FOR THE BEAUTY OF THE EARTH, COMMUNITY MENNONITE CHURCH OF LANCASTER, 2022-2023
For the Beauty of the Earth has many beginnings. One beginning being the creative vision of congregants like Marty Kelley who upon seeing the blank wall felt the pull for creative intervention. Another beginning being the early conversations of what would become the mural steering committee (Marty Kelley, Melanie Yoder-Salim, Chad Martin, and Leslie Homer-Cattell). Formally, began in the Fall of 2021 with a series of community engagements led by Salina Almanzar-Oree. Neighbors, Community Mennonite Church members, and passers by were welcome to contribute to mind maps and creative prompts with a goal of finding common themes that might inform the final mural. In late Fall of 2021, Salina distilled the feedback, artworks, and conversations into three sketches and held another series of engagements to co-edit the drawings. One image emerged and became the final mock-up of For the Beauty of the Earth.
With the building under construction, Salina translated the drawings to mural cloth (Polytab, a non-woven material used to remotely paint murals and large scale paintings) and brought them to the Parrot Gallery through the Winter of 2021 and into 2022. CMCL members were invited to help paint the mural in a paint-by-number model in 5ft x 5ft increments. The panels were then cleaned up by Salina in her studio and saved for installation.
The mural was installed over 8 days in the Summer of 2023 with the help of artist Osmyn Josef Oree and many CMCL members.
SYMBOLISM IN For the Beauty of the Earth
For the Beauty of the Earth is drawn in a simplified style inspired by stained glass art. The major symbols include a Sanborn Fire Insurance map that depicts the area around what was the Conn & Slote Printing Company (nearest the head of the parrot). Surrounding the Conn & Slote building are other businesses and residences present at the time of the creation of the map (1912). The main figure soaring from left to right is a parrot, the symbol adopted by Community Mennonite Church as a metaphor for the Holy Spirit. The parrot is also a universal symbol for many Lancaster City community members as a symbol of migration, the vibrancy of our diverse community, and a reminder for many of the various species of parrots from their home countries. The background is a snapshot of community members walking and occupying the parking lot and Grant Street and Concord Street intersection in various states of play. This was an important element to many neighbors as they reflected on how free and playful their childhoods were growing up on the block. In the foreground are papaws and leaves as a stand in for our native agriculture. Inside of the papaws and leaves are vignettes borrowed from LancasterHistory’s archive of images. Included in the vignettes from top to bottom and left to right are:
The title borrows the first line of the hymn of the same name, For the Beauty of the Earth, by Folliott S. Pierpoint, 1835–1917.
Co-written by Chad Martin, Marty Kelley, Melanie Yoder Salim, and Salina Almanzar-Oree
With the building under construction, Salina translated the drawings to mural cloth (Polytab, a non-woven material used to remotely paint murals and large scale paintings) and brought them to the Parrot Gallery through the Winter of 2021 and into 2022. CMCL members were invited to help paint the mural in a paint-by-number model in 5ft x 5ft increments. The panels were then cleaned up by Salina in her studio and saved for installation.
The mural was installed over 8 days in the Summer of 2023 with the help of artist Osmyn Josef Oree and many CMCL members.
SYMBOLISM IN For the Beauty of the Earth
For the Beauty of the Earth is drawn in a simplified style inspired by stained glass art. The major symbols include a Sanborn Fire Insurance map that depicts the area around what was the Conn & Slote Printing Company (nearest the head of the parrot). Surrounding the Conn & Slote building are other businesses and residences present at the time of the creation of the map (1912). The main figure soaring from left to right is a parrot, the symbol adopted by Community Mennonite Church as a metaphor for the Holy Spirit. The parrot is also a universal symbol for many Lancaster City community members as a symbol of migration, the vibrancy of our diverse community, and a reminder for many of the various species of parrots from their home countries. The background is a snapshot of community members walking and occupying the parking lot and Grant Street and Concord Street intersection in various states of play. This was an important element to many neighbors as they reflected on how free and playful their childhoods were growing up on the block. In the foreground are papaws and leaves as a stand in for our native agriculture. Inside of the papaws and leaves are vignettes borrowed from LancasterHistory’s archive of images. Included in the vignettes from top to bottom and left to right are:
- An example of a printing press that would have been used at the Conn & Slote printing company
- An image of protestors outside of Rocky Springs pool, a segregated pool in August of 1963
- A map of our nearest waterways
- The Community Mennonite Church building in 1927, then the Pentecostal Tabernacle Church.
- Another map of major waterways and their indigenous names
- An example of Susquehannock longhouses
- An advertisement for a Pressmen for Conn & Slote printing company
- Between a pawpaw leaf and a paw paw is an iconic Mennonite image that tells the story of Dirk Willems rescuing his pursuer.
- An image of community members (Doris Johnson and her neighbors) fundraising for their neighborhood on South Christian street. Doris Johnson is among the eldest members of Bethel African Methodist Episcopal church in the Southeast of Lancaster City.
- An advertisement for a cherry pitter that was printed by Conn & Slote Printing Company
- A Bomba y Plena dancer from the last Puerto Rican Parade held in Lancaster City
- Susquehannock Petroglyphs
The title borrows the first line of the hymn of the same name, For the Beauty of the Earth, by Folliott S. Pierpoint, 1835–1917.
Co-written by Chad Martin, Marty Kelley, Melanie Yoder Salim, and Salina Almanzar-Oree
