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Hello everyone, welcome back to the Imagination Redeemed
podcast. I'm Brian Brown, your host.
Earlier this summer, the Anselm Society had the privilege of
hosting internationally acclaimed artist Josh Thiessen
for an event at the historic Peel House here in Colorado
Springs. Josh creates what he calls
narrative hyper surrealism. These are incredibly detailed
oil paintings that can take up to 1700 hours to complete.
But Josh isn't just a master Craftsman.
He's also a thoughtful theologian who sees his studio
practice as a form of contemplative stewardship.
That evening, Josh shared insights from his latest book
and painting series, Vanitas and Viriditas.
Latin for vanity and vitality, the series explores the biblical
theme of wisdom in creation. His presentation challenged us
to think more deeply about how we steward both our creative
gifts and the world around us. Drawing particularly from the
wisdom literature of Ecclesiastes and Proverbs, we
recorded the lecture in What You're About to Hear embodies
exactly what we mean by the Christian imagination.
Seeing heaven in the things of earth, finding the sacred not by
escaping the material world, but by diving deeper into its
God-given meaning and beauty. So settle in as Josh Thiessen
helps us discover streams of wisdom flowing through the
wasteland. Welcome to the Imagination
Redeemed podcast where we follow the great stories further up and
further in In Pursuit of the Life of Christ.
OK, well, good evening everyone. It's great to be with you today
and thank you so much to the Anselm Society for having me
speak this evening and also for hosting me for a few days.
Well, as a Canadian, Colorado is actually one of my favorite
states to visit. And I'm not just saying that
because I'm in a room of Coloradoans, but I just loved
outdoors. And so you have the mountains,
the Garden of the Gods, and also the mining towns.
So this painting here is called New Sheriff in Town and is
inspired by Saint Elmo Ghost Town.
Now of course there weren't any 6 foot tall castleberries
roaming around, but I actually photographed this one at the
Denver Zoo, which apparently had escaped its zookeepers a few
years before. Was literally roaming Colorado.
Well, the last time I was here was for the Imagination Redeemed
conference in 2021, which some of you were there and I was the
featured artists and they used my painting, the chiral Stones
for the poster and it was on display.
And I just couldn't get over Glenyard Castle.
Like, wasn't that just a spectacular venue?
And of course, all the rich conversations I had with people
were just a huge blessing. And I've enjoyed keeping in
touch with several of you over the years.
And Brian Brown, who graciously also wrote an endorsement quote
for my new book, which is very kind of him.
And you're also blessed to have the Ansalem Society.
It's a really special and unique community that you guys get to
be part of. Well, to begin, I'd like to
share a bit of my story. So I was born in Moscow to
Canadian parents who are professors, teaching Russian
pastors and overseeing a team of missionaries working in drug and
alcohol rehab and youth and children's camps.
I spent the first six years of my life happily living with my
parents and younger brother in southern Russia.
Now I had a Russian nanny who did lots of arts and crafts with
me, showing me how to draw my stuffed animals with shading and
perspective. And she began to quietly believe
that I may just have a special gift for art.
Well, after returning to Canada, I was discovered by a local
artist who took me under her wing.
One day she asked my mom if she could book me for an art
exhibition. And my mom said, Al, he's 10
years old. And she said, So what?
The public needs to see this child's work.
So the following year, at age 11, I had my first month long
solo exhibition in a hospital art gallery.
My exhibit served up a lot of interest where they had never
exhibited such a young artist work and were really shocked by
my abilities. I'd given away a lot of my early
pieces to family and friends, but it was there that the first
strangers asked to purchase my work.
Someone also phoned the local newspaper and they did a big
article about my work. One of the pieces in the
exhibition was my pastel drawing Aslan.
So like any good father, my dad read the Chronicles of Narnia to
my brother and me growing up. And I loved The Lion, the Witch
and the Wardrobe. And of course, Aslan, who was a
powerful metaphor for Christ. So while my art is not
necessarily what you consider like quote UN quote religious
art, it's definitely informed by a Christian worldview.
And so similar to CS Lewis, I like to draw upon a non
religious vocabulary in order to convey deeper truths.
So this painting the wood between the world's, some of you
will probably notice that from the Magician's Nephew where it
got the the inspiration. So from my Jewish heritage and
my Christian heritage, the Bible has been a inspiration behind my
work and an influence in my artistic practice.
So my painting series Screams in the Wasteland was inspired by
the book of Isaiah and the prophetic books of the Old
Testament. And so I was able to study this
while completing a Bachelor of Religious Education in Arts and
Biblical studies, which I did very, very part time, only
taking me 9 years to graduate, but I kind of made it up with
for with my masters of art history, which I managed to do
in just nine months. Well, in Isaiah I was reading
about the prophecies for destruction for Babylon and the
surrounding nations and how wild animals like hyenas would
inhabit these abandoned cities. So suddenly a flurry of ideas
came to me for new series depicting animals in deserted
spaces, bringing honor to their creator.
The title for the series came from Isaiah chapter 43, in which
the prophet records the words of God.
The wild animals honor me, the jackals and the owls, because I
provide water in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland, to
give drink to my people, My chosen.
Yet you have not called on me, Jacob.
You have not wearied yourselves for me, Israel.
I really caught a glimpse of the larger vision for animals
serving as coworkers with the Creator to confront humanity,
calling for wisdom from within the ruins of human moral decay.
According to Isaiah scholar Alec Mulcher, the earth is seen as
actively participating with God by exposing what lay hidden.
This is part of the moral vitality of creation, which is
inevitably infected with human sin but never fails to be on the
side of the holy purposes of its Creator.
So in the paintings, wild animals have dominion
implicating humankind for their own faithfulness, ignoring the
Creator's call in Genesis to have a righteous dominion over
creation. In depicting nature's
reclamation with the colors of my palette, I seek to confront
things like human centrism and ecological exploitation, a
desire to offer streams of hope within what sometimes feels a
little bit like an apocalyptic wasteland that we're living in
today. Especially when we turn on the
news in my painting piece Like a River, which was actually
inspired by the Colorado River. A pod of orcas released from
fictitious aquarium amusement park journey down a winding
Canyon river toward their intended home.
In Isaiah, the imagery of an Edenic river cutting through a
barren wasteland is symbolic of the future hope that justice and
mercy will one day reign, ushering in peace and wholeness.
So from the study of Isaiah's prophecies, I envision multiple
ideas for wild animals inhabiting abandoned human
civilizations across vast time periods and geographic
locations, like in my painting Escape Artist, which references
the plight of temple elephants in India.
Now, amidst the heavier themes, I also threw in a little bit of
Comic Relief to lighten the mood like in my painting Meerkat
Manor. Well, after five years of
painting, the works were displayed at my first
international solo exhibition at New York based gallery Jonathan
Levine in 2019. However, years earlier I had
taken a great risk starting this unusual body of work without any
prospect for a solo exhibition. Painting in faith, I hope to
secure a major show at a reputable contemporary gallery.
Now older traditional wildlife artist told me that that would
be next to impossible since animals are often not highly
regarded well in the Fine Arts world.
But following artists online, I discovered that a gallery in the
Chelsea Arts District in New York City was hosting an
international competition called Search for the Next Great Artist
where the winning artist would receive a solo exhibition.
It was a long shot, but I decided what do I have to lose?
So I submitted, and to my utter shock, I came first place out of
2000 artists worldwide. Thank.
You. The gallery owner said it was
seeing my painting Occidental Babylon, uncreated and on
display in the finalist exhibition that really sealed
the deal for him. It kind of proved to me that
taking a crazy risk of spending 1200 hours on a painting could
pay off. At the opening reception of my
solo show, I was thrilled that the gallery owner hung the
stories I write to go alongside my paintings.
As usually in the art establishment, the ethos is that
we just let the viewers interpret the work however they
like. Interestingly, an aunt of the
gallery owner told me that she resonated with the passages of
scripture in my writings. And so Levine said afterwards,
with a bit of an impish wink, that it sure earned in brownie
points with his Born Again family members.
Well, the following year Streams in the Wasteland Part 2 took
place at Corey Halford Gallery in Los Angeles.
For the better part of 2020, I toiled away on my largest work
to date, which took 1700 hours to complete.
As the finale to my Streams in the Wasteland series, I called
back all of the animals that appear in the other paintings,
so 17 species in total. Now a longer essay for this
painting is included in my book Streams in the Wasteland, which
there's a copy over there on the table if any of you would like
to check it out and flip through.
So for this work, I drew influence from historical
paintings that have depicted the symbol of the Lamb of God, such
as Jan Van Ike's Adoration of the Lamb from the Ghent
Altarpiece, as well as Francisco de Zirberen's Agnes Day, which I
actually modeled the sheep from in my own painting.
So in Isaiah chapter 53 we read a prophecy about a suffering
servant likened to an innocent lamb.
Now throughout history this prophecy is believed by
Christians and Messianic Jews to be fulfilled by Jesus of
Nazareth, the morally perfect substitute who died for the sins
of humanity to bring us back into right relationship with our
Creator, Creator. But this reconciliation also is
cosmic in scope, the future hope of a new heavens and a new earth
where the wolf will live with the lamb.
In the meantime, though, we have to recognize that, as the
Apostle Paul says in Romans 8, all of creation has been
groaning as a result of the curse from humanity's sin.
We can all be involved in rectifying the harm that humans
have done to creation, thereby foreshadowing a better future.
So after completing the painting, I was pleasantly
surprised when the Manhattan gallery that represents me, Race
Contemporary, offered to take this painting to the LA Art
Show, and the gallery owners hung the work in front of their
booth very prominently. They also included my artist
statement in which I just explained inspiration from
Isaiah 53. And I was amazed that, you know,
thousands of people saw this painting over the course of the
weekend. And they told me that it was the
most Instagram painting of the show.
An interesting development with this painting is that this
January, it sold to some collectors in the Chicago area.
And they actually first discovered my art through
following the newsletter for the Anselm Society.
And so they've been following my work for a couple of years.
And they're just a a lovely couple.
And I couldn't have asked for better patrons of this work
because they're also willing to lend it out to various schools
and institutions for traveling shows.
Now, shifting gears a little bit, who's heard of the popular
slogan Art for Art's Sake? Yeah.
OK. So quite a few of you.
So I would never want to say art doesn't have intrinsic value,
just on its own. It doesn't need any
justification. I firmly believe in that.
But the reality is that artists are still accountable to a
creator. They're not, you know, more at
least superior than everyone else.
But also I think what's special about art is that it's
historically engaged other disciplines outside of art.
So things like history and theology in the Bible, even how
we depict the natural landscape, art has played a really crucial
role. So drawing on my series Vanitas
and Brititas, I'd like to discuss wisdom in creation,
playing on the double meaning of the word creation, referring to
both creativity as well as creation being the natural world
around us. And so I'd like to take you on a
brief tour of several passages in the Bible related to wisdom
and creation, which I think really can enrich our
understanding of the church calendar season of Ordinary
Time, which I believe the Anselm Society has been focused on in
this season. So to begin with, the Bible is,
of course, a work of art. It was written by 40 different
authors in three different languages.
And there's, you know, a plethora of literary genres from
apocalyptic to prophetic to history books to poetry and
letters. The Bible begins with Genesis
one verse one. In the beginning, God created
the heavens and the earth. I think it's amazing that God
first identifies himself as a creator and he's really the
ultimate master artist. And not only that, he's a wise
creator because we read in Proverbs 3 by wisdom, the Lord
laid the earth's foundations. By understanding He set the
heavens in place, Genesis chapter 1 talks about how humans
are made in the image and likeness of this Creator.
God gives each one of us the gift of creativity, even if we
don't think of ourselves as, you know, professional artists per
SE. We all have a creative aptitude
in varying amounts, and it has a purpose because we read in
Genesis chapter 2 that Adam and Eve were called to be good
stewards of the Garden of Eden, which involve taking care of the
garden but also involved cultivating the land to develop
culture. They're also given
responsibility to name the animals, which I think is really
the first creative task and command.
And this continues up to the present, with biologists
discovering new species every year.
We even take this a step further with naming our pets.
This is Habakkuk and Zebediah, our lovable Boston terriers.
We're just Hab and Zeb because most people can't remember their
full names. We see creativity in the process
in Genesis 4 with the fashioning of musical instruments like the
lyre and pipe and also tools of bronze and iron.
Now it should be mentioned though that while we see culture
making affirmed early on in Genesis as seen in King's
Descendants, it's perverted in the building of the Tower of
Babel as well as Aaron crafting the golden calf in Exodus.
This really shows me that creativity on its own is simply
not enough. Today we know many artists who
have these amazing God-given abilities who have either abused
them or they've become so egotistical that the creative
gift becomes an idol. Thankfully, though, we have
numerous positive examples throughout Scripture for music,
poetry, art, dance, and drama. We see this in the building of
the Tabernacle in Exodus 31, where the artisans Basil and the
Holy App are commissioned to design God's dwelling place for
Israel. And this is one of the first
times in the Bible that it says that the Holy Spirit works
through humans and it's through artists.
They're filled with the Spirit of God, with wisdom, with
understanding, with knowledge, and with all kinds of skills.
And so the gathering things like gold and gems and fine yarn and
exotic woods reflects God's desire for artistic quality.
And some of the imagery includes pomegranates, almond blossoms,
cherubim, oxen and lions. And if that sounds familiar, the
Tabernacle was meant to be a mini representation of the
Garden of Eden, built and designed by God's image bearers.
And this is also reflected in Solomon's temple, where we read
about sculptors who fashioned palm trees and flowers.
And so I just shake my head when I hear people say that we can't
have art in the church. Or somehow whitewashed walls are
holier. Well, we often think that wisdom
is just intellectual. It's just head knowledge.
But according to a Jewish understanding of wisdom, it's
really practical knowledge and can even extend to things like
botany and music. You see, King Solomon
considered, you know, the wisest person to live is described this
way. He spoke 3000 proverbs, and his
songs numbered 1005. He spoke about plant life, from
the cedar of Lebanon to the hyssop that grows out of walls.
He also spoke about animals and birds, reptiles and fish.
From all nations, people came to listen to Solomon's wisdom, sent
by all the kings of the worlds who had heard of his wisdom.
Throughout the Old Testament we see how the Hebrew word for
wisdom, hokhmah, is applied to even things like sailors and
Goldsmiths and even women skilled in lamentation.
I mean, who knew that you could cry wisely?
But I guess you can. So perhaps the obvious question
is how do we become wise people? And so this is the question I
ponder in Vanity Toss and Britta Toss as I explore 2 divergent
perspectives on wisdom through 2 characters.
So there's Colette, inspired by the book of Ecclesiastes, and
also Lady Wisdom, inspired by Proverbs.
So while both of their paths diverge, the former affirming
the the former, they're questioning life and wrestling
with the enigmas that are all around, and the latter
delighting in the wise blueprint of the natural order, both
affirm that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
There needs to be a reverential awe for the Creator.
So while Streams in the Wasteland represents the macro
perspective of human civilizations and their
relationship with the natural world, Danny Toss and Rudy Toss
represents the micro perspective of human virtue, what it looks
like to cultivate character for personal, cultural and
ecological flourishing. Now, I'd like to begin by
talking about the first Vanitas painting, Refracting Infinity.
So the whole series began with this concept sketch, which is
very simple. And so whenever I began drawing
for a painting, I really invite the Holy Spirit to be involved
in the creative process. And I usually find that ideas
come to me when I'm in prayer, meditating, or reading
scripture. And so I always keep a
sketchbook close at hand on my night side table in case an idea
comes to me day or night. So my friend Felipe graciously
posed for Colette It during a long outdoor photography session
on a very chilly December day. Now, coming from Columbia, he
was not used to our cold Canadian winters, so I was
especially grateful for his willingness.
So to begin, I I devised a shape for my paintings.
In this case, I thought the pointed Gothic arch would fit
with the architecture. And my assistant builds the
brace Baltic Birch panels, AKA my dad and I do pay them so it's
it's above board and he primes them with grey gesso so that
they're all ready to go. And then I transferred the
sketch onto the panel with charcoal pencil and then spray a
fixative so that the charcoal doesn't smudge when I begin
painting. And then I begin with an acrylic
under painting to block in the subject matter.
And then after that, I switch to oils for the subsequent layers
because you can do a lot more softer blending because they're
so lower drying. And you have the, you know, the,
the richness of the paint and I'm able to achieve finer
detail. So the character I developed,
like I said, is named cola, which is Hebrew for teacher.
So in Ecclesiastes the teacher warns that the pursuit of
knowledge, wealth and pleasures under the sun is nothing more
than vanity. So the Hebrew word translated
vanity is heavil and it occurs 38 times in the book.
And translators have wrestled over the meaning of this word.
I bet the NIV Bible translators in the room tonight will will
have great insight on that. But the literal translation of
heavil is vapor or smoke. So as you can see, I included
the the smoke in this painting and the figure in this where
whose silhouette is reflected in the windows of what's an old
university science lab is a modern version of the ancient
teacher. He's a disenchanted wanderer in
a world of smoke and mirrors, pondering the question, what is
the cure to the banality of existence?
Similarly, the French mathematician and physicist
Blaise Pascal described the predicament of being caught in
the despair of human existence on all sides.
I behold nothing but Infinity in which I am a mere Adam, a mere
passing shadow that returns no more.
You see, Cola is intrigued by complex scientific theories and
concepts. This painting depicts the idea
of string theory, that at the subatomic level, all of life is
interconnected through vibrating strings of energy.
And so the Criss crossing yards inside the window are being
woven into a nest by these two indigo bundles.
Through the window is seen a whimsical sunflower, like the
ones in a Vincent van Gogh painting, and it treats cohlect.
Despite Van Gogh's life of depression and sorrow, he saw
glimpses of the divine through nature.
Likewise, Colette is fascinated by the golden ratio spirals of
sunflower florets. According to scientists, the
Fibonacci sequence is a cosmic constant ranging from spiral
growth of a Nautilus shell all the way up to the spirals of
galaxies. Well, Cola is tempted, though,
to deem life absurd without any objective meaning.
He's not wholly satisfied with that answer.
He prefers to press into the mystery.
Will the intelligent design he discovers in science and nature
evoke in him wonder and desire for a world re enchanted?
Or is it merely a human evolutionary survival instinct
to ascribe meaning to a universe of blind, meaningless
indifference, in the words of atheist Richard Dawkins?
In my next painting, Memento Mori, Colette finds himself in a
hidden cave of crystals, and the intersecting quartz columns with
the colors of pink and purple and blue reminded me of stained
glass windows in churches, which are spaces where death is often
contemplated, especially at funerals.
The motif of skull was used in banitas.
Still life paintings of the 17th century Dutch Golden Age, to
quote, remind viewers that they would die, which is the literal
translation of memento mooring. So 2 candles are used to be
symbolic of the fleetingness of our lives, which at any moment
can be snuffed out. So the book of Ecclesiastes has
a lot to say about death, Colette writes.
There's a time to be born and a time to die.
However, in our death adverse culture, it's typical to even
mention the fact that death awaits us all.
Many are obsessed with transcending human limitations,
uploading our brains into the cloud for some future robotic
body. Yet with all of our medical
advancements, there's still, I think, wisdom accepting the fact
that death is part of the natural world.
It's still one of the surest things in life.
That and taxes, of course. The Veritas paintings feature
Sofia, which is a Greek for wisdom, her name inspired by the
female personification. From Wisdom, from Proverbs, she
poetically sings, The Lord formed me from the beginning,
before He created anything else. I was appointed in ages past, at
the very first, before the earth began.
I was the architect at his side. I was his constant delight,
rejoicing always in his presence.
And how happy I was with the world he created.
How I rejoiced with the human family.
Now much conjecture has been made of what Lady Wisdom means
when she states in Proverbs 8 that she was the Amon at God's
side. Translations vary from
architect, artisan to darling and delight, and even little
child. Now, contrary to popular
depictions of Wisdom as a solemn old sage lady, Wisdom describes
herself as actively participating with and
delighting in her maker. And so this inspired my
character Sophia. And so I envisioned her sort of
like a medieval character with fiery ginger hair, akin to
Tariel the Elf and Peter Jackson's adaptation of The
Hobbit. And so, like Elf, Sophia has a
youthful charm, but is as old as time itself.
And so I thought her freckles and red lips and green velvet
dress and amethyst necklace all represented the abundance and
spirit of plate that I think is really intrinsic to wisdom.
Similar to Lady Wisdom, Sophia espouses virtue such as
simplicity, humility, wonder, and awe, vital for cultivating
ecological wisdom. The 12th century Benedictine nun
and Abbas Hildegard of Bingen, from whom the Latin expression
in Veridicas originates, also informed my character
development of Sofia. Now this generative word can be
translated as holy graining power which produces new growth,
vitality, creativity and virtue. So my studio is located a block
down from a major hiking trail in Ontario which I often
frequent, and it was there that I set up the scene for my
painting All Creatures Praise. So featured here is a screen cap
of my workflow in Photoshop where I create a mock up from my
reference material. Also I create a digital color
study and also a color scheme which informs the palette for
the painting. And so, while journeying through
the enchanted woods, Sophia discovers an old hymn laying on
a mess on a bed of Moss penned by Saint Francis of Sisi,
Patriot St. of Ecology. In his famous nature hymn
Canticle, the Creatures he echoes Psalm 148.
Praise him, sun and moon. Praise him, all you shining
stars, praise him, you highest heavens, and you waters above
the skies. Praise the Lord from the earth,
you great sea creatures and all ocean depths, wild animals and
all cattle, small creatures and flying birds.
In 2000, I mean in 1910, William Draper paraphrased this canticle
into the well known hymn which you're all probably familiar
with. All creatures of our God and
King. And in my painting, those lyrics
are represented on the old parchment paper.
And what I love about this hymn is that it's a reminder that we
don't just sing to our Creator alone as humans, but we actively
join in with the cosmic choir of creation.
My next painting is Creation Cathedral.
Now, while most Western cathedrals didn't include
animals as artistic subjects matter, I decided to include
stained glass creaturely Saints like the humpback whale, and
also the orca. And in the center rose window,
there's a dove hovering over the earth.
Scholars believe that the creation narratives in Genesis 1
and 2 poetically alludes to God's wise construction of the
heavens and the earth as a cosmic temple, later echoed in
Basil AL's Tabernacle and Solomon's temple.
In the words of Richard Middleton, it's a sacred realm
for God's dwelling and role in which all creatures, human and
non human, are called to worship their Creator.
The Canadian artist Emily Carr, who's kind of like our Georgia
O'Keeffe, likewise painted the Canadian West Coast rainforest.
Her painting Church in You Code inspired my painting.
I love her reflection on faith found in our journals where she
writes Surely the Woods, our God's Tabernacle according to
the order of creation. In Genesis, plants and animals
come before humans, and unlike us, don't fall into rebellion.
The wise sage Job exhorts us to ask the animals, and they will
teach you, the birds of the air, and they will tell you.
Ask the plants of the earth, and they will teach you.
And the fish of the sea will declare to you.
Who among all these does not know that the hand of the Lord
has done this? In His hand is the life of every
living thing and the breath of every human being.
As Kola and his companion Brother Wolf stop to ponder the
scene, the Chapel doors swing open.
A blue light beckons the sojourners into this divine
mystery. The next painting I like to talk
about is called Greening the White Cube.
So the white cube is a euphemism for the modern art gallery, and
it represents this industrial space, usually with concrete
floors and sterile white walls, which in my opinion, inherently
keeps nature out and sometimes the wisdom of creation.
So when I was in my teens, an older friend of my parents gave
me a book called Modern Art and the Death of a Culture by Hans
Ruchmacher, a Christian art historian and colleague of
Francis Schaeffer, who I'm sure many of you are familiar with.
And so I found his apartment critique of the nihilism and
ugliness in much of modern art very helpful for me in
navigating this very strange world that I was entering.
Many modern artists spurn beauty.
Abstract Expressionist painter Willem de Kooning admitted
Beauty becomes petulant to me. I like the grotesque.
It's more joyous. This is evidenced in his
painting Woman One, which is pictured on the right wall.
And throughout Western art history, the beautiful was often
associated with gorgeous women and sweeping landscapes, which
are notoriously absent in the canons of modern art history.
And so the works in my painting Greening the White Cube are
among the most famous of the 20th century, all completed by
white men. According to designer Ingrid
Fettlee, high modernism promoted a rationalist mode of design
free of sentimental flourishes. Artists of that period who were
overlooked are now being embraced, such as Helma of Clint
and many others. And beauty is really returning
again in the art world. Sophia appears.
Into an. Abandoned art gallery though
lamenting the industrial complex of modern art.
In Proverbs, Lady Wisdom is contrasted with this other
female character named Lady Folly.
Contemporary artist Christopher Wolves painting Untitled Fool, I
think poignantly illustrate that in the art world, sometimes the
emperor has no clothes, as this painting sold in 2014 for a mere
$14 million. Lady.
Fawley is alive. And, well, in the art world, she
may have been deconstructed in Picasso's prostitutes entitled
La du Monzel Davina, but her seductive allure for wealth and
status and material goods is all too present.
Conversely, Lady Wisdom knows that she is far more precious
and profitable than silver and yields better returns than gold.
She is a tree of life to those who take hold of her.
Those who hold her fast will be blessed.
Really. My painting envisions a future
of natural reclamation, a time when the hallowed halls of the
art elite will no longer reject beauty.
Now don't get me wrong, there's much of contemporary art that I
really do appreciate. And so I'm critiquing the art
world as someone within this sphere, hoping and praying for
its ultimate redemption for artists of faith.
I believe that we can be part of a new movement animated by a
wisdom filled uriditas greening vitality that can create new
life in the fine art world. So my series first debuted in
2023 as a solo exhibition in New York City at Ray's Gallery,
located around the corner from the Museum of Modern Art.
I was encouraged that the gallery owners actually relayed
the biblical inspiration for my series in the press release.
And the Ray's owners, although they're secular Jews, seem to
respect the Bible and even allowed me to put my artist
statements. Up on the walls along with the
paintings as well as my synopsis in which I quoted from the book
of Job. And I also had the privilege of
giving the private tour to the head editor of Fine Art
Connoisseur magazine. And after seeing my work, he
said to me that he really thinks the art world is ready for work
like mine that seems to seeks to Plumb the depths of the human
condition and re evaluate our relationship with the world.
Sofia then appears. In my painting the Cairo Stones
with her trusty companion their time travelling through the
past. In this pre modern area, time
was apprehended as multi dimensional and a greater
emphasis was placed on sacred days within the liturgical
calendar, distinguishing the holy as higher time from the
profane Ordinary time. Sophia, like the ancient peoples
who erected places like Stonehenge, expresses her
connection to the land ecological wisdom through
celebrations such as the winter and summer solstice, new moons,
harvest times as well as Sabbath's.
In the Bible, the prophet Samuel established Ebenezers, or stones
of help to revive remind the Israelites of the Lord's favor.
The floating megalith stones in my painting symbolize these
higher times where sacred events are often reenacted and time
stands still momentarily. According to the philosopher
Charles Taylor, a casualty of our secular age is that time has
been disenchanted and made purely horizontal, which means
secularizing holidays or thinking of just, you know,
having to kill time. We no longer really embrace.
The vertical dimensions of higher times nor really see the
beauty of ordinary time. The seasons of of nature which
are really not ordinary at all. Considering the ways in which.
Secularism has shaped me in modern society.
Sophia reminds us of the crucial need for re enchantment of time
to become fully human being in tune with nature and the creator
for whom a day is like 1000 years.
As each of my paintings take quite a long time to complete,
hundreds of hours, my subject matter has really a profound
influence on me. I find that animal art has the
potential to evoke wonder, reorient our affections, and
also become more empathetic to our fellow creatures.
And so this is essential for cultivating wisdom amidst an
ecological crisis where there's widespread biodiversity loss,
which in many ways reflects our lack of attunement with the
natural world. In the words of Hildegard of
Bigging, we shall awake from our dullness and rise vigorously
toward justice. If we fall in love with creation
deeper and deeper, we will respond to its endangerment with
passion. So in the early.
Church The. Legend of a mother Pelican who
pierces her breast to feed her young was likened to Christ's
self sacrifice on the cross. In the gospels, Christ likens
himself to a mother hen. Jerusalem.
Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to
you. How often I've longed to gather
you together as a mother hen gathers her chicks.
But you were not willing. Over the centuries, many
cathedrals adopted the symbol of the mother Pelican and her
chicks in the form of colorful stained glass windows and
carvings. Drawing on this.
Theological. Symbol My painting depicts a
Mother Pelican's valiant attempt to rise from the holy oily muck
to save her chicks. I actually had in mind the Deep
Water Horizon oil spill in 2010, which was this terrible
catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico.
All Creatures Lament is really an intentionally unpleasant and
sober in painting to illicit compassion and to spur us on
toward environmental stewardship of the love for creation.
And so if we recognize God's care for all creatures and adopt
this posture, what might this change in us as we relate to
nature? How would our lives maybe look
differently? Perhaps we'll limit things like
single use plastics, as hard as that is, as they're a petroleum
based product, or curb our reliance on fossil fuels or
holds polluting corporations accountable.
The final work in this. Series is Alpha and Omega.
I first sketched the concept for this back in 2015, seven years
before I began painting it. Eventually, I envisioned this
scene to be the culmination of my series where Colette and
Sophia finally meet. Now, Colette is afforded the
opportunity to pursue everything under the sun, trying to find
meaning in a modern age, even with virtual reality and
technology. As a lone wanderer, though
fighting his demons of nihilist despair, he meets Sophia, Lady
Wisdom beckoning him from within the portal of the new creation.
So Zen rock gardens are dry landscapes, which in Buddhism
are meant to represent the absence of organic life and also
nothingness that is believed to be essential to life.
Well, Colette is attracted to this worldview, compelling him
to let go of all of his worldly attachments.
Sophia draws him back to everything that is good, true,
and beautiful. And so the black sand is a
picture of Colette sole and the gushing water spilling out from
the portal represent the living waters.
Sophia also carries this tree sapling which is symbolic for
the Tree of Life, which is a Jewish symbol for wisdom and it
represents the wisdom that may also grow in Colette soul.
The 12 Stones in the arch bear monograms for the 12 tribes of
Israel, and the Cairo stone at the top, which is a historical
symbol for Christ, fits into the portal.
And I was thinking about the line in Psalm 118 which says the
stone the builders rejected has become the capstone.
Sophia, you see, is also a signpost to Christ in Scripture,
whom Colette comes to understand is the wisdom from God, as the
Apostle Paul articulates in First Corinthians so.
The concept for the. Portal in this painting came
from what the Celtics called thin places where the veil
between heaven and earth is thin.
Colette Quest may be coming to an end as he arrives at a
newfound reenchantment with the world.
Yet despite Sophia's call to embrace the wonder that's all
around in the world, we still live in a world where human
injustices and environmental injustices and all the enigmas
of life still persist. Colette and Sophia understand
that relying solely on human wisdom itself is not enough and
can't fix the brokenness. It's only the creator of the
cosmos, referred to as the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the
end, who can ultimately restore a broken world.
Employing a story based. Approach Through this series,
Antos and Brititos seeks to critique vices such as greed,
self centeredness, arrogance, while also commending virtues
such as humility, justice and love.
Through presenting 2 dialectical perspectives is a way to
discover what it means to become a wise person in everyday life
on this planet, we're challenged to live up to our name, homo
sapien, which translates to wise human.
In theologians Stephen Bauma Predekar's excellent new book
Earth Keeping and Character, he writes the virtue of wisdom is
shot through with an abiding awareness of life's
precariousness, an understanding and prizing of the excellence of
life, and an unwavering sense of Thanksgiving for the sheer gift
of life. Well, hopefully this has given
you a feel for my painting series, an example for how the
arts can help us illuminate the timeless truths found in the
Wisdom books. You can see more of my Vanitas
and Veritas paintings in my new book, in which all 23 of the
works are presented along with written commentary that goes
into greater detail. I also just want to honor Doctor
Mark Boda, who is with us here tonight, and he was the
theological advisor for the project, and I didn't know he
was going to be in the Colorado Springs area.
We both live in Hamilton, ON Canada so if if there are any
errors still in the book I fully take responsibility But but.
Mark was. A a huge help.
I think the book makes for a a great gift for creative types,
deep thinkers, nature lovers. It could also be used as a
devotional book focusing on one painting a day for spiritual
reflection. And here's the book on the the
screen here. And also percent of all the
proceeds are being donated to the Christian Conservation
Organization of Russia, as I really believe in using art to
make a difference, especially because my work has a lot of
environmental themes. Well, the book is also
accompanied by the Vanitas and Riditas soundtrack composed by
Zach Teeson, who happens to be my brother.
The original soundtrack was composed at the Budapest Scoring
Orchestra in Hungary, which I was honored to accompany my
brother. And so you can listen to the
full soundtrack on Spotify and Apple Music.
And so the concept was that as you're flipping through the
book, viewing the art, you can listen to the instrumental
orchestral tracks, which were inspired by each of the
paintings in the series. Well, thank you.
So much for your. Time.
I really appreciate you listening to my talk tonight.
Thank you very much. So I think we have some time
for. Some questions or comments.
So yeah, I would be happy to field any questions you might
have. Yes.
Do you spend time in other locations?
For inspiration, I was thinking about the time to mention.
The. Sounding show, yeah.
Yes, at the same time I do. Yes, I I have been.
Fortunate to travel quite a bit around the world and when
possible I try to visit the locations that I paint in order
to get the photo references myself.
Sometimes I source the image material from other photographer
friends if if needed, but I think that just kind of adds to
the authenticity of the work when you could actually like
experience these places. And so like several of like the
the ghost town paintings, for instance, somewhere inspired
from here in Colorado and California and and elsewhere.
And so it's, yeah, really fun because then you could also tell
a story when, when you're sharing about the the painting.
Yeah, set the pack which. Painting is your personal
favorite. Oh, I have to get that question,
I say. I really OK on that.
My painting Whale Ham. Which I'm trying to think if I,
I think I have it, I'll go back in my presentation here.
So Whale Ham was completed when I was going through very
intensive treatment for chronic Lyme disease with my family.
And it was a very therapeutic painting.
Let me just pick it up here. Yes.
So here it is. I, I puttered away on this while
we're going through very intensive IV treatments for
three months. And in with the strength I did
have in between going to the clinic, I was able to to work on
this. I was very therapeutic.
It was a reminder to me that as whales sing these incredibly
haunting chants that are actually songs that are passed
down from generation to generation.
It was a reminder to me that even within my chronic illness,
in this difficult time, that that I need to give praise to to
my creator. And so, yeah, this painting has
a a special place in my heart for for that reason and will
will him is, I think my my favorite painting, although it
might change. Yes, what?
Makes you choose like this. Specific.
Animal Oh, OK, yes so a lot of factors like the, the the
lemurs, I just like they're they in Madagascar, the word lemur is
actually like word for same word for ghost and in its original
like linguistic background. And so I also thought they look
very like sentient because they have these big eyes and they
have so much personality. And so that was tied into
Ecclesiastes where it says like the fate of humans is the same
as animals. Both go to the grave, but other
other paintings, it's just a a feel.
Maybe it's just like the color palette that I feel the, the,
the texture or palette of the, the species just works with the
environment because often I will put animals in unusual
environments that are not necessarily like their their
natural environment. And so sometimes like
documentaries I watch too, like I watch the BBC documentary
Ocean Giants, and that's how I really got into Wales.
So yeah, yeah. It can come from a a variety of
places. Good question.
There was a question behind, yes.
Curious, as a Christian artist, how your interaction with
organized institutional church has been as you're working to
see, what sort of interception has your mission found
reception? Is it chilly reception?
Maybe talk about. Yeah, yeah.
Both. I would say I, I've experienced
some positive things where like I would say most of my
collectors haven't been Christians.
I'd say maybe half or have been, yeah, like secular and then
maybe 1/3 are believers. I I found, though, that, you
know, I've been at different churches growing up and some,
some can be more supportive than others.
At one church, I helped curate an art gallery and artist
community. At other places I find like
they're very supportive in what I do outside of the church, but
it's a bit tricky for them to figure out where I fit within
the church because like if you're a musician, you're on the
ownership team. If you're a graphic designer,
you can do the, the promos and website design, but visual art,
it's a little bit harder. And especially with a lot of
contemporary churches that don't have dedicated spaces for art or
who have more of a minimalist design, there's not really kind
of even a conceptual framework for how do we fit art in.
But I, I've been encouraged that like I have a, a Catholic priest
who's collected my art and has used my paintings as like sermon
illustrations and is in homilies.
And so I found, like, one of the benefits is that I've had like a
very kind of ecumenical connection to the church with
people from more like liturgical backgrounds interested.
But then again, I am still surprised that some more low
church kind of evangelicals have also embraced my work and
purchased it. They may have not really come
across a Christian artist before.
So often times pastors have just never met someone like me.
And so I try to have a posture of like, not coming in expecting
them to understand everything that I'm doing, but try to come
with like a humble posture. There's often like an
appreciation of art history and the Sistine Chapel that a lot of
pastors, you know, will will use as, as examples of great art in
the past, but also for them to know that there are still living
artists of faith creating new, new and fresh work.
So that's kind of a meandering answer to your question, but
it's it's a good one. Yeah.
I think you yeah, an interesting you talked about the.
Removal of beauty from modern art or from worship.
But you also kind of without directly saying you talked a lot
about the removal of beauty from science.
Yes, particularly. You were mentioning.
Ecology and zoology, but even physics as well.
Yes. What drew you into that and how
do you? Science isn't necessarily
something you're going for no innovation in.
All of your. Work.
So how is that apart? Wow, I've never been asked that.
Question, that's beautiful. I think so.
I have definitely really appreciated, you know,
scientists who have seen like the the benefit of the
imagination. Like I I read this book on fungi
by Merlin Sheldrake Entangled and he was saying that all
scientists actually have to use imagination and metaphors
because they're trying to describe a new phenomenon.
With using metaphors and language which is essentially
all based on metaphor and and so there has to be like an
imaginative scope. I I think also in in, but I
think the Enlightenment influence on on science has very
much like disconnected it from the arts or philosophy.
And I think more and more we're, we're recognizing that Stephen
Balmain Prediger, who's a theologian and also heads up
like the environmental studies program at Hope College, says
that we only care about things that we love.
And so love and affection for the natural world has to
actually come before we can study it in depth.
Because usually once we have love for something, we then want
to seek it out and, and study it in greater detail.
And so I, I think that art can have like a very fruitful
relationship with, with science to remind us that the natural
world isn't just here for utilitarian benefit, for
scientific studies or for human moral progress, But it can be
something that we can enjoy and appreciate and find wonder in
and how it directs us to praise for a creator and, and all of
these, these cool things. And so I think artists have a
unique role. I mean, the history of Natural
History work from Audubon and onwards has has shown that that
kind of spurred on scientific inquiry by being able to
visually depict the the natural world and get people excited
about studying science further. So.
Christina Yeah, yeah. So part of.
What I love about your pieces is how much architecture you also.
Yeah, all of them. And.
So I kind of let you know. Why?
Well, first of all, cuz all your boards right your, your actual
pieces are shaped. Very unusually.
Yeah, I love. That they're all custom assets.
But also there's like and and again, like the triptych, the
altarpiece, yes, I wanted to like speak into.
That what made. You choose a triptych.
Why is there that like artificial, like computer, old
church symbol, Yeah. I love that question.
Yeah, yeah. I was actually for my Masters of
Art History program, wrote a final paper on, on that very
question that you posed, because what's fascinating in, in my
studies is that the further you go back in like Renaissance
painting and a lot of these altar pieces, they were actually
designed to echo the architecture of these spaces and
to be very integral. So that's why you get these
altar pieces and, and triptychs, which is, you know, 3 panels
that into one painting for, for those who don't know.
And so for when, when art kind of left the church and the
church stopped being kind of a major patron, there's a
transition to like the the, the French academies and the salons
and framing became very homogenized where you just got
rectangle frames and artists weren't as involved with like
sculptors and carvers who would make these elaborate frames that
would be kind of like separate from the process.
But then it was in the mid 20th century where color field
abstract painters like Frank Stella is the best example,
broke away from rectangles. And some of those abstract
painters actually cited altarpiece frames as being an
inspiration. Even though a lot of you think
of modern art is breaking with religious tradition of the past.
They found that those altar painting altarpiece paintings
thought about like the sculptural aspect of a painting,
the shape and how the shape could imbue meaning into the the
work. And so as you saw in some of
the, the paintings, like the choice to have a, a circle goes
back to the Italian Tondo format, which was associated
with Mary and wholeness and perfection.
And so like a lot of these shapes have so much meaning.
And so that's why I like kind of exploring because I find like
rectangles and squares get boring, honestly.
And so that's why I like to let the the subject matter dictate
like Tabernacle, frame, etcetera.
But yeah, thanks for asking that.
Do we have any more questions? Do.
You still have Occidental Babylon?
Or is it sold? That one's sold.
Yes, at the Jacksonville Art Auction.
Yeah, that was a hard one to to let go because it was like a
custom made frame from rustic barn board wood and then
designed like I designed the corbels and plants and all these
these elements that reflected like the Western Gothic
architecture of the Bodhi ghost town where it was inspired.
Yeah. Maybe last question a little bit
about. Just kind of your workflow like
how do you OK yeah, how do you create your pieces and so many
hours Yeah, sure. Yeah.
So, so I tried to paint around 8 to 10 hours a day.
And of course I take Sundays off.
So I have my, my Sabbath, but I also have to, you know, do the,
the boring administrative work as well, emails and updating
websites. So it's, it's not all glamorous
as, as an artist, but yeah, I'm painting in my studio and I
listen to audio books and podcasts and music while I'm
painting. And yeah, I, I love what I get
to do. Painting is the most enjoyable
part of, of, of what I do. It doesn't even feel like a job.
It's not always easy. It is hard work.
But for me, I have like, the patient attention to detail and
so I like the challenge of working on a painting for such a
long period of time. So yeah.
But I also start my day in prayer and scripture.
And so I try to, I'm still learning how to have a good,
healthy work life balance and spend time outdoors and all of
that as we as we all do. But thanks so much everyone.
And again, so glad to be with you tonight.
Imagination Redeemed podcast. Is a production of the Anselm
Society. It's easy to see this world as
disenchanted and to give up hope that there's more.
But you were made to see the world with the eyes of heaven,
to experience a joyful Sabbath and experience the world as a
place to meet God and live a bountiful life that participates
in the life of God. Like in the great stories, the
Ansam Society is a place where you can come in and experience
beauty, joyful celebration, and ancient wisdom and go out
renewed, bringing that life to your vocation, home, and church.
Join us next time as we pursue a renaissance of the Christian
imagination together.