Beckett, Sister Wendy: The Art of Greg Tricker

Book Review

Sister Wendy Beckett: The Christ Journey, Sister Wendy Beckett Reflects on the Art of Greg Tricker, St Pauls Publishing, 2011.

by Jonathan Evens 

Beckett has responded to Tricker's most recent cycle of works, entitled 'The Christ Journey''... with devotional meditations deriving from each piece in the series, rather than with critical commentary. Her reflections, clearly prompted and led by Tricker's images themselves, open and illumiate the stories from the Gospels and the lives of the Saints which form the content of 'The Christ Journey'... 

Beckett is an enthusiast who applies the instruction in Philippians 4:8, to fill your minds with those things that are good and that deserve praise, to her writing and presenting. On screen, this can appear overly gushing but, in print, she is more measured, evidenced, and convincing. Her meditations here bear the marks of having emerged from both poring and praying over the images.  

The combined insights and perceptions of Tricker and Beckett result in a book that is genuinely beautiful and intriguing, profound and moving. This is never more so than with the wonderfully complex "'I am' the True Vine" in which, through a Chagallian construction, a Redon-like Christ holds together Passover and Last Supper imagery enabling Beckett to reflect on the new fulfillment in Christ of the Old Covenant. Beckett ends her reflection with these words, which sum up the book as a whole, 'There is deep prayer... deep longing, deep sadness, but also deep fulfillment.' 

Published in Art and Christianity Magazine Summer 2012.