| In Oracle, Ready to Pay | YES! |
|---|---|
| Name | Casey Murano |
| Phone | 5407283141 |
| Email hidden; Javascript is required. | |
| Name of Work (TBD or Untitled are okay) | Come On, Surprise Me |
| Please upload a JPG of your work in progress |  |
| Please upload a JPG or PNG of a picture of you that we can use in the show. We prefer a headshot or something that clearly shows your face. Please make sure it’s high enough resolution for print. |  |
| May we potentially use your work in progress image as part of promotional activities? | Yes, please do. |
| Describe the work including planned media, size and presentation format. (All art forms are accepted for this call, but there must be a physical representation of the work ready for display. Most often this is a framed and ready-to-hang two dimensional image.) | I created four 24x24in drawings simultaneously, and I will choose one to display in a 31 1/2 in square frame. The drawings are made with colored pencil, watercolor (activated by water from the Greenbrier River), and ballpoint pen. I will take high quality photos of all four images that can be available for digital sharing. |
| Describe your contemplative practice in relation to the work so far. | I brought the drawings down to the Greenbrier River, which is where I helped facilitate an interfaith vigil this time two years ago. I took a prayerful approach to making them. I laid them on the ground, and mindfully moved through each step, of arranging rocks, submerging the entire paper in the rippling water (a gesture with baptism references). For another two weeks, I responded to the interesting shapes that formed from dried watercolor using colored pencil and ballpoint pen. I worked on them while sitting outside for the most part. Additionally, I’ve been participating in activities and communal reflections around themes of Laudato Si, Pope Francis’ encyclical on care for the environment and the Pilgrims of Hope Jubilee year. Sometimes I use these or similar drawings as a centerpiece for these gatherings. |
| Describe your engagement with nature in relation to this work so far. | I literally collaborated with the river to make these pieces! While submerging the pieces in the water, I remember the last time I was here, painting during an interfaith vigil. We were working as a community to resist extractive energy projects that were going to threaten local species, water quality, and safety of the homeowners whose the land the pipeline passes through. While I made these drawings in WV, this same pipeline affects waterways in Roanoke, including the Roanoke River. |
| Describe your engagement with the text in relation to this work so far. | I started with a quote that I love from Pilgrim at Tinker Creek that goes something like this: “Come on, I say to the creek. Surprise me! And it does, with each new drop. Beauty is real. I would never deny it. Waste and extravagance weave their way along the bank of the spirit’s free incursions into time.” I turned this quote into a visual poem using some techniques I learned at a class with artist Ellen Sheffield through the Minnesota Center for Book Arts. There were a couple other texts coming up for me as I work on this piece: Theologian Chris Pramuk wrote a book called Artist Alive, which includes a beautiful chapter about wonder using Stevie Wonder’s music as a case study. He talked about how artists/poets and theologians/ministers have a lot in common, in their attentiveness to the holy, the pulsing depth of each moment. Annie Dillard is one who I see really good at waking herself and readers up to the mysteries of daily experience. |
| What questions, or primary question, have arisen for you in pursuing the work so far? | Building off the quote I just shared: how to stay awake in wonder, curiosity. How to continually be surprised by the creek and life in general. |
| What have you learned in the process so far? | While working on these drawings, it felt kind of like giving myself an assignment, like I might have had in college. It was good to be focused on this one project at a time, and helped me to see other possible prompts and assignments I can give myself when I’m not sure what to do next. |
| If applicable, please describe any challenges that will prevent you from participating in the effort or completing the project on time. | n/a |
| REQUIRED: Please add a PDF of your vendor’s invoice here. The payer is “City of Roanoke, Attention Douglas Jackson.” This invoice is required and may be generated from your accounting system or manually created. The invoice must be numbered and all information must match what you have entered in Oracle. | 25-004-INVOICE-City-of-Roanoke.pdf |
| Invoice Number | 25-004 |
| My typed name stands for my signature. I have identified all technology used in the creation of this work in the description of my process above. | Casey Murano |
| Staff use only | DCJ – Okay to pay |
| Staff Use Only: Melissa Tracking | Paid ACH 11/14/2025 |
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