The Gospel in Garbage and Paint
Recently, I visited the At Dawn on First Day exhibit at Gallery W83, by Noemia Marinho and the Gleaning Project.
Noemia Marinho is a self-taught Brazilian artist. Her journey first began when she moved to NYC and visited galleries with her son; and, inspired by what they saw, they began to experiment with making art out of discarded materials.
“Ironically”, she said, her “sexist” upbringing of learning only homemaking skills (like sewing and ironing) lent itself to a self-sustaining creative practice.
And when she started volunteering at the Salvation Army Soup Kitchen, she quickly realized that low-income New Yorkers needed more than just food – they needed dignified trades for investing in themselves. So she started The Gleaning Project: a weekly class where she guides low-income New Yorkers into making art out of discarded materials.
Noemia’s hope, as described on the Gallery’s website, “is to inspire others to share a vision of life that believes nothing is wasted, and radical transformation is possible.”
In her gallery, creatives practices, and in The Gleaning Project, this redemptive vision is clear.
I walked through a gallery filled with plastic bottles, tea bags, milk cartons, and aluminum foil — but because of the artist behind them, I could see them as so much more. Used teabags displayed a range of colors and textures. Paper milk cartons framed cloudy shapes. Crumpled aluminum foil made colorful paints glitter.
What I saw as disposable and useless, Noemia saw as purposeful and beautiful. I would never look at an empty, soggy milk carton and think anything of it. But she could see the carton as a piece of art.
At Dawn on First Day was a collection of transformed trash. Disposable materials were given meaning and value as it was sewn, painted, and arranged into worshipful artworks.
It was a reenactment of the gospel through garbage.
What is the gospel? Without Jesus, we are dead; but he make us alive again.
We are powerless to our mistakes, and we struggle to achieve good. We are like spent, discarded materials. But Noemia’s artworks remind us of the good news of Jesus. Just as she sees beyond the materials’ immediate state, so Jesus sees beyond our unworthiness towards our purposeful, beautiful renewal.
He, the Master Artist, has found us. And if we give ourselves to him and allow him to work, he will make masterpieces out of our lives. He will make dead things alive.
At Dawn on First Day was an incredible gift of faith. I walked away with an inspired excitement for God’s power and redemptive purposes — in my life and in the lives of people I love.
You can learn more about Noemia Marinho and The Gleaning Project here: https://noemiamarinho.com/
