Ezer Kenegdo
Reviving the Stories of Our Christian Matriarchs
in the American Evangelical Church
Research Problem
Many modern American evangelical Christians are often unaware of the historic contributions of Christian matriarchs. Which can lead many people to miss the potential impact female leaders and congregants can have within the Church and Kingdom of God. The silencing of women’s experiences throughout history has additionally caused ongoing issues of identity and belonging that needs to be addressed. This is an issue that I have personally witnessed, and it has broader implications throughout the entire Christian church body.
Literature Review
The historical suppression of women’s contributions, namely those of foundational Christian matriarchs, has had significant impact on the way that women function and are perceived in modern evangelicalism. With the establishment of hierarchal leadership in the early Church, the roles that women were operating in were pushed to the periphery or even written out altogether. Since the establishment of the Christian Church as an institution, doctrine on women’s inclusion in Church authority has been informed or interpreted through cultural grids rather than a thorough analysis of Scripture. This has led to a diminished and inaccurate view of women that has limited their potential to serve the Kingdom of God, in their callings. Both genders suffer when women are kept from fulfilling their God ordained gifts of leadership. Men are kept from learning any wisdom from female teachers and any biblical insight from over half of the congregation. In keeping with all discernment, relevancy, life experience, and appropriateness for the occasion, there are role models for each gender in each gender (Hughes 140).
Visual Research
Once the historical timeline of the problem had been established, the next step was collecting and analyzing data from varying sources that would help develop a visual solution. For this project, case studies and visual analyses were curated and examined. They were then applied to the proposed visual solution to ensure its success. Case studies are a record of research in which highly detailed consideration is given to the development of a project or campaign. This method is very helpful during the exploratory phase of the research to compare successes and failures of applied visual methods from other’s work. I completed three case studies, determining the strengths and weaknesses of varying solutions from similar projects and organizations; namely the Bible Project, The Junia Project, and the Visual Museum of Women in Christianity. Next a visual analysis of three physical pieces was completed to understand these works by examining their differing elements and how they were arranged to create a singular whole. This informed my own work by creating a foundational understanding of how each visual element would unify the thesis as entire collection.
Visual Solution
As Christian matriarchs are not often represented in the modern American evangelical church, my goal was to create a visual solution that would connect modern viewers to these women in a way that was captivating, yet true to the humanity of their stories. This project’s aim was to communicate that their dedication to spreading the Gospel and loving others through service was significant enough to memorialize and share with others. These faithful women would serve as role models to modern evangelicals— encouraging them in their own faith journeys and setting a historical precedent for women in ministerial leadership roles.
After completing some research on visual mediums throughout church history, I decided that my deliverables would include a large, faux “stained glass” frame depicting seven historical Christian matriarchs, accompanied by digital illustrations, and a 5x7 booklet describing their contributions to the Christian faith. From initial sketches to the final coats of cured resin, my goal for this solution was twofold: to encourage evangelical women through the retelling of others’ stories and to emphasize that all— regardless of gender—have a purpose in the Kingdom of God.
Faux Stained Glass
The choice from my initial visual stemmed from visual research on art pieces used in churches, primarily focusing on stained glass windows. Not only are stained glass windows aesthetically beautiful, they serve a second purpose of conveying narrative simply yet effectively. These pieces, created with the intention of showcasing individuals or moments of faithfulness, ultimately point the viewer back to remembrance to the glory of God. Of course, as this art medium is so tied to religious imagery; it only made sense to create pieces that were reminiscent of this style.
I chose to create my faux stained glass frame with acrylic and epoxy resin to bring the timeless artistic practice of stained- glass imagery into the current age with mediums that modern audiences were familiar with. Additional tools and materials used in this project, including a laser printer and software such as Procreate and Illustrator, are so current, this project could not have been produced before the past decade. However, shape language, design, and patterns of stained glass have been essential to the medium since its inception. Bringing these elements together were representative of the synthesis of our foundational matriarchs paired with the modern church to create something new, beautiful, and meaningful.
When I initially started this stained glass frame project, my idea a was to create seven separate, smaller “stained glass” portraits that would have no interaction with one another. Most of my visual research leaned in this direction, showcasing works that focused on a central figure.
However, as I worked through the sketches for the Joan of Arc Panel, I realized it might be more visually interesting to combine them into one large piece.
As this idea formed, I sketched out a very rough schematic for a singular frame, thinking through the design for each panel and how they'd fit together as a whole.
Once I got a rough idea finalized, I figured out the size of the frame by laying 12x20 black acrylic panels on the floor, which ended being almost 5 and a half feet long by 3 feet wide!
From this point forward the remainder of my sketches reflected the idea frame- each of them molding into the shape of the panel rather than individual pieces.
At this point in the process, I was also throwing down thumbnails for the digital illustration element of the project.
However, after some feedback, I realized I could reuse a lot of my thumbnails for those digital illustrations and I could move on to the next stage of the project!
I exported my thumbnails into an illustration software on my Ipad called Procreate and started a more detailed version of the sketches, called roughs. Even though this wasn't the final version, it was exciting to see the piece start to take shape!
Next, I carefully outlined my roughs with a monoline pen. Using this pen was intended to keep the line weights consistent, as the differing weights would show up when cut on the laser. When I had finished lining everything on one layer, I added a second one underneath that I would use for color.
I exported the finished drawing from Procreate as a pdf, dropped it into Adobe Illustrator, and ran it through the image trace function. This broke it into usable pieces that I could ungroup and regroup to make sure everything would fit together when printed.
I kept the original image as a reference then copied and pasted a second image to break apart into black frames and colored pieces that would be cut from their corresponding colored acrylic sheets.
Once these files were ready, I exported them as svgs, a laser ready file, and named by their color. For the black frames I used the names of the women they depicted to keep it clear which section I was working on at any point in time. Finally it was time to move this part of the project from the digital space to the physical!
As exciting as it was, I was also nervous to get started on this step, since anything after this point couldn’t be a quick fix on the computer. Everything would need to go as right as it could in order to meet the rapidly approaching deadlines.
I placed the first black acrylic sheet into the printer of the laser bed, put my file into x-tool’s makers-space, punched in the proper cut settings, and hit print!
About 15 minutes later the first panel had been cut! After this first step, the process became relatively straightforward. Upload file, select settings, hit print, remove panel, push out loose pieces, unmask both sides, and clean out the laser bed until all ten black panels were done.
Once that was complete, I switched over to cutting the colored sheets of acrylic. This process was the same for the black pieces, with an additional step of varying the cut settings slightly depending upon color in the laser bed.
After a lot of cutting, peeling, puzzling and a couple of recuts later, the frame was complete. The next thing to tackle would be encasing each panel in a two-part epoxy resin that would make these separate pieces, one unified whole.
However, before pouring any resin, I had to wipe down each of the panels to ensure they were free of all debris and saw dust. Since I had been working in a space that was normally a wood shop- I probably cleaned them each about five or six separate times.
From previous trial and error with resin, I knew I was going to need some kind of system to keep it contained, while it was in its liquid state. Using old wood scraps and yellow electrical tape my dad helped me put together simple molds that would hold the resin until it cured enough to work with in a more solid state.
I carefully poured the two-part resin mixture evenly over the pieces and smoothed it out until it was all a single glassy layer, using a popsicle stick that came with the kit to stir the mixture. Then, I popped any bubbles that had formed during the mixing process with a heat gun before letting it sit.
Much like cutting out the acrylic, once we found a rhythm, the process became repetitive and straightforward. I would pour equal parts A&B of the resin mixture into a cup and my dad would set a three minute timer as I stirred.
When the timer was up, I would pour the resin and smooth it out to make an even surface. Then, finish out that panel by popping the bubbles in the resin.
We rinsed and repeated this process for all ten frames before letting them set to cure for twenty-four hours.
However, we learned in order to break the frames out of the molds, we found that we couldn’t let them sit for much longer than that twenty-four hour time limit.
During this stage of curing, they were slightly pliable around the edges, which allowed us to run a blade in the small space between the wood and acrylic. Then we could gently snap the molds off and sand down the rough edges to create a smooth, finished looking surface.
Unlike traditional stained glass, this piece was not meant to be viewed from both sides. As resin floods down into the piece, it creates a finished looking top edge, but tends to leave pockets and bubbles on the backside. It also pushes against the pieces of acrylic, leaving minuscule cracks between the black frames and colored pieces that made the piece look unfinished.
To address both of these issues, I used quick drying, black epoxy spray paint. To start, I sanded the back with a gentle grit sand paper for the spray paint to adhere to.
Next, I followed that by masking off the front of the panels with paper and blue painter’s tape, before taking them outside.
I gave each of them a couple of coats until the back was sufficiently opaque. I was concerned that the wind was going to cause issues, but thankfully the paint was so quick drying, I was done with the first three panels in less than ten minutes.
After pulling the masking off, aside from minor touch ups, that were completed the following week, the frame was finally complete!
After weeks of hard work, stress, and more than a couple of mistakes along the way, seeing the finished frame was extremely gratifying. I was proud of the work that had been accomplished.
Digital Illustrations
When I first started considering what my deliverables for this project, would be, I knew that digital illustrations of the Christian matriarchs would be an important component. After additional research and feed back, I found that stained glass depicting scenes in churches are typically very detailed, whereas my faux stained glass piece couldn’t be, due to the nature of using acrylic plastic as a medium. Creating these digital illustrations provides a simulation of the piece if it was created in the traditional manner.
One benefit of using a digital medium for these illustrations was being able to add textures, patterns, and effects that can be seen in traditional stained glass, while maintaining my own personal illustration style.
Booklet
As one of the most important aspects of this project was emphasizing the remembrance of our Christian matriarchs, I wanted to create a deliverable that “stuck” with my audience. The faux stained glass frame and the digital illustrations are striking statement pieces, but at the end of the day, they would remain at the gallery. Creating this booklet provided a tangible piece that would travel with the viewers, reminding them that they —much like these women— had a role to fulfill in the Kingdom of God. This deliverable encapsulated the heart of the project and represented the matriarchs’ narratives in a physical way. By putting these women’s stories in a book, I wanted to communicate that their lives were worth remembering, worth sharing with other people.
This booklet containing each of these women’s stories was intentionally written in a short, digestible format, to be both an easy but memorable read. My goal with this booklet, much like my other deliverables, was to create a piece of media that would encourage women and men to boldly share the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and get involved in changing their communities, just as the women before them did.
