Denton Addendum

I pick up Sue from Northampton station and we decide a coffee at Castle Ashby is a necessary treat. On the way there a sign says that the church at Denton (St. Margaret of Antioch's: post 26th July) is open because there's an art exhibition. What I want is to show Sue the Henry Bird murals, so we veer off the Bedford Road, park up and go inside.

There we find Sue Brownridge, whose exhibition it is (we'd forgotten it's 'Open Studio' week). She recognises 'my' Sue. I assume this must be because she's a past pupil, but no, she's remembering her from even further back, when they were both students at the former Bedford College of Physical Education, more than forty years ago. Goodness gracious!

We chat, and among other things look at Sue B.'s lovely designs for stained glass work, including the windows behind the St. Margaret's altar - she lives in Denton. There's a deliberately commissioned element of continuity with the Bird murals, which wrap the interior of the church.

Afterwards we talk about the murals, which we'll need to go back a further time to really engage with. Why asks Sue C. would any artist ever want to do what Bird did? Is it ego, or religious inspiration, or a sense of wanting to contribute to that particular place? Good question.  I think for we who might ever worship there, it's actually a bit intimidating to be surrounded by one person's intensely individual point of view. For me, it would 'colour' anything that ever happened there. Did I feel the same in the Sistine Chapel? Well, yes, but there I was simply overwhelmed by the sheer complexity of detail. As a literate (more or less...) 21st century schizoid man, I didn't know how to put it together with written and heard scripture and theology. It confused and substituted rather than complemented. But as a musician, I have to be humble enough to accept that there'll be people who'll feel that about the weight of religious music, which I so love, and which partly holds my faith in place.  Now that's an uncomfortable thought...