Plot The Story
By Bethany J. Welch
Artist Statement:
My experience of the Synod on Synodality has come from participating in several listening sessions across different communities and groups. Each space brought forth stories and reflections of the participants’ lived experience of being church. I began to hear, and then visualize, a series of interior landscapes that revealed a kind of topography which showed where the Holy Spirit has been at work and where they encountered challenges. These lines and shapes traced themes of revelation, meaning making, community, grace, joy, pain, rootedness, belonging, exclusion, and discouragement. As someone who is both an artist and a social scientist, these snapshots of story also took the form of data points that I wanted to plot and interrogate. Where is the convergence among voices? The divergence? How far apart are the outliers? In this piece, “Plot the Story,” I began by reflecting on these testimonies of Church and then painted, drew, and marked my way onto large sheets of paper. Then, I treated each story with the exact same weight by cutting identical sized circles from these larger sheets. I selectively amplified individual lines or colors to animate themes that recurred more often, such as a desire for dynamism and life within Church spaces and communities. These circles were then arranged in a sort of wave of movement that respected their individual presence and power, yet also informed each other, coming together and moving apart, much like the bubbles created when waves crash on the beach. Each voice in the Synod is an individual one and yet, collectively, we are creating a powerful sound with its own force and capacity. Some people will be reshaped by having boldly voiced their heart. Others through the act of sacred listening. Our systems and structures can be transformed too, if we continue to participate in calling forth the future with hope.
About the Artist
Bethany J. Welch, Ph.D. is a second-year novice with the Sisters of St. Joseph of Philadelphia. Her personal artistic expression emphasizes mark making, collage, and found materials, often to further spiritual reflection and prayer. When not engaged in research, advocacy, accompaniment, or administrative tasks, Bethany greatly enjoys mural painting, which is one of her favorite embodied practices and an endeavor that fosters collective transformation in pursuit of just, beautiful, and inclusive space.