Job 39 -- Secretariat

Last night I saw the recent movie Secretariat and thoroughly enjoyed it. The movie starts and ends with a quotation from Job 39, given below in the New Revised Standard Version.

"Do you give the horse its might? Do you clothe its neck with mane? Do you make it leap like the locust? Its majestic snorting is terrible. It paws violently, exults mightily; it goes out to meet the weapons. It laughs at fear, and is not dismayed; it does not turn back from the sword. Upon it rattle the quiver, the flashing spear, and the javelin. With fierceness and rage it swallows the ground; it cannot stand still at the sound of the trumpet. When the trumpet sounds, it says 'Aha!' From a distance it smells the battle, the thunder of the captains, and the shouting."

In 2006 I created a collage based on Job 39 (which can be seen in my 6/12/10 posting) so I looked again at my picture and saw that I had illustrated the verses above with a photograph of a race horse. Then I looked at the racing colors of the horse and realized that it was SECRETARIAT.  This either falls into the category of "Great minds think alike" or the leading of the Holy Spirit.

King Solomon

The story of Solomon given in I Kings 2-11 is a cautionary tale picturing one of the few examples of apostasy in the Bible, Old or New Testament.  The dual before-and-after collages describing his sprititual decline are shown below. These were created this year on oval canvases mounted on 20" x 24" hardboard backings.

 Solomon: The Sage

 Solomon began his reign auspiciously with God giving him the wisdom of seven men as well as power and wealth beyond imagining.  His wisdom is amply demonstrated by the collection of Proverbs ascribed to him. Images from this book surround his composite portrait.

Solomon: The Apostate

Unfortunately, his end was not as glorious as his beginning. Chapter 11 of I Kings tells us that he married many foreign women and adopted their pagan religions before he died.  The images surrounding this portrait are taken from the Book of Ecclesiastes, which is about, and possibly by, Solomon.  This book describes the various futile experiments of someone who has everything attempting to find ultimate meaning in life.  The various sayings in Ecclesiastes can be described as anti-wisdom in that they demonstrate that the general truths of Proverbs regarding the fates of the wise and foolish do not always play out simply in this life. In this manner, the book resembles that of Job. 

As with Job, however, the author does not resort to nihilism but, as one author has said, "He is even skeptical about his own skepticism."  This phenenomenon plays itself out in the literary structure of Ecclesiastes in that each section, however negative in tone, concludes by coupling a cynical statement such as "All is vanity and a striving after the wind" with a positive qualifier such as "there is nothing better than that all should enjoy the work God has given them."

Monuments in the Desert

I am always on the lookout for inexpensive alternatives to stretched canvases as backings for my collages. I came across some interesting, and cheap, 10" x 10" wooden frames with recessed  mirrors in the center at IKEA and used twelve of them to create a series centering on key incidents found in Genesis-Joshua, before the Jews settled in the promised land.  The scripture references are given with the titles in case you wish to look up the relevant Bible passages.

Mail Order Bride (Genesis 24)

Highway to Heaven (Genesis 28:10-22)

 Night Wrestling (Genesis 32)

 Bushfire (Exodus 3)

All Decked Out (Exodus 28 & 39)

Calf Casting (Exodus 32)

 The Big 10 (Exodus 34)

 Encamped (Numbers 2)

Twice Struck (Numbers 20)

  Sympathetic Healing (Numbers 21)

  A Memorial Forever (Joshua 4)

“And Blow Your House Down”  (Joshua 6)

David and Bathsheba

The fascinating and perplexing story of this love triangle is narrated in II Samuel 11.  Interestingly, there are many parallels between this story and Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter. In both, an apparently godly man of prominence in the community has a secret affair with a married woman resulting in a child. He admits his guilt publically at the end of the story. In Hawthorne's novel, each of the main characters is missing one key component of a balanced personality. In the case of Pastor Dimmesdale it is the will, Hester is short on intellect, and her husband Chillingworth shows little emotion. (An alert reader will see the same deficiencies even more obviously in Dorothy's friends in The Wizard of Oz.)  Hawthorne may have deduced these character flaws in the original Biblical account since it is obvious that David's problem is indeed a will too weak to resist temptation, and Uriah does seem to be lacking in emotional content.  Bathsheba is somewhat of a cipher, and we don't know if her actions result from the cold calculations of a scheming temptress wanting to better her situation, or just reflect someone willing to "go with the flow" of events.

Each 12" x 16" collage in my 2007 triptych pictured below centers in on one of the three personalities in a somewhat cartoonish fashion.

David

David's dual nature is clearly pictured here.  This story presents a powerful lesson in sincere repentence followed by God's forgiveness.  Some people have a major problems with the fact that David is called "a man after God's own heart" despite his adulterous behavior and subsequent cover-up.  In addition to the obvious observation that all human beings are sinners, I found some comments of  C. S. Lewis helpful in this regard. He categorized sins into two types: carnal and spiritual.  The former sins (such as lust, gluttony, drunkenness, etc.) only lead people to become more like a beast. In contrast, "spiritual" sins (such as spite, envy, idolatry, etc.) are much more dangerous since they cause one to become more demonic.  David's sins, unlike those of his predecessor King Saul, were carnal in nature. It should also be pointed out that the rest of David's career as king will be overshadowed by personal tragedies in his own family, beginning with the death of his son with Bathsheba.  Sin, even when completely forgiven, is still accompanied by inescapable consequences.

Bathsheba

Bathsheba is pictured as a literal "bathing beauty" along with others.  The inner workings of her mind remain as much a mystery as those of Mona Lisa.

Uriah

Uriah is pictured as the soldier par excellence.  His whole world is the army, and duty is his highest calling. One wonders whether there is any room left in his life for his spouse.

Art in Printers Trays

Old wooden printers trays (also called type cases) are readily available in a variety of styles and sizes on the Internet or in antique shops.  Although they are widely used as decorative display cases for small knic-knacs, they can also function as the basis of more serious art projects.  The divisions within these trays provide a built-in structure to the piece, and they have the added advantage of not needing an external frame.  Some of my attempts to work within the framework of printers trays are shown below.

Lamentations (1999)

10 1/2" x 13"

The embossed letters in this case suggested the theme of the piece since the four chapters of Lamentations are each arranged as an acrostic with the opening lines beginning with successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet. Within this literary framework, however, there are variations so that each succeeding chapter becomes increasingly disordered, mirroring the disintegration of the nation of Israel after the capture of Jerusalem by the Babylonians in 586 BC. 

When I purchased this printers tray, it was somewhat damaged. This prompted me to actually remove additional dividing slats so as to provide larger frameworks for the most prominent collaged images.  Thus, the use of chance elements can be used to advantage by the artist even if they seem to be problems at the time. Witness Marcel Duchamp's comment when his Great Glass masterpiece was dropped by workmen, cracking a glass panel---"Now it is complete!"

Conquering Chaos (2009)

32" x 16 1/2"

The Book of Genesis is the theme of the above piece.  The literary structure of this book actually forms an interesting, and contrasting, counterpart to that of Lamentations.  Ten of the eleven major sections of Genesis begins with the words "This is the generation of."  The first sections have no recognizable sub-structure, but slowly a pattern emerges. By the time the last section appears-- the story of Joseph-- it is seen to have a highly organized symmetrical structure. In this manner, the whole Book of Genesis is seen to reflect the creation of an ordered world from chaos and God's choosing of one particular family over the many people on earth. This increasing symmetry can be seen by comparing the patterns of divisions in the tray going from left to right.

Type (2009)

6 3/4" x 8"

A very unusual variety of printers box was used for the above piece. It is a hard rubber tray used for linotypes.  The title and subject were felt to be appropriate ones for the material in question.  In biblical parlance, a "type" is an Old Testament forerunner to a New Testament person or event. In a way, it is a form of hidden prophecy whose meaning is only revealed later under the influence of the Holy Spirit.  In this particular collage, the example is that of Jonah, who was a type of Jesus in that they were both "buried" for three days before being raised (see Matthew 12:38-40)

One For Many (2003)

32" x 16 1/2"

It is hard to see much detail in the photo above, but at least one can admire the inherent artistry in the unusual tray itself.  The major divisions in the tray gave rise to the arrangement of the collage elements with the center panel representing Christ's crucifixion and the flanking panels showing events on heaven, earth and hell (going from top to bottom) before and after, respectively, this key event in history.  The title comes from Caiaphas' inadvertant prophecy (John 11:49-51) that one person should die on behalf of the many, who are represented in the portraits lining the bottom row.

God's Plaything (2009)

32 1/2" x 16 3/4"

This rather playful piece pictures the mysterious, composite sea creature called Leviathan. It is described in detail in Job 40-41 as the epitome of God's creation in the ocean. Despite its power and invincibility, it is a mere plaything for God (Psalm 104:26).  Its immunity to man's attempts to capture it with hooks or spears prompts the inclusion of the encapsulated objects in the upper and lower rows of the picture.  Note that I removed almost all of the wooden slats from the original type case before constructing this work.

Dubious Denouement (2009)

32" x 16 3/4"

The strange images in the above piece are appropriate to the rather strange passage that forms the ending (chapter 16, verses 9-20) to Mark's Gospel in some, but not all, modern translations.  The controversy over whether to include these verses arises from the fact that the majority of ancient Greek manuscripts end with this passage, but not the earliest ones.  My own studies of this gospel from a structural viewpoint have led me to the following theory: Mark 's original ending to his gospel was lost early in the history of its transmission but reconstructed later from memory by his associates.  Luke, but not Matthew, had access to the original edition of Mark's Gospel when he wrote his story of Christ's life and teachings so we can get some further idea of what was originally in Mark from the ending of The Gospel According to Luke.

Strange Water Series

In 2004 I created a series of assemblages entitled "Strange Waters" highlighting some particular, and peculiar, stories in the Old and New Testament that involved transformations of water by God's power.  Four of them are pictured below.

Waters of Impurity (3 1/2" x 4 1/4" x 12 1/4")

The regulation which this piece illustrates is found in Numbers 5.  Anyone who becomes ritually unclean by touching a dead body or coming into contact with human bones may have an uncontaminated person sprinkle a slurry of ashes on him and his house using a hyssop branch.  Such purity laws may seem foreign to us today, but they helped instill in the Jewish people the notion of God's absolute otherness, or holiness--a concept that we tend to take too lightly today.

Waters of Testing (10 3/4" x 5" x 3 1/2")

The above assemblage is based on the unusual procedure outlined in Numbers 5 by which a suspicious husband may determine his wife's fidelity. She is to appear before the priest with her hair unloosed and holding a grain offering. After pronouncing an oath of innocence, she is then to drink from a mixture of dust, ink and water.  If she has lied, she will suffer from a fallen uterus. There are, of course, obvious spiritual and supernatural elements present in this ritual.  But, in addition, it should be noted that the trial, by its very nature, is heavily weighted in favor of the wife (unlike other trials by ordeal) and probably discouraged husbands from making baseless accusations.

Bitter Waters (8" x 3 1/4" x 2 1/2")

Exodus 15 records the story of Israel in the wilderness after escaping from Egypt. At Marah, the only water they found was too bitter to drink. God revealed to Moses that the waters would be sweetened if he threw in a particular piece of wood. There have been attempts to find a naturalist explanation for this event.  For example, it is known that activated charcoal will remove impurities from water.  But at the least, the revelation to Moses of the knowledge of how to accomplish this purification should be regarded as a miracle. When this work was half completed, I decided that the inclusion of a bottle would be appropriate. I came across an antique medicine bottle in my collection with the inscription "Atwood's Jaundice Bitters Formerly Made By Moses Atwood."  Such "chance" happenings have occurred often enough in my various creative enterprises to convince me of the continuing guidance of the Holy Spirit.

Transformed Water (9 3/4" x 2" x 8 1/2")

Moving to the New Testament, the first recorded miracle of Jesus involves water-- the transformation of water into wine at the wedding in Cana.  One may safely disregard the several ludicrous attempts to explain this as a purely naturistic event.  However, as C. S. Lewis points out, this miracle (as the other New Testament miracles) is not merely arbitrary but demonstrates God's telltale modus operandi.  It simply accomplishes in a speeded-up manner what God also carries out through natural processes in the vineyard and through fermentation.  Appropriately, this piece is constructed using materials from a water testing kit.

Artistic Influences: Max Ernst

Max Ernst began his career as a surrealist around 1920 with the production of semi-humorous, but somehow disturbing collages.  "Ernst took disconnected fragments from old anatomy books and collections of engravings and rearranged them in accordance with the irrational demands of the imagination." (The Concise Encyclopedia of Surrealism by Rene' Passeron)  Ten years later, Joseph Cornell (see earlier posting) saw these collages and utilized the same techniques before concentrating on production of his boxes.

In 1983, I began experimenting with variations on this surrealistic collage technique to illustrate biblical themes and events.  I utilized as my source material illustrations from Nineteenth Century medicine almanacs, trade cards and (especially) black and white engravings from Jules Verne novels. Later I supplemented these sources with old British boy's magazines from 1850-1910.  Most of these early pieces were no larger than 3 1/2" x 5" (Max Ernst's collages were similarly small in size).  It soon became obvious to me that the all black-and-white collages, such as Ernst and Cornell produced, were often indistinguishable from simple untouched engravings unless some fantastic element was introduced--which was sometimes, but not always, my intent. 

Mostly Monochromatic (2003)

20" x 16"

The above piece utilizes black-and-white illustrations exclusively as is appropriate for a work showing the utter banality of  existence in hell.  Because of its relatively larger size, it bcame necessary to find imaginative ways to disguise the seams in the picture (as with the tall pile of tires you can see in the center).

I later found that the most striking visual effects could be obtained by introducing figures from old engravings into modern color photographs as backgrounds, such as in the diptych below picturing, respectively, Jesus' birth and ascension.

                      Descent (2005)  (16" x 20")                                Ascent (2005)  (16" x 20")
                                                                                                                                                                                                            

My largest, and most technically challenging, collage to date, labeled "Successions," incorporates a decorative strip down the middle mirroring the two Biblical transitions pictured.  One is that from King Saul to King David, marked by violence. The other is the peaceful transition of spiritual power from Elijah to Elisha.

Successions (2007)

4' x 2'

Artistic Influences: Joseph Cornell

The first two works of non-representational art that I can remember seeing  were during a trip with my parents to the Huntington Library in Southern California in the mid-1950's. One of the pieces was an all-white, wooden sculpture by Louise Nevelson, and the other was a mixed media assemblage, or "box," by the great American surrealist Joseph Cornell (1903-1972).  These two pieces completely redefined for me what shape art could take.  About ten years later, I took an old wooden clock case and composed my first box, entitled J.B. (for Judgment Box).

J. B. (1968)
21" x 11 1/2" x 3 1/4"

The diverse materials used to construct this piece include a toy car, plastic flower, popsicle sticks, layers of tinted Elmer's glue, a copy of a medieval church mural done in oils, a commercial greeting card, shards of Indian pottery from Acoma, and a plastic thermometer scale. This was also the first piece I composed with a scriptural reference in mind--in this case, an examination of the various expectations held regarding the end of the world.

It was over thirty years later before I returned to this form of composition, this time with a bookend piece regarding the competing (or complementary?) viewpoints regarding the events surrounding the beginning of the world.

The Great Debate (1999)

8 1/2" x 8" x 22"

This piece was constructed from an old scientific demonstration kit from England purchased for me in an antique shop by my wife for this purpose.  The most puzzling feature of this assemblage for most people is how the large collaged "dice" were put into the glass bottle on the right. The technique is akin to that involved in putting a ship in a bottle.

Since the year 2000, about half of my artistic output has been in the form of mixed media assemblages constructed in boxes of various sizes and descriptions.  One recent example is shown below:

Strike Two (2008)

8 1/4" x 5 1/4" x 3 1/4"

The Book of Exodus describes the accelerating conflict between Pharaoh and Moses regarding the request to "let my people go."  This box portrays the second plague visited upon Egypt by God--an innundation of frogs (Exodus 8:1-7).

Artistic Influences: Hieronymus Bosch

Although the Dutch artist Hieronymus Bosch lived from ca. 1450-1516, he had a profound effect on the much later surrealist movement with his incredibly detailed and naturalistic representations of completely fantastic landscapes peopled with even more fantastic creatures.  Despite the superficial similarities in their art, there was a wide gulf between their respective philosophies. Bosch viewed the world from a Christian perspective and appears to have begun with (overly) literal representations of well thought-out themes (though many of the original references have been lost through the ages). By contrast, most of the surrealists started out with an atheistic worldview and relied more on random and/or subconscious processes to create their art.

As an experiment, I attempted to mimic the general appearance of a Bosch painting such as Garden of Earthly Delights using only photographed images. The result is shown below. Note that I "cheated" with the image of the woman riding the flying fish. It is taken from a Nineteenth Century lithograph.

Homage to Bosch (2003) (16" x 20")

More typical examples of my dependence upon this artist are shown in the paired collages below from 2006 in which I employ the spirit of Bosch more than the actual appearance of his works.

Hard Questions: Job 38 (2' x 2')

More Questions: Job 39 (2' x2') 

In Job 38-39, God gives a "non-answer" to Job's plaint by enumerating the many mysteries of the universe that He has created. These two collages represent the attempts of explorers and scientists over the ages to "think God's thoughts after Him" and discover some of these mysteries for themselves.

Artistic Influences: Paul Klee

The Swiss artist Paul Klee is perhaps my favorite. I especially appreciate his expressive lines, sense of humor, and inventive spirit in experimenting with new techniques.  While in high school, I made several copies of his famous painting Battle Scene from the Comic Opera 'Sinbad the Sailor.'  However, instead of duplicating the medium he used (pen-and-ink and watercolor on paper), I glued sand on plywood and then painted over it with oils. The technique is a little painstaking but results in an interesting surface texture.

I later used this same technique to transform the Klee pen-and-ink drawings "The Great Dome" and "The Flood Washes Away Cities" into oil paintings. 

At first consideration, "colorizing" a Klee may seem as heretical as colorizing a classic black-and-white movie. However,  (a) Klee himself often cannibalized his pen-and-ink drawings by using a transfer technique onto watercolor backgrounds (as in his Sinbad ) and (b) the idea is not that different from the time-honored practice of one composer orchestrating the work of another.

Weltschmerz* (1960) (5' x 9 1/4")

One of my early original oil-on-sand paintings created under Klee's influence is shown above.
*weariness of life

Museum of Biblical Art, Dallas

Last month was the grand opening of the completely refurbished Museum of Biblical Art in Dallas, Texas.  Two of my works have been accepted by the museum as part of their permanent collection and are now on display there for the remainder of the year.

Artitst Eileen Downes has photos of the opening on her blog.  You can see my pieces in the gallery on the third photo from the top.

The first piece, entitled Dreamers, is a 35" x 23" paper collage with metal grating mounted on hardboard with a collaged frame.

This piece is based on Genesis 39-41, and the grated section depicts Joseph and his two fellow prisoners in the foreground with Pharoah in the background. Their stark quarters are in contrast to the paired images of Egyptian and modern culture outside their prison. The sometime hopeful, sometime ominous dreams of the four personages are pictured in the four corners of the work. Each vision will come true as foretold by God: Joseph's family will bow down to him, Pharoah will see famine in his land, the Baker will be executed, and the Cupbearer will once again serve his master.

Dreamers (2008)

The second piece is a mixed media (collage, plaster, acrylic, gilding and wax) triptych constructed from a modified wooden cigar mold. Overall dimensions are about 44" wide and 8 1/2" high. It is entitled "Come" (Mark).

"Come" (Mark)  (2008)

This piece reflects my great interest in the symmetrical literary patterns present throughout the Scriptures. The visual symmetry shown in the two side panels and the split oval in the center panel demonstrates the twenty-four chiastically arranged occurrences of the Greek word aperchoma ("come") found in the Gospel of Mark. Thus, for example, the first picture in the left panel and the last picture in the right panel illustrate the first and last appearances of "come", each involving stories of two believers.  The second and next to last pictures (and appearances in Mark of "come") both involve Jesus praying alone, etc., etc.  The oval in the center panel illustrates the miraculous events accompanying the central occurrences of "come". The literary artistry of the inspired Word is thus mirrored visually.