Review

"The Eyes of Your Heart", Dyed and Painted Silk.

Christy L. Berry
Suspended Narratives: Stories in Oil and Silk

11 a.m.-4 p.m.

Beggars Table Church & Gallery
2009 Baltimore
Kansas City, MO
913.558.9039

Hours: 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday-Friday
Runs through: Dec. 31.

Artist’s site: http://www.cristae.blogspot.com
Gallery site: http://www.beggarstablechurch.org

Christy L. Berry knows her way around a loom, as befits the president of the Weavers Guild of Greater Kansas City. In her part of the Suspended Narrative Show at Beggars Table Church & Gallery, though, the process is as much metaphorical as physical.

Berry weaves faith, paint, dye and silk into works that are part liturgical banner, part diary, and entirely suited both to the show's venue and to its theme.

The suspension here is physical, in one sense. These are wall hangings, flowing gently down from the point where they're hung.

The other sense of "suspension" comes from Berry's choices of motif and theme.

While some works are purely abstract -- including The Eyes of Your Heart, today's featured piece, others depict a young woman ... the same young woman. These, then are images from her story. Each hanging is a point of suspension in the tale, leaving it to viewers not only to wonder What has happened? and What will happen next? but also to ponder their own travels through life.

Berry's position is unabashedly Christian, with liberal use of Scripture references both as titles and as accompanying text. The Eyes of Your Heart references a passage from Paul's Letter to the Corinthians; multiple translations can be found here.

Nothing in the art itself, though, screams -- or even whispers -- "Christians Only." Regardless of what one believes, or doesn't, we're all living out our own biographies.

Berry's simple, lovely art invites us to stop ... to suspend the action for a while ... and to contemplate those personal narratives.

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