Reflected Light (bethimpson.wordpress.com) has several essays worth reading, including one on beauty and one on suffering.
Reading them, it makes me wonder about my visual art. Do I paint Truth? Does it include suffering?
I'm not sure it does. Part of it is that I have yet to gain the technical skill.
Upon reflection however, there are paintings. I do not have time to dig them up now, and they are far from good, but I will describe a few.
There is the girl in the karite tree, looking into the sky, with a bit of longing. There is the storm around a rock with a cleft, in which a girl is hidden. Amazingly, the rock is in the shape of a hand (not planned by me).
There are the attempts to draw hope. There is the girl with the broken heart, and the subsequent ones drawn of her giving it to her Father, and then, hugging the new one.
So why have I walked away from these paintings?
There are probably several reasons, but I am afraid the biggest one is the same reason I have had trouble sitting down to write recently -- I am afraid. It is slightly scary to do a reasonable sized painting one wants to get right technically when one is still learning to control the paint. It is another thing to walk the fine line between beauty and suffering.
Not that there isn't a place to see and watch the wonders of the stars, and to portray the wonder of the shepherds (the painting I am slightly scared of). There is, but as Dr. Impson wisely says, we cannot ignore suffering. She says, building on the wisdom of others, that it is only by going through suffering can we find joy, and more importantly, to have our eyes opened to know God.
I think I need to pray.
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