On exhibit currently at the Blue Spiral Gallery in Asheville, NC is the work of a Spanish painter, Rafel Bestard. If you are local, I highly suggest visiting or at least looking at his work and reading his statement. He is a philosopher painter and I don’t believe necessarily a Christian one. However, his work is touching on themes that I find deeply arresting and pertinent. Look into him and see what you think.

He is dealing with perception, with willful blindness as well as with truly seeing in different ways. In his own words: “My work explores the relationship between fusion and fundamental opposites: Light and Shadow, Love and Death, through a painting technique in which the tradition of the old masters, through influences as diverse as Bachelard philosophy and Kobayashi films, brings forth new representations of eternal concerns.”

Eternal Concerns! And I was moved by what he was articulating on canvas right away.

An art critic said, “the beauty that emerges from Bestard’s paintings is always disturbing.”

What I highlight here is what the artist titled “What is Present”. I can’t claim any knowledge of the artist’s own intentions here with this piece, or with his chosen title, but I know how this painting moves me!

With expert paint handling and rendering of feminine form, the artist confronts us with a beauty behind a veil. She seems to be lifting away the veil in the present, though her face is dark and moody. She is not looking upward, but the light source reflected on her gown, her hand and fingertips is directly above her. I choose to think of her as a bride, though the artist may just be rendering a woman in a negligee. She is placed in a narrow interior, a tightly gabled enclosure with no evident light source.

My most recent post is how time seems to be escalating. Here an artist is depicting What is Present. He, unbeknownst to him, is rendering my own present as if I were standing outside myself and looking at my position.

Here is why this so informs me. Jesus spoke of returning for His bride. He was specifically symbolic about this event referencing Galilean wedding custom with His disciples on His last night with them. He made them a promise. And earlier that week, when they had directly asked Him ‘when’ he spoke of virgins who needed to wait for their bridegroom. He suggested through parable (and with literal words just earlier) that the waiting would be difficult. But He was also clear that the return would be finally surprising, in their real present, and consequential. I suggest you look into that too.

I would love to speak with this artist. He may have been in the room when I was there at the opening and I didn’t know it. I expect my interpretations may have been foreign if we had had the chance to speak. But what I believe he is addressing is cosmic.