Vision and Reality

ln the fall of 1992, I entered Penn State University as a freshman majoring in Art. All the years prior, it seemed like I had a pencil or paintbrush in my hand at all times. I couldn’t pinpoint the moment that I started drawing and painting, it was just something that I did. However, during the years leading up to college, the majority of my art was focused on representation of the world around me. My understanding of art was that the best art needed to closely resemble objects or people in reality. Freshman year broadened my horizons and introduced me to abstract and conceptual art. I spent the next few years pursuing how to build a composition with symbols that communicated a message.

In the spring of 1997, I had a show at the Penn State HUB Art Galleries. I displayed 6, 48”x48,” canvases that were the culmination of my new symbolic visual vocabulary. “Vision and Reality’s” focal point was built using a bearded iris turned on its side and abstracted. It represented fluid layers. I included a sun and a moon that symbolized the imagery in Psalm 1. They represented meditating on God’s word day and night. This became a recurring theme in my work from this point on.

The imagery of the cave is borrowed from Plato’s cave. In his story, the people are chained, facing a cave interior wall. A fire is behind them. All that they can see is the shadows on the wall of real people in the world, not the actual people. I used this story as analogy for my own spiritual vision and calling.  The light of the vision outside of the cave, is so bright that it is casting shadows for me to see in the present. The vision and calling are not realized yet, I have to work to make them a reality.

In this painting, there is also a sense of lava and movement, like plate tectonics that cause land formations. There needs to be molten heat and transformational change in order to see these visions come to pass. I also included a stream of water coming down from the sky, it represents the living water of Christ that brings refreshment, the coolness helps the vision gain life, solidify and become a reality.

“Vision and Reality”, 48”x48”, Oil on Canvas, 1997, Private Collection, Durham, NC

Without this backstory, it is highly unlikely that that viewer would be able to able to decode the symbolism and discover my intentions. Over the years, watching people interact with my work, it has become just as rewarding to hear how each piece speaks to a person in entirely different ways. Sometimes they uncover hidden things that I didn’t know were there. That’s the beauty and mystery in art.