Panel will muse on questions about ‘listening to the work,’ the creative process
Madeleine insisted, “The largest job of the artist is to listen to the work.”
This listening is one of the ways, she believed, that we become co-creators with God. But, practically speaking, what does it mean to listen to what the work is trying to express or be? How do artists in various mediums allow their work a measure of free will?
Four artists will reflect on those questions and share what goes into their creative processes, during the “Listening to the Work” artists panel at the first Madeleine L’Engle Walking on Water Conference in New York City.
Musician in Residence Audrey Assad, artist and writer Albert Pedulla, and visual artist Joyce Yu-Jean Lee will participate in the panel, moderated by Seth Little, who directs arts programming for All Angels’ Church in Manhattan.
Audrey Assad is the daughter of a Syrian refugee, an author, speaker, record producer, and critically laudedsongwriter and musician. She refers to her music as “soundtracks for prayer,” and cites Madeleine as an inspiration.
Albert Pedulla is an artist, and occasional writer and curator. Fun fact: he designed and built Madeleine’s bedroom furniture and writing desk. He’s written on art for the journals Image, Comment and Seen. He also served on the Board of Directors of Christians in the Visual Arts (CIVA) for 16 years.
Joyce Yu-Jean Lee is a visual artist working with video, digital photography and interactive installation. Her artwork examines 
how mass media and visual culture shape notions of truth and understanding of the “other.” Her project about Internet censorship, FIREWALL, garnered backlash from Chinese state authorities in 2016 and was presented at Lincoln Center in NYC and the Oslo Freedom Forum in Norway. She has exhibited internationally, receiving support and press from a wide variety of publications and groups. She is based in NYC and teaches as an Assistant Professor of Art & Digital Media at Marist College.
The artists’ panel is part of the festivities on Saturday, Nov. 16, at the Walking on Water Conference. For a detailed schedule and to lock in your place at the event, check out the registration page.
Can’t wait to see you in NYC!
~Erin F. Wasinger, for MadeleineLEngle.com.
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Charlotte Jones Voiklis is Madeleine L’Engle’s granddaughter and executor of her estate. She is a lead producer of the musical adaptation of A Wrinkle in Time. She is also the co-author with Jennifer Adams of A Book, Too, Can Be a Star (October 2022), a picture book biography illustrated by Adelina Lirius; and, with her sister, Léna Roy, of Becoming Madeleine (2018), a biography for middle grade readers.
She wrote the afterword to the 50th Anniversary edition of A Wrinkle in Time, and the introduction to The Moment of Tenderness (2020), a collection of short stories. Charlotte has also written and spoken extensively about her grandmother’s work to a variety of audiences.
With a PhD in Comparative Literature, Charlotte’s professional experience spans teaching, fundraising, communications, and grant making. She has also volunteered as a mediator in the New York City court system, and coached police officers on mediation skills. Charlotte lives in New York and Connecticut with her husband and has two grown children.