Illuminating Experience

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Tue, 02 Oct 2018 01:33:11 +0000
St. Norbert College Publications, Uncategorized, illumination, Letty Mundt, Shan Bryan-Hanson, SNC Day, The Saint John's Bible

SNC Day at St. Norbert College in De Pere, Wis., on September 22, 2018.

Letty Mundt ’19, publications intern, was among many who lent their time and talents to help ensure that visitors to the 10th annual SNC Day had the best possible day out on campus. She recalls the experience in this guest post.

As the newest intern at the SNC Office of Communications, I’m beginning to dip my toes in the water of a field I never thought I’d find myself at the shores of: journalism. Reporting the facts and experiences I discover, fully grounded in realism.

When I’m off the college clock, I’m an author of a young-adult fantasy trilogy and an artist addicted to painting cats in human clothing. I write about elemental powers and alternate universes, and doodle trees in shades of outer space. My future is in creativity and imagination; I’m about as far away from realism as it gets. Taking an internship at this office excited me with its promise of learning about a different type of writing than I’m used to – but it also got me wondering where my creative flair might be of further use.

Volunteering in the Bush Art Center last Saturday for the SNC Day celebrations created this kind of opportunity for me. It gave me a chance to take a creative spin on the journalism process and produce, instead of an article, a blog post about the experience.

I arrived at the Art Center around noon, right smack in the middle of the festivities. Shan Bryan-Hanson, our college curator and my former painting professor, put me in charge of monitoring the arts and crafts table, where guests – mostly younger children – had the opportunity to create an “illuminated name” out of markers and stamps. Students were given a stencil of the first letter of their name in an extravagant Gothic style, and could then color the rest of their name alongside it – with tools that included shimmering golden paint markers, to help create the “illuminated” effect.

This year our campus celebrates the Year of The Saint John’s Bible, with its Heritage Edition: The Gospels a tangible and contemporary example of an illuminated manuscript currently on display here. An illuminated manuscript by definition is a work in which the text is supplemented with gold outlining, border decorations, illustrations and other exaggerated decorations. As a non-religious person but a lover of fine art, I am fascinated with the idea of illumination from an artistic standpoint, and what it means for a black and white text or idea to be suddenly flooded with new colors, symbols and reverence. To me, illuminating something conveys a sense of ultimate respect – making the manuscript unique and sacred. So what does it mean that the art center wanted to allow the children of our community to illuminate their name?

As I interpret it, the idea of illumination producing a “sacred” product transcends any old art project the center could have put forth for SNC Day. In inviting kids to illuminate their names, SNC celebrates the concept of individual identity in itself being sacred. Every member of our community is a flesh-and-blood “manuscript” deserving of embellishment and uniqueness – a true contemplation of self. The idea is very in-line with the focus on expression that SNC has always advocated for. Thus it’s a perfect fit for SNC Day, where members of the community come to see what our college is all about. Whether this was an intentional connection by Shan and the art department or not, I love the sentiment of it and had a fabulous two hours assisting the table.

Every kid who came to illuminate their name had something wholly their own to add to their masterpiece. While most went the traditional route of coloring in the letters with marker and embellishing those colors with gold ink, everyone still had their own fresh take on the idea of illumination. Some students referenced their name’s lower-case letters from the calligraphy books Shan had on-hand, while others used their own handwriting to complete their name. Some filled in entire letters with gold, while a few used gold only for the most delicate outer tracings. And, of course, the youngest children could barely stay inside the lines, but still presented their creations proudly to their families as a representation of not only their names, but themselves.

No matter the style or flair, the illuminations of SNC Day were certainly worthy of being proud of. Above all, SNC Day is a celebration of community, of identity – and illumination is, in a way, an expression of that as well. As a momentary escape from the realism of everyday campus life and a pull back to my creative roots, I enjoyed this headfirst tumble into the illuminated, wildly-imaginative festivities of the Bush Art Center.