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Timeless not pointless
I painted this large canvas over 25 years ago. It was an experiment in abstraction when I was still learning to work with paint. It was a wild ride, this piece, and so I kept it as a marker, for I remember well my intention. During that time, I was exploring the nature and the purpose of creative expression: both for me personally, and also theologically. Questions about how or if gestural expression, or marks without words, could communicate had me questing, note taking, studying, observing and practicing. I have stacks of things now which someone someday will have to trash. But since this painting was so big, 40″x30”, I couldn’t stack it away. I liked it for the memory of my questions, and the explosion of these marks and hues around a theme. I was studying Genesis 1 at the time, pondering the advancing movements documented there of the Creator. I wanted to see if I could catch a glimpse.
Almost 2 years ago, I had a show with a lot of small landscapes I had accomplished in Italy. The 30-some works on paper were hung up by clothes pins in a small local gallery. That gallery owner needed a focal point for this show, so I brought over this abstract from my studio. The show was so well attended it was rather surprising, and several smalls sold that very night. I referred to this painting only in passing as I spoke for about 10 minutes about the nature of expression and my aims in doing visual work. A quiet man made a decision that evening and spoke with the Gallery about buying this larger work on canvas. I hadn’t intended on selling it, but acquiesced due to his thoughtful interest. That would have been enough satisfaction.
And then this past week, I was invited to a talk this same man, now my friend, gave. I had no idea that he planned to display my painting as a visual backdrop to some very meaningful words he delivered about his own contemplative journey into how the Creator is holding his heart. My friend walked the audience through the phrases in Psalm 23 and pointed to how those comforting words are suggested all through this/my own wild exploration of Genesis 1. I was rather stunned. My friend saw things, and accurately, which I never intended, but very likely the Originator (who envelops all) did.
I often query myself, especially when I’m feeling restless or tired: “why am I doing this?” “what is the aim?” “what will last which is eternally useful here?” “could I do it better?”
This piece you see is maybe not a great painting. I actually don’t know what makes something great. But what happened with this is great to me. The effect of the work is indeed timeless and not pointless. I got to be involved partnering in something big. I don’t make work for it to be a pretty copy, or a current fad. I don’t make work to further glut my studio. I don’t make work to gain a name for myself. I don’t make work to sell it (though it’s nice when it does). Sometimes I struggle to make work at all. But to make something which becomes a catalyst into someone else’s life in a meaningful way is of utmost value to me. Stunned by this realization, I’m happy to report that this is more than satisfaction; it is a humble fulfillment.
Appalachian Patchwork
This huge quilt is made from Pat’s long-term collection of samples, tests, studies and observations from old barns and country textures. It is a masterwork, a piece of extraordinary beauty as simply an aesthetic accomplishment. But this piece also is a powerful emblem to me of so much more. I stood and stared at it, looking closely and then standing back, taking comfort, and noting to myself that just by looking I was doing exactly that: taking comfort in the quilt.
Read More...Time and Treasure
Some things come home in your soul. Some things stick, like a stake in the ground that determines a trajectory towards the ultimate. Some of these things are surprising, difficult, even unasked for and therefore all the truer. How does any one of us even know what is really true? What will last that is significant? I have some musings today, which support why I made this piece some years ago on old brown paper using gesso, graphite and pastel. The making of this didn’t take me long, you can see the fast fat brush stroking. But the thinking that prompted this image has been lifelong.
Read More...Reflection on a Muddy Road
This is a simple reflection on a muddy road, late afternoon, close to Masai land. We were in a big jeep which could handle the terrain. Exotic animals could turn up anywhere and it was an adventure at this point which is part of the feel, and then the contrast with this sudden, common, quiet beauty laid out before us on the road. Often, I can’t get my iPhone out fast enough when I see the moment, and yes there were better glimpses than what I finally could catch. Maybe that is why I wanted to try to memorialize the vision in paint.
Read More...the bride who is waiting…
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.
Read More...escalations
I had a rich conversation with one of my grandsons this past week. He’s on a campus where there is all the same clamor you’re hearing about. He was thoughtful about it, so I spoke of what the building take-overs were like when I was a student. How I was involved and what emerged as a result. There were boisterous chants then too, same rhythm different words. How robotic? Are we just in some kind of cyclical reiteration or are we heading somewhere? Time is escalating. Moments are consequential. And it has all been spoken of before.
Read More...Bread and Salt
It’s been years, decades, since I first heard an old Russian proverb. It latched into my head in some primal way, and I’ve never forgotten it: “eat bread and salt and speak the truth.” What could be more simple? What could be more valuable in any earthly life? Bread and salt are basic. Even the poorest in the tundra have bread of some kind to share. And truth? What could be more necessary, what could be more desired in a meeting of people at any table, especially in our times of fake this and that. I am so weary of all the fakeness and all the outright lies.
Read More...‘next level’
It’s an inside joke in our house now. ‘Next level’ stuff feels like sleight of hand.
Why? because all that went before has intrinsic value. And it not only remains but is the source for what follows.
Read More...palliative
The word came to me when I was working this week on some small pieces in my studio. I am familiar with the term “palliative” since conversing with a friend who is a hospice nurse. But I had not considered this term for me… until now. Palliative: n. an action that is intended to alleviate a problem without addressing […]
Read More...face to Face, or shadow for Substance
In a wooded area near the fields below, I was enchanted by the shadows and then the light
Read More...night soundings
This scene references a vivid memory I had when I was about 18, sitting on a log in Canada and peering up into the deep night sky. No one sitting around the campfire was speaking. I had no prior information about God which was at all meaningful, so I was not prepared with any assumptions or pre-conditioning. I just looked up silently at the dark vastness sprinkled with an array of stars. Soon, unbidden, I was covered with awe. The depth of sparkling bodies suspended way above me in the heavens was beyond beautiful. It was calling me in some kind of gentle way to awaken to what seemed suddenly obvious: that there was a Creator who was way beyond what I knew sitting there on the earth. I said nothing to anybody, but my heart gained something important that night.
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