Drawing Series: Will You Be There

CONSTANCE PIERCE

Original series exhibited in the 4th ART ON PAPER, Museum of Art, Toyota City, Aichi, Japan

The series was also featured in the following exhibitions:

Ecce Cor Meum, Solo exhibition, Harlan Gallery, Seton Hill University (PA)
Lacrymae Rerum, Solo Exhibition, Clara Fritzsche Gallery, Notre Dame College (OH)
Kyrie: World Cry, Solo Exhibition, Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts, Saint Bonaventure University (NY)
Rumination on Dante, Scripture and Human Suffering, Solo Exhibition, Yale University Divinity Library (CT)

The series featured in the artist's conference presentation at the International Society of Phenomenology
Fine Arts and Aesthetics 16th Annual Conference "Passions of the Skies," Harvard campus, Boston, MA

This drawing series is allegorical. The images are informed and inspired by the spoken epilogue

of a musical composition (of the same title) by the late artist and composer, Michael Jackson. The

prescient lyrics of “Will You Be There” call to mind the essence of Old Testament Psalms, as they

depict the soul crying out to the Divine for intercession. The lamentations express longing for

relief from the tribulation of inner doubts and fears, as well as rescue from the dissonance of a

world savaged by war, poverty and other atrocities. An angel, or witnessing emissary, is placed

within each of the sufferings expressed in the drawings. The images are archetypal and not meant

as realistic depictions. The musical production (in the extended recorded version) commences

with a classical prelude by the Cleveland Orchestra Chorus performing a portion of Beethoven's

Symphony No. 9 followed by the Andrae Crouch gospel choir backing up Jackson's dramatic

vocals. I wanted my drawings to embody the emotional tenor of this artist's extraordinary piece.

1. In my trials and in my tribulations

2. Through my fear and my confessions

3. In my violence In my turbulence

4. In our darkest hour In my deepest despair

In my trials and in my tribulations
Through my fear and my confessions
In my violence In my turbulence
 In our darkest hour
In my deepest despair
Will You Be There?
 Bio of the Artist

Constance Pierce served as associate professor of fine art with St. Bonaventure University (NY). She is a

graduate of Hoffberger School of Painting, Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore and has
exhibited regionally, nationally, and in Europe and Japan. She also specializes in offering courses and

seminars of her original material titled, “Image Journaling: Creative Renewal and the Journey Inward.”

Her sketchbooks were featured in two exhibitions at the National Museum of Women in the Arts in
Washington D.C. Her monotypes and sketchbooks are in the permanent collection of this museum, and

the Archives of American Art of the Smithsonian Institution (DC), the rare books collection of the
National Gallery of Art Library (DC), the Georgetown University Special Collections (DC), the

International Marion Research Institute of Dayton University (OH), the Yale Center for British Art Prints
and Drawings sketchbook archives and their Rare Books and Manuscripts collection, as well as the Yale

Art of the Book Collection (CT), the Henry Luce III Center for the Arts and Religion of Wesley Theological
Seminary (DC), as well as other venues, and numerous private collections.

Over the past decades her art has been featured in articles, photographs, and critical reviews in the

Washington Post, Chicago’s New Art Examiner, the Sunday New York Times, the New Haven Register, Journal
of the Print Word, the Yale Bulletin, the Cleveland Plain Dealer, the literary journal IMAGE: Art, Faith and

Mystery, and exhibition catalog texts of the National Museum of Women in the Arts (DC) and the Dadian
Gallery of the Luce Center for the Arts and Religion (DC) among others.

A conference paper authored by Pierce, “Opus Cordis: Reflections of a Contemporary Artist Embracing

the Drama of Religious Imagery,” is included in Art Inspiring Transmutations of Life of the Analecta
Husserliana series. A subsequent essay by Pierce, "Ruach Hakodesh: The Prophetic and Epiphanic Nature

of Imagination," was published in a later volume of the series, The Cosmos and the Creative Imagination.

Over the years, Pierce has presented at conferences such as the Arts and Aesthetics Conference of the
International Society of Phenomenology on the campus of Harvard University in Boston, the Association

for Integrative Studies conference at Emory University in Atlanta, the Society for Arts and Healthcare
conference in Washington, DC, the American Art Therapy Association conference in Washington, DC, the

Theological Aesthetics International conference at St. Bonaventure University, NY, the Association of Core
Texts and Courses conference in Atlanta, the Southern Graphics Council conferences in Baltimore and

Washington, DC, and the Whole Schools Initiative conference for art educators in Jackson, among others.