Friday, June 2, 2017

Movement

My art currently in the Wy'east Artisans Guild show "Movement", on display in the Sandy Actors Theatre for the month of June in conjunction with the musical "Godspell".


Kingdom of Children
This was painted with the three-color process—red, blue, and yellow (plus white) mixed to create all the shades. It’s a good way to unify the different colors in your painting, and that was especially important on this one, since I put it together from a combination of 13 family photos, faces from magazines, and a bit of my own imagination. The bubbles were by far the easiest and most fun. Get close, and you’ll see they’re simply loose swirls of color. In composing this picture, I was inspired by two quotations of Jesus from the gospel according to Matthew:
“Let the little children come to me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of heaven.”
And
“Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.”



Logos
This was made entirely with color pencils, except for some paint spatter for stars and highlights on the planets, which, I might add, are arranged in a completely imaginary formation. I love images that show the movements of the planets with rings. To me, the precise movements in the heavens look very much like a dance. The dance of a solar system centers around a star—ours is called The Sun. Oddly enough, in English, that sounds exactly like The Son, S-O-N, a name often given to Jesus. In Greek, “Logos” means “Word”, and is also one of Jesus’ names. The gospel according to John starts out: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

There’s a song I love that was playing in the back of my mind as I chose art for this show:

All creation moves in a cosmic dance
For the Lord her King
And the rhythm, the reason,
The rhyme of the dance
It pulses within everything…



Ravenwood
This is acrylic paint on wood. As is obvious from the art on display here, I’m fond of bright colors. So, I have no idea why, out of all the birds out there, ravens would be one of my favorites. I’ve never seen them as ominous, but instead a combination of amusing and noble. People keep calling this a “crow”, so let me be clear: there’s a difference between crows and ravens! Ravens are bigger and have larger beaks. Crows caw, ravens croak. And when they fly overhead, I can tell them apart because the crows are flapping, but the ravens are making a majestic swoop, swoop sound with their broad wings.



All Creation Sings
This piece, made from a combination of pen and ink and colored pencils, is a variation on the same theme as “Logos”. After I drew it years ago, I matched it with a tiny poem I wrote called “Life”:

What is this gift we are given
The most mysterious of things
As brilliant as the distant stars
And as fragile as butterfly wings?



Ageless Dance (Broken Beauty)

I couldn’t quite decide what to call this graphite and color pencil drawing, so I named it both, because it is. If you look closely at the background details, you’ll notice little figures, from many lands and times, engaged in many different forms of dance. That’s the “ageless dance” part. But it all started with a photo of an ancient Greek statue that caught my eye. She was weather-worn, chipped, and maimed, but so beautiful, the artistry of her sculptor shining through. She is us. Broken, but still beautiful. Disfigured, but still dancing. Damaged, but still the work of a great artist.