Natural Art

"Within a generation, the Greeks stopped making realistic statues. Why? The answer reveals something fundamental about us as human beings - we're driven by something else - the need to exaggerate".

How Art Changed the World (BBC).

"The entire human race is profoundly and desperately religious. From the dim beginnings of our history right up to the present, none of us have been immune to thinking that the relationship between God and humanity can be repaired from our side, by what we do". 

Robert Farrar Capon.

It's always interested me how so often what is popular is invested with various yet apparently essential exaggerations. Heros, villains, even locations where key events are played out have to be larger than life to convey a sense of special weight and occasion. It's not just in block-busting films that this is so. Popular plays, novels, operas, myths and poems often equally echo this sentiment, as does painting and sculpture - it seems that the 'real' world is often just too small scale for anything special to really be happening within, and yet, this is where you and I reside - here, in fact, is the canvas on which such grand ideas are fashioned, because it is the 'small' domain of our spinning little planet that all of the virtues and failings we write large on stage and screen are to be found and are given true meaning.

The reason for our 'necessary fictions' is because it often allows us to be a step removed from intimacy.

There are some wonderful moments in the film, Nell, where the two physicians entangled into the life of this strange, astonishing woman, realize that to truly help her, they will have to come out from behind their detached professionalism and deeply become involved in this life, this person, at great cost. Meaningful Art and genuine spirituality require us to make that same journey - to engage with the heights and depths of life, but to do so in such a fashion that we become wholly entangled in its demands, even to the point of having to give much of ourselves to become true participants of the beauty and richness it calls us, demands us to see and totally encounter.

Such inter-action will wound and heal us deeply, but it will also mean we cannot be content with peripheral, bland uses of artistic or religious means (however ornate the external trappings) - we will long for something more.

There is a beauty, a wisdom, which calls us, like falling in love, which we deny at our greatest loss. The deepest songs, words, and images will always flow from those fathomless depths - the river which still flows to us from Eden.

Images: Natural Beauty. Model: Joceline.  Serenity Model:Alena.  Tapestry Model:Peltigera.

The Deep Inclination

"The very heavens, as much as his own desire, pulled him irresistibly to art, so that he could not stop himself from drawing, whenever he could steal a moment, and from seeking the company of painters.”-Ascanio Condivi on Michaelangelo.

There are moments in human history which are as refreshing and as welcome as a cool breeze on a balmy day. 

October 31st, 1512, would prove to be just such a day.
For the first time, the world was able to see something extraordinary. Rightly declared "a lamp for our art which casts abroad lustre enough to illuminate the world" - the wonder first witnessed on that day was the finished ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Rome.
Containing some 300 figures, the work depicts the drama of the creation, fall and redemption of humanity from the pages of Genesis, providing a visual vista of some of the key moments of the book on a panoramic scale.

In the 1530's, Michaelangelo would again return to the chapel and produce another astonishing work - the staggering fresco of the last judgement. Once more, the piece would be filled with images of the human form, for it was here, both in his sculpture and his painting, that the artist truly found the core theme of his work - a mirror which truly reflects the divine.

And so, we have these masterpieces to enjoy today....

Well, that's not the whole story.

Some years after the work was finished, the Roman church decided that such an explicit display of naked glory had to be censored. It was ordered that the nudity was to be covered, and that one of Michaelangelo's students would work to cover all genitalia. Most of the nudity was covered, and stayed so for the next 400 years.

Thankfully, those of us living today are amongst the first to once more see the great work as it was originally created, due to a monumental restoration work at the chapel in the 1980's &90's.

As with our own times, it wasn't that nakedness when associated with vice wasn't in vogue (the medieval church had a huge catalogue of sexual misdemeanour's entitled the penitentials), but it was when nudity 'spoke' of something deeper that there was trouble.

Michaelangelo gave the world something momentous.  He understood that because of God's work in Christ, there was no longer any place for a dichotomy between truth and art, and that we should use our gifts and talents to convey this, particularly when it came to understanding the fallen nature and true intent of humanity. In seeking to express such essential truths, He became the target of an equally deep passion amongst some - to deride and tarnish any expression of such splendour, and rob the world of beauty which speaks all too closely to us for some to bear.

It's extraordinary to think that many of those in authority in those times would like to have seen nothing less than these great works white-washed, but the same appears to be true regarding fine art today. Over the last several months, many fine artists have vanished from blogging forums and popular art platforms purely because of the unceasing verbal violence constantly unleashed against their work in extolling the splendour of the human form. Those who have remained are tending to 'gate' their sites so access is given to friends only. The loss is already becoming palpable, and I wonder if, as with Michaelangelo's work, we will find in our times that much of this work will become blocked to the public arena as internet censors and vandals marginalise access to such beauty.


We cannot afford to let such a cardinal need to connect to the deeper and richer - both in the creation and enjoyment of such art - to become stifled and silenced. The glory expressed in these works resonates in us, that we are indeed part of something truly profound. Let us do all we can to express and share such a glory.

Models: Allegra & Magenta. Images by Howard.
 

The Enchanted Longing

"The determinative flashes of sunlight...the moments of tenderness, the thousand impressions that have flowered into meaning - remain radically incommunicable. On the day we die, a hundred such chapters will go into the void for every one we leave on someone's desk... (We need) not simply to be lovers of beauty, but lovers of being, just because it is, for it is in seeing, knowing, 'the higher within the lower', that we find the root of beauty, goodness and truth".
Robert Farrar Capon.

There is a 'yearning', in our best moments, that we share with all of creation. Like a fragrance, winsome and teasing, igniting a treasured memory from childhood, it occasionally plays upon us and briefly beckons us to look harder and further into what is here, woven into flesh and soil, than our usual modes of reflection. Such moments, like honeysuckle caught briefly in the air, profoundly still and argue with our thoughts which make art and beauty either concepts 'too high' (beyond us) or 'too low' (measured and understood) that we entirely miss the real wonder and greatness of what is upon us - the real value of what is here. At such a moment, "We do not want merely to see beauty, we want something more which can hardly be put into words - to be united to it, to bathe in it, to become part of it"(C S Lewis - The Weight of Glory). The 'yearning' is especially acute in our recreation, because it is here we most often pause and reflect, commonly with others but also alone, through the arts and engagement with friends or family, upon the true 'fragrance' of the world and life which, though marred by pain and crippled when a means for evil, resonates with the fact that there is a beauty, a wonder, a significance woven into its rich tapestry, and all that is good conveys this to us.

The passion to work with the body - with the person who is 'known' through their physicality - is truly a part of this 'dance' (the true 'romance' of existence). In his short New Testament letter, James speaks about looking upon our reflection and noting the true 'weight' of what this tells us about ourselves. When we look well (deep enough and hard enough), we can gain a glimpse of the significance with which we have been clothed - to know, express, share and enrich each other with a love and splendour which reflects the true 'glory' of the community of the Creator who made the marvel that we are and which surrounds us. Beauty truly becomes evident when such 'light' is conveyed, but it is a revelation both astonishing and terrifying, because so much of what we are, what we do, is so far from this - we are left outside.

It takes something more than ourselves to get us beyond the pain and ugliness to allow us to once more truly engage with the beauty. It was some years ago that I first heard about the work of Eileen Fisher Turk, a New York artist who used nude photography to help women who had been sexually abused or suffered from various disorders to re-connect with themselves and especially the wonder of their own bodies through the use of images - holding a 'mirror' before them. Whilst I am not a therapist, I have certainly encountered the power of this use of nude images first hand, and personally seen the impact it had on one person in particular, totally breaking a destructive part of their life and changing their definition of themselves, allowing a much more normal, healthy course to begin.

The need we all share is that of 're-connection' to the true art, the amazing grace, that underpins our world. Glimpses of that window, reflections of that longing, often meet us in our richest, deepest moments of delight or reflection, when we stand on the edge of what truly counts. God is at work, through Jesus Christ, to reconcile all that has been tainted, says Christianity, because the love shared in the communion of Father, Son and Spirit needs to become, to permeate, everything, that we can truly know and revel in our true value and purpose. That is the goal- a world entirely motivated by, filled with and growing through the richest, deepest, affirming love. May our art play some small part in such a work.






Image by Howard: Beautiful Dreamer - Model:Kari, Longing for the Garden - Model: Nicola, Beautifully Made - Model:Loella.

Discovering the dream

"A lucky child, I was allowed to run naked through silken mud puddles, and then shower in summer rain. I learned to identify woodland flowers before I could read. I climbed to the tops of trees to feel them sway and quake in the wind. Sometimes, reclining in the uppermost branches of my favourite climbing tree with a book, I escaped into an evergreen-infused world of adventure. It might not be necessary to do such things as a child to connect to the natural world as an adult. But if you are lucky enough to be touched by the land — be it prairie, desert, old growth forest, mountain, valley, freshwater lake or salty coastline — you know the elemental need and hunger this connection feeds". Honey Blacklock - Introductory essay to A Voice Within.


We often ponder what it's really all about, this wonder we call life. In spite of it all too often being marred by sadness and pain, we understand there's something astonishing going on here - it's an extraordinary place we inhabit in the midst of an astounding universe which both theology and science inform us* really cannot be here by chance.
Nature's glory is truly a masterpiece, writ large, which invites us to partake in something very special. The heavens, wrote David in the Psalms declare something vital - the sheer significance of the one behind all of the splendour, and as we contemplate the magnitude and the majesty, we are invited to not only acknowledge but encounter the one in whom we live and move and have our being, as the Greeks wisely put it. Behind the stillness of a star-filled night or glorious sunrise, is one who eternally expresses such glory, who invites us through such spectacle to draw near and discover the maker of such beauty.

In my last piece here, I sought to convey something of the importance in distinguishing between the 'naturalness' of human nudity in Eden, and the poverty of the nakedness which came upon us in our fall from such grace, and how God Himself sets out to aid us in our fall to restore what we had lost. If we understand this, then whilst our engagement with art will always be made in the context of our present malady, it will also seek to look beyond that - back to the garden, and forward to a complete creation, and that's the real point in faith and life in general. We are not here to complete a virtually disassociated series of actions through childhood into becoming an adult until we die and, well, that's all there is - we're here to build relationships, with a God who is Himself a community (Father, Son and Spirit) and with each other - it is eternal communion, marked with the true significance of existence, which should mark who we are and what we do, and that is most certainly true when it comes to our endeavours in the arts.

Honey Blacklock's story resonates so deeply. When she first met a photographer who was looking for a model to work with over many years to create a collection of natural nudes, she couldn't envisage herself ever fulfilling such a role, but as she pondered the idea, 'the voice within' of days when she had innocently enjoyed being amongst the natural world began to prompt and argue with her, and shortly after that, her life was changed completely by becoming involved in the project. Christ talks about essential reality in the same fashion - we cannot afford to loose that essential ingredient we have as children - that sense of wonder as we engage with life - because only then will we have the tools to truly begin to unpack and value the charm and grace which surrounds us... we all know it's there, it's just so easy for us to spend most of our time too busy to hear it's still voice or catch the hint of its amazing fragrance - truly living means taking the plunge, and that can be an unnerving, even scary prospect much of the time.

We all would like life, perhaps even art, to be 'safe' - somewhere we know we can apply certain rules and everything will be predictable, measurable, contained, but reality is overseen by something glorious and as wild as the deepest romance - a story of unimaginable love, and we are caught in its magic. We can seek to detach from that and live in our safe, hopefully restrained worlds, or we can embrace the dream, become the romantic fool, and love deeper than we ever thought possible. It's dangerous, we're warned, it's nonsense, some chide, but what of that... what a world awaits those who carry such passion!

My days behind the camera are married to my days of embracing all of life - the one fuels and sustains the other. It is the only way to create something which, in a manner however small, seeks to convey something of the splendour of it all.

















Images: Echoes of Eden. Model: Nicola. Sea Sprite. Model: Magenta. Naturally sensuous. Model: Lisa.

You can see the superb 'A Voice Within' images by Craig and Honey Blacklock here.
And read Honey's wonderful essay on the project here.


* Sir Fred Hoyle's amazing work into the existence of Carbon in the 1950's really opens the door regarding the very nature of the existence of the Universe itself. Years later, he wrote:
"Would you not say to yourself, "Some super-calculating intellect must have designed the properties of the carbon atom, otherwise the chance of my finding such an atom through the blind forces of nature would be utterly minuscule." Of course you would . . . A common sense interpretation of the facts suggests that a super intellect has monkeyed with physics, as well as with chemistry and biology, and that there are no blind forces worth speaking about in nature. The numbers one calculates from the facts seem to me so overwhelming as to put this conclusion almost beyond question". In more recent times, one of the world's most prominent atheists, Anthony Flew, reached a similar conclusion. In the last few years of his life, he wrote that the continuing unfolding of the integrated complexity within both the essential physical structure of the universe and particularly within biological systems had overwhelmingly convinced him regarding the existence of a designer and made prior philosophical arguments against this mute.

Thinking (and living) dangerously.

"We were made to reflect an unstained glory, and our longing for that state won't be silenced by force. At best it can be locked in a closet of our souls, where it can only fester and either deaden or consume us....A shame-tainted theology might argue that bodies are bad, but an incarnational theology will have none of that. In refuting the Gnostics, Irenaeus insisted that God made us of earth and spirit "so that man and woman should be like God not only in their breath but also in their shaped flesh.".To believe in Christ's incarnation is to believe it is possible for mortal flesh to carry God's image". Karen Lee Thorpe - Is Beauty Dangerous?


I found myself directed though a mailing this week to a particular conservative Christian website entry on whether it was right for Christians to be engaged in employing nudity in art.
The conclusion ( a clear "no"), and the route to get there was what might be termed a commonplace theological approach - I've encountered essentially the same argument for many years about any proximity to anything to do with nudity and other issues (beauty, for example). What was intriguing to my mind on this occasion was not so much what the article said as what it omitted to say, or at least, to spell out, in any valuable way to its audience. It is this lack or manner of omission, and what it says about a great deal of 'christian' thought that I'd like to seek to touch upon here, because those of us who both acknowledge 'the righteousness of God' manifest in Jesus Christ and that it is this same God who makes 'everything beautiful in its time', including the human form, do have a reason for what we do, and it is imperative that this is understood by the artist and the world in which we live.

The article in question jumps right into the creation story and talks about nudity in Eden and how this became a problem in the fall, so Adam and Eve are then given garments, and that, therefore, is the common state of play - clothing, with regards ourselves and God is to be viewed as 'appropriate and necessary' from then on, so Adam's evaluation in putting on fig leaves was, apparently sound, and we just have to live with that.
There are, however, problems here. The first, and perhaps most important, is that the 'nakedness' of humanity's shame is not the same physical 'nakedness' (known without shame) in the garden. If the problem being addressed here was merely to do with our bodies being naked, then the 'skins' (hides) God gives to them could have easily been provided as something which covers us all from birth to the grave, as with other creatures (actually, that doesn't work for other reasons, which I'll touch on shortly) - but the 'covering' given here by God is a purely practical one. Due to the collapse of what creation was meant to be, the world humanity now occupies will be bleak and harsh, marked with hardship - garments that would help protect in such circumstances were practical.


Adam's shame at his true 'uncovering' (which was much more than skin deep) in the fall was a good thing - it's how we all should feel about our wrong-doing. His seeking to mask his true condition, from God and others, by hiding and by covering-up, is the error so common to our broken race.

So is that the primary 'image', then, for where we are to derive our source approach to nudity and also towards art? Is the image of our expulsion from Eden, de-nuded of our original state and environ, the only basis for our brief engagement with the present until we sink into the dust, rid of the misery of bodies and natures plagued by sin and death? Is that really it?

The image is painfully strong and true - alienation (a profound lack of belonging) is something we all know and experience deeply - but even at the very moment this horror occurs in Eden, God is already showing that it is through the body itself that He will bring about the rescue and total renewal of all that had been lost. The 'seed of the woman' (an actual child) would totally destroy the slavery to a broken world. There, then, in the moment of our world's darkest tragedy, is given the promise, the first image, of reconciliation and recapitulation, and it is a bodily image - not some ethereal escape, dismembering and thereby departing from the physical, but a working through this world that would totally re-affirm our being made (as bodily creatures) as those bearing God's image and likeness (which brings me back to the matter I touched on in my second paragraph - it is our being 'naked and unashamed' that is part of that entire purpose).

Art in the Old Testament is all to do with this - this return to our true place of belonging, for 'religious' or cultural art is all to with the tabernacle and later, the temple, and these sacred places are essentially representations of both Eden and the new creation - that is why these are the places where God 'resides' (as types of a renewed humanity and earth - see G K Beale's 'The Temple and the Church's Mission' - a Biblical theology of the dwelling place of God). The place where these 'works of art' find their 'first' true (permanent) expression is in the Incarnation - in the fulfilment of the ancient promises in the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is this naked coming of God into our world which totally verifies the promise made in Eden.

It is simply not enough to codify our faith into a system whereby something is deemed 'good' or 'bad' because a particular ethic is employed here, or a cluster of Biblical references are made there - we are not Stoics or Epicureans, or their philosophical offspring, but those who evidence the overwhelming shock of 'the lamb, slain before the foundation of the world' being the source and purpose behind all things in Heaven and Earth in the mystery of God manifest in the flesh... that is the vital truth, the essential seed which must be at the very heart of our breath and life, and it is from there we should ask what of art, of the body, and our engagement with such?

In her article on the value of female beauty, Karen Black concludes: If we are going to move beyond pride and shame to a strong humility regarding our bodies, we must stop listening to the voices that tell us beauty is either trivial or dangerous. It does matter that every girl learns to see herself as beautiful and offer her beauty to those around her in appropriate ways. If Christianity is going to engage with nudity in art in a fashion that isn't merely dualistic (and thereby, of no benefit at all), then it must cradle its understanding in the manger of Christ reconciling the world to Himself, and this surely includes the very bodies He has died to redeem and resurrect. Perhaps, if we begin there instead of after the covering of the fall of our race, we will have much more to say and to do.

Images: Joy, Contemplation and Consideration. Model:Magenta.

The "architecture" of enchantment

"Beauty reaches far beyond art, music and literature, for it is characteristic of the natural world – creation. For beauty, like truth and like goodness, has its origin in God. So we mustn’t think of beauty as merely belonging to objects in the world, as if beauty were a quality like size or yellowness: beauty is in the relationship between the object and the person who comes into contact with it. The world is 'haunted' by the presence of God and we are the ones who register that presence. In John Ruskin’s expression, we are touched by the sublime, and our reaction is to be moved and thrilled by it".

Peter Mullen on beauty.


One of the most common objections I've come across to Christianity in many shapes and forms is that it is all too "other worldly" - to do with things we cannot see or really understand, but such definitions are usually the result of pretty unclear thinking. At the heart of Christianity is God evidenced in our world as a man who is born, suffers and dies with the rest of us (and it is in that place that He essentially tells us that all of this really does matter), but even before this, amongst the events recorded in the Old Testament, it is actually often the nearness of God (because there is a God who is involved with us) that is the problem, not His transcendence, and it is when this God conveys to us the astonishing depths of beauty and grace involved in the creation that we are not only often deeply troubled, but truly, totally drawn to the wonder and splendour of such endearment.

It isn't by chance that some of the most inspirational poetry on creation and on love is found in the very core of these writings. The Psalms, Solomon's insights on Wisdom and the exquisite passion described in the Song of Songs come from a moment when God was truly seen to be present amongst a people who were catching a genuine glimpse of what human life is really all about - living in the 'glory' (the true meaning and value) of all that has been made and deemed good (in spite of our propensity to spoil it).

One of the highest expressions of all of this is the Bible's affirmation of the glory of erotic love.
The Song is literally dripping with moments that revel in the wonder of two persons becoming one, not just in a bodily sense (although the bodies of the lovers here are rightly and beautifully described), but in the fact that the sheer beauty of each of them becomes the true source of praise and meaning for the other, It is when just such a 'view' is truly in focus (in the key part, for example, of Chapter 2 of the poem), that the verse becomes so rich and tender:

"Arise, my love, my beauty, Come! The Winter has truly passed, the rains have gone, and the earth is filled with blossom. Now, the time of song has arrived, as fruit appears and ripens on the trees, The vines fill the air with fragrance. Come, my love, come away with me".

All good art touches us in this way. It lifts us, amidst our pain and decay, if but briefly, to look beyond this and to gain a scent of something deeper in our days here. Art photography echoes such aims, for even the most non-religious artists working in this field will speak of what truly matters in their work is moments of what can only be described as pure 'grace' - a linking with a beauty far higher than ourselves.

The aim, then, remains the same as Christ spoke of it in the Lord's prayer - to see the will of heaven (a God who cares for us in all of daily needs) here on earth - to touch, taste, smell and eat the 'romance' of reality... to be ravished by the beauty of the fact that in spite of our fall, we are so deeply loved, and art, amongst other things, can allow us to express and reflect upon something of that amazing grace.

The problem, perhaps, is not a God too far away, but a 'glory' that can be encountered within our very breath.
















Images:
Midsummer Morning at Tintagel, Model: Loella.
Treasures of Grace. Model: Erin.
Within the frame. Model:Kari.

The 'duty' of delight

"Look at the world around you. It supplies all your bodily needs. It feasts your eyes with its beauty. Its glory is a reflection of the beauty of God. This is why such a reflection truly feasts our souls".

John Chrysostom










Simple Pleasures. Model: Peltigera.

It's probably the oldest evil - seeing beauty, and wanting to malign, mar, decimate it's charm out of sheer spite and jealousy. The beguiling of Eve in the maginficence of Eden came about through a creature that envied the naked splendour of beings intended for the greatest pleasures - union with each other, with the majesty of the creation they had before them, and with the giver of all good things. It has always been easier since to destroy (to murder what is good) than to create in a manner that affirms all that is excellent and true.

For much of its history, due principally to the incursion of dualistic concepts inherent to Hellenic schools of thought in the 2nd & 3rd centuries, Christianity has often placed itself on the wrong side of such issues, neglecting its cardinal marriage to the 'rightness' and goodness of creation.
Perpetuating the lie that true spirituality amounts to little more than the manner of moralism which covers us in the fashion that Adam and Eve employed after the fall, we fail to realise that such paltry disguises do nothing but alienate us from the true depths of both our plight and our joys in being human. Christianity defines both the malady and remedy to our exile from the natural delight of God's handiwork, so if the true aim, as the New Testament says it is, of faith, is a confidence in Christ's reconciling of the world, why do we so often fail to 'have life, and have it abundantly' - to really work through the value and goodness of the natural?

C S Lewis once observed the sheer joy that we can encounter in the straightforward 'normality' of life - the comfort and richness of the 'fit' of all that is normal and commonplace, and how this gives us a true insight into our real communion with being alive. There is, however, a 'jailer' who conjures against such charm, who worries to be busy when such moments are close, stealing such glints of wonder from us. That is why, I believe, it is imperative, as Paul writes, that we focus on ALL that is good, and pure, and lovely around us.















Splendour. Model:Kari.

Beauty, when properly seen, allows us to step, if but for a moment, beyond the narrowness of our present troubled lives and truly 'touch, taste, and feel', if but vaguely, the true, deliciously earthy splendour of all that was, is and will forever be good in the reconciliation that already 'is' in Jesus Christ. The jailer wants us to remain in our dark cave, to see all such cravings and insights as mere myth - shadows, at best, to mock us, upon a cold wall, but the work of God, in creation and redemption, say totally otherwise.

For much of my own life, I have been so very aware of the beauty, but in recent years, as I discovered a means to actively 'connect' in a more immediate way through photography, the 'fragrance' and the vital value of the message this brings have become far more vital. It is as we engage in this manner that we truly begin to hear and see the majesty of God's work, and thereby appreciate and esteem both the art and the artist, who's greatest desire is to share that wonder, and thereby true affection, with us.



















Contemplation. Model: Joceline.