Art Trail and St John's Seven Kings

Today I gave a group from the Friends of Valence House a tour of the artwork at St John's Seven Kings. On the tour they saw our windows from the Kempe and Whitefriars Studios as well as work by Louis B. Davis, Derek Hunt, Viki Isherwood-Metzler and Sergiy Shkanov.

The group's leader said, "I would like to thank you for conducting a tour round St John's Church this afternoon for us. I know that all those who came had a most enjoyable afternoon and we learnt a lot; we all appreciated the time and effort you put in to it - many thanks. We look forward to seeing you again in May and hearing your talk."

The group made contact with us as a result of exploring the Art Trail for the Barking Episcopal Area and the talk that I am scheduled to give to them in May is about that Trail.

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U2 - Every Breaking Wave.

New mosaics for St Johns

Newly commissioned mosaics have been installed at St John's Seven Kings this week which complete the work we have done to create a community garden. Both mosaics were commissioned through commission4mission.

Graffiti Love, installed on the east wall of the church, has been created by Viki Isherwood-Metzler, who learnt the art of mosaic in Ravenna, Italy and worked until 2001 as a mosaic maker in Zurich, Switzerland from where she comes. Since 2002 she has lived and worked in London and undertakes all kinds of commissioned mosaic work in marble, glass, ceramics, terracotta and pebble stones. Graffiti Love is made with smalti glass and the image comes from a series of images utilising words with graffit stylings.

The Trinity sculpture, in the remembrance area of the community garden, was designed by the community garden planning group and incorporates a mosaic by Sergiy Shkanov. Shkanov is a professional artist working in the fields of stained glass, murals, mosaics, painting, graphic arts, and book illustration. He is a tutor of Fine Arts, has participated in group shows across Europe since 1987, and holds numerous personal exhibitions in the United Kingdom. He undertakes art commissions for private and corporative clients. The Trinity sculpture includes three granite shapes representing the three persons of the Trinity set within the circles and triangles of Shkanov's mosaic which represents lines of exchange and connection within and between the godhead.  

Both mosaics will be dedicated by the Bishop of Barking at tomorrow's Patronal Festival service at St John's Seven Kings (10.00am).

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Keith Green - Stained Glass.

C4M webpage update (12)

This week on the commission4mission webpage we have information about two openings with which we are involved.

The first was the opening of Café Refresh at St Andrews Leytonstone last Saturday. commission4mission's exhibition at St Andrew's from 5th - 16th July will launch their creative programme – Reflect – which will run alongside the café.

The second was the opening of our current exhibition at All Saints Church, Church Street, West Ham, London E15 3HU, from 20th - 27th June, as part of the West Ham Festival.

Finally, we also have a post about our newest artist member who is mosaicist, Viki Isherwood-Metzler. To see a good range of Viki's work click on the link here to view images on her website.

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Television - Marquee Moon.