Paint on Paper 22 x 30
The impetus behind this work started with the idea of the marriage between love of
God and love of Nature. To be a Christian is to enjoy God’s creation. For me, this
feeling, which was always present in some form, bloomed into maturity when I
experienced the wide grandeur of the American West in person. John Muir said “all the
world seems a church and the mountains altars.” I wanted to interpret this through the
lens of the orthodox American Christian experience of stained glass windows. I love
stained glass windows. The idea of bringing color into sacred spaces, telling bible
stories and Christian visual art as part of the very fabric of a church building is very
important to me. I read once that stained glass got it’s start invoking Jasper and
Carnelian from the Book of Revelation. Stained glass also represents both simplicity
and grandeur; blocks of color and a limit of depth. The work of Louis Comfort Tiffany
and his studio always stands out as both sophisticated and also indelibly American.
There are several Tiffany studios windows in my home church of Christ Episcopal in
WIlliamsport, PA. Looking up at the subtle interplay of colors and the lavish depth
added by the nacreous finish of a Tiffany window evinces feelings of humility and awe
in the viewer, like a little human version of that same awe one receives from a God-
made Western vista. We are made in the image and likeness. We have to create, it’s in
our essence. We also have to enjoy and appreciate the wonders of the divine
handiwork everywhere in our world. It is my fervent hope that this work brings the
smaller joy of human creation and inspires the viewer to go find some divine creation.
By God’s grace, Soli Deo Gloria. Ad maiorem Dei gloriam.
No comments:
Post a Comment