Singing Light. 2001.
Photo collage, ink, thread, silver leaf on paper. 11 x 14 in.
Singing forth the spirit
By Terri Dowell-Dennis
Tongues on Fire : Visions and Ecstasy Exhibition Catalogue
Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art
SECCA's Artist and the Community project with Lesley Dill has truly been a spiritual journey. Over a period of sixteen months the artist, museum staff, and community members have traveled a path illuminated by faith, sharing openly and trusting in the beauty and integrity of Dill's vision.
I first met Lesley Dill in January 2000. She had come to Winston-Salem to test the viability of an idea: She wished to create a community-based project that would encompass people of diverse ages, ethnicities, and backgrounds, unifying them through the language of visionary experience. The project's title would be Tongues on Fire.
"I suppose those of us involved in the arts are all visionaries to a degree," Dill says. "We see, apprehend, something in our minds. And instead of just letting it be, we meditate these ideas into the world in tangible form. It is these fruits of interior visualization, poetry and art, and their relationship to each other, that has driven and inspired my work for some time...It's the language of visions-be it in dreams or unusual sensory experiences, spontaneous vocalizations, or uncontrolled bodily movements-that I'm interested in investigating in the community of Winston-Salem...I would like to have people tell me their stories."