Creativity Key to Connection
Jenny Hanslow created this sketch of a burnt leaf as part of her reflection on the desperate need that we have for water - a need that she believes leads us back to God.
Listening to people wrestle with the enormity of their losses in the 2019 bushfires impacted Jenny Hanslow. The crisis compelled her to creatively process her emotions with art, and it is a choice the Zenos Media co-founder hopes to encourage in our community.
The manningvalley.recovers.org website connects people who need help to numerous support services and organisations. What role did you play in the aftermath of the bushfire disaster?
I spent time manning the website as a volunteer ... helping people to access help though charities, churches, volunteers and online donations as well as connecting them with services, especially when they were unable to get assistance through government support.
I spent a lot of time speaking with people in really desperate situations - many who had lost everything - taking them from place to place to get the right help, and to be a support and friendly face in the midst of a really confusing and overwhelming time. It was a great privilege.
How did you choose to work through your feelings about the bushfire disaster and its impact on our community?
I created two artworks - both quick sketches - which I did in reflection on the things that have been happening in our area and the way this relates to my faith.
The first sketch represented my thankfulness for the bravery of the emergency services men and women who kept what is most precious to me - my girls - safe. In the second sketch I chose to reflect on the desperate need that we have for water - a need that I believe leads us back to God.
Jesus promises that all who come to him will be given living water that wells up into eternity - they will not thirst. This has been my spiritual experience.
“That no matter what goes on in my life, when I let Jesus be a part of it, there is hope and comfort.”
The burnt leaf is meant to represent that even in situations that seem utterly hopeless, black, dead and lifeless, God offers us hope, beauty and transformation through his son Jesus who gives us living water (John 4). And he also gives us hope that we will not be in drought forever, he will make things new!
This sketch represents Jenny’s thankfulness for the bravery of the emergency services men and women who kept her girls safe.
Zenos Media is a new Australian Christian media initiative that you co-founded with your brother, Matt Carson-Drever. What is its purpose?
In a nutshell we are about proclaiming good news creatively. We produce resources and encourage people to use their creativity to share faith and engage with the Bible, to explore their faith and spirituality in various ways, whether that's writing, music, drama, art, videography or photography.
Zenos Media co-founder, Matt Carson-Drever. Photo | Zenos Media
We also want to encourage the use of creativity in churches. Anyone can be involved in art, and it is something that is therapeutic and can bridge gaps between people and build new relationships. We did an acrylic pouring workshop and it was just lovely to see older people talking to younger people. You can't put a price tag on those relationship building experiences, and art can bridge boundaries.
Why do you think it's important to have creativity grown within communities as a way of expressing emotions or developing personal faith?
I think creativity allows people to tap into their emotions. There is something about being creative that allows you to delve deeper into who you are, and what you think about life - it's one of those spaces where you can actually stop and think.
Creativity gives you space to think differently, because it's potentially less logical, and it's a really rich way of helping people to articulate feelings. When you are working with images and symbols, especially in visual arts and dance, you can express emotions that may not be able to be articulated in other ways. It can be a powerful way of expressing ideas that would otherwise lay dormant.
“Creativity gives you space to think differently ...”
We were doing portraiture the other day and the class gives you a really beautiful concept of what it means to create an image, and for me, that's a way I can understand who Jesus was as an image of God. When we look at a portrait and if we do it well we say, 'ahh I know who that is ...' so for me portraiture offers really interesting ways of thinking about Jesus, who was God's image bearer, and who we are because we are made in the image of God.
Jenny is keen to encourage the use of creativity in churches, sharing that anyone can be involved in art … it is something that is therapeutic and can bridge gaps between people and build new relationships. Photo | Ainslee Dennis
Is there a creative medium that you go to when you need connection with God, or need to find a way to connect to a deeper understanding of self?
I would say writing poetry and playing the piano, because you can get emotions out through music that you often can't in other ways.
Painting and acrylic pouring would be my other creative outlet - just letting the paint move in different directions, and sometimes it is in those moments when you see how the colours are moving that you think, this actually represents what my life is like at the moment ... or I can see this little thread and that's where I feel God is in my life, he's just this tiny thread ... so sometimes artworks can take their own form of expression and provide insight.
What is on the planning calendar for Zenos Media this year?
There are so many aspects to what we do, including running workshops integrating faith with the creative arts, but this year we will be pooling together different artworks from different artists on a particular spiritual theme and then touring the exhibition and setting it up in certain locations. So we are on the hunt for other Christian artists who might like to be a part of that, or to use zenosmedia.com as a platform for sharing their own work.
To learn more about Zenos Media, its resources and future events visit the website zenosmedia.com
