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#479 – Dick Bernard: A chance encounter with James Quentin Young, a creator of religious art

Tuesday, November 22nd, 2011

Sunday, while doing my ’rounds’ as an usher at Basilica of St. Mary in Minneapolis I happened to notice a piece of religious sculpture on the wall (click to enlarge photos). (Photos of all of the art on exhibit can be seen here, and are posted with the permission of the artist.)

Shatter Proof Cross by James Quentin Young, 2010

The creation was intriguing: a combination of wood, metal, plastic and foil. Artist James Quentin Young’s note at the side of the piece said “This cross can be seen as strong and sturdy, a force against the brokenness that exists in our society.”

Now I paid closer attention: James Quentin Young is an unusual name, and many years ago in Anoka-Hennepin School District I knew the name of an art teacher, James Quentin Young. I wondered, “one and the same?”
If so, he likely would now be retired, as I am.

A little later, I noticed another cross design a short ways down the same wall: “James Quentin Young”. Another, another…in all there were 18 creations by this James Quentin Young on the outer walls of the Basilica, each unique. I go to church at Basilica, but normally don’t see the outer walls and had completely missed this exhibition (which, unfortunately, ended November 20).

Downstairs, where we always have coffee after Mass, there were many more attractive works of art on the walls. They are like most such exhibits: one admires the ability of the artist and the representation without necessarily noticing who did the piece. This time I looked:

James Quentin Young.

The exhibit ended the same day I saw it, so the best thing I feel I can is make others aware of this retired art teacher and his work. Likely there will be other exhibitions. His website is here. He’s in the Minneapolis phone book, if you are interested in making contact. Kathy Dhaemers, who handles art exhibitions at Basilica, notes that Mr. Young has a following in the twin cities. I can see why.

Monday, I made a special trip over to Basilica to take photos of all the works – there were, in all, 75. By good fortune, I arrived at the Church about the time the artist James Quentin Young arrived to take down his exhibit. We managed to meet briefly by yet another of the crosses in the sanctuary, this one composed of a portion of a rack of clothes hooks. As best as I can recall, James Q had rescued this rack from some garage sale or other, and the hooks-as-cross symbolized for him the assorted kinds of things on which we human beings hang our lives.

James grew up on St. Paul’s west side, and spent a year in Mexico City, and his art has a strong strain of both common roots and Hispanic influence. It is both beautiful and thought provoking.

James Quentin Young, November 21, 2011

Here’s the text on the flier which accompanied the exhibition: “In reviewing his art from the past 53 years, James Young discovered that from the beginning of his study in art he sought to use Christian themes. It was a journey with Biblical references using reoccurring symbols of doves, fish, angels, and portraits of Christ. For the past eleven years the cross has been the primary symbol in his work. Young often creates his art from old wood, metal and found objects. Using discarded and broken items, Young’s art portrays Christ’s acceptance of our flawed and rejected lives and transformation through His death and resurrection.”

Posted in Community, Quietings | No Responses »
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#443 – Dick Bernard: Homeless.

Sunday, September 25th, 2011

This morning, as usual, we went downstairs at our church for the usual coffee and donuts. (Our place is the Basilica of St. Mary’s at the near edge of downtown Minneapolis – it is a downtown parish – a place of diverse sorts of people.)

I got my coffee and donut and saw a lady sitting at a table by herself. “Mind if we join you?” I asked. “Fine”, she said. She was well-dressed, looking to be in later middle age, with what appeared to be a nice piece of luggage on one of those portable pull carts.

Making small talk, I said, “it looks like you’re traveling“. It was a somewhat obvious observation. We’re an easy and safe walk to the convention center, and the church gets lots of visitors.

Probably she had been to some conference, and was taking in Mass before catching a cab for the airport….

She didn’t respond to me. She finished her coffee, got up abruptly, and then very angrily said “if it makes any difference, I’m retired and I’m homeless.” Apparently there had been some court case in New York which she had lost. She stormed off to wherever, with no chance for us to say anything, as if she would have wanted us to say anything. There are times when less is best.

Two other people had joined us by then. It was a puzzling happening for all of us.

There is a “profile” of homeless. We see lots of homeless in this social gathering hall after Mass. But they LOOK like homeless are “supposed” to look. Yes, it’s a stereotype, but mostly these folks, mostly men, sometimes a few women, stand out from the usual crowd. This lady didn’t look homeless, not in the least. But apparently she was.

As I write, before noon on this same day, I’m just beginning to process what I just experienced.

In a surface sense, everything in our society, at this moment, looks sort of normal. Even with high unemployment, 91% of us are making a living (85% if you throw in the people who have given up on looking for work.)

It is easy to pretend that there is no underclass, inexorably increasing.

We’re in a family that is experiencing the creeping problem of unemployment within our own family circle. Makes it much harder NOT to notice….

Beyond the rhetoric, somewhere as I type, is this attractive well-dressed older woman pulling her luggage, and carrying a back pack.

It is certain she wasn’t being facetious.

What is her story, I wonder.

Where will she be tonight, this coming week, this winter, next year?

I think I know what I’ll be thinking about on this walk I’m about to take.

What lessons can be learned, and applied to our ever meaner society?

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#312 – “The first rough draft” post-Bells for Haiti, January 12, 2011

Friday, January 14th, 2011

I always remember my first visit to the then-brand new Newseum in Arlington VA. It was sometime in the late 90s, and I happened to be at the right place at the right time to catch a shuttle to the new, and then free, Museum to print and visual media.

A prominent quote, there, was this (or words to this effect): “Journalism is the first rough draft of history“. It was a statement full of meaning: any breaking news is fraught with peril, possibly inaccurate, but still news nonetheless.

Wednesday of this week an ad hoc group saw the results of “Bells for Haiti”, a tribute to Haitians on the one year anniversary of the devastating earthquake January 12, 2010.

Following is my ‘first rough draft’ of the event, of which I was proud to be a part:

On Wednesday, Cathy and I chose to join a group of eight people on a downtown Minneapolis MN bridge to witness the Bells ringing at the Episcopal Cathedral of St. Mark (a block behind us in the photo) and at our own church, the Basilica of St. Mary (in the photo). (Click on photo to enlarge it.)

Basilica of St. Mary, Minneapolis, from the bridge, 3:53 p.m. CST January 12, 2012

Adjacent to the Baslica on the left is a very busy and noisy freeway, then nearing rush hour, but when the immense primary bell began to ring, precisely at 3:53 p.m., I was overcome with not sadness, but elation.

It was about December 9, 2010, that Basilica had signed on as the first place to ring their bells in Bells for Haiti.

Our little project had actually come to pass.

A year earlier, January 10, 2010, in that same Basilica, Fr. Tom Hagan, long-time Priest in Cite Soleil, had given the homily at all Masses at Basilica. January 11, he was back in Port-au-Prince…little did he know….

Like all great things, Bells for Haiti started with an idea in conversation: in this case, Bells for Haiti began with two women in conversation at the American Refugee Committee (ARC) in Minneapolis (whose headquarters is two blocks behind and to the right of Sue, the lady with the camera).

For a month a small ad hoc committee, never exceeding 11 people, initially mostly “strangers” to the rest, came together in a conference room at ARC to make the idea happen. We elected to keep Bells for Haiti simple.

By January 12, as any of you know who visited Facebook, over 3,500 people from who-knows-where had enrolled in the remembrance via Facebook. (Our committee was largely Facebook-illiterate when this project began. No more.)

Bells were ringing all over the United States, and probably other places, all at the same time and for the same reason.

We will never know how many places, how many people, in how many ways, people remembered Haiti on Wednesday, January 12, 2011.

The project gives meaning to the famous quote of Margaret Mead: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world, indeed it is the only thing that ever has.”

Thank you. Extra special thanks to the Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network and the Minnesota Alliance of Peacemakers who co-sponsored the event.

Those who participated on the Bells for Haiti committee: Therese Gales, Jenna Myrland, Lisa Van Dyke, Lisa Rothstein, Bonnie Steele, Dale Snyder, Jacqueline Regis, Ruth Anne Olson, Sue Grundhoffer, Mike Haasl, Rebecca Cramer, Dick Bernard. Jane Peck also deserves much credit, though she could not participate directly. She initiated the idea for gathering groups together last spring to keep working for Haiti. At the moment, there are 25 groups loosely and informally affiliated in what is now known as Konbit ["cone beet"]- Haiti/MN.

For more background, click here.

Posted in Community, Haiti, History, International Relations, Media, Minnesota, Peace & Justice | No Responses »
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