Editor’s note: Blacknall hosted Art Camp I for rising Kindergarteners and Kindergarteners, and Art Camp II for first- and second-graders in June 2023. This is the fourth year Blacknall has hosted this camp.

These pieces are hung in the Upper and Lower Atriums and in various other places in the church building. See the digital art galleries for Art Camp I and Art Camp II below.

By Liz Shively

“We are God’s masterpiece. He created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.” (Ephesians 2:10, NLT)

I was in Lowe’s one day when I saw it: a front door, ready for delivery. Nope, I didn’t need the door — but the box! Oh, what we could do with that box! I had to tell Beth Solie about it.

Beth and I began planning for Art Camp in January. This year’s camp would take its inspiration from the giant artworks of Frank Stella. He doesn’t work alone, and neither would our campers. When we work together, we can make bigger (and better) art. But Stella and his team paint and sculpt with wood, metal, and fiberglass. We needed something lightweight, affordable, and plentiful.

That’s where you, as a congregation, came in. We sent out a plea for cardboard, and you came through! Humongous slabs of cardboard for 2D art, which the children drew on and splattered with paint. And smaller pieces, which we could shape into sculptures. We cut it into crazy shapes, and the children drew, painted, and glued feathers and foil all over it. Small groups of children decided how the pieces would go together. Then they combined the remaining cardboard with toilet paper inner tubes to make obstacle courses for toy trucks, which got rolled in paint first.

How many people does it take to help 24 children (12 per week) go wild with art supplies? A lot, as it turns out. Enter our middle school and high school volunteers. Alongside Beth and me, they set up and cleaned up materials many times each morning. They helped open stubborn glue bottles and squirted paint on palettes. They taught small groups of children how to make art by zipping yarn between sheets of paper, using beam compasses and child-friendly cardboard cutters, threading pipe cleaners through egg cartons, and much more. They cleaned up campers’ painty hands and feet, and when the young’uns of Art Camp I got way too squirmy for words, our volunteers took them up to the fellowship hall and played games-and-a-parachute with them. Best of all, the volunteers talked with the children, made art with them, and enjoyed them.

And that’s not the whole team either. We had prepping help from parents, office staff, and building & grounds folks, and the custodial staff took on the daunting task of deep-cleaning after camp was done.

So, what does all this have to do with Ephesians 2:10?

Many of us think of art as a solitary activity. When we think of masterpieces, we picture solitary geniuses producing the finest work the world has ever seen. But no artist creates in a vacuum; all have teachers and mentors (or at least instructional YouTube videos), as well as people who help and encourage them in countless ways.

God, who gave us all the ability to make new things, isn’t solitary either. We believe in one God in three Persons. And what is God’s masterpiece? A family, made up of all who trust in Jesus, created by our heavenly Father, and nurtured by the Holy Spirit. God’s family may at times be messy and chaotic, and each of us is deeply flawed. But the Holy Spirit is always at work to transform us, and to teach us to love one another as God loves us. As children adopted into God’s family, we’re each part of the great masterpiece.

Many thanks to our first-time Art Camp volunteers: Hannah Coonley, Greta and Sam Gerend, James Kronstad, and Vanessa Shively. Special thanks to Gonzaló Pérez-Salvador and Clo Sanchez, out-of-town visitors who both happen to come from Spain, and who jumped right in with invaluable help. Warm thanks to Isela Coonley, a true servant-leader working Art Camp for a fourth year. And thanks most of all to Beth Solie, whose organizational and tech skills, wisdom about children, and creativity made every aspect of art camp better.

If you’d like to see some works by Frank Stella in person, you’ll find several in the NC Museum of Art (East Building) in Raleigh.