Jake Lever - Do The Little Things

Jake Lever is a Birmingham-based artist who had an exhibition of Soul Boats at Birmingham Cathedral -  - for which he won an award for art in a religious context . I wrote a piece about the awards for Artlyst. and have made use of  Touching the Sacred: Creative Prayer Outlines for Worship and Reflection by Chris Thorpe and Jake Lever.

Jake Lever's 'Do the Little Things', a pandemic project is described here: 

‘Be joyful, keep the faith, and do the little things.’ St David 589 AD

Through the pandemic, I have wanted to connect with people I care about, but have often found myself lost for words, unsure what to say. Instead, I turned to making tiny golden boats, sending them to people as a kind of silent, wordless communication, heart to heart.

Some boats have symbolised my sadness at not being able to be physically present with people when they are facing challenges like illness and isolation. Some boats have expressed my wish to reach out ‘from a distance’ to people celebrating births, weddings and other joyful events. Other boats have been posted simply as a way of treasuring my friendships.

These small gestures - ‘little things’ - have started to form a web stretching far and wide, a visual expression of our universal human need for belonging and connection.

An invitation to join in: If you wish to be able to connect with those you care about by sending them a boat, I would be very happy to collaborate with you. By sending someone a handmade gilded boat (for whatever reason), you will be participating in 'Do the Little Things', a slowly evolving communal artwork. In time, these journeys will be anonymously charted as lines on an illuminated map of the world, a record of precious human relating.

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The Innocence Mission  - This Boat.