Many recent conversations about the calamities of our times, brought this artist to mind. Dame Laura Knight (1877-1970) created around many subjects with many mediums. She fought for a place in the art world, another of the long list of men’s worlds. She became one of the most successful and popular artists in Britain claiming the path for women who followed. One of her honors was to be made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1929. She was also selected as a war artist in World War II embedded and recording realism with paint and brush. After the war she suggested she be sent to record the Nuremberg Trials. She sat in the court room for three months and created this painting, a departure from realism for impressionism as the walls of the court room fall away to reveal the destruction of the war-torn city outside. She said there was no way to ignore it or fail to document the devastation all around the room in which she sat.

The world was at war and an artist picked up her brush. She faced what was in front of her and shared her gifts under unthinkable circumstances. The message for us seems just that clear and just that elusive. What can we do? How can we admit what is happening all around us and creatively share what we have and know? Dame Laura Knight seems to have painted a charge for each us. With God’s guidance and gift, may we move toward what is and do what we can in community and commitment, in these times and in God’s name. Amen.

In gratitude, faith and hope,

Sandy Prouty  
Minister of Children and Families
Montview Church