Studio PMC - Rio Grande

Speaking to the
Spirit
by Suzanne Wade
The intersection of faith and art is a busy one. You can find artists there from every
faith tradition and artistic medium, as varied in their work and their motivations
as the pilgrims in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales.
You don't have to create sacred objects or rely on religious symbolism to be drawing on
the wellsprings of faith and sprituality. For many of the PMC artists profiled here, it is the
the act of creation itself that speaks to the spirit.
"We all have the spirit of creativity," says Linda Kline. "We just have to allow ourselves
to be open, a channel for that expansiveness. God is the Creator, and he created all of us in
his likeness, so how can we not be creators It's just a matter of finding your passion."
For these artists, PMC has become the means of articulating what is powerful in their
lives. The results are beautiful and as unique as the spirits that created them.
Martha Biggar
Martha Biggar makes PMC crosses
rooted in her Presbyterian faith and
adorned with the quilt patterns of her
Appalachian home.
“My faith is very traditional and very
conservative in a lot of ways, although I'm
not always a conservative person," she
says. "But my beliefs are pretty well
grounded and I like to use the basic cross
emblem, and then push the shape a little
farther than the standard.”
She began making crosses in her very
first PMC class, weaving together strands
of Original PMC into a cross shape. The
first pieces were small, delicate crosses, but
she has also done bolder crosses in this
way. “I've done some very masculine
pieces, with strands almost pencil width
extruded and woven, three bars across and
three up and down,” she says.
Raised in a strongly Protestant part of
the country, her crosses are the empty
crosses commonly found in Presbyterian
churches, rather than the crucifix more
common in Roman Catholic symbolism.
“My husband is Catholic, and he likes the
forms of the crucifix, but I was always
brought up with an empty cross,” she says.
“So I try to keep the empty cross image
and try to do other things with it. [For
example], I will have an impression of
grasses twined around the base of an
empty cross and growing up, like grass
grows in the field.”
She began making Jerusalem crosses, a
square cross with four equal arms, five
years ago, after being inspired by a piece
brought back from Jerusalem. “I saw a
beautiful gold cross that an older lady I
knew had purchased in Jerusalem,”
Martha says. “It was intricate and I really
liked the design and shape. I had seen
Jerusalem crosses around for a long time,
but hers really set me off [in a new design
direction.]”
The large canvas that the arms of the
Jerusalem cross provided also gave her an
opportunity to incorporate the quilt patterns
that are a staple of the Appalachian
community where she lives. “Quilting surrounds
people around here, even for my
students who are more urban,” she says.
“Everyone has lots of quilts, so I've incorporated
a lot of those patterns into my work.”
As with a quilt, Martha joins together a
wide variety of themes, including quilts
and frequent references to nature, in her
body of work. “I think my creativity is a big
part of my spiritual life,” she says. “I was
raised on a farm, and so I was really aware
of the plants around me, the seasons, and
the weather. I think that's all just a part of
how I see creation. When I take images and
make them into jewelry, whether it's as
simple as a leaf or something that is very
complex and takes much more thought,
that's a little part of the spiritual me.”
6 · Studio PMC