Where it all began: Convergence comes home to CFA

Some stories come full circle. For artist Carlyn Ray, one of the most fulfilling chapters of her career began right here, in a meeting room at the Community Foundation of Abilene. It started with a spark. 

Nearly a decade ago, Carlyn came to the Foundation to share an idea for the new Abilene Public Library at Abilene Heritage Square.

From that first conversation, the idea grew into Gathered Radiance. Working with Director of Library Services Julee Hammer, Carlyn opened the project to the whole community. Abilene residents made 100 of its 400 glass elements. Unveiled on May 16, the installation now rises 25 feet through the library's three-story atrium, shifting from gold at the base through blues to ruby at the top.

The project grew as Abilene got behind it. Neighbors shared their heart stories, as Carlyn calls them, and many gave generously to bring the piece to life, with Jane Beard and Abilene Heritage Square helping connect the project with friends and supporters across the city. Through Art Reaching Out, the nonprofit Carlyn founded in 2013, Abilene students also traveled to her Dallas studio to try glassblowing. All of that support is woven into the glass that now fills the atrium. When someone finds the piece they helped make, she watches a light come on.

Down the street, the story kept growing. The library project opened the door to Emergence: Transformation Through Glass and Light at The Grace Museum, where Director Laura Moore and Chief Curator Judy Tedford Deaton welcomed about twenty of Carlyn's large-scale works from March 7 through September 19. For a few months, Abilene held both: a permanent work made together with the community, and a museum exhibition drawn from Carlyn's own imagination.

As Emergence came to a close, one of its works found its way back to where it all began. Convergence is a meditation on compassion and what becomes possible when we come together. 

Made of glass and stainless steel and standing eight and a half feet tall, it draws on the journey of the lotus, which rises from the mud, moves through the water, and opens toward the light. Two forms meet in the piece: one fluid and expressive, for the wonder of the inner child, and one grounded and luminous, for the clarity and strength of the wise woman. Carlyn believes each of us carries a light of our own, and she makes her work to reflect this spirit.

Here at the Foundation, architect Rick Weatherl of Weatherl & Associates chose its place in EPISenter, the Foundation's new 15,000-square-foot expansion. With Abilene Heritage Square, he first invited Carlyn in to share her story and listen to Abilene in this very building, the Community Foundation of Abilene.

On September 23, Carlyn and her team walked back into the building to install Convergence, and she recognized the room where her Abilene story began.

The Foundation is grateful to everyone who helped bring Convergence home: Carlyn Ray and the Carlyn Ray Designs team; Jane Beard and Abilene Heritage Square; Julee Hammer and the Abilene Public Library; Laura Moore, Judy Tedford Deaton, and the incredible team at The Grace Museum; Rick Weatherl and Weatherl & Associates; Doug Peters and the Abilene Chamber of Commerce; Lynn Barnett and the Abilene Cultural Affairs; and every Abilene resident who added a piece of glass and a story to Gathered Radiance.