Mixed Media | Revelation 21.4
Ayisha Synnestvedt | Thursday, March 24, 2011 How does one portray God? Ayisha addresses this question in a recent work commissioned by the Kempton Society. She discloses the intentions and influences that take form in this image. (The electronic image doesn't do justice to the original, but you can see a large copy by opening the image in a picture viewer.) -Editor
Back in June of 2010 I was commissioned to do a picture for the Kempton Society's New Church Day celebration. The theme for the day was the Holy City, and my picture was to be inspired by Revelation 21:4 "And God shall wipe away every tear from their eyes...
I've put a lot of thought into how to portray God in art. For the purposes of this project, I wanted to offer something that would fit a child's perspective of God, but show Him in a new way that would subtly broaden or deepen their vision of Him. I thought back to my childhood, and the first time I really got that God was our Father, the way my Dad was my father. In the way children tend to deify their parents in their early years, I saw Dad as the wise example after which God patterned Fatherhood. Since I only ever saw Jesus depicted as a young, slightly effeminate bearded man in robes, my visual on God was more distant than the presence of my own actual father. Maybe this is as it should be--our parents ought to figure larger-than-life in our young eyes. However, in drawing this picture, I wanted to bridge the gap between the physically present Dad, and the vague, more distant Father. What if children could get a sense of the Lord immediately as a Dad, not as a storybook man in a robe? So I drew God in blue jeans and shirt sleeves, with a respectably trimmed beard and head. I chose grey hair to give Him an air of wisdom and experience without evoking old age. Maybe this Dad is one of these fathers who start a family a little later, or else a spry grandfather still well-able to play a father's role. I wanted Him to look wise and loving, casual but hard-working. I added a gentle halo, because it's a visual trope that's cross-culturally recognizable, and has basis in correspondence.
Many have already assumed that the picture takes place at sunset, and that would probably work too, since bedtime can be a time of peace in our parents' arms, but the pink clouds on blue are actually those of a sunrise: the dawn is breaking over God's shoulders: one could even see His face as the sun, its halo as the sun's rays. The picture reads left to right; east to west. My idea was that the sad children in shadow will soon be flooded with light as God comforts them. Daylight in His city, the New Jerusalem, will chase away the dark fears of night: "and death shall be no more; and sorrow, and crying, and pain shall be no more, for the former things are passed away."
;)
Ayisha Synnestvedt
Ayisha Synnestvedt lives in Bryn Athyn, PA where she writes fiction, draws for a living, and works on independent film projects. You can visit her blog-style website at ayishasportraits.wordpress.com to see more of her artwork.Wondering about the inspiration for this article? Look up the New Church, which is based on the theological writings of Emanuel Swedenborg.
Reader Comments (3)
I really enjoyed hearing your thoughts on your painting. Visual media is a powerful tool.
If I were to see this painting without knowing any of it's history, I would immediately recognize the love of the Lord operating through the man, and the happiness that love produces through the children's expressions.
What if man/womenkind allowed the Lord's love and wisdom to operate through them as was meant to be? Children would be blessed, and absent the neurotic dysfunctions that arise from hereditary evil.
What a beautiful painting!
This is beautiful, Ayisha. I absolutely love the feel of it. Thanks for sharing it!