Invitations on the Journey: Wisdom from Elders
Patheos, 10/27/2014
Elizabeth Nordquist


On my recent journey, I went nowhere without being reminded of the past–in the topography. in the architecture, in the celebration. A deep thread to my own roots was in the exhibit at the New Mexico Art Museum. Judy Chicago, a heroine of my younger adulthood, had an exhibit there, one part of which celebrated her own roots in the Exodus story of the deliverance from slavery, beginning with the journey through the Sea of Reeds. For me the centerpiece was her rendering of Miriam, breaking out in to song after successfully eluding the enemy and crossing on to dry land with the Power of the Holy One, leading and protecting. Miriam takes a timbrel and leads the women of her community to sing and dance their way into freedom. I heard Judy Chicago say at a book reading that she isn’t very observant of her own tradition, but in her art she does consider Miriam as a leader of the Exodus to be a wise woman that she claims as an ancestor. As do I!

In this sojourn I took, I mused on this question: what part of my ancestral spiritual tradition am I invited to hang on to, and what is no longer useful? I have been part of the Church my entire life, yet as an institution, as a community, as a phenomena in North American culture and other place in the world, its external expressions are changing. Music is different, preaching takes new shapes, mission is continually being redefined. What remains for someone like me whom has been formed in a different era, in another place? Chicago’s rendering of Miriam inspires me. After landing safe on the other side after the harrowing chase through muddy terrain, Miriam begins to praise the Holy One for what has just transpired. No longer in familiar territory, her first act is to pick up a tambourine to praise what she knows of the One who brought the community to the next step on the way to freedom: God has triumphed gloriously! she sings. I am challenged. Is my first thought when I am rescued to give thanks, even when I don’t know where I am or where I am going? Do I even notice when God triumphs gloriously in the lives and systems around me? Praise and thanksgiving to the Holy is something that will never go out of style, no matter if it is a song in the desert, a dance in downtown or a flash mob along the road.

Miriam leads the women of the community in the chant and in the dance. The women of the exodus community were not in the first line of leadership in the direction and leadership of the mighty adventure. But Miriam wants to make sure that they too are included in the celebration of praise. It is part of my present call to come alongside to encourage and reach out to those in the faith community who are not always included front and center–the one who worships alone, the one who finds that the predominantly masculine language and style in the Church is oppressive, the one who feels too beleaguered to get up and move to the rhythms of the Spirit. Sometimes what each of them cannot do alone, they can do with the friendship and encouragement of another. Miriam reminds me that the encouraging action and words also never grow old. No matter the style of community singing, no matter the form of the prayer responses, no matter the size of the gathering–I am called to identify with the gathered, to notice who feels marginalized, and to invite her to the dance.

I can’t imagine Miriam’s life. However, I understand all too well the struggles in being herself in leading the people of God that we see in her story in Leviticus. But she points me to those first principles of her faith tradition and mine: to glorify God and to care for the marginalized. the widowed, the orphaned, and the just plain sad. I will need to discern many other things as the Church changes, but I can be sure that Miriam has grounded me in the right place of beginning.

Thanks be to God!

Associated Artist

• Judy Chicago

Associated News

• May 14, 2015
  Press Release - Judy Chicago "Heads Up"


• December 1, 2014
  Judy Chicago Dialogue Portal Part 2 launched Dec. 1
  Penn State, 12/01/2014
  Catherine Grigor
  
  


• October 30, 2014
  History Was Impetus, But It's Future Work That Drives Judy Chicago
  


• October 26, 2014
  Invitations on the Journey: Wisdom from Elders
  Patheos, 10/27/2014
  Elizabeth Nordquist
  
  


• October 23, 2014
  "Judy Chicago" at Denver's RedLine honors great American troublemaker
  The Denver Post, 10/23/2014
  Ray Mark Rinaldi
  
  


• July 24, 2014
  Santa Fe Retreat: Judy Chicago
  Lofty Ambitions Blog, 07/23/2014
  


• July 7, 2014
  Heads Up! New Works by Judy Chicago
  Artsy.net, 07/07/2014
  
  


• May 22, 2014
  Judy Chicago: Early Work at the Brooklyn Museum
  NYArts Magazine, 05/22/2014
  Anni Irish
  
  


• April 23, 2014
  Judy Chicago at the Brooklyn Museum and Environs
  Paradigm Shift, 04/23/2014
  Heather Saunders
  


• April 23, 2014
  Judy Chicago Proves She's About More Than Vagina Plates at Brooklyn Museum Show
  The Village Voice, 04/23/2014
  Lilly Lampe
  
  


• April 10, 2014
  The Breakfast That Preceded ‘The Dinner Party’ ‘Chicago in L.A.’ Focuses on Judy Chicago’s Early Work
  The New York Times, 04/10/2014
  Ken Johnson
  
  


• March 28, 2014
  Judy Chicago Celebrates 75th Birthday


• March 28, 2014
  Judy Chicago
  ArtForum, 03/28/2014
  Paige Bradley
  
  


• March 6, 2014
  Chicago on Chicago
  Harvard Gazette, 03/05/2014
  Valerie Vande Panne
  
  


• January 18, 2014
  Can Judy Chicago make D.C. her sister city?
  The Washington Post, 01/18/2014
  Philip Kennicott
  
  


• March 1, 2013
  WOMEN'S HISTORY MONTH ARTISTS: CELEBRATING WHM WITH JUDY CHICAGO AS THE KING OF HEARTS
  Huffington Post, 03/01/2013
  
  


• February 16, 2013
  JUDY CHICAGO
  Woven and Stitched
  February 15 – March 23, 2013
  
  Gallery Lectures and Discussions on Tapestries and Textiles:
  Saturday, February 23, 2:00—4:00pm


• August 30, 2012
  PUSSYRIOT: WOMEN STILL A POTENT FORCE, SAYS FEMINIST ART FOUNDER JUDY CHICAGO
  International Business Times, 08/30/2012
  Gianluca Mezzofiore
  
  


• August 20, 2012
  
  A SERIES OF JUDY CHICAGO EXHIBITIONS AND EVENTS IN THE UK FOR THE FIRST TIME SINCE 1985
  ArtDaily.org, 08/20/2012
  


• August 8, 2012
  Judy Chicago: Reviewing Powerplay
  ArtInfo.com, 08/08/2012
  
  


• August 1, 2012
  
  JUDY CHICAGO: REVIEWING POWERPLAY
  THE Magazine, August 2012
  Susan Wilder
  
  


• July 12, 2012
  Interrogating Heroic-Ness – and Judy Chicago’s Cultural Powers
  Adobe Airstream, 07/12/2012
  Ellen Berkovitch
  
  


• June 16, 2012
  Press Release - Judy Chicago "ReViewing PowerPlay"


• March 3, 2012
  THE CROCKER ART MUSEUM OPENS A SURVEY OF GROUNDBREAKING ARTIST JUDY CHICAGO
  Art Knowledge News, 03/03/2012
  
  


• February 23, 2012
  THE INAUGURAL PALM SPRINGS FINE ART FAIR FEATURES MORE THAN 2,000 POST-WAR & CONTEMPORARY WORKS
  Art Knowledge News, 02/15/2012
  
  


• February 5, 2012
  Press Release - Judy Chicago "Material Girl"


• December 12, 2011
  JUDY CHICAGO TO RECEIVE THE PALM SPRINGS FINE ART FAIR'S LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
  Visual Art Source, 12/12/2011
  
  


• October 30, 2011
  Q&A: JUDY CHICAGO
  Los Angeles Times, 10/30/2011
  Jori Finkel
  
  


• October 26, 2011
  JUDY CHICAGO'S UPCOMING DISAPPEARING ENVIRONMENTS: HOW DO YOU MAKE ART OUT OF GIGANTIC PYRAMIDS OF DRY ICE? LA Weekly, 10/26/2011
  
  


• June 20, 2011
  Press Release - Artist Judy Chicago Is Now Represented by David Richard Contemporary