Meeting the Light

You're not the first artist to build a structure like this. Chagall built a chapel, didn't he?
Western art has had a longtime connection with the church, as it has in many cultures. Art has always been involved in the pursuit of both the spiritual and the sublime. Sometimes, when you step into a cathedral where the light inhabits the architecture through the windows, what has been created by architects and artisans and others sometimes engenders more awe than anything written or said by the priesthood.

This is a territory that has long been mined by art. For a while, there has been a rift between spirituality and art, and particularly contemporary art. I think that is something that's due for a change.

Had you ever designed a meetinghouse before Live Oaks?
No. I did do drawings for two chapels of light, in two different places where they wanted to make new Catholic churches. And after this meetinghouse project, I finished another one with Tadao Ando in Japan, on the site of an old Buddhist temple.

Houston has a tradition of involving artists with religious structures. The prime example is the Mark Rothko chapel, sponsored by the DeMenil family. The second one is the Byzantine chapel, also sponsored by the DeMenils and designed by Francois Deonier. The third are the stained glass windows designed by Jennifer Bartlett for an Episcopal church.

Then there's this project. Before Mrs. Jean DeMenil died, she contributed a substantial amount, first from her own personal funds and then from the DeMenil Foundation. The project arose from a suggestion by Hiram Butler, a local art gallery owner, to the Meeting there in Houston. Fund-raising was set up, and Leslie Elkins was chosen to be the architect.

How do you feel about the Live Oaks Meetinghouse project now that it's completed?
As with any project, there's great relief when you're done. It is very interesting to go through a project with Quaker decision making. You have the natural Quaker urge for procrastination. I don't mean there's an avoidance of decisions, but rather a waiting for decisions to congeal and come together in a consensus that is reasonable for the body.

I've used this kind of decision making myself. Many people from the outside read this as conflicted neuroticism, which it can be a lot of times, but at other times it's not wanting to decide until a decision was there, which I think is very important to do.

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