Glasswork finds a home in Raleigh

After her husband of 53 years died in August, Joany Earle Condoret thought she would retreat from public life.

Unexpectedly, she is being thrust back into it.

Condoret, 76, donated a dozen life-size leaded glass pieces last month to Raleigh's Pullen Memorial Baptist Church. The glass panels, now on view, depict biblical stories of David and Goliath, Mary and Elizabeth, Jesus and Peter, in a modern style with distorted, abstract shapes.

Condoret, who lives in Fearrington Village, started working in leaded glass 36 years ago. Each piece took more than a year to complete. Yet, unlike her paintings in oils, acrylics and pastels, which have been exhibited around the state, these massive glass figures have never been shown.

"They're a creative testament to her faith and love of the Bible," said Gayle Lowry, an artist and a member of Pullen's curatorial committee, which accepted the works.

Many of them will be displayed in the 9,800-square-foot addition the church completed in 2009. Church members had been searching for appropriate artwork for the ultramodern, metal-shingled addition. When they saw Condoret's work, it seemed the perfect fit.

The Rev. Nancy Petty, pastor of Pullen, said the congregation is honored to have them.

"Art has really helped us interpret, understand and relate to our faith in ways other disciplines cannot," she said. "It gives us new insight into old and familiar stories."

Inspired by the stained glass windows of the great European cathedrals, Condoret's windows include little or no colored glass. The majority of her pieces are made from an assortment of clear, gray and textured glass. For Condoret, it's the copper-foil soldering and the striking shapes that it creates that make her work so distinctive.

Soft-spoken, private

A longtime resident of North Carolina, Condoret is a soft-spoken, private woman. But there is nothing understated about her leaded glass pieces.

In works such as "The Visitation," which depicts the Virgin Mary's visit to her cousin, Elizabeth, the affection and tenderness Condoret has for the two pregnant women is evident in their embrace. From the waist down, the two women become one figure.

Other works, such as "David and Goliath" and "Christ Jesus Destroys Evil," depict ferocious, monster-like figures.

"These are such giantpieces, people might think a man did this, or a brooding person filled with angst," said Condoret's daughter,Arielle Schechter of Chapel Hill. "But no, they were made by a light-hearted, cheerful woman."

Condoret is uncomfortable talking about herself or her accomplishments.

A Christian Scientist, part of a group that eschews medical intervention, Condoret has never been dogmatic about her faith. A bad back prevents her from going to church these days. But even when her husband, Jon, was alive, her faith was a private matter.

"I love the Old Testament and the New Testament," she said. "The Bible is so vivid when you read it. You see the stuff in front of you."

Early life on the move

Born in Worcester, Mass., Condoret and her family moved frequently in her early years because of her father's Navy career. But despite years abroad in Portugal and other countries where Christian Scientists were few, Condoret never lost the faith her mother instilled in her.

Drawing became second nature from the age of 5, when she took her first art lesson. She still sketches almost every day.

She was a teen when the family moved to Durham. Condoret attended Durham High School and later Duke University. As a junior, she went abroad to study at the Sorbonne in Paris. At a party, she met Jon Condoret, a French Algerian studying at the l'École Spéciale d'Architecture. He knew little English, but it didn't matter. Joany mastered French, and the two married in 1957.

For a few years, the couple lived in Algeria, but in 1962 when civil war broke out after the country won independence from France, the Condorets moved to Chapel Hill. Jon worked as an architect; Joany reared two girls, Arielle and Brigitte.

Arielle Schechter said her mother often brought homeless people to their house for a meal or a place to stay, and volunteered for the Interfaith Council for Social Services in Chapel Hill. For many years she cared for her husband's Algerian relatives.

When the girls were older, the Condorets moved to a 140-acre farm near Siler City and later donated 84 acres to the Triangle Land Conservancy. Jon's job as the chief architect for Fearrington Village led the couple to build a house in the Pittsboro-based planned residential community.

Wherever the Condorets lived, the leaded glass pieces, boxed in handsome wood frames built by her husband, followed. Although Condoret sold one in the series for $20,000, she was reluctant to part with them piecemeal.

"I wanted them to be together because they're all related," she said.

The gift to Pullen, facilitated by art agent Carol Hewitt, was a huge relief.

"When I saw the new Pullen chapel it was clear," Hewitt said. "It was such an obvious marriage."

For Condoret, it was also a blessing. She didn't mind that the pieces were going to a Baptist church, where she attended last month's opening. What was most important was that they would be cherished and cared for with the same affection that initially inspired her to create them.

And to that she could only add, Amen.