The Jesus Center Teleidoscope

The idea of a teleidoscope grew out of the Chico City Council's expressed interest in upgrading the Park Avenue corridor, the Jesus Center's desire to be a good neighbor given our central location on Park Avenue, along with the Center's enthusiasm for seeing transformed lives among Chico's hungry and homeless.

The project came to fruition through the efforts of local businessman Rory Rottschalk who sought to partner with other businesses in sponsoring an art project at the Center. "The purpose," according to Rory, "is to represent the Jesus Center to the community of Chico as the doorway through which we can best fulfill our responsibility to assist some of the least fortunate among us." Local artist Gregg Payne was brought into the project through his unique gifts in constructing public art in Chico - which is something he has done from his mural at the Pageant Theater, to his Abbey Road Beatles "walking" on the sidewalk outside the old Herreid music store on Main Street, to his gigantic interactive Xylophone in Wildwood Park and the 25 concrete cubed benches outside the Boys and Girls Club.

Gregg crafted a spectacular teleidoscope which combines elements of a telescope and a kaleidoscope. Almost all the parts came from copper and steel bits and pieces found at Chico Scrap Metal on 20th Street - the only exception being the glass lens which is a leaded crystal sphere from Austria. Because of its spherical shape, the super-wide angled lens inverts an image and focuses it to give an infinite depth of field. simple terms: the teleidoscope allows the viewer to see images of real objects in countless replicated patterns.

"We want to use it to generate hope," says Director Bill Such. "With a digital camera, we'll take pictures of our clients whose lives have changed for the better - for example, in getting a job, accommodation, and remaining drug-free. With their permission we will enlarge the pictures into kaleidoscopic patterns and put them on the walls in our dining room. The pictures will symbolize a new future for those dejected by their circumstances, that is, out of the broken pieces of someone's life - integration occurs - out of the fragmentary teleidoscope patterns an individual is seen with hope of a new future."

In line with this, Rory's vision is that "the teleidescope images could be used as inspiration for a series of murals on Park Avenue buildings. Each participating building would have its grounds cleared and maintained on a periodic basis by volunteers from the Jesus Center." With the City's acquiesence, the Jesus Center hopes to install the teleidoscope in front of the Center as a piece of public art.