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Spiritual transformation plays a key role in the visual message of ...

stained glass. Designed by Patia Rarick, and crafted by Bruce Polizotto, the sanctuary windows at Allisonville Christian Church in Indianapolis, Ind., shown below, are an example for how creating and contemplating such art can be spiritual practice. Rarick has been an artist for many years. Polizotto decided to take classes as a way to engage this medium. About these windows, Rarick noted:

“The design of the windows as a whole is an evolution from simple to complex; constructed to natural; geometric to organic; secular to holy:  symbolizing that as humanity lives on this planet we live in both the secular and spiritual realms, acting in, finding meaning in, and having responsibilities to both.  

As with the shapes and style of each window, the colors evolve from a few muted colors toward incorporating more and varied brilliant tones.*  Our lives and faith journeys are represented in this progression from a simple childlike faith to the richness and complexity of our adult seeking.

The simple geometric designs beginning on the east wall gradually incorporate the flow of a curving line through the sky.  This continues across the windows on either side of the Narthex doors in which the geometric chevron design has become a stylized stalk of wheat and the curving sky pattern is picked up in the rounded shapes of the ground, vines and grapes.

In the two southwest windows the geometric chevrons then transform into stylized trees and the ground areas mimic the curving lines in the sky.  This culminates in the west window as the lines of branches become random and take on the appearance of more realistic trees.  The hillside and stream, clouds and sunrise/sunset complete the transformation from the constructed to the natural design.“  

--Patia Rarick, 2007