spiritual art

Some Drawings about Mary Magdalene

from the Diary of a Tree Standing On Its Head

Mary anointing the feet of Jesus. I find myself, in my heart seeing Mary of Bethany and Mary Magdalene as one Mary- incidentally I also see them as Eve.
Walking Man Attending to the Braids of Mary Magdalene Attending to the Feet of Christ

Crucifixion Drawing for Saint Bede’s Box

preliminary drawing of the crucifixion for the painted panels of the Saint Bede’s Box project.

I am leaning heavily on Gruenwald for this drawing of the crucifixion scene. This image will be transferred to a wooden panel for oil painting.

The Fourth Vision of Zechariah

The Fourth Vision of Zechariah, 2025, oil on oak panel, 27.5″x17″

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

Sacred Heart

This drawing is part of The Diary of a Tree Standing on it’s Head series I’ve been working on.

I also decided to make some prints of this one. They are for sale here at Baumwerkshop.com

The Great Beast

Exploring the Recurring Theme of the Great Beast and the Prone Man

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.

Gilding A Divine Oath

The painting is back on the easel after a resting since spring. Gilding the letters of the divine and sacred promise to the land at the threshold of the picture was the first order, now I am glazing the purple field behind them, before addressing the errors in the gilding.

All the work is prayer- engaging EVERYTHING through the materials their resistance the colored dust the stillness the distractions the sable bristles the sticky oil the waiting the music in the background looking at Giotto interruptions aching neck lunch the glory the emptiness the inspired seeing fires skunks under the floor cold hands the failures and doubt exaltation pulling off a difficult passage looking at Gerard David the heavens the earth instinct the breathe the blood the sighing lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me.