Threshold - Fall 2003

In the Hands of the Potter
Joan Offenburger, OSB

If you were a student in Sister Helen Buening’s drawing, serigraphy, painting, or clay class, you would hear her say something like this:

“ We have to trust the invisible gauges we carry within us. We have to realize that a creative being lives within ourselves, whether we like it or not, and that we must get out of its way, for it will give us no peace until we do...” (from archival notes for a talk).

Deep in the heart of Helen’s art and teaching lies the realization that we ourselves, and all we come to know and see in the world around us, are expressions of the Great Artist. How we come to liberate our unique share of that expression through our lives and the use of our talents is the work of a lifetime, and often a wordless experience. She likes to tell the story of the Buddha, who came to speak at a gathering. “He used no words. He held a flower up before the people.”

This is yet another way of becoming aware of what the psalmist declares, “Be still, and know that I am God.” A listener herself, Helen asks that discipline of her students. From this contemplative stance, Helen has taught art in high school and college and, since her “retirement” in 1986, in the elementary schools of Atchison county. Whatever their age or artistic experience, she helps her students take their perception of beauty from its beginning, teaches them how to nurture and play with it, discover and rediscover it and bring it to a completion.

She observes also that no art is ever “finished”; we go on to something else. Over and over she says, “It’s not what the child produces, but what is produced in the child.” We could use the same evaluation for prayer.

Helen has shared her philosophy of teaching with others in several ways. As Sister Egberta, she wrote a four-part manual for elementary school teachers to assist them in planning art classes. Each book of this effort, “God’s Finger Extended in Art, “ covers lessons for two grades and was used in archdiocesan schools. Her largest work graces the entrance to Feeney Memorial (now the home of Sophia Center and various programs). It is a series of enameled designs mounted on copper plates attached to a two-story grille. Luminous greens carry the words of Paul subtly lettered, “Oh the depths of the riches and of the wisdom and of the knowledge of God.” Early morning light draws the viewer into the message. The plates on the opposite side are an exuberant pictorial version of the hymn in chapter 3 of the Book of Daniel, in which creation praises God.

The “Clay and Fire” retreats began with Helen’s efforts. Her favorite scripture passages have to do with God the potter, we the clay. Art demands a similar focus. She says,
“ In centering we have to be passionate.
We must be able to BE.
We must BE Open Spaces
And let the winds of life blow through us,
To breathe with the winds,
To bend with the winds,
To stand upright,
To be intact,
to be persons.
BE ATTUNED TO THIS DIALOGUE
OF THE VISIBLE AND THE INVISIBLE.”

So reads a former retreatant’s version of Helen’s teaching in clay class. Sister Marianne McGriffin received Helen’s permission to quote from her class lectures and comments in a book, Reflections in Clay: Mirror of Truth. This quote is from McGriffin’s chapter, “Centering a Pot/lntegrating a Life.” Helen herself says in an early article in Benedictines magazine, “When we act out of an inner unity, when all of ourselves is present in what we do, then we can be said to be ‘on center.’ The clay is a very selfish medium. It asks for total self-giving.”

Passion, vision, focus, discipline, delight! All of these qualities shine from the pages of Helen’s latest book, Art Masters Then and Now; Experiences in Art for Ages 5 to 95. Years of experience blend to produce this teaching text. As Atchison’s “Picture Lady,” she has visited a school each week and has trained others to approach students like this: Show children a master work, discuss intent and possible techniques, provide appropriate materials to work with, and ask students to create their own work. The book’s master works and the illustrations from children’s paintings and designs captivate us and let us see what happens when young artists leam to trust that “creative being living within.” What a rare combination - art masters and a master teacher, Helen, whose own focus is on the giver of all good gifts.