| Abstract Art and Concrete Faith:
              Alumni Donate Painting by Ben Frank Moss
 
 A CHRISTIAN and an abstract landscape painter living in
            one body, New Hampshire artist Ben Frank Moss sometimes has a difficult
            time talking with his own community of faith about his work. Says
            Greg Wolfe, ºù«ÍÞÊÓÆµ writer-in-residence and editor
            of Image:
A Journal of the Arts and Religion, “I’ve admired Ben as an artist 
who works
in
abstraction — or near-abstraction — an
artistic form that many Christians don’t
understand or even approve of.”
 
 Moss was recently invited to campus to talk about
his work. During the visit,
alumni Joan Morrow Hollowell ’64 and
Rex Hollowell ’61 presented one of Moss’ paintings to President Philip Eaton,
who
accepted it on behalf of the University.
The painting joins SPU’s growing art collection and will be displayed on campus.
 
 Moss’ canvases seem joyfully splashed with oils. For more than 30 years, his
work has been shown throughout the United States and in 1995 was featured in
Image. “Hidden away, deep in the artist,” Moss wrote in Image, “is an acknowledged
longing to be held, captivated by a
spiritual force — something unseen
but sensed.”
 
 A general mistrust of abstraction — as
opposed to literal representation — in art
leads some in Moss’ Christian circles to question the meaning of his work. Says
Wolfe, “That’s never troubled Ben. He’s always had the sense that abstraction
can
speak profoundly about our response to
God’s creation.”
 
  Back to the topBack to Campus
 |  |  
  
  From the President
 SPU aims to take its vision to new spheres of influence and effectiveness. "I
            love finding those strategic, economic levers that allow us to allocate,
            align, realign and increase our resources — so that our vision might
            bear fruit,” says President Philip Eaton.
  An SPU IconDanna Wilder Davis completed what few others ever did at Seattle Pacific: Between
  1924 and 1939, she went from first grade to college graduation in consecutive
  years on campus.
 [Alumni]
  Vocation, Vocation, VocationThree faculty-led initiatives received SPU’s 2002-2003 Faculty Grants for
Theology and Vocation. The grants support projects that weave vocational
themes into the curriculum.
 [Faculty]
  Falcon Legends Hall of Fame Six Falcon athletes become the inaugural group inducted into the Falcon Legends
  Hall of Fame. Their athletic success and character make them legendary individuals
  in Falcon sports history. [Athletics]
  My Response“I’m the father of an AIDS orphan,” says Tim
              Dearborn, dean of the chapel at SPU, as he recounts his teenage
              daughter’s trip to Uganda. There she visited an AIDS orphan
              sponsored by the Dearborn family. [My Response]
 |  |