When does art become meaningful? Art is quite subjective. An artwork can raise an emotion or move one person and leave another perplexed. However it may be, we recently had the joy of experiencing a unique moment in the history of envoy where a foundation of friendship and fellowship was cemented with a unique and very meaningful art.
A Spark is Lit!
Recent renovations at the hostel included an upgrade of our rooftop terrace. Its a space our guests love to hang out. In addition, the panoramic views of Tbilisi from the terrace makes it a place you just don’t get tired of. So it made perfect sense to make this an even more comfortable space for our guests. The plans included adding a small bar, aptly named megoBARi. Megobari in Georgian literally means friend. So its the perfect place to make new friends 🙂
After finishing majority of the renovations, we were left with one stretch of wall that seemed empty. This space was calling for something eye catching, something colourful… so the idea of a wall mural started to develop.
Meeting of Minds
Later that same day the idea had sparked, Dominic, one of our dear guests staying at Envoy as part of a group of German pastors declared that he had had such a blessed time that he wanted to say thanks by creating an artwork for us in the form of graffiti!! You can imagine our surprise and amazement at his suggestion! It was indeed the meeting of minds!
Step 1: Plan
In the famous words of Benjamin Franklin “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail!” So immediately we started to chat and decide how to tackle this project. We had the artist, now we needed a concept, a canvas and of course paint! All this in a tight time frame meant there was no time to be lost.
We managed to get all the essentials sorted quickly. We even found professional spray paint in a wide range of colour choices. As far as the concept, we were thinking something inspired by nature.
Hidden Hurdles
Any project has its challenges! Some you can predict in advance but some you come to face unexpectedly. This project was no exception. First it was the weather that concerned us. The whole day had been sunny and warm but as we started to get ready to do the painting, clouds gathered and rain was imminent. This brought on urgency to ensure our canvas wouldn’t get wet. We decided to lift the canvas to the rooftop to work on it under the covered area to stay dry.
As we tried to take our canvas to the rooftop where it was going to be painted and hung, we realised it was going to be trickier than we had thought. It took German ingenuity and a lot of teamwork but we successfully lifted the canvas at last!
Meaningful Art
Face to face with a blank canvas, spray paint in hand, question is, what should we paint? Following the inspiration of nature we searched for a meaningful muse. As we all love travel and enjoy the feeling of freedom when travelling/ flying, we started to focus on birds. However what type of bird would suit best? We remembered that the legend of Tbilisi involved a falcon (where King Vakhtang Gorgasali was hunting and his falcon caught a pheasant but both birds died in the nearby hot spring). This thought lead to the idea to paint an eagle as they also appear in the bible prominently and inspired by the specific biblical verse:
“but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.” Isaiah 40:31
And so our meaningful art project came to fruition! Dominic skilfully painted as we all watched in amazement. This artwork has so much depth of meaning to us, linking Tbilisi legends and our faith through to a constant reminder of our new formed friendships which we hope will last forever.
Thank you Dominic for this beautiful gift we will always cherish. Above all we thank God who lead you and your friendly group to our hostel, gave us the inspiration, motivation and of course talent to create this masterpiece. Praise God for His wonderful ways!