Upfront December 5, 2011 Issue

Stones and light

Ingrid Peschke, Managing Editor

I first visited Berlin in 1992, nearly three years after the wall came down. In many ways, the city was still frozen in time. The former communist East side canvassed the city in cold, gray concrete, lacking color and identity. And the West radiated the vibrant, modern edgy side of Berlin. Since that trip, I’ve thought of Berlin as a metaphor for art and Soul. When the wall came down artists began to occupy the former East. They moved into abandoned warehouses, set up studios, and created their art. They were “freeing the angel”—as Jeffrey Hildner points out in our lead story this week—within the city and within themselves. 

In truth, Soul, God, is never absent from our lives. Several times since that early 90s’ trip, I’ve returned to Berlin to a transformed city. My sister-in-law was one of those artists who moved into a warehouse and continues to live and work in the former East today. A person who’s inspired her career is the author of our cover art—a painting by German artist Anneliese Everts, my husband and sister-in-law’s great-aunt. Anneliese spent her life devoted to her craft, one among other artists in West Germany who animated the post-World War II landscape. The watercolor on our cover is part of a series she did called “Steine und Licht” (“Stones and Light”) from her travels in southern France in 1960. In her description of the series, she says the rock can’t block the infinite expression of light and its “kostbare Farben”—valuable, precious colors.

Sometimes we may feel that the expression of creativity is hidden in our lives. And yet behind those “stones” the light, Soul’s artistry, is there. From an architect and painter, a cake decorator, and a musician, this issue showcases artists looking through the Soul-inspired lens of Christian Science. 

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