​A SENDING BOX is my title for this art object. I was commissioned to create the interior of a kind of small treasure chest to be a farewell gift for Rod, the dearly beloved retiring pastor of my faith community. Over the past 25 years Rod has finished innumerable services with a "SENDING": a benediction that ends the gathering and sends us forth reflective, grateful, inspired. Today was our chance to return the favor and send him off into the next chapter of his life. Jonathan (Jonathan A. Nussbaum - Furniture Maker) milled the wood and Bruce Kuhns (all around great guy) built the box. Everyone else was invited to bring cards to fill the box. The three of us creators then presented it to Rod, a special occasion for which I'm honored to have played a part.

It's very close to the five-year mark since I retired from TriMet. And it's two years since the commission of the "!00 Year Collage", so I felt echoes of these as I worked on the box. Like the big collage two years ago, I recycled old bulletins and stamps, adding other material and lots of colored pencil. The title for that art update was "Fresh Fruit Imagery". For the Sending Box I imagined the "fruits of the spirit" given a physicality of maybe mango, peach and Oregon strawberry (with a hint of milk and honey). Sometimes it helps me to take the word of God/Rod from "pie in the sky" down to a pie with a flakey crust I can actually taste and savor. Or if it's art, let it be something that whets the appetite, stirs a longing and begins to quench an inner thirst. 

Thanks & Cheers to Rod, 
And may the rest of you also be sent forth with all goodness,
Love - Always,
Tim TK Klassen