The Corona of Suffering

Laura Powers is a professional artist with training in everything from the old masters to expressionism, but I did not know that when I got the opportunity to interview her. I knew her as the artist of this incredible image of a demon (not a demon, but I thought it was at the time). The facial features cried out in agony from the plain background of my Instagram. Before we had the chance to talk, she posted a new picture that included a face in color, and I knew it wasn’t a demon, and I could not wait to find out what it was.

Laura joined me on Zoom amidst the awkward trimmings of every virtual meeting. “Whoops, you’re frozen,” “oh no, you too,” “ok, there we go.” I was surprised by how down to earth she was. She’s a Florida girl, graduate of FSU who grew up in Orlando, and for quarantine, she is stuck on the beach. Our conversation was so powerful that my first pass at a story about her was 12 pages long.

We talked first about this incredible painting. While the figure is not a demon, it is meant to evoke the anguish that I perceived. As an interdisciplinary artist, she was inspired by an image of a contemporary dancer in this beautiful position, with agony on her face.

“The painting was originally going to focus on the crown of thorns, but I’m not a traditional iconographer, so I began looking up other things with crowns,” Laura said. “There’s this idea of The 5 Crowns in heaven—the crown of light, an incorruptible crown, a crown of rejoicing. The people that have suffered get the crown of light. That’s what this piece focuses on...she is going to have a single rose with thorns on it around her head.”

Laura explained that the suffering moves into a flower, finding beauty in suffering. “You know, she’s this dancer doing this beautiful thing, but there’s agony in it. Kind of how people are going through this hard time because of coronavirus and everything, but at the same time there can be beauty brought out of it.”

The irony is that this subject began before the coronavirus, which is named for its DNA structure in the shape of a crown (Latin corona). Laura talked about an interview with sacred artist Kate Capato where she mentioned crown imagery in her work before this even began, and it was the same for Laura. It is interesting that crowns seem to be a theme of this time we are in when another theme that many have talked about is the ‘smashing of the idols.’ In a unique way, during this virus, we have had to stop relying on money, sports, celebrities, our work, anything that takes the place of God in our lives has been stripped away.

The way Laura put it, “It’s like this period of rest because our culture is go, go, go. We’ve got cars, iPhones. God says ‘no—take a pause, just breathe for a second.’ Something I’ve had to learn is that God is not the task-master. He has things for us to do but it’s not frenetic. There’s this rhythm of rest...like how Sundays are at the end of the week. So this situation feels like ‘No, all of modern civilization, you’re going to chill right now.’”

Laura was not always in this peaceful place. During her adolescence, she went through a “weird phase” where she was interested in the pseudo-spiritual. Crystals and Wicca claim to have this ancient wisdom that she was always looking for, but even just in her distant interest she found anxiety and discontent. Around the same time, her mother dove into the Catholic faith, and that is where Laura found her peace. She spoke of how Christians seem to have a “light in their eyes,” not so much physical, but a glow about them, and when you try to find out what it is, it’s this deep faith.

“Catholicism has this old tradition to it which answered the aesthetic needs of my heart. Jesus is the logos. The Word at the beginning, He is the ancient wisdom. Jesus and the Church answer what I was looking for better than any of those things ever did, and answer it in a way that is all-encompassing.”

Laura’s choice of graduate degree was also inspired by her own struggles. “My art form—circus—has been a blessing in a lot of ways. I had ADHD and other things and I did OT [occupational therapy] for awhile. Physical art forms were helping toward OT goals, so we transitioned into a more natural approach. Later, I found out that what I’m doing now with circus-like spinning and doing things behind your back, actually help with sensory integration.”

Laura’s desire is “to be the person” for others that she needed in her own times of struggle. “Art and circus has always been a home to runaways and people who feel like they don’t fit in or are marginalized in some way. They can have something to be interested in and work towards achieving goals. It complements traditional therapy really well.”

For now, Laura is using this time of rest to work on her art. She is sharing her paintings on her Instagram @laurapowersart, as well as beautiful videos of her lyra circus performance on the beach. She said that while she cannot invite everyone to the beach with her, she is happy to share this incredible pause with all of us. Amidst this time that could be chaotic, and even scary at times, I am so grateful to witness the art she is making as it compels me to peace and beauty.

Julia O’Donnell is an artist herself, who loves to write, make movies, and create beautiful photography. You can find her work on Instagram @etherealaspirations and on her blog suzannagoretti.com.

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