Because man was made in the very image of God, he argued, man is not ultimately a liar. He may pervert the things of God for his own ends, but he can never fully efface the image of God in him. He can never really be satisfied with lies. He can never escape who he really is. And for this reason, even the pagan myths retain a semblance of eternal truth, however corrupted. Ultimately, even in his imaginative creations, man is pulled back to the truths that answer to the call of his own true nature.
Martin Cothran - Tolkien, Lewis & Christian Mythology.
It's proved to be a busy - in some respects turbulent - start to another year. Whilst this has meant very little time behind the camera (I have managed to get a little landscape imagery done), it has been a period when, once again, I've been reminded in my studies and my daily life that there is a God who, thankfully, is very much involved and engaged with us in the mundane.
Studying afresh through the Old Testament, I was reminded last month of the story of Ruth - a woman who could so easily have been alienated from 'the righteous' because of her background, but who, through simple, straightforward even routine behavior (caring for the daily needs of another) became favored by someone who would come to marry her. It's a very simple story, especially when you look at it in the context of all the bluster and fury of what was going on in that part of the world at the time (take a read through the book of Judges), and yet, it was in this very normal backwater tale that something momentous was beginning. Ruth's children would be the family from which David, Israel's great King, would come - the 'quiet' story is the opening of the stuff of legends.
The Gospels, noted C S Lewis, contain many elements of those stories which, rising from amidst the mundane, touch us at our very core. We taste the deepest art, drama, beauty and meaning in spite of our corruption, as it allows us to peak for a moment at what we truly desire - the fragrance and embrace of what was lost - but the truth unwrapped here is that the story - our story - begins and ends in joy, because another sees us and restores what was lost.
Our engagement with life - be it with myth, or art, or the mundane, can be meaningful, if we can catch this glimpse, and allow the beauty of what is truly there to nest within our hunger for the one who "makes all things beautiful in their time, and places eternity in our hearts". We can never find a sufficient source for joy or rest if we fail to see it there, but if we do, then all the radiance of the goodness of the Father, through the Son, will rise in true health and righteousness, ripening amidst the most common things of life, and our pleasure in the finding and sharing of such truth.
Amidst the daily things - work and play, creativity and reflection - I hope that some small part of what I do will at least point to such riches.
Images: Skyclimb. Model: Magenta. Evergreen. Model: Erin. The Reveling. Model: Magenta
"To the nonbeliever, the person who sees no cosmos in chaos, we are all victims of the darkness which surrounds our choices; we have lost our way. There is no meaning. To serve any discipline in art... is to affirm meaning". Madeleine D'Engle - Icons of the True.
The last few weeks have brought some pleasant surprises.
First, there was the news that some friends I created some commissioned work for some years ago have decided that they intend to hold an exhibition of a selection of this work in Cornwall in July, and they have invited me to be involved in the whole project. This will allow a public viewing of many of my fine art figure images in the area for the first time in several years. so I am delighted for this opportunity.
Secondly, a wonderful model I've previously worked with from America is back in the UK for a short time, and thanks to the assistance of friends, I was able to meet up with her with a short time a few days ago and create some new images.
Finally, there are two other possible art projects in the offing. Some friends and I are seeking to put together a photography workshop in June, and in spite of some initial set-backs, it looks as though this may still come together. I'm also currently assisting in a research project to look at the possibility of holding an event in the city which seeks to express the significance and value of the relationship between faith and art. We had our first meeting this week, and it was great to see lots of passion and interest for this...it's going to be interesting to see how this translates into a possible working scheme for an event.
What has really been affirmed to me in all of this is that it's vital to have and to share a common vision which allows you to take such steps. The longing in each of us, not only to exist, but to truly find and share a form of life which is replete with value and significance, truly, I think, affirms the image which we bear at our deepest. Whilst this is so often marred and forgotten, art can sometimes allow us to glimpse that remarkable truth in a fresh way.
I hope 2015 will bring about moments that allow such a grace.
Why do we make art, especially art that depicts the human figure?
A piece I was reading recently put it well, especially in the light of the time of year: "God, in creating the greatest story ever, used a human figure, too: Christ. Begotten, not made, he took on flesh. He subjected himself to all the gross, worldly secularism with which I inevitably identify, and it’s around this man, this naked, bleeding man, that the coolest art of all revolves". L’Engle writes: “There is nothing so secular that it cannot be sacred, and that is one of the deepest messages of the Incarnation.”
It is because of this - that at the centre of our story is a God who comes to us as us - that we can truly marvel in the splendor of where we are and what we are... it is all a gift of astonishing grace, if we only have the eyes to see.
The Compliments of the Season to us all!
"Cast your bread upon the waters, for you will find it after many days".
Solomon.
It's like the moment in Ferris Bueller's Day Off.
There, locked behind glass and steel, is a sleek, red, thoroughbred of a car, and all the owner wants to do is polish it. It's never taken out of the gallery, never allowed to turn heads as it purrs along the open road - it's become less than it was meant to be.
One of the joys of photography is when you meet and begin to work with someone and the ramifications of doing so becomes bigger and greater than you ever imagined. That's certainly been the case with many people for me over the last decade, but particularly with my Muse, Magenta.
When we first met, we were very different people, both still very much finding our feet, especially in relation to our artistry, and I really didn't expect us to connect or be able to do that much together. How wrong I was!
Over the last eight years, I have truly been blessed to watch an artist grow through the curve balls and splendors that life has given to her - often being allowed to be present at moments of pain and joy.
Like the Samaritan woman that Jesus met at the well, our lives are often pretty mixed affairs, but in amidst that mixture, there is something precious and noble, and when we know how to invest this well, this allows us to stop curving in on ourselves and begin to engage with a much bigger picture - to cast our gifts before the world, and see them valued.
When thinking about this, Solomon also noted, As you do not know the way the spirit comes to the bones in the womb of a woman with child, so you do not know the work of God who makes everything.
It is only as we stop, as we 'consider the lilies' - the deeper truths that moments of art, beauty or true experience express or reflect - that we can allow a richness into our souls that makes us healthy.
The joy is knowing and sharing such moments - taking that beauty for a spin. That's what truly makes us .
Every December Sky, must loose its faith in leaves,
and dream of the spring inside the trees
How heavy the empty heart, how light the heart that's full,
sometimes I have to trust what I can't know.
Beth Nielsen Chapman
With a forecast that had been promising reasonable conditions for weeks, my friends and I decided to brave the bleakness of the moors for one last artistic venture before the winter firmly moves in to herald the closure of another year.
The conditions were, well, somewhat less favorable than had been predicted, and we had to risk getting very wet to reach the location on a pretty perilous river crossing, but Erin worked hard in the grey chilly afternoon to blend form and surroundings in a truly wonderful moment of reflection and delight in the 'rightness' of creation and our being part of it. It reminded me again of what is good in life, in spite of a propensity as broken creatures to often spoil this.
With the colder days taking their grip on the season, we hope to bring Erin and Magenta together at some point at an indoor location (so they can stay warm!) for some further images in the next few months...
So I'll keep you posted.
"God rips off medals of rank, puts aside titles, honors, and talents, and appears in his birthday suit. Veiled in flesh the Godhead see; hail the incarnate deity! In the Incarnation, things heavenly and earthly are gathered into one: one in the naked flesh and folds of God. Mary Ellen Ashcroft - Gift-wrapping God.
This week gave me a wonderful opportunity to work with my muse, Magenta, and her wonderful new arrival, Caius:
It was a true delight to see them both doing well and to spend the best part of a day, following them with a camera, as Magenta bathed, fed, played and was entirely there for this new life, nurturing and caring for her child with all the love of a mother for her beloved.
It had not been an easy birth, and Magenta candidly informed me that now, some two months on, it felt as though every muscle inside her had been withdrawn in those hours and replaced with something feeble and weak instead. She spoke of how she had reached the point where there she had no more to give, but somehow, miraculously, her body had managed to continue, and despite complications, Caius was born, and is so deeply loved.
There were numerous thoughts and comparisons that went through my mind as we talked and worked, but one that came to prominence, especially as Caius was fed, was a verse by Paul in his letter to the young gathering of Christians in Thessalonica: "We were gentle among you, like a nursing mother feeding her own children. Being so affectionately desirous of you, we readily shared the Gospel of God. You had become that dear to us" (Chapter 2, verses 7&8). Paul is saying that the message of Christ is something as needful as a mother's breast milk, and true Christian ministry is as loving and as desirable as a mother nursing her new born.
We recently studied this letter at church, and I was dreadfully disappointed at the translation used which read: "we were gentle among you, like a mother caring for little children", pretty well omitting the image (in the reading and the following sermon) Paul actually uses - even more bizarre, when this celebration of motherhood, which includes a mother breast feeding, is situated on the church wall (!):
We see the spiritual and the good so often in the most natural parts of life, especially when we encounter the joy of love being shared - it graphically shows us what life is all about, but we sadly so often confine such splendor to the 'small corners' of our days, hiding the goodness and the rightness of what we are and God's gifts to us.
I have been truly thankful for the opportunity to catch glimpses of this astonishing moment in the lives of people at a remarkable time. It speaks deeply of what truly matters, knowing love - God's love for us, and our love for one another.
With huge thanks to Magenta and Caius.
A perfect summer day is when the sun is shining, the breeze is blowing, the birds are singing, and the lawn mower is broken. ~James Dent
Some months ago, some friends invited me to walk a part of Dartmoor I had not previously explored (there's still plenty more of that!). I was delighted for such an opportunity and, obviously, took along my camera to truly enjoy the event:
It was a splendid Spring afternoon, and as we hiked further into the stark but grand surroundings, I found myself truly missing something else - a model! I knew, all too quickly, that I needed to return soon and really work in these locations.
I really didn't know how long it would be before this would be possible. With my muse now busy with a new arrival (something now common to most of the regular models I have worked with locally in the last decade), and given the difficulties of reaching the area, I thought it would be some time, possibly next summer, before a shoot would happen, but events took an unexpected turn in June. Erin, who had suspended modeling over a year ago to become a parent, contacted me and was keen to create some new work. We discussed the location on Dartmoor, and, a few weeks ago, spent the most splendid Saturday working there. The weather was... interesting. A severe thunderstorm had spread across much of the country, and this thrummed away in the distance as we worked amidst warm, cloudy and on occasion, bright conditions. The result was some truly rewarding images, now compiled into a video.
In a week which has itself rumbled here with the question if being naked in nature is moral (!), it's good to remind ourselves how we were fearfully and wonderfully made, and that beauty itself causes (or should cause) pause for thought about what really counts - the splendor of a world that is His handiwork.
Images: Tor. Splendor. Model: Erin. Unison Photo Arts 2014.
