Abbey of the Arts

Transformative Living through Contemplative & Expressive Arts

  • Welcome
    • Prayer Cycle
      • Introduction to the Earth Monastery Prayer Cycle
      • Day 1 Morning & Evening Prayer:
        Earth as the Original Cathedral
      • Day 2 Morning & Evening Prayer:
        Earth as the Original Scriptures
      • Day 3 Morning & Evening Prayer:
        Earth as the Original Saints
      • Day 4 Morning & Evening Prayer:
        Earth as the Original Spiritual Directors
      • Day 5 Morning & Evening Prayer:
        Earth as the Original Icon
      • Day 6 Morning & Evening Prayer:
        Earth as the Original Sacrament
      • Day 7 Morning & Evening Prayer:
        Earth as the Original Liturgy
      • Prayer Cycle Leader Resources
    • About the Abbey
    • About Christine Valters Paintner
    • About John Valters Paintner
    • About the Wisdom Council
    • Monk Manifesto
    • Join the Holy Disorder of Dancing Monks
    • Subscribe to Our Love Notes
    • Website privacy notice
  • Books
    • Sacred Time:
      Embracing an Intentional Way of Life
    • The Wisdom of Wild Grace: Poems
    • Earth, Our Original Monastery:
      Cultivating Wonder and Gratitude through Intimacy with Nature
    • Dreaming of Stones: Poems
    • The Soul's Slow Ripening:
      12 Celtic Practices for Seeking the Sacred
    • The Wisdom of the Body:
      A Contemplative Journey to Wholeness for Women
    • Illuminating the Way:
      Embracing the Wisdom of Monks and Mystics
    • The Soul of a Pilgrim:
      Eight Practices for the Journey Within
    • Eyes of the Heart:
      Photography as a Christian Contemplative Practice
    • The Artist's Rule: Nurturing Your Creative Soul with Monastic Wisdom
    • Desert Mothers and Fathers: Early Christian Wisdom Sayings Annotated & Explained
    • Lectio Divina–The Sacred Art: Transforming Words and Images into Heart-Centered Prayer
    • Water, Wind, Earth & Fire: The Christian Practice of Praying with the Elements
    • Awakening the Creative Spirit:
      Bringing the Arts to Spiritual Direction
    • Lectio Divina: Contemplative Awakening & Awareness
  • Poetry | Art | Music
    • Music + DVD
    • Poetry by Christine Valters Paintner
    • Poetry Videos
    • Dancing Monk Icons
    • Other Art Collaborations
      • Monk in the World art series by Kristin Noelle
      • Saints & Animals art series by David Hollington
      • Sacred Time art series by Alexi Francis
      • Mary block print art series by Kreg Yingst
  • Programs
    • Live Programs: Pilgrimage & Retreats
      • Monk in the World (Ireland)
      • Writing on the Wild Edges (Ireland)
      • Vienna Monk in the World (Austria)
      • Hildegard of Bingen (Germany)
      • Awakening the Creative Spirit: Experiential Education for Spiritual Directors in the Expressive Arts (Northwest)
    • Lift Every Voice: Contemplative Writers of Color Book Club
    • Community Online Retreats
      • The Spiral Way:
        Celtic Spirituality and the Creative Imagination
      • Journey with the Desert Mothers and Fathers (Lent 2021)
      • Dancing with Fear in Troubled Times
      • Novena for Times of Unraveling
      • The Two HT’s-Harriet Tubman and Howard Thurman-on Being Free
      • Writing Into Bloom
        with Christine Valters Paintner
      • Sacred Time: Embracing an Intentional Way of Life (Spring 2021)
      • Poetry and the Sacred Garden of the World:
        An Online Writing Retreat
    • Self-Study Online Spiritual Retreats
      • Creative Flourishing in the Heart of the Desert:
        An Online Retreat with St. Hildegard of Bingen
      • Dreaming of the Sea:
        A women’s discernment journey through the story of the Selkie
      • Earth, Our Original Monastery
        A Companion Retreat to the Book (SELF-STUDY)
      • Exile and Coming Home:
        An Archetypal Journey through the Scriptures
      • Eyes of the Heart:
        Photography as Contemplative Practice
        (Companion retreat to the book)
      • Honoring Saints and Ancestors:
        Online Retreat for the Season of Remembrance
      • Lectio Divina:
        The Sacred Art of Reading the World
      • A Midwinter God:
        Making a Conscious Underworld Journey
      • Sacred Rhythms of Sky, Sun, Sea & Stone:
        A Creative Retreat with the Elements (SELF-STUDY)
      • Sacred Seasons:
        A Yearlong Journey through the Celtic Wheel of the Year
      • The Soul of a Pilgrim:
        Eight Practices for the Journey Within
        (a companion retreat to the book)
      • The Soul's Slow Ripening: 12 Celtic Practices for Seekers of the Sacred (a companion retreat to the book)
      • Water, Wind, Earth & Fire
      • Watershed Moments
        in the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures
      • Way of the Monk, Path of the Artist:
        A 12-Week Companion Retreat to The Artist's Rule
      • The Wisdom of the Body:
        A 10-Week Online Companion Retreat to the Book
      • The Wisdom of Mary and the Sacred Feminine
  • Calendar
  • Reflections
  • Contact

Sacred Artist Interview

Sacred Artist Interview: Bette Norcross Wappner

I am really excited about this new weekly feature on my blog for 2008 — I will be interviewing artists who keep an awareness of the sacred at the heart of their creative work.  I want to explore how others merge their art and spirituality and give you, my dear readers, some more insights into this connection.

I am especially delighted to begin this series by interviewing Bette Norcross Wappner or b'oki as she is known by her poet's pen name.  Bette found my blog not too long after I started writing one, about a year and a half ago.  She is a great example of one of the reasons I keep blogging — the chance to get to know some marvelous creative people who live miles away from me but share a passion for art and the sacred. 

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* 


"Cool Blue" — one of Bette's beautiful woodcut prints with haiku

So let's dive into the wisdom Bette has to offer us:

What is your faith tradition?

I was raised in a Pentecostal church and then joined the Lutheran faith when I met my husband-to-be in 1986. Altogether, the two faith traditions and Eastern spiritual beliefs of contemplation and mystical union with nature, have given me a beautiful balance of Holy Spirit, Liturgical Spirit, and Nature Spirit. 

What is your primary art media?

Japanese short-form poetry — haiku and waka/tanka written in English, and woodblock printmaking in the old Japanese water-based, hand-burnished technique called Moku-Hanga.

How do you experience the connection between spirituality and creativity?

Only through my interaction with Nature am I truly able to experience a powerful synergy of spirituality and creativity. Being in nature clears my mind of worldliness, filling me with peace, joy, and deep and mysterious Beauty that can only belong to a higher power — God. 

What role does spiritual practice have in your art-making?

My spiritual practice has certainly evolved in my fifty years on Earth. I feel that being in nature, contemplating upon beautiful nature photography, writing poetry, creating art, showing love and kindness to others — all to be an over-all spiritual practice of art-making!

What sparked your spiritual journey?

When I was a teenager, I had wonderful spiritual experiences at church camps and being baptized fully-immersed. But as an adult, my true spiritual journey really started when I took a Beginning Haiku class online in the fall of 2002. When I learned how to be aware of nature and to describe my meditations in a disciplined 3-line, short-form poem, my mind, spirit, and soul opened wide up.

What sparked your artistic journey?

The first spark into my artistic journey was when I was a young girl and my artistic mother and I would lay on the floor together and color in coloring books. I became a graphic designer and Art Director in my mid-twenties; then after I became a stay-at-home-mom I slowly gave up my graphic design and took up fine-art. 

Do you have a particular process you use when entering into your creative work?

Writing Japanese short-form poetry in English has been my main creative work. The process I use when I am particularly inspired and captured by an image of nature is to enter into peaceful meditation. Then I start to write down the realistic beauty I see in that image. After that, I write down human emotions that relate to that image. Sometimes woodblock prints are born from my nature poetry and that is a special bonus!

How does your art-making shape your image of God?

As an artist, God has given me the ability to express what I see and feel through my art-making. My desire is for others to see and feel images of God in my creations.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* 

A deep bow of gratitude to Bette for sharing of herself in this way.  I love the way creativity infuses her whole life and I especially love the paradox of discovering a specific form of poetry as the catalyst for an opening of the soul.

Go visit her Flickr page to see more beautiful woodblock prints and come back tomorrow for a visual meditation.

One more day to submit your poem for this week's Poetry Party!  Go read the latest submissions, as usual it is an abundance of poetic beauty.

-Christine Valters Paintner @ Abbey of the Arts

(middle photo is of Bette with her drum — one of her new passions and the bottom print is "Leaping Goddess" also by Bette)

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11 Comments January 10, 2008

Upcoming Programs

The Spiral Way:
Celtic Spirituality and the Creative Imagination

Hosted by the Rowe Center
February 1-21, 2021
with Christine Valters Paintner, PhD

Journey with the Desert Mothers and Fathers
Retreat for Lent 2021

February 17-April 1, 2021
with Christine & John Valters Paintner and Betsey Beckman

Recent Reflections

  • Celtic Spirituality and the Spiral Way ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess
  • Hildy Tales 3: Ní heolas go haontíos ~ by John Valters Paintner
  • Humility + Join us today for live prayer! ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess
  • Hildy Tales 2: Tús maith leath na hoibre – by John Valters Paintner
  • New Book Club for 2021: Lift Every Voice ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

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