We had a lovely weekend up in Blowing Rock ( ~ 20 mins from Boone) with our church. Of course, we forgot to pack our camera! Hopefully some church friends will send pictures our way.
Our church retreat's theme this year is "The Transcendent Table". So, on Saturday morning we took a field trip to two of the "Churches of the Frescoes" in Glendale Springs (Holy Trinity Episcopal church) and West Jefferson (St. Mary's Episcopal Church) to see some of the amazing frescoes created by Ben Long. The fresco at Holy Trinity is a wall-size depiction of the "Last Supper" (see picture). We learned that the word "fresco" derives from the adjective fresco ("fresh") due to the natural and freshly-made materials used in making the various colors and plaster. The colors are painted on the wet plaster and blended in so that instead of painting on a already made surface, the painting is done while the wall is being plastered. This creates a number of challenges, such as being able to only plaster a small section that will be immediately worked on, one day at a time -- which creates day-lines around the areas where the first day and the next day's work end & start (the plaster shrinks as it dries). Also, it also mean not really knowing what color things will be since things look very different depending on the moisture of the surface. Beyond the technical impressiveness of these works of art, learning about the symbolism of the frescos was pretty neat. One of the church volunteers did a wonderful job explaining much of the symbolism of "The Last Supper" fresco to us, so here are a few things from that:
1) The empty stool in the middle is for us to join in the communion
2) The window, Jesus and the empty stool form a line, signifying that we are in Jesus' glory
3) James the lesser (right, front side of the table) has a zig-zag pattern on his robe because he was sawed in half at death
4) Judas is the one whom we only see his back as he exits the scene
5) Matthew was a tax -collector, hence the color of his robe
6) The white "thing" at the very top is up to each person to figure out that it means to them.

Another neat thing about the frescos was in the process of creating them, as it involved community participation in the form of helping grind and mix the materials (rocks, sand, water, egg whites), feeding and housing the artists, putting up with the mess at the pulpit for months, and using local people for models for the people in the paintings. For example, the rector at the time was the model for the servant at the bottom right corner of the fresco, and the dog on the bottom left side was a local dog who would hang out with Ben Long at night while the worked into the wee hours. We found this aspect of the artwork the most touching as it really made the work something that belonged to and was shared by the community.

Before going to the second church, we had a little picnic outside in the cool mountain air. Shu Wen likes to make funny faces when she eats.

At St Mary's, the frescos had a more ominous feel, because of the darker tones in the frescos themselves and because of the darker interior of the church. There are three frescos there. "The Mystery of Faith" (see picture) is the main one, with "Mary, Great with Child" and "John the Baptist" on the two sides. For this reason, we both preferred the fresco of the last supper, which seemed more inviting (although the theme of the St Mary frescos are clearly important also).

One the guys Marc runs with happened to be in the mountains for the week for a short break with his wife & some friends also, so they met up in the afternoon for a run together. Tom found a great place for a nice flat run along a river between Fleetwood and Todd. It was truly gorgeous there, with wide open green fields and mountains full of yellows, ambers & reds. Fall is indeed a wonderful time of year, especially in the mountains.

We rushed back to Blowing Rock for dinner and then it was time for the Talent Show, which involved some wonderful singing, impressive instrumental playing, and skits. Our children's pastor impressing all of us with the ease in which she went into a split (in jeans no less!) Since neither of us have any talents (unless folks wanted to watch Marc run for 2 hrs) we played the role of the audience :)

On our way home yesterday, we picked up a pumpkin, which we will carve later this week. Shuwen is excited about that.