Natasha Ria El-Scari at the funeral of her grandmother, Juanita Maxine Harris Gibson, at the Linwood United Church. Displayed behind her are quilts made by Gibson and El-Scari’s late aunt Cheryl Martin. (photo by Zahara Braxton)
My grandmother and her friend, Doris Clayton, owned a business in the basement of Linwood United Church. Our two families were huge, and the grandchildren of both these women gathered on Saturday mornings with them after spending the night with my grandmother.
I loved going to what was called the Linwood Sewing Co-Op, where Mrs. Clayton and Nana taught mostly women how to sew, quilt and other artisan skills and also met with their own customers. The space was huge and often very chilly, but Linwood was excited to have the community and these beautiful matriarchs bringing their energy each week.
In 2024 as I sat in front of my grandmother’s casket preparing to share an original poem I wrote for her service, I stared at the enormous quilts that had been hanging in the sanctuary since I was a little girl. My Nana, Juanita Maxine Harris Gibson and late aunt, Cheryl Martin, made those quilts that spoke to unity and love, the cornerstone of our modest congregation. Their art outlived them and continues to be displayed.
In 2018, I too opened an artistic pursuit inside sacred walls. Creating a partnership with my spiritual community, The Center for Spiritual Living Kansas City, I opened an art gallery with Warren “Stylez” Harvey, and shortly after the gallery became a solo venture named the Natasha Ria Art Gallery. My stepsister, Adrianne Clayton, the granddaughter of Doris Clayton, was there with me building and growing the gallery from the beginning. We worked together until it closed at the end of 2024. Having the gallery in a sacred place just felt right although many cautioned against it. The mission itself was divine because it was just the right amount of space and size, and just like Linwood, it was sometimes really cold.
My grandmother would always tell us, “Give God at least one hour a week, just for God and nothing else, and more if you can.” I think that was her way of saying find a spiritual way to commune with God, and it was completely fine if it included art. My grandmother’s garden was her God time too and she considered art an act of God as well. I too, believe that God moves through me wildly when I am creating certain works, regardless of the subject. I feel that big spirit moving through me, as me, and I know for sure I am having a divine download, a divine experience and that even in those moments I feel prophetic at times. I feel closest to God (whom I call Great Spirit and Universe) when I am in the creation process. When I knit, I pray, I mumble mantras and commune with the ancestors. Yet, each and every Sunday, I still make my way to my spiritual community to be with others for one reason, Great Spirit.
Jenny Hahn, a visual artist, award-winning author, workshop facilitator and certified mindfulness teacher, who works from her home studio in Lee’s Summit, is one of those artists I consider a soul sister. We met at the Center for Spiritual Living, and I found out she was an artist. I was able to exhibit her work, and I use her intuitive cards in my spiritual practice of card reading. Jenny and I just connected, and she brings that deep God self to her art. Her book, “Creative Flow,” has garnered awards and accolades, including the silver medal in the 2024 Living Now Book Awards.
She writes: “Art making is a form of alchemy that transforms challenge into beauty and helps us to process experiences. This can apply whether you’re the maker or the viewer/participant. I integrate a meditation practice into my studio work which helps me to center my awareness and tune into what I’m feeling in my body and psyche when I paint. In every way, art heals.” For more information about Hahn, visit www.jennyhahnart.com.
Talented poet and riveting performer Unique Hughley, a 2024 Charlotte Street Generative Performing Arts award winner, shared his deep connection to God through his work. While many may not know this about him, the greater power is a true source of motivation for his work.
“I started writing poetry exclusively to record my journey to God,” Hughley said. “I would write down my questions and answers, and over time new formations and new poems would emerge. I was inspired to write prose by how my pastor at the time, Pastor Brooks from Macedonia used to preach — it inspired me.
“My first poem was called ‘Omnipresence’; it was a conversation with God. Poetry is my artistic expression. I also make music. My first ever song was called ‘God is on His Way.’ Since those pieces I’ve moved on to perform many times in front of many different faiths and religions. My very first poetry performance was at Unity Temple on the plaza. I opened for Caroline Kennedy!”
Stephonne Singleton won a Charlotte Street Generative Performing Arts award in 2023. Coming to terms with his faith made for a challenging journey.
“I grew up Catholic,” he said, “but being a queer Black artist with a ton of questions, I worked the priests’ nerves. I have gone through a lot of spiritual vagabondage, and without a center I struggled a lot. Catholicism really left me messed up though, and I’m still healing.
“Reading ‘The Untethered Soul’ and ‘Seat of the Soul’ last year really opened my heart back up to prayer,” Singleton said. “I do it day and night and even shout thank you to the sky on occasion. Things started to fall into place again after that. I changed my mind, and my outer world changed.”
Singleton has arrived at a clear view of his role. “As an artist I’ve always known that what I do is beyond me,” he explained. “I feel I’m a channel who alchemizes my lived experiences, and a seer that makes the invisible visible for myself and then my audience. All artists do that in my opinion. With or without acknowledging a ‘god,’ the artist path is a spiritual path. It is a hard and lonely one too. My saving graces have been meditation and Eastern spiritual practices and studies of mysticism, the divine, and the forces of nature. Knowing that my purpose is beyond me helps life feel less overwhelming, especially THESE days.
“Art literally allows me to transmute my trash into treasure. Art is my religion. We should be one nation under art. I think God would finally have a real place in this country after that allegiance. We’d have a better flag too, haha!” For more about Stephonne, www.stephonne.com.
These artists are just a few of us who really do find our work to be “God Centered” even if the subject does not align with religious ideas. Artists are special that way; they take one small idea and make it grand, even when that idea is God.
More on the history of the Linwood United Church Chancel Banners, courtesy of Marion M. Thomas:
The words of an anthem by Dale and Gloria Wood, “Celebration of Light,” inspired Marian Thomas to design new banners for the chancel of Linwood United Church, where she was Choir Director and Organist. A meeting with Linwood Church members led to the motifs of creation and unity in the banners: a shining sun, a butterfly, clasped hands, the symbolic crosses of Presbyterian and United Methodist churches, and a circle and triangle entwined.
Rev. Julian Houston observed preliminary banner plans as drawn by Nancy Short, and asked, “But where are symbols for service and ministry?” Thus was born the banner panel of bowl and towel; Nancy designed it, and then took the project from drawing board to fabric, with Flo England’s and Marian’s help. Next a myriad of “sewing sisters” joind in: Juanita Gibson, Cheryl Martin, Charlas Rhodes, Dorothy Vawter, Mary Jane Houston, Diana Morgan and Kit Bardwell. Nancy and Marian prepared the sewn panels for the final quilting bee, and Marian obtained permission from Lorenz Publishing Company to include the words of the anthem on the banners. Quilters included Dorothy Vawter, Rosemary Parks, Nancy Short and Marian Thomas. Many hands and hearts helped in the creation of the banners, which were dedicated on June 4, 1989.
–Marion M. Thomas
