My Painting Process

"Art mirrors this struggle and captures the process of letting go. Every stroke pushes the painting to sacrifice itself: every creative act destroys something previously built. Imagination reveals not new vistas but revelations of reality behind reality. All art points to a transaction between reality of the seen and reality of the unseen."

It is one thing to say I am going to paint and a whole other to actually do it. The process of painting class for me was difficult. I am a visual artist with media but not necessarily in studio art. Our professor, Phillippe Fretz, a professional painting who lives in Geneva, Switzerland, lead us in the discussion of Dante’s inferno. He split the Inferno into 12 different sections, each containing 2-3 cantos. I got cantos 21-24- the hypocrites,barrators, and thieves. 

The goal was to have one big painting at the end with all pieces some how connecting on either side. I had a difficult time. At first I drew my lines wrong but not knowing until 3rd week in. So I had to move my lines to line up with Luke’s and Hannah’s on either side of mine, than go from there. I was back and forth on my ideas the entire time! I finally decided on more of abstract piece. I wanted to capture the colors, feelings, mood of a hell not just imagery. 

I wanted to look at:

-textures

-a space

-the feel 

I was question in art how we are not allowed to touch the canvas. It is always at an arm length. Just like sin. Sin is so real, always in front of our eyes yet we are scared to deal with it, to actually touch it. I wanted to face the reality of sin not just look at, but touch it deal with it. There is freedom to make a connection with the reality of sin. There is a God who wants me to not just look at the sin far away on a canvas, something that I created or had a part of but to reach out and hand it to him. 

Abstract art or action art is defined by its emphasis on emotional or spontaneous content not based in reality. 

The 4 different spaces of the painting was a structure I was given and was suppose to keep within the boundaries of. Starting at the top:

Sky of grace- beautiful, simple yet complex, tears of rain I called it. A skye of grace is over both the sinner and righteous. 

Stone wall- some kind of order and control, organizing sin. 

Beautiful motif- this explains the beautiful motif’s of popular Italian ceilings painted mostly by Giotto. What is the truth underneath? What is the sin that is being covered by the “beauty”? Hypocrites hide the truth with a false beauty. 

Reality of sin- the truth is dark, gritty, honest, raw, unplanned. 

Branch of hope- extends from the bottom to top blending in. There is still hope in darkness. Dante’s inferno was for the living to recognize their way of living and to look at the reality of hell. Why is hell so bad? Because it’s a lack of relationship from Jesus. It’s a separation from God. The tree shows how life can still grow out of sin, out of hypocrisy, how there is still hope.

I look back at the HOURS AND HOURS every day I spent on this painting, and realized it was one long worship month. Worship can be taxing on the heart, it is healing, it can be long, drawn out. In the middle of worship God changes a heart, He changes the plans you had and sets you on a new path. It’s not perfect, there is no perfection in worship. In worship you must show up and do your part. Something beautiful is created, even though at the end it doesn’t always look what you intend it to be. Worship is an everyday action of going before the throne of God, in whatever state you are in happy sad tired in love, and having the heart go through a process of humility in recognizing it’s about the journey not always the ending. In the journey is where He wants to teach us, shape us, get frustrated at Him and work through it and than fall in love with Him.

The painting process was a month of worship. I learned more about humility, the process, and raw honesty than I ever have in one month time. 

Did not edit this. so sorry. I need to work on that.
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