Now on exhibit at the Presbytery of Baltimore's Gallery is Tone & Texture, an exquisite display of handcrafted earthen pottery and richly colored weavings created separately by ministers Roger Rice and Alison Halsey. Both collections were inspired by the artists' spiritual connection with nature and native cultures .

 

Retired since 2015, The Rev. Roger Rice began creating pottery about 17 years ago after a visit to Ghost Ranch, a retreat center in central New Mexico that offers art and spiritual workshops. "I've always had an artistic side but I never really answered the call until I started taking courses," Roger said. His vessels and bowls feature a melange of colors mimicking the red clay terrain, blue skies, sandy cliffs, charcoal mountains and splotches of green, gold and purplish earth tones reminiscent of the southwestern landscape. An avid backpacker who recently hiked through the Glacier mountains and along the Canadian Rockies, the pottery maker said he sees a lot of nature in his work.

 

"That's part of my inspiration. It's in my poetry as well," said Roger, who is also the author of "Where Mother Wind Blows Through Me, Poems of Creation" Predominantly focused on the environment, Roger's book of poetry is written in a form of verse like the Hebrew poetry in the Old Testament. "We forget that the prophets were all poets," he said. "Isaiah and Jeremiah - they were prophets, but they were poets, too."

 

Also on exhibit is a collection of woven wall hangings by The Rev. Alison Halsey, Interim Pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Bel Air. Inspired by a 40-year passion for beautiful tapestry work, Alison's weavings are reflective of the patterns and technique Navajo women used to weave tribal rugs and cloth. Several years ago, she traveled to Belgium and France to study tapestries at textile factories and museums; and, in 2008, used the proceeds from a Lilly Foundation Grant to study one-on-one with a master weaver on a Navajo reservation in Arizona.

 

For the Navajo, the art of weaving encompasses beauty, order and harmony - a philosophy Native Americans describe as hozho. "The true Navajo rug is symmetrical: you can fold it in half length-wise or width-wise and it creates harmony on both sides," Alison said. Every aspect of a Navajo weaving represents something spiritual: the colors, shapes, patterns - even parts of the loom, she further explained. "Creating a Navajo rug is kind of like walking a spiritual labyrinth: you journey in [to the weave] and then turn around and journey out."

 

Tone and Texture will be on exhibit at the Presbytery of Baltimore Gallery through February 2018.