CR spoke with Kerry Cole about her exploration of human relationships

Kerry Cole

When Cross Rhythms Co-Founder Kerry Cole presented The Purple Veil as a stage production at the Cross Rhythms festival several years ago, even leather-clad bikers unashamedly broke down in tears at the universal message of the human heart's quest to find pure love. Having teamed up with graphic artist Billy, she has now released the book version of her intense poem accompanied by stunning illustrations. To find out more Heather Bellamy spoke with her.

Heather: How did you get the original idea for The Purple Veil?

Kerry: I put on a fashion show at the Cross Rhythms Festival which celebrated the six days of creation and culminated in a large back drop descending saying, 'Worship the Creator'. The whole show had taken over a year to put together. We had over 30 models and many outfits. We used really funky music and it went down so well with the audience. The night I got back home from the festival I was so exhausted but really happy with how everything had gone. I lay my head on the pillow hoping to drop into a deep sleep but instead a really strong, clear image came into my mind of a wooden structure with purple fabric billowing from it. There were people asleep inside it and I reached for a pen and wrote a 12 line poem entitled The Purple Veil. I knew instinctively that it represented a place deep within us where we long for love and intimacy. I started to think of Romans chapter 1 where it says, 'They exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshipped the creature rather than their creator'. I thought of how we worship man and woman and look to each other to be the fulfilment of our love needs and how this all goes wrong when we place our hope in a human to love us in the way we need to be loved.

Heather: At one point it was an amateur production. Can you describe the production for us?

Kerry: The production mainly took place within a large four poster wooden structure draped in gaudy purple fabric. It was like a kind of a temple, a place of worship, and within it various characters outworked their agonising longings for love to legendary rock anthems. Nothing was explicit, but it portrayed the innermost emotions of people as they got entangled in soul ties with each other. The climax came when a male character reached out and tore the veil down in the quest to find true love beyond the veil. As he did this he crashed to the ground and into his loneliness, despair and desolation a father figure came. This father figure lay down on the floor and held the guy in an embrace that eventually melted all his pent up angst and started to bring healing.

Heather: What was the response like from people who watched it?

Kerry: The response was overwhelming. Men especially broke down and sometimes cried audibly. I remember looking up and seeing a group of bikers, dressed in their leather gear with tears rolling down their faces.

Heather: Now there's a book and paintings; how many paintings are there and what sort of things do they depict?

Kerry: There are 12 paintings, one for each line of the poem. The first one is a stunning painting of The Purple Veil structure with a teenage boy and girl passing through it with a sword, shield and lantern. It is called, 'Overcoming Generation'. All 12 pictures have titles. Some portray implicit images but never explicit. They deal with issues like the betrayal of innocence, pornography, adultery etc. The image about pornography is quite beautiful when you first look at it and then you start to read into it the deeper meaning behind it. The paintings and words fight for people not against them. It is not a book that condemns but rather carries a message that calls people out of destructive places and behaviour.

Heather: Why have you produced The Purple Veil in this format?

Kerry: It makes the message very personal. You can take the book off into the privacy of your own space.

Heather: Describe the book for us.

Kerry: It comes in an A4 landscape hardback format. It has been beautifully produced to a very high standard. The paintings alone took six years to complete! It is a great book to have lying around the house on the coffee table. The pictures do a lot of the talking, helped along with a sometimes brief text. The style of the writing is lyrical, poetic and often written in the first person. Although it is deeply spiritual there is no religious language in it so it is very palatable for people who have no faith at all.

Heather: How has the book been received?