16 x 20 oil on linen ...who touched me....
Dear Reader,
The name of this painting is called " who touched me". Its a turn of a phrase from scripture where Jesus was walking amongst a multitude of followers and his disciples. Amongst the tussle and pushing and shoving to get close to Jesus a woman who has a rare bleeding infirmary boldly approaches Jesus somehow and purposes to touch the edge of his garment to receive healing. At the precise moment where the woman finally gets near enough to Jesus to touch his robe Jesus stops walking and asks " who touched me?". Of course this confounds his followers as everybody is touching and shoving each other as the throng moves along the dusty road. So what made this touch special? Jesus said he felt energy move from his spirit. This is astonishing. It seems to me that this " Touch" was of a deeper spiritual condition. It was a touch of Faith and an action of sincere intimacy. I imagined the same woman seeing Jesus on the cross and ironical and spiritually " being touched" by Jesus.
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Posts
Touching Piece!!! Just wish I could get some of that in me now! Really inspired by this piece-God help me!
ReplyDeleteJust spent some time talking about this with my students, Frank. I too believe there was something about a spiritual touch she was wanting. I love the way you painted this. Although in shame, she is being touched by his forgiveness and love.
ReplyDeleteVery moving - is this one that you are going to submit to the gallery in Pennsylvania?
ReplyDeletePowerful image, Frank. I like how you made it so simple yet so strong.
ReplyDeleteAdebanji,
ReplyDeleteYou can get some of this in you and it is there. I see it in your work. God has been blessing you mightily my friend.I am blessed by the scripture that says....though we are faithless God remains faithful....the promises are there for us if we ask in faith.....
inspired by your work.
Rob,
ReplyDeleteI am so glad to hear that the painting could be used as a spring board for spiritual discussion.
blessings
Mary,
ReplyDeleteI did not submit this, but I have told the gallery that it is available.
Janice,
ReplyDeleteThanks for spotting how simple this painting really is. I wanted a very direct composition and wanted the colors to tell the story much more than the modeling of the forms.
That is a cool scene to imagine. It make you wonder how many people he "touched" were at the foot of the cross that day.
ReplyDeleteJeremy,
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately by all accounts not too many. They were too fearful of the Romans.
Beautiful!
ReplyDeleteI'm a spiritual person, and I believe in something, but I'm not sure exactly what that something is.
ReplyDeleteI find it hard to appreciate illustrations depicting religious events.. I don't know, everyone has a different imagination, and every so often an image such as this gets treated like it's actually a photo of the person, thing, event etc. and I'm not sure that's a good thing.. because this kind of illustration is fictional, and could be misleading or influential in a bad way. I can't help but wonder how much of the bible was fiction or interpretations of events, stories, etc.
Frank, I hope you don't mind that I posted these views here. On another note, do you paint very thinly in only a couple layers? You seem to turn over a lot of work. Such a prolific painter.
Dave,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the honest post. These paintings were done awhile ago. But I do paint all the time and my wife has to corral me away from the easel so that my focus can return to my abandoned family. ;v)
I will address your post tonight as I am getting ready to go to a painting class....but I wanted you to know I have some thoughts about your comment.
...you may have read on some of my past posts that I am a recovering atheist.....
Dave,
ReplyDeleteI've always been intrigued by language and the meaning of words ( philology ) in our culture. Being " spiritual " is a loaded term. I gather by that use of the term you mean to express that you are not a strict biological materialist. That possibly you see purpose in life? The argument can be reduced to causation in the philosophical frame. That is...something caused this thing called Life or something was caused from nothing. Even the great debates between skeptics and believers end in a stalemate. One chooses to take the " leap of Faith" as Kierkegaard posited with all the available reason at his disposal or ones sees Life as an accident with no purpose or meaning other than what we give it ( Existentialism ).
Let's take away the religious aspect of my paintings for the moment. Artists of every century have been moved by passages from scripture or myth and have painted them in the style and inventiveness of their choosing. I can appreciate a Botticelli even though I may not believe that his beautifully rendered maidens of myth are real. By the same token, many have equally seen value in his Madonna's without the slightest need to feel the religious impulse. We all react differently to art.
I choose to depict scenes that move me and resonate with how I see the world. I am following my muse to borrow from greek mythology. I don't feel that I am even approaching the realistic renderings of biblical scenes such as De LaRoache or Bougeareou.Be that as it may, I am stuck with my talent.
I just got news that one of my students has cancer and is fading. It strikes me that life is short and the time we have is precious. Would it not make reasonable sense to find answers and to be at the work that is right with our souls?
My only sibling died suddenly (literally overnight) from a rare cancer when we were young. This gave me enough reason to question what I believed in (I was only 12).. but I can say our family's tragedy makes me appreciate everyday that I get to wake up, and I am pumped up by nature and its energy. It truly doesn't matter if I can appreciate your illustrations or not, so one could question why I posted my thoughts in the first place. Maybe it's because I read you were an atheist at one point.. probably at the age I'm at now. By saying I was spiritual, I meant that I'm no longer an atheist, and I believe in something - I am mainly inspired by nature and primarily by light. Take care
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