Source: The Boston Globe
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/12/20/brushed_by_the_spirit/
The altar at Grace Chapel is all decked out for Christmas. A pair of star-topped evergreens frame the poinsettia-filled stage, and artificial swag, laced with white lights, is strung along the walls and the balcony.
On the stage are the usual elements of worship here - a choir, an orchestra, an organist, and a preacher.
And then there is Lori Dupre. Clad head to toe in black, she is crouching on a dropcloth taped to the carpet, surrounded by open cans of white, black, red, blue, and purple paint, in front of a 5-foot-wide canvas mounted on a metal easel.
As the congregation sings “O Little Town of Bethlehem,’’ she dips a brush into a vat of black, and begins to paint.
Moving rapidly and quietly, she scrawls a string of tough words over a painted image of planet Earth. Abuse. Corruption. Greed. Betrayal. Prejudice. Strife. Injustice. And then, in a circle, Evil.
Bending toward the canvas, her right arm moving in broad circles, she covers the canvas in swirls of white, smearing the beautiful globe and the ugly words together, erasing them both.