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Self Portrait Self Portrait: The Grotesque Facing the Sublime 24x20, 2002, oil on canvas. Available for Purchase In painting portraits I broke with an often-unwritten rule by conservative Mennonites that has lasted for hundreds of years. In 1697 a Danzig Flemish Mennonite painter experienced a ban by a church elder until he agreed to stop painting portraits and limit his studio work to decorations and landscapes. This was based on the Second Commandment, "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven images." Old order groups, in general, traditionally regarded art with tremendous suspicion. Sporting fork and ax, as humans we habitually consume and create. The hunger for spiritual, social, and physical nourishment gives us an omnivorous appetite. With these tools we hack out an existence while attempting to elevate the soul. The Spirit, positioned to the left, directs the protagonist's gaze towards that which cannot be harvested from the earth's surface. This self-portrait seeks out the fragrant changes described by John Steinbeck as, "a little wind that ruffles the curtains at dawn, and it comes like the stealthy perfume of wildflowers hidden in the grass." These changes take place in the celestial womb. When posing for a source photo for this painting, I attired myself in my recently deceased grandfather's plain coat. Even though he was a Mennonite deacon, this was the traditional clothing for laymen as well. Originally the coat was worn strictly for simplicity and separation. The plain coat later seemed to suggest "a chosen people, a royal priesthood." |
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