Genesis - Curse and Blessing

This weeks message was on curse and blessing and their implementation in the story of the garden. The DOMA team put their heads together to come up with ideas of how to visually represent the theme through a creative piece. We took the idea of a covering, as Adam and Eve made coverings for themselves out of fig leaves to cover their nakedness. We wanted to portray how a covering could represent both a curse and a blessing as it did in the Genesis story. We decided that a veil was the perfect portrayal of both a blessing and a curse. Here were some photos for inspiration.



The idea is that a veil is worn in both times of sadness and joy, to cover grief and to cover purity. When a loved one passes away, it is tradition for the widow (reference to sin and death) to wear a black veil to cover her face. When a bride (reference to the church as the bride of Christ) is to be wed, it is tradition for her to wear a white veil to cover her face. We had a photographer from DOMA take pictures of faces of people in the fellowship. We took the images cropped them to be just the eyes (the most powerful and emotional part of the face) and printed them out about 1'x3' each and had them mounted on foam core. We bought veil fabric in both black and white and cut strips for each. We displayed the images on stage during the services on music stands and draped the fabric over the eyes as a veil. Here are some images from the services:



We also were lucky enough to have a DOMA artist provide a live snake to display on stage during the services to represent the serpent from the Genesis story. Here are some images of that:

Genesis - Sin and Redemption - The Garden

The story of the fall and original sin is centered around a piece of fruit from a tree in the center of the garden. After the fall, sin entered the world and death followed. The ideas for this piece stem from that phenomenon; dying fruit, vegetables, flowers, etc. Here are some photos and a video that inspired the work:





Boxes and boxes of fruit, vegetables, and flowers were donated from the local Whole Foods Market. They were taken and used to line the stage of each service, to create a garden like atmosphere. From a distance, most of the fruit looked good, but upon closer inspection the produce was damaged, cut, wilting, bruised, and dying. We also had a photographer take pictures of an apple with a bite out of it, in a woman's hand. They were printed on large photo paper and included in the installation. Here are some photos from the services:

Genesis - Origin of Marriage - Color Mixing

This weeks message was highlighting marriage within the creation story. The creative team put together ideas of representing the concept of marriage through the unity of colors. Using the traditional colors for boys and girls, blue and pink (pink from an artists perspective is essentially a shade of red). We all know that when red and blue are mixed that you get purple and that was the idea of color unity. These were some images we pulled for inspiration:



In order to accomplish this idea, we cast a vision for male artists to put together works using blues and female artists putting together works using just reds. Also, having male and female artists working together on collaborative works that use both red and blue or even a purple. We then lined the stage with blue on the left and red on the right with a mix of purple coming together in the middle. Here are some photos from the services:

Genesis - Origin of Humanity

This week in the Genesis series the message was on the Origin of Humanity. Talking about man and his position and role in the creation story. The creative team decided it would be cool to create a sand sculpture of Adam as a play on his creation from the ground. Creating an actual sand sculpture might have been easier but would have been very fragile and therefore not a good idea for transportation and display. These are our images of inspiration and one is a digital sketch of the actual idea.



We put our heads together and decided to use some of the materials we were somewhat comfortable with in order to pull it off. We used Styrofoam sheets, plaster, glue, spraypaint, and actual beach sand. Here are some photos of the process:





Once the basic shape of the body was formed, we used sprayfoam insulation to give him hair, spray paint to color it, plastered him into a single pose, constructed a box of 2x4s and plywood, coated him in spray adhesive and applied actual sand.



He was finally ready for display and placed on stage for the entirety of the services. It served as a great visual for the message and a tool for better understanding humanity from a new perspective. Here are some photos form the services: