The art of worship
The art of worship
27 January 2017
For Lieutenant Nicole Park, painting is a form of worship, and she loves to encourage those who want to explore their gifts through this expression. Photos Stacey Brown
As soon as Lieutenant Nicole Park could hold a pencil, she was always “doodling” or trying to draw something.
Her dad, Bill, also loves drawing, and he would draw comic book and Disney characters and Nicole started to trace them. “Dad, who is a manual arts teacher, built me a light box, which I started using for tracing,” she explains. “This helped me to learn about shape and space and that kind of thing before I moved on to copying, and then working on my own creations.”
Nicole started out in cartooning, and her work was published a few times during high school. “I love the single cell black and white gag cartoons with a caption at the bottom,” she says. “That’s where I got my start.”
In senior high school, Nicole began venturing into painting and transferring what she’d learned about space and shape. She now loves painting acrylic on canvas and her favourite genre is Pop Art – taking popular culture and portraying it on canvas in big block colours.
“Live painting – painting during congregational worship – is, for me, participation in worship, that’s the way I express myself,” she says. “It’s like how someone might view music and just spontaneously dance. It’s the same with art. I will hear and experience the worship to God and that flows onto the canvas.”
Nicole also sees art as a therapeutic form of self expression.
Nicole shares that as she paints, she is reflecting both the singing and the message, as well as her response to it. “Sometimes I might come into worship with an image in mind, or if I know the topic of the session, that might give me some kind of direction,” she says. “Other times I might come in and not know what I’m going to paint and just pick a colour and start. That can be a bit scary and confronting! Sometimes my art is just me expressing myself, but if it’s congregational worship, there always turns out to be someone who is encouraged or moved by the painting.”
There are often times when Nicole looks at her work and thinks she could’ve done more on it. “I’m always my own worst critic but really, it’s about the process,” she says. “When I look at a piece, I’m more reminded about what was happening during the painting, what the brush strokes meant, or what was being said or sung when I painted that tree. There are lots of memories attached to my works, which are triggered when I look at them.”
During the SHE women’s weekend at The Collaroy Centre last June, Nicole painted [the image above] while Feby Chan, wife of Andrew Chan who was executed in Indonesia in 2015, gave her testimony.
“I started this from nothing,” Nicole explained. “Then the dark colour came to me, and the image of the tunnel – the tunnel of darkness and grief and turmoil that Feby was experiencing. She spoke about hope and trust in God’s plan, his love and his faithfulness, and that’s where the light came in. She is walking through darkness, carrying a lamp, and there is light ahead.”
As well as being an act of worship, art for Nicole is also therapeutic. She enjoys just playing music and painting, or waking up with an image in her head, and wanting to paint it.
Prior to officership, Nicole offered art as part of the Queensland Equip camp (formerly known as Queensland Performing Arts Camp). “It was great,” she explains. “There are lots of kids who don’t want to get up in front of others or aren’t gifted in music and performing arts, and want to express themselves, share in worship, and convey their thoughts and feelings. It was a real joy to be able to provide that avenue for kids, even those who had never painted before. I just facilitated their learning and got them to start, and to see the meaning it brought them was so rewarding.”
Nicole emphasises that painting is a valid form of worship and she enjoys being an encourager to those who want to explore their gifts in worship. “I love Ecclesiastes 9:10 that says, ‘Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might,’” she shares. “Art is literally in your hands, so just give it a go! Practice and learning new techniques is good and there is some excellent material out there, including on Netflix! Develop your own style; just do whatever it is that you find is your gift. You might not know you’re good at something until you try it.”
Helping others, particularly young people, find different forms of worship, both for themselves and in congregations, is of special importance to Nicole. “Growing up, a lot of older people gave me opportunities to try new things, which has given me an important avenue to express my faith,” she says. “I want to be able to do this for others.”
Nicole is the Director of Mission and Chaplain at The Salvation Army's Maybanke Aged Care Plus Centre in Sydney.
Comments
What a lovely story and a lovely young woman who is using her gift so effectively. It's great to see this live drawing during worship continued, but Nicole brings an additional dimension to her work by the on-the-spot inspiration. Great stuff!