Frank Stella (b. 1936) is a American painter, printmaker and sculptor of the Minimalist Movement. He is an artist of international acclaim with works and exhibitions in museums and galleries around the world. Frank Stella’s art reflects his growth and experimentation. He first found success with paintings and prints of flat, colorful, mainly geometric designs. He then added the element of form giving depth to his works. He first implied this form in flat works with drawing techniques, overlapping and stacking his various design sections. Stella then continued to actual form in pieces like The Musket. Here his various design sections are attached to each other to create a work that extends 33 inches from the wall. This wall sculpture seems to pull us closer as its remarkable variety of line, color and shape twists and bends before us. Our curiosity about the title may also!

Stella, with his continued imagination pushing again and again to the edge of his current work and beyond, can call each of us to also keep moving in what we do and love and in our lives of faith. What can we add or subtract? What needs to bend before it breaks? How can we move closer to God and to the people in our lives? What comes next?

May we pray these questions and listen closely for the spirit’s answers. Amen.

In gratitude, faith and hope,

Sandy Prouty
Minister of Children and Families
Montview Church