News feature

Artist’s Last Supper mural goes on display

COPPER BEECH COMMUNITY HUB

LOCAL artist Alison Pannell has commemorated the Last Supper with a beautiful mural at the Copper Beech Community Hub in Leeds, writes Communications Officer Harriet Whitehead (Warrington Service Centre).

Alison is a Salvation Army Housing Association (Saha) tenant and has always been creative. She found encouragement after a Bible study at the hub led by Fresh Expression Leader Major Caroline Heward.

Alison said: ‘I grew up Catholic and always went to church as a child, but worshipping with The Salvation Army gave me a different perspective on things.

‘I find the Bible study at the hub is more than sharing God’s word; it’s also a place of friendship, where tears, laughter and a chance to explore spirituality and a deeper understanding of the world collide and combine in equal measure.

‘We studied Isaiah and it was amazing – the verses and the words were inspiring. Reading Isaiah 43, I felt compelled to make something that captured how comforting the words were. That led me to make a quilt of Jesus walking on water. ‘I felt encouraged to continue making artworks, all the while feeling the presence of Jesus and knowing that I should no longer ignore the call to create, make and share my work. I began to pray more, worry less and really put Jesus in my life, in a way I had never done before.’ At the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, Alison’s father died. ‘It was a time of utter grief and then I was isolated in lockdown,’ she recalled. ‘But Caroline would pop round outside to make sure I was OK. I was really thankful for the care and concern she provided. During this time God was calling me ever forward.

‘My daughter had a baby in the May – my first grandchild – and I began quilting and sewing wrapped in my bubble of grief and joy. I made a memory quilt for my grandchild. I got really into it and couldn’t stop making them. It was my lockdown “thing” and my house was overtaken by quilts!’

At Easter this year Alison was helping some of the groups at the hub and had the idea of doing a mural that everyone could get involved in. ‘I spent all Good Friday on my knees painting and praying,’ she said.

‘We put this 180×85cm mural up on Easter Day and everyone was very complimentary. It brought a real sense of peace. I definitely felt there was some sort of connection between me, the Holy Spirit and Jesus as I was making this piece of art – it just flowed from me. It always feels as if Jesus is sat at the side of me.’ Copper Beech is an initiative run by The Salvation Army and Saha. A community made up of 84 homes, a Salvation Army day care nursery and the hub, it provides community and faith-based activities. Alison Other works has been helping out at the hub for four or by Alison five years, particularly with the Christmas present appeal. ‘We went from 100 families to about 300 families in a really small space of time, it was an intense time,’ she said. ‘You feel broken afterwards, but you know there will be some children happy come Christmas. It’s a lovely feeling to be able to help people.’ ‘My story is not a tale of great courage, or hardship being overcome, or even being saved from the brink of destruction,’ she added, ‘but it’s a tale of faith and love and one that has made my quiet and ordinary life a little less ordinary and, in the end, these are the important things: belonging to a community, acceptance and complete trust in Jesus, the simple things that make a life worth living.’

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