

Howard Thurman (1899-1981) was an American minister, teacher, activist and writer. A mentor to a generation of civil rights leaders, he inspired Martin Luther King Jr, Bayard Rustin, Pauli Murray and James Farmer. He served as pastor at Roanoke First Baptist Church and Oberlin Mount Zion Baptist Church and as co-pastor at the Church for the Fellowship of All Peoples, the first major interracial and interdenominational church in the United States. He was also a member of the Fellowship of Reconciliation. Thurman taught philosophy and religion at Spelman College and Morehouse College, where he was a noted scholar of mysticism. Among his books were Jesus and the Disinherited, Meditations of the Heart and The Centering Moment. His poem “I Will Light Candles This Christmas” has been set to music, both as a song and as a choral piece.

Thurman was not a Friend but was greatly influenced by Quakers. While a student at Haverford College, he looked on Friend Rufus Jones as a role model. Later, he had long associations with Douglas Steere, Wilmer Cooper and Louise Wilson, also Quakers. Thurman served as a Visiting Professor at the Earlham School of Religion. His writings were published in Friends Journal, and his books were published by Friends United Press. An eloquent speaker, he appeared frequently at events for the American Friends Service Committee, Friends General Conference and Friends United Meeting. He was a member of the Wider Quaker Fellowship.

Howard Thurman was a profoundly important figure in 20th century religion and activism. His dedication to prayer and nonviolence was foundational to the American civil rights movement.

A quote about Friends Meeting for Worship:

“Nobody said a word … just silence. Silence. Silence. And in that silence, I felt as though all of them were on one side and I was on the other side, by myself, with my noise. And every time I would try to get across the barrier, nothing happened. I was just Howard Thurman. And then … I don’t know when it happened, how it happened, I wish I could tell you, but somewhere in that hour I passed over the invisible line, and I became one with all the seekers. I wasn’t Howard Thurman anymore; I was, I was a human spirit involved in a creative moment with human spirits, in the presence of God”.

Gary Sandman

January 2025

Standing in the Light (1998) is a film about Caty Logan, a teenager captured by the Lenape Indians in 1764.  It stars Stephanie Mills as Caty; its director is Stacey Stewart Curtis.   The movieis based on the young adult novel of the same name by Mary Pope Osborne.  Part of the Dear America series from Scholastic, Inc., the format is a diary written by a teenage girl.  It is an HBO film and appears currently on Amazon Prime.

Caty Logan is from a Quaker family.  She is taken, with her brother, to replace Lenape children who have died.  Gradually, she comes to feel part of the Lenape, realizing their Great Spirit and her Inner Light are the same.  English settlers attack their camp, however, and she and her brother are returned to her family.  After Caty approaches her father to speak to him about her time with the Indians, he points out that she has witnessed to the Inner Light in the Lenape.  He says that she has been “Standing in the Light”.  Pope Osborne attended Richland Meeting and read widely about 18^th century Friends to research the Quaker aspect of the story.

Standing in the Light is a very good movie.  Though it is a low budget production, the actors are excellent, and the story is surprisingly moving.

Gary Sandman

December 2024

Jane Harry (1755-1784) was a Jamaican/British painter.  The daughter of a plantation owner and a servant, as with many mixed-race children, she was sent to Britain for her education.  While there, she studied with Sir Joshua Reynolds, the famous portrait painter.  It is thought that she painted portraits, though no paintings attributed to her are known.  In 1778 she won a gold medal from the Society for the Encouragement of the Arts, Manufacturing and Commerce.

Harry became interested in Quakerism because of the death of Margaret, her younger sister.  Supported in her grief by Mary Morris Knowles, a Friend, she converted to Quakerism.  In response, her father withdrew his financial support and many of her friends turned against her, some using racist language.  Those who rejected her included Samuel Johnson, the writer, who attacked her because he felt women were incapable of choosing their own religion.  Friends took her in and provided her with employment.  She married a Friend, by whom she had a child.  Harry’s Quakerism also led her into abolitionism.  After she was left a small bequest, following her father’s death, she wrote to her mother that she wished to free the slaves her mother owned and that they be given religious instruction in Quakerism.  Only her early death prevented her from pursuing this.

It is greatly sad that none of Jane Harry’s paintings survive.  As well, no portrait of her remains.  Above is the silhouette of an anonymous African/British woman from the 18^th century.  Because of Friends’ traditional use of silhouettes and the plainness of her dress, it is included here to remember Harry.

Gary Sandman

November 2024

Rachel Anne Morris (b. 1996) is an American painter, designer, poet and teacher. She paints abstract figures, usually in watercolor and gouache, and designs assorted merchandise (greeting cards, posters, jewelry, clothing). Her work has been exhibited at Art on First and the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine. As well, Morris has led poetry workshops at the Floyd Center for the Arts and the Little River Poetry Festival. Whatever kind of art she is focused on, she sees her creative process as an exploration, during which she opens herself up to “play, emotion and transformation”. The poet Mary Oliver is also a major influence on her work.

Morris is an attender at Roanoke Meeting. She lives nearby, noticed the Meetinghouse when she was out walking one day and decided to investigate. Because her art has always intertwined with her spirituality, she values her involvement with Friends.

I love Rachel Anne Morris’s art. I first noticed her work in a video on her Instagram account as she painted a mural at the West End Center in Roanoke. (And I have enjoyed her sitting in Meeting for Worship with her multi-colored hair). A very special artist!

Please check out her Instagram account at @cairnradesign. Above is her painting, “Maiden Voyage on the Time Sea”.

Gary Sandman

October 2024

Todd Drake (b. 1961) is an American graffiti artist, printmaker, photographer and teacher. Using the street name The Quaker Pirate, he places his graffiti in spots in New York City where they are allowed, like disused postage storage bins and plywood covers on buildings, and in locations in the city that celebrate graffiti, such as Angelina Jolie’s storefront. The graffiti consists of linocut prints applied with wheat paste. While he has concentrated on graffiti lately, Drake has also exhibited art or held workshops in the United States, Palestine, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. Among the several books he has authored, designed or contributed to are Going to Carolina del Norte, Feeling a Type of Way, A Journey Like Us -Getting from There to Here and Give Me Eyes.

Drake is a member of Brooklyn Meeting. He taught art at New Garden Friends School and Guilford College. At Pendle Hill he led a workshop called Graffiti as Witness: The Art and Activism of a Quaker Pirate and he staged the exhibition titled Leading in Linocut – The Graffiti Prints of a Quaker Pirate. Because of his leading to activism, Drake joined other Friends in “Quaker Canvassing Peace Walks” that encourage Friends to speak to people who differ from them politically. He and his wife are the current managers at Penington House, the New York City Friends residence, where he created the Bayard Rustin Residency for BIPOC artists and activists.

I admire Todd Drake’s graffiti very much. They are beautiful, glorious images.

Two quotes:

“One central thing to my graffiti: I am trying to create one of those special moments, where you unexpectedly find something that deeply moves or speaks to you. Like often happens at a museum. But I am trying for that on the street. I have had those moments- seeing a quote or an image that speaks to me. I want to share that they are the same experience while giving people a small taste of Quaker Testimonies, which really are humanist and universal”.

“Graffiti is illegal. That is at the root of my street art name Quaker Pirate – the pirate part. I have tried to boil down my thoughts on this to a phrase, but it’s not yet perfect. “Speaking Truth Without Permission” is the closest I have come….”

(Above is the graffiti “Persistence of Nature” in its East Village location).

Gary Sandman

September 2024

The Quakers Synod is an engraving of the 1696 London Yearly Meeting, an annual conference of Friends.  It depicts William Penn, George Whitehead, William Bingley and other Friends gathered at the Clerk’s table.  In captions, when Penn asks, “Call over ye list, Are none of Truths enemies here” and Whitehead questions, “are the doors shut”, Bingley responds, “Yea the doors are lockt”.  At a table in front of them sit Benjamin Bealing and other Friends, with the books “church canons” and “ye Journal of G. Fox”.  “Deputies”, apparently Quaker ministers, are assembled to the left and right and in the foreground.  Whitehead was Yearly Meeting Presiding Clerk; Bealing was Yearly Meeting Recording Clerk.   The Quakers Synod appears in Chapter XIII of Francis Bugg’s The Pilgrim’s Progress from Quakerism to Christianity (1698).  The drawing measures about 12 inches by 16 inches, and the artist is anonymous.

Francis Bugg was an apostate to Quakerism.  He published numerous attacks on Friends, including The Pilgrim’s Progress from Quakerism to Christianity. The Quakers Synod was meant to expose Friends as a cabal.  Since he was sometimes not entirely truthful, what Bugg wrote should be read with some skepticism. 

The Quakers Synod is a fascinating illustration.  It is probably the earliest picture of a Yearly Meeting.  It also contains perhaps the only accurate portrait of William Penn.  Though several alleged likenesses exist, the only authentic one is the Bevan medallion, and The Quakers Synod version closely resembles the medallion. 

(Please note: The Quakers Synod has no identifying year attached to it.  The year 1696 was assigned to the image because it was featured in Chapter XIII of The Pilgrim’s Progress from Quakerism to Christianity, which includes material from that Yearly Meeting).

Gary Sandman

August 2024

The Secret Room (Y Stafell Ddirgel) (1969) is a novel by Marion Eames about the founding of Quakerism in Wales.  A blend of history and fiction, it depicts the initial Welsh contacts with Friends, the subsequent persecutions and the decision to immigrate to Pennsylvania.  Its central character is Rowland Ellis, a local gentry and the owner of Bryn Mawr farm.  “The Secret Room” refers to the place in the heart in which the Inner Light is encountered.  Eames wrote The Secret Room in Welsh while Margaret Phillips translated it into English.  In 2001 BBC Wales featured a television adaptation of the book.  The Fair Wilderness (Y Rhandir Mwyn), a sequel, recounts the settling of Welsh Friends in Pennsylvania.

I found The Secret Room a lively read.  It gave me a sense of how it must have been for Friends in the early period of Quakerism.

                                                                                       Gary Sandman

July 2024

A Lego Meeting for Worship has been created by a young Friend of Community Meeting in Cincinnati. It shows brightly colored figures sitting in a large rectangle, a gray brick mat underneath, a green window seat and yellow fireplace in the foreground and background. On the right children and parents head off to First Day School.

A Lego Zoom Meeting for Worship has been constructed by a Friend of Edinburgh Meeting. A Lego in-person Edinburgh Meeting for Worship has also been built.

Lego, the largest toy manufacturer in the world, was founded in 1932 in Denmark. The name Lego derives from the Danish “leg godt”, which means “play well”. In 1949 they began producing small interlocking plastic bricks, and in 1978 they started making plastic minifigs (small figures).

A wooden Meeting for Worship has been assembled by the Faith & Play Group, which creates lessons for First Day School. Plain wood figures perch in front of an open doorway.

Faith & Play began in 2005 as a joint effort of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting and Friends General Conference. They encourage Friends to use storytelling and to make their own materials.

I was delighted to come across the Lego Meetings for Worship. The mix of people and animals at Community Meeting is especially charming. (I spotted a crab, pig, flamingo and Mickey Mouse). In its own way the unadorned Faith & Play Meeting for Worship is also quite appealing. Very Zen.

To the right, in turn, are pictures of Community Meeting, Edinburgh Meeting and Faith & Play Meetings for Worship.

Gary Sandman

June 2024

Dear Friends,

If you enjoy the monthly columns I write on Friendly art and artists, you may also enjoy my “Quaker Artists” book. Below is more information.

Gary Sandman

************

DID YOU KNOW ….

*that Judi Dench, James Michener and Annie Oakley were Quakers?

*that Joan Baez, Ben Kingsley and F. Murray Abrahams have attended Friends Meeting?

*that Dave Matthews, Bonnie Raitt and James Dean were raised Quakers?

*that Popeye the Quaker Man, a Quaker Tapestry and Quaker stained glass exists?

*that Bolivian Friends, Rwandan Friends and Chinese Friends art exists?

*that Ben Franklin and Walt Whitman were influenced by Friends?

*that William Penn and Margaret Fell wrote poetry?

The second edition of the book Quaker Artists contains the stories of the above artists and more: 286 reviews in all, a history of Friends, a history of Quaker art, study questions, artist’s queries, 44 reproductions of the artists’ works, 51 illustrations, a bibliography, an alphabetical index and an artist’s index. The period covered is 1659 to 2015. Friends from 18 different countries are included. Poets, painters, dancers, musicians, films and 13 other categories are included. (It is three times the size of the first edition!)

Quaker Artists is an entertaining and celebratory read in itself but it has other uses, too: as a resource for study groups, a reference for libraries and a curriculum for First Day Schools.

Gary Sandman, a member of Roanoke Meeting in Roanoke, Virginia, is the author of the second edition of Quaker Artists. To purchase, send check or money order, made out to Gary Sandman, to 214 Summit Way SW, Roanoke VA 24014. To purchase the book online through PayPal, look at an excerpt or see updates on new QA writings, check this website.

Paperback, 287 pages: $21. Ebook: $6.

“Quaker Meeting” is a children’s game.  The leader starts by reciting a rhyme: “Quaker Meeting has begun/no more talking/no more fun/no more chewing gum”.  (Several versions of the rhyme exist).  The leader whispers into the ears of the participants, one by one, instructing them to perform a silly task, such as crawling around while grunting like a pig or kissing all the furniture.  When the leader calls upon a participant, they act silly.  The other participants who smile or laugh or make any sort of sound have to drop out of the game.  Versions of “Quaker Meeting” began to appear in books of games in the 19^th century.  It is a variant of the “Quiet Game”.

“Quaker Meeting” is, of course, a gentle poke of fun at Friends silent Meeting for Worship.

Gary Sandman

May 2024