“One of the extraordinary undertakings of our time.”
- Smithsonian Magazine

Please join us at Four Chapter Gallery for a print exhibition featuring the art and calligraphy of the Saint John’s Bible.

In 1998, Saint John’s Abbey and University commissioned renowned calligrapher Donald Jackson to produce a hand-written, hand-illuminated Bible. This work of art unites an ancient Benedictine tradition with the technology and vision of today, illuminating the Word of God for a new millennium.

St. John’s Bible is a unique and stunning work of art that represents a modern-day masterpiece of the ancient art of illuminated manuscripts. Commissioned by Saint John’s Abbey and University in Collegeville, Minnesota, this Bible is a collaborative effort of calligraphers, theologians, artists, and craftspeople from around the world. It was created using traditional techniques and materials, including vellum, gold leaf, and natural pigments, but with a contemporary approach and a fresh interpretation of the biblical text.

The result is a stunningly beautiful and visually striking Bible that reflects the diversity and richness of contemporary culture and the timeless wisdom of the Bible. With its intricate details and vibrant colors, the St. John’s Bible has captured the attention of art lovers and Bible enthusiasts alike and has become a treasured work of art and a testament to the enduring power of the Bible as a source of inspiration and spiritual guidance.

Learn more at https://saintjohnsbible.org

Exhibit Dates: June 2 — August 27, 2023

First Friday Receptions:
June 2 and August 4 | 5:30 – 9:00pm

Open Hours:
Saturdays | 12:00 – 4:00pm

William Rainey 

(American, b. 1943)

As I have been in the process of simplifying my work, I find that there is much more going on that is unseen. I believe painting is a series of adjustments no matter what the subject matter or lack thereof.

Continuous change occurs until the painting says we are done. My job as artist is to know when to stop.

Take time to look…there is more than first meets the eye.

Rainey received he first art award 53 years ago and since has attended Anderson Ranch Arts Center, Snowmass Village, CO and the Santa Fe Institute of Fine Arts, Masters Program. Represented exclusively by Blue Gallery since 2000, William Rainey’s paintings can be found in private and corporate collections worldwide. Select corporate collectors include; Shook, Hardy & Bacon, Kansas City, MO, Data Systems International, Kansas City, MO, Restaurant Management Company, Wichita, KS, Missouri Bank, Kansas City, MO, Lanard Toys Ltd., Hong Kong, and The Conafay Group, Washington, DC.

Jones Gallery May Group Art Show!
First Friday opening, May 5th..
Artist reception is from 5 till 9pm. All welcome and always free.
Also with 150 pieces on display, both local and national Artists
Show runs thru May 25th.
Also open daily from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Closed Sunday
Jones Gallery 1717 Walnut, KCMO. 64108
816 – 421-2111
https://jonesgallerykc.com/ 

Artist Statement:

My art morphs different mediums into visual meditations and dream-like imageries. Creating is therapeutic, a form of alternative medicine for me. As an artist, I create forms of communication from the subconscious and conscious state of mind. I am constantly learning and listening to my personal visions. I have a strong need to create something that is healing for myself and possibly a connection for others. Drawing intricate line patterns compared to sand painting or the cracks in your hand is the way for me to have the introspection of self-like meditation. Which in turn, creates a positive impulse of calmness, intensity, or a balanced flow. I create because it stimulates an internal mind-bending effect of my center that takes me somewhere else. This kata (form) of expression is an escape from my current reality to release an honest and raw output of my existence through creativity: To visually twist a space with or without technology to amplify a human experience. With spontaneous and or controlled movements with patience and thought, I like to integrate the environment with unique visuals and collaborations with video and sound waves. This expanding language is interpreted with personal contemplation. 

-Adrian Halpern 

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Rich “JKR70” Lester is a music producer, audio engineer, and visual artist from Kansas City, Mo. He has over 25 years of experience in his art form. 

Artist Statement:

I am formerly of the Hip Hop group Human CropCircles. I have worked with Ces Cru, Sage Francis, Young Rob, Romy of Macromantics, Red Dot Didactics, Rough Draft, Approach of Dat Gang/Datura Records, Milkdrop of Dat Gang/Datura Records, Lucid Flows, Lou Rip, Donald “Scribe” Ross, Anti Crew, Sike Style of Sike Style Industries, Flavor Pak, and Liz Suwandi to name a few.

I have happily worked with Adrian Halpern off and on for approximately 15 years on various art/ audio collaborations, most of which can be enjoyed at www.adrianhalpern.com. This current collaboration was a bit of a departure from our usual dynamic. This time I was asked to compose audio based on the overall vibe of seeing Adrian’s process. I took inspiration from conversations, text correspondence, and viewing his art at various stages during his process over a 45-day period.

The audio you’ll hear at this showing is the result of that inspiration. It was quite fun as well as a bit challenging at times, I do hope you enjoy it.

-Rich “JKR70” Lester

I look to the skies and watch the birds, storms rolling in, changing weather, and brilliant sunsets. We have lived on the Kansas prairie for four years and I am moved and changed by it, my work is much influenced. The subtle starkness is magnificent as I watch undulating streams of snow geese move like ribbons, calling far overhead. The Spring Peepers are singing, a first hint of Spring. Geese and ducks are returning as are many migrating birds. Ranchers are burning prairies, and see the horizon glow hot pink as the sun sets. The ground goes from charred black to neon green in a week, amazing. Often the talk is about water, whether is there enough or rarely is there too much. 

What damage are we doing to the earth, our waters, our living beings, and ourselves? What legacy do we leave for those who come after? First peoples teach that what we do now affects the next seven generations. What does uranium mining do to the Diné people who drink the same water? The repercussions seem endless, Native people are losing their ancestral lands in coastal areas due to global warming. Chief Oren Lyons, Faithkeeper of the Turtle Clan, Onondaga Nation speaks of ice, and I quote: “The ice is melting, the winds are coming, the fires are burning, the climate is changing. It is coming and it is coming very fast”. At some point the constant striving for greater production, more fracking, and more chemicals on our farms, and in our factory farming has to stop, it has to change. What legacy will we leave for our children and their children? Hopi and other prophecies have predicted that we would come to a fork in the road. I believe that we are there now, do we turn toward healing and change, or continue down this slippery path? I have faith that there are new ways to do things. And yet I mourn vanishing species; what will we do without bees and other pollinators?

The title of my exhibition refers to a beautiful song from the indigenous Tewa people called “Mother Earth, Father Sky”. I am respectfully borrowing the title, it is not my work, I have been deeply moved and inspired by it for nearly all of my life, and it echoes my feelings. These works are my prayers for goodness and healing.

I work with plaster and other mediums in my newest body of work, they are mounted on deep birch boards. I have carved into it, shaped it, made impressions, and added paint, and mixed media. I am over the moon inspired by the landscape in southern Missouri and northern Arkansas. 

I have family roots in this region, among the Ouachita and Ozark mountains. Have you hiked in them, see the crags and hollers, floated the rivers? I am drawn to water; thawing waterfalls, moving over rocks with sunlight reflecting from it, and the sounds, oh the sounds. 

And in honoring Father Sky, I am sharing cyanotypes with imagery of migrating birds and butterflies. Recent batiks reflect flowers, the Milky Way, and the stars. I look up and I look down. I am quiet and feel so fortunate to have had these transcendent experiences. Enjoy, and find quiet and peace while contemplating my work.

1. https://centerforneweconomics.org/publications/the-ice-is-melting/

Bio

Valerie Doran Bashaw, of rural Kansas, is a professional fiber/mixed media artist and fine arts educator. Always learning and experimenting, her media choices include plaster on board, cyanotypes, intricately dyed and stitched fabric stretched over deep frames, batik, shibori, surface design, combined and refined. 

Imagery is subtle, though colors can be intense. She is happiest watching birds, landscape, storms move in, with a strong interest in weather patterns, geology and geography. Attracted to the dance between accidental and intentional, spontaneity versus control, yin and yang. Creation is fueled by intuition and the drive to make art. 

Valerie is an educator, working with students of all ages and abilities. Education includes a BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute and a MFA from the University of Michigan. She has taught for Metropolitan Community Colleges, Park University, University of Central Missouri, Ghost Ranch Conference and Education Center, Kansas City Young Audiences, Accessible Arts, Bishop Spencer Place, the Barstow School and other venues. She continues to show her work exhibitions in the greater Kansas City area and her work is in many collections; including University of Kansas Medical Center, physicians offices, businesses and private homes from Mexico to Michigan and beyond. 

She has been active in various arts organizations including the Best of Missouri Hands, Missouri Fiber Artists and is on the Board of Directors for Sharing a Vision for Generations, raising money to award scholarships for Lakota women to study Lakota Studies at Oglala Lakota College in South Dakota. She recently co-authored a grant to benefit her rural community. Fingers crossed that funding will be awarded! 

Her works embrace the aesthetic of quiet, meditative work, meant to encourage reflection. A way to retreat from the hectic, over-stimulated world. Find the dreamtime, take a deep breath, retreat into contemplation and silence.