Began in 2021, this painting is about the Hebrew prophet Zechariah, found in the Old Testament of the Bible, particularly the events of chapters 3 and 4 of his book. A limited number of archival reproductions of this painting are available at Baumwerkshop
I thought it would be interesting to take a look at the recurring image of the Lion/Dog-Chimera/Beast standing guard over the prone man in my work from the past 2 1/2 decades. The Beast Himself shows up in many other works, but today I am concerned with His appearance specifically over this lying-down (dead?)man; an obscured self-portrait echo of Hans Holbein’s Dead Christ.
When I first started making these images, I was very uncertain of the beast. Is he good or evil? Is he standing guard to protect the man from being devoured or to devour him himself? As time has gone on plenty of uncertainty remains, yet I feel that the beast transcends the duality of good and evil- I could even venture that he transcends it as goodness.
Pushing a bit harder, I might say the beast is the Angel of the Holy Spirit- if that’s too far, I can retreat to the ground that he is “messenger”.
Entering into the imaginal space of these images, the land of spiritual vision, allows their merger with memory and experience. That’s a leap into what some call the realm of the unseen. As for me, I say it is a seen realm, but with other eyes. They are my memories and experiences.
The man, is he alive or dead or both. He begins to be folded into the Earth in later drawings. And fully inhabits the worship life cycle of growth and decay by the last image. The relationships have matured a little bit perhaps? Time will tell.
“I cannot bear, nor even hear the voices of men
unless they be in song and sore-amazed at the nearing nearness,
soaring -soaring in awful timbre about the unified flame”
from the Diary of a Tree Standing on Its Head
This linocut of the Creator God breathing life and spirit into Adam is based off of an earlier drawing I made a number of years ago.
I’ve also printed a few colored versions from this block as well. All of these prints are available for sale in my store, baumwerkshop.com.
It has been a long time since I have drawn much with colored pencils- many decades as a matter of fact. But the youngest of my kids love to draw with them and we have been spending time drawing together in the evenings. There are many levels of joy in rediscovering the accessibility and immediacy of colored pencils with my children.
I’ve been working on this drawing for a number of years. It was intended as a companion to another work, The Spiritual Mechanics of Labor and Rest, pictured below.
This print of Mary Magdalene is based on and inspired by the fifteenth century master, Rogier van der Weyden’s painting of Mary Magdalene from the Braque triptych in the Louvre. The text around the print reads: May I be Your witness, God, and a record of Your goodness, mercy, and faithfulness. You can purchase a print in our store here.
The School of the Transfer of Energy 