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Looking at Chairs in Cathedrals,

Seeing Crosses in WindowsBy Josh Duncan

Dear CBC Family,

This summer, I traveled to France with other art students in

Concordia University’s biennial school trip. During the first

two days, we visited places around the French countryside

 before staying in Paris for a week.

One of our first stops included Omaha beach, whereAmerican troops landed during D-Day. We also saw the

memorial and chapel built to honor the American soldiers

who died. The sight of the soldiers’ graves reminded me of 

the courageous soldiers who are fighting now, and I told the

group I was proud to be the grandson of Dick Dunkelberger.Those who fought in WWII truly were the greatest

generation, and there are times when I feel my generationcould use more of the physical and moral courage shown by

our grandparents.

We visited several cathedrals, including Notre Dame and Chartes, all of which were full of 

sculpture, paintings and stained glass windows. In Paris, we visited all the standard tourist sites

(Eiffel Tower, Arc d’Triumph), but I spent most of my time in art museums.

In both the cathedrals and the museums, I noticed people doing

something which bothered me. A lot of people stand in front of a painting or stained glass window, snap a quick pic, then move

on to the next thing. I caught myself doing this in the cathedral

at Rouen. I was so busy lining up my photos and looking at thewindow on my little electronic screen, I wasn’t spending any

time looking at the real thing with my own eyes.

So, I made an effort to see things with my own eyes. I waited before I snapped photos of paintings and windows, and I started

taking photos of unusual things. For example: chairs. When you

are in a cathedral, you wouldn’t think chairs would be aninteresting thing to look at when there is a lot of expensive art

around you. However, some of my strongest photographs were

of seemingly plain things, like chairs and windows.

All of God’s creation is wondrous. It’s easy to look at sunsets or mountains and think about the

 beauty of God’s creation, but why don’t we do that when we look at ugly things, like rottinglogs? They’re part of God’s creation too. I’ve been writing about a wonderful artist, Reinhold

Marxhausen, who distinguishes between looking at something and seeing something. Looking at

things is easy. We look to check that our cars are in the garage. Seeing things is very hard. You

 Normandy American

Cemetery and Memorial(The words at the base of this

sculpture read, “Mine eyes have

seen the glory of the coming of the

Lord”)

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might have to look at that rotting log for a while before you see something beautiful about it!

“Seeing” is about noticing things that you wouldn’t notice with a casual glance.

The tourists in the museums snapping photos are looking

 briefly at the art works, but they are not taking the timeto really see them. I took a photo of a broken window

with some tape slapped on it. Noticed that the tape is in

the shape of the cross. This cross reminded me of 

Christ’s sacrifice more strongly than any of the Medieval jeweled crosses that museums collect. Pictured below is

a window in the Louvre museum which had a rip in the

curtain. It happened to be the reliquary room, but itglowed with a golden color more beautiful than any of 

the golden objects made to venerate “holy relics.”

All of the cathedrals had icons. For a few euros, you could buy a candle, place it in front of theicon, and offer a prayer. I guess the candle is supposed to give your prayer more firepower.

That’s not a Biblical idea. God is omnipresent. He hears your prayer just as easily in thewilderness as He does in a cathedral.

Therefore, I encourage all of you to make an effort to see thewonders of God’s creation, especially in the places you think it’s

least likely to be. Plain chairs, ripped curtains, broken windows, the

world often defines these things as ugly rather than beautiful. But

when the sun hits chairs just right, it can create a wonderful shape of light and shadow, as it did in the bottom photo. In a moment, the

effect was gone. Just as our time on this earth is fleeting, so are the

awesome effects created by light. If you don’t see these effects while

they are here, the sun will move and you will miss your chance.

As a Christian who works as an artist, I believe God created humansto be creative, to write and draw and sing. Both C.S. Lewis and

J.R.R. Tolkien wrote about man’s creativity. Lewis was brought to

Christ in part because of his older brother’s artistic creativity.

Tolkien coined the term “sub-creation.” God created the universe outof nothing, while man must use raw materials to sub-create. Artists

sub-create when they use clay or paints to make a work of art.

Authors and musicians are also sub-creators.

In order to sub-create, we have to draw inspiration from God’sworld. You can do this just as easily in Nebraska as you can inFrance. I am thankful I was able to make this trip. I came home full

of inspiration and energy to create art, and I plan on visiting France

again as well as other countries. But even if I never get a chance totravel again, there is more wonder in God’s creation right here in

 Nebraska than I could ever find or paint in a lifetime.