A church and a temple to art
Martinson, who loved to draw and paint from an early age, used to gaze up at the stained-glass windows instead of listening to the sermon when he attended mass as a child. Perhaps this experience formed his idea of what a church should be. When he was assigned to the Atayal Aboriginal community of Qingquan in the western foothills of Taiwan’s Central Mountain Range in 1976, he arrived to find the church walls mottled with age, seemingly lifeless. Determined to use his artistic skill and his aesthetic sensibility to add some color to the building, he set himself to making stained-glass windows to ornament the walls with both natural beauties and stories from the Bible.
One image of Jesus praying is Martinson’s favorite. He pieced shades of red glass together into Jesus’s robe, which glows when sunlight spills through the natural grain of the glass, especially at dusk. This is for Martinson the happiest time of day, and the most beautiful.
Besides the stained glass, the altar too displays Martinson’s artistry. On the floor, he alternated strips of blue and yellow tile into what he describes as water from a mountain spring flowing down into a river. This mountain spring symbolizes the origin of life, and the water the energy that seems to flow around the space of the church, charging it with vitality.
To honor the indigenous villagers, Martinson painted the wall inside the entrance with a mural composed of Atayal imagery arranged around a Christian cross. Without words or language, Martinson has painted his love for the village of Qingquan and its inhabitants.
In addition to putting the church in order, Martinson has done a series of mosaics on the wall beside the basketball court outside. After long reflection, he settled on the story of David and Goliath for his first theme. Alongside other Bible stories, he also rendered an Atayal myth: once there were two suns that rose and set in alternation, until an archer shot down the second sun to separate day from night. The mural vividly expresses the archer’s beauty and power as he looses his arrow, encouraging people never to give up in the face of difficulty, to persevere no matter what. With his hard work and dedication, it took Martinson 15 years, from 1985 to 2000, to complete this group of murals that symbolize strength, hope, freedom, and courage.
Outside the church, Martinson has put up a statue of an angel in memory of his mother Lily’s love and tolerance, and her support for his calling to dedicate his life to service in Taiwan. (photo by Lin Min-hsuan)