art strengthening community

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Lauren’s spiritual art practise involves facilitating group art projects that strengthen a community through a shared activity.

This happens primarily at Unicamp of Ontario Incorporated, in Honeywood  and Neighbourhood Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Toronto. Other locations have benefitted from this experience as well.

All of these works were  made by many hands over the course of a day or a month. The design and preliminary drawing  were done by Lauren. The facilitation and workshoping  of the project were over seen by Lauren. The impetus is twofold. The community works together to make something beautiful and the space it resides in is improved by the work.

Drawings by groups of people. All done in one sitting under 2 hours. 

Paintings by groups of people . Done over many days  and the premise is paint only the square   or  paint nothing larger than your palm. 

Sculptural works by groups required much more planning, budget, design and building by Lauren.

The Compass Firepit  2012 was the first experiment as a large earth work. The premise was – the existing fire pit area –  was a very uneven surface and many tripping hazards. So why not make it beautiful and flat and  not just functional. This involved a weekend of hard labour, a backhoe, 40 people with picks and shovels, a dump truck of sand and red wood chips, some 2″x4″ cedar and a bunch of rocks. There was also a building project making 15 wooden benches to live at the fire pit.  You face north when looking at the trees. 

The Call to the Four Elements was created in 2013-2015. This installation was to activate a space in the Neighbourhood Unitarian Universalist Congregations Sanctuary that was not beautiful. The three main elements were: The Tree of Stewardship 2013, made from plywood, cut, carved, and stained. 8’x 8′. It represents the land, the earth, which we should care for. The second part was the Solar Egg 2014, 4’x6′ sheet of plexiglass with acrylic paint representing the sun and fire which supports all life on earth. The final two elements were Air and Water2014- 2015. This aspect was made by many in the congregation over a series of group workshops with children, youth group, choir and individuals making pieces of the quilt.  Then pieced together by Lauren in a large 16′ x 29′ quilt. Its irregular shape was in part due to the shape of the space – a peaked roof but also irregular pieces made by congregants. After Neighbourhood moved to its new location at 310 Danforth the space could not support such a large quilt. In 2022 the Air and Water Quilt was re-worked by Lauren along with the help of Joan Walder. They cut up and added more embellishments and details to create eight panels all about 24″ wide and all 10’6 tall. 

Capital Campaign Trees 2015-2019  The raising of funds is always important in faith groups. Both Neighbourhood Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Toronto  and Unicamp of Ontario Incorporated asked me to  build a tree out of plywood that would be a place to hold d names of  donors on leaves. The community was given several hundred wooden leaves to paint and then once someone donated funds Lauren would put the names or message on the leaves. The leaves were then installed on the trees branches. 

*2020 Capital Campaign Tree for Neighbourhood  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZLOsua75Qw 

 2019 Capital Campaign tree for Unicamp, film by Jeff Baker, Music by Michael Moon “Fairies of the Morning”, installation of leaves, Greg Carter, Lee Horton-Carter, Lauren McKinley Renzetti and David Renzetti  https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Tj1ikcQ-jHFR4lRDoiGW482_S6z5hqzA/view?usp=sharing 

Fairy Doors of Land Stewardship 2021-2023. This project consisted of casting 100 concrete fairy doors from two silicone molds. The casting was done from September 2020-June 2021. Then cleaned up, and painted with  white concrete paint. At Unicamp, Campers were asked to paint one fairy door and then place it somewhere on Unicamp property where no other fairy doors were in view. The premise, was the painter of the fairy door then needed to ensure that part of Unicamp was always devoid of garbage and safe for people to visit. The notion of Stewardship was introduced to all ages. One hundred  people participated and the doors are still all over the 58 acres of Unicamp.

 Commission Work 2003- NOW 

At Unicamp Lauren has been the  the Artist in Residence on and off since  2003 -Now. To help beautify spaces at Unicamp and at Neighbourhood Unitarian Universalist Congregation. Lauren is commissioned on occasion  to make pieces for specific areas. This tradition of Religious spaces Supporting the Artists has been around for over 2000 years.

Yesteryears Then and Now  2018  was a commissioned to commemorate the Leslieville News Paper . The piece started with a map of the neighbourhood then had specific newspaper clippings installed in the way of buildings on the streets , over the entire thing modelling paste and acrylic paint was painted to createa glaze and to pull out the form of an  Apple tree. 

Yester Years Here and Now, collage installation, 2017

click here to see related article called Finding wonder with a pencil                     

 click here to see art  made in community 

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