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Today’s guests come from no further from The Commons: Both work here. And when they’re not here, they do interesting things like quilt and paint. In a way, these are spiritual practices – but for very different reasons given by our two guests. Maybe your experiences are more like one or the other - or something entirely different.

Karolyn Nicolaides works in finance and operations for the Episcopal Church in Connecticut where she’s responsible for accounts receivable. She’s had that position since August of 2012.

She’s very active in her home parish of St. John’s in North Guilford, loves surfing and sailing, and has two grown children and two grandchildren.

Karolyn has painted for 35 years, studying under the same teacher, in the same studio, with the same group of women. “Doreen’s Artist Club," Karolyn's art group, thanks the Rev. Mo Lederman for welcoming our artists to paint in Keisel Hall at her home parish, St John’s North Guilford, where the ‘natural light shines bright on our canvases’. For the first 15 years they worked on decorative folk art; and are now studying trompe l'oeil, a technique to trick the eye into perceiving a painting as three-dimensional.

Debby Kenny works as the administrator for safe church and ordination processes in the Episcopal Church in Connecticut, and has had that position since March of 2010.

She is also very active in her home parish, which is St. Paul’s in Southington. She did Christian formation there for 26 years, the first 10 with younger children and the last 16 with the youth. After all this time she’s now semi-retired, and helps out with the confirmation class.

Deb started quilting about 30 years ago, took a break while her two children grew up, and now, with three grandchildren, has taken up quilting again.

We start, after running through basic bios, talking with Karolyn about painting. It’s therapeutic and enjoyable to hang out with the group of women, she says. 

Deb quilts to relax after a day of work and meetings; it also gives her a feeling of accomplishment. She talks about how much quilting changed from when she started 30 years ago when everything was done by hand.

We asked them to remember and talk about their first quilt/first painting, which they did, then we talked with Deb about how she collects or chooses fabrics. It led her to talk about what her husband teases is her “million-dollar machine” (which didn’t cost a million dollars).

Karolyn talks about the two different kinds of painting she’s done, the decorative folk art and the trompe l’oeil methods. She talks about the processes, or stages, in painting, saying it requires a lot of patience!

Alli recalls the verse from Isaiah 64 about God being the potter; and asks them more about their work, which they do with their hands. Deb sees her creativity as a gift from God for herself as well as to share with others. She loves how all the variety comes together into a single quilt; she also mentions how it helps her to be grounded. Karolyn dwells fully in the project and in the objects she’s painting, and she talks about gratefulness.

We end by finding out how one of Deb’s grandchildren is learning to sew!