This is a digital collage & drawing I created combining my poem with a collection of images. Click HERE to view the complete work in higher resolution.
Those who take the time will find intriguing interactions and coincidences between the textures, lines, words and images which amplify the meaning.
Try zooming in and panning across the image to discover them.
The poem is derived from a play I wrote in 2002 inspired by the story of Lazarus. It is now in book form entitled You After All, as well as in a volume of poetry entitled Beautify, Oh.
I have always hoped that my art and writing would go beyond the canvas or page to create more within the beholder.
The profound themes and messages which impress me enough to create a visual, or text resist being treated in superficial ways. So, my viewers and readers have to work with my creations to gain the benefits.
Your Part to Play as Beholder
I leave unanswered questions, ambiguous elements and abstract designs in the compositions because I am looking for people who will take the time to dig for the treasure I have hidden for them.
Those who stop to contemplate the work of art, who exercise their imaginations and connect their own knowledge base with the new elements before them, will receive the satisfaction of discovery.
But why would I risk people not getting my intended message?
Well, I do provide enough for them to discover certain key things and you can look further in the books I mentioned above. I am like an usher leading any who will come through the piece’s components.
But, I admit that I am only introducing them to things bigger than myself, inviting them to expand upon my work in the ways that will minister to their personal needs.
In this I am enacting the role of a prophet, a priest.
My art and writing is a work of faith; I trust God to shape me, so that the art I shape will manifest God’s presence calling to the beholder. As Jesus often said after telling a baffling parable, “He that has an ear, let him hear.”
Only as Moses took the time and trouble to draw close to that phenomenon of the burning bush did he hear the voice of God. From that time forth he was empowered to be what he was meant to be.
This is the ideal that guides me in my work: to be something like the burning bush.
The Presence is calling from the canvas, from the page; those who take the time to discern it, let them respond.
