GENESIS REVISITED
We use the word "God" as though it means the same thing to each of us, that we share a common definition. Especially when used by political wannabes during election campaigns, this has been a longtime personal issue for me: what/how we each mean and/or would picture what that word means (mentally; many religions forbid the depiction of the term).
After "Retiring from the practice of Art" in 2007 --- withdrawing from ambitious artworks, seeking museum exhibitions and commercial representation --- I found myself engaged with a serious study of the history of Christianity and other faiths, the history of the Old and New Testaments, what is known about the historic Jesus, our species' roots, and important (to me) issues such as those. Out of those studies I developed a workbook of projects and an exhibition of the illustrations and projects featured in it.
Although Genesis Revisited, as both an exhibition and a workbook, is NOT a critique of religions or of anyone's personal spiritual beliefs, it is a means for students and viewers to question Biblical literacy and European's descriptions of its stories, and to ultimately serve as an invitation for viewers/students to question --- privately, internally, and perhaps as illustrations or symbols --- what the word "God" means to each one of them.
After "Retiring from the practice of Art" in 2007 --- withdrawing from ambitious artworks, seeking museum exhibitions and commercial representation --- I found myself engaged with a serious study of the history of Christianity and other faiths, the history of the Old and New Testaments, what is known about the historic Jesus, our species' roots, and important (to me) issues such as those. Out of those studies I developed a workbook of projects and an exhibition of the illustrations and projects featured in it.
Although Genesis Revisited, as both an exhibition and a workbook, is NOT a critique of religions or of anyone's personal spiritual beliefs, it is a means for students and viewers to question Biblical literacy and European's descriptions of its stories, and to ultimately serve as an invitation for viewers/students to question --- privately, internally, and perhaps as illustrations or symbols --- what the word "God" means to each one of them.
The University of Texas at El Paso hosted the premier of Genesis Revisited with cooperation between the Department of Religious Studies, the Department of Art, and the Student Union Gallery. The exhibition's opening was preceded by a short slide-presentation I made in the Student Union auditorium.
The workbook was displayed (and for sale at a non-profit price) as well as a brief biography.
OVER TIME consists of a variety of timelines, illustrated with lines, words, and images. These timelines can be used for any subject and, as an example of their educational value, I included one that illustrated the progressive styles of 20th century Modernist Art. The ones shown above are related to Western Civilization and to art history.
THE BEGINNING
THE BEGINNING features six small panels, beginning with solid gold (revealed throughout the exhibition in both words and images to be MY personal "representation" of the word God), and followed, in order, by THE WORD in Hebrew, Greek, Latin, German, and English.
GENESIS REVISITED
GENESIS REVISITED shares my and others' reinterpretation of the creation story, based on imagery from art history (originals displayed in small black/white examples beneath each composition) from the workbook's "coloring book" section. The human species Homo sapiens s. originated in Africa, so the figures of Adam and Eve --- with umbilici deleted! --- have been color-corrected from European Medieval and Renaissance illustrations.
MIKE'S BAKER
Michelangelo's illustrations of an elderly, bearded, European "God" from the Sistine Chapel have been absorbed by many to represent this unknowable concept (and forbidden to "picture" in the Jewish and Muslim faiths). In this series I made several collages using the familiar posed figures as if the man were in a bakery because of a simple fact: MICHELANGELO'S MODEL FOR THE IMAGES HE MADE OF "GOD" WAS HIS BAKER! (The entire exhibition, while provocative, is also inarguable, my favorite combination.)
OMG
OMG (OH MY GOD), is a sequence of ten small squares that, had I the technical knowledge and experience, would become an animated change between solid gold and shapes leading, once again to solid gold. (This is MY way of describing/picturing how I think and envision God = The Mystery = a gold question mark.)
And, without original intention, we are led finally to the point of the entire project, illustrations, and exhibition: asking oneself to "describe" or symbolize one's own interpretation of the word "God." In a poem I wrote, referring to Piet Mondrian's use of black lines in relation to his bringing-together or completely unrelated elements and colors:
Piet made pulsing blocks of color, red blue yellow black and white.
Some see lines defining borders, I feel God's magnetic might.
Some see lines defining borders, I feel God's magnetic might.
Some make God a bedtime story.... My God's gold, without a face.
Aperture, on loan, 60" x 60"
In subsequent shows, when Aperture was not available, I replaced it with a construction shown below, made of various materials attached to a mirror, from bottom to top (from lead to gold = from bad to good/god), measuring 48" x 12". I call it The Sum --- its title being particularly ironic since my earlier interpretation of the word God was a gold question mark, a mystery, "THE Mystery" --- and it became the point of this entire project: to invite and encourage each person to consider the word "god"/"God" and to perhaps to visualize or verbalize one's true and personal interpretation.
INPUT
Students and visitors were encouraged to add resources, to use the "coloring book" examples to revise images of Adam and Eve, to read and/or leave articles about any/all of the themes in the exhibition, etc. Another bulletin board featured my examples that weren't "frame worthy" but provided useful information or references.
