|
Erosion 12 x 36" , mixed media on stretched paper.
This piece began many months before it started to appear on paper. I had planned to enter an exhibition addressing our culture—its “wrongs” and “rights”, but I didn’t finish it on time, so it stayed in my sketchbook for months. At the time, I was studying 2 Timothy and found myself pondering the way I think. After reading 2 Tim 3:16-17, that became a primary focus for this piece.
If we are equipped for every good work through the Scriptures, it seems our equipping is eroding away. There seems to be much less interest in and application of scripture in our culture and I thought of erosion. I found the definition of erosion to be “a slow running off of valuable soils, minerals and nutrients for growth.” So this piece expresses that process. For me, scripture is the nutrient for my spiritual growth and if it washes away, I slowly erode into self-absorption and selfishness.
The symbolism in this piece starts with the squares. The square is historically used as a symbol for earth and the silver line is a reference to scripture as stated in Psalm 12:6 “And the words of the LORD are flawless, like silver refined in a furnace of clay, purified seven times.” Initially this was going to be only one square showing the erosion process, but after dialoging with an artist friend, he suggested expanding to more squares showing more of the process. So, I began with white and purity and ended with black and degradation. However, the silver lines continue throughout the whole piece as the standard, the refining reference to scripture. Our decisions may cause erosion, but God’s word is still there, stable and unchanging.
|
