Artist Christina Batch-Lee (right) speaks with Heather Burkman (left) and Emily Tidwell in front of her artwork titled “Beating of Wings,” oil and metal leaf on canvas, 4×8 feet.

There was a rumble in the clouds over Manhattan Sept . 29, but it had nothing to do with storms in the sky.

Instead it was the rumbling of voices as some 800 people took in the works of “Rumble Above the Clouds,” during the reception for the fifth annual exhibit of Openings, a Paulist ministry to artists in New York City. The work of more than 20 artists – including painting, sculpture, mixed media, metalwork and video – can be seen at the Church of St. Paul the Apostle in Manhattan through Oct. 27.

The show had a much coveted preview in The Village Voice as “something not to miss this week,” 10,000-plus hits of artist interviews on YouTube’s pop!talk channel, and artist interviews by Net TV, the cable television station operated by the Diocese of Brooklyn. The compelling nature of the exhibit came from the artist’s interpretation of the theme, “Rumble Above the Clouds.”

Meg Graham, Consciousness Convergence, collage with acrylic on gosso board, 16×20 inches

“I strongly believe artists have something to teach us, whether they themselves know it or not,” said Father Frank Sabatte, CSP, himself an artist and the founder of Openings. “We need to see how artists today are teaching us something new about spirituality, what about the transcendent they are trying to tell us.”

Christina Batch-Lee – whose work titled “Beating of Wings” comprised of oil and metal leaf on canvas – experienced a great sense of community by working on the show.

“Art can be a lonely pursuit, but it doesn’t have to be,” she said. “I felt energized and supported just knowing there were 20 other people working on this project, even thought it wasn’t at the same place and time.”

Meg Graham, “Love Blossom” collage with acrylic on gesso boars, 16×20 inches

Anthony Santella’s 18-inch cherry wood statue of a Marian-styled woman fearfully looking heavenward was inspired by an art proposal not included in the exhibit.

“It was about 50 Predator-type figures hanging from the ceiling,” said Mr. Santella of his inspiration. “Rumble Above the Clouds’ evokes for me the tension, real or imagined, between the sacred and the profane.”

Visitors are encouraged to rearrange the wooden blocks of words in Araceli Cruz’s “Note to Self.” Ms. Cruz was inspired by her daily list of reminders.

“It is a constant battle my inner self faces living in a world cluttered with distractions,” she wrote in her art description. “Without these reminders, I would be lost.”

Artist Araceli Cruz invited attendees to rearrange the words in her piece of art titled “Note to Self.”

Kinda Barazi’s “Bulldozer”

Porn Siphanoum, “Say I Do” mixed media on canvas, 4×5 feet

Anthony Santella, cherry wood, 18x8x8 inches