During the By/For Artist Residency this past August, the artists involved spent two weeks creating works of art, which will travel in an exhibition throughout the Pacific Northwest. The themes for this exhibit are The Beautiful, The Sublime, and The Grotesque. I made three works of art for this exhibition, which I will be writing about here. For more information on the By/For Residency, go to the By/For Website.
Painting #3 - Absolom, 24″H x 30″H and 12W” x 36″H, oil on canvas (click on image for large version)
This painting was inspired by the Biblical story of Absolom, a son of King David who rebels against his father and forms an army to overthrow him. Absolom’s army is defeated, and Absolom flees into a nearby forest, where one of David’s generals chases and kills him (the story says that Absolom was caught in a tree by his hair, and the general pierced him with three spears). David deeply mourns the loss of his son (perhaps not just the physical loss, but the emotional and spiritual loss via his rebellion), singing songs of loss while having a monument of stones built at the spot he was killed.
I have been wanting to do a painting on this story for awhile - after attending a choral concert in Seattle last year directed by my friend Gene Peterson. There were two pieces performed about Absolom - one more traditional song, and another modern piece. I had never heard or read the story of Absolom before this, but I remember being moved so deeply by the choral pieces. When people ask me what inspires me to paint, they assume it’s when I see a good painting, or a sunset, or something cliche like that. Well, sometimes I am, but really I gain inspiration from beautiful works like this - a choral piece that can move one to tears. I want my paintings to have that effect on people.
On the left canvas, King David mourns here in the physical world, building a pillar of rocks in memory of his lost son. On the right canvas is Absolom, having left the physical world through his death, stuck in the tree with three spears in his body. This was my ‘Sublime’ piece for the By/For retreat, however the historical depiction of Absolom’s death definitely leans ‘Grotesque’, which furthers my thinking that these themes we explored, The Beautiful, The Sublime, and the Grotesque, and not exclusive to one another. By that I mean that the Grotesque can be beautiful, and the Beautiful can bring a sublime experience.
There are two elements of this piece I want the viewer to consider - first, the space. Early in our time in Vancouver, we were given the guideline to keep the canvas sizes under 30″ at its largest point. When we were discussing the guidelines, Scott E commented that 30″ was the largest point for any one canvas, but that canvases could be put together in diptych or triptych form. At that point it clicked - what better way to convey this sense of transcendence between physical and spiritual by using actual space between the canvases!
Second, the monument of rocks. Physical space is all we know, via our senses (touch, taste, smell, sight, sound). Rocks, we can pick up, feel the weight of one in our hand, the coldness, smoothness, or jagged edges. Yet for us, it’s not enough. There has to be more, something beyond this physical world that is also real.
It is this reality, a spiritual ultimate reality, a space that cannot be physically seen, touched, or heard, but yet is still sensed by our soul, that I paint about.
