Picasso once said, “Good artists borrow; Great artists
steal.” I admit it, I totally stole the imagery on this one
(it’s ok, though, because he stole it too.) One of my former professors in graduate school, a phenomenal
artist named John Millei has made a series of works using this type of imagery
for water. He stole the idea from
some tapestries in Angers, France (the artistic term for ‘stealing’ is
‘appropriation’). I love the power
of a line- waving, bending, moving through space and reacting to its
environment. And these lines,
serving as waves, are so powerful to me; so expressive.
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| Maritime #10 (The Deluge) by John Millei |
So I decided to use them in this painting of the water of
the Jordan River dividing (to his credit, his paintings are much better than
mine. In my defense, it was my first time). And as Troy let us know- the Israelites had to really step
out in faith on this one. Before,
when they were all kids and their parents were being led out from Egypt, Moses
went up, raised his arms and staff and the waters parted before them. Then they just had to walk through like
it was no big deal. This time, though,
the priests carrying the ark had to step in the water first. It wasn’t until they placed their foot
in the running current that the water began to back up and split. So here you see, as the water is
dividing, there are footprints already in the sand.
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