Among his many talents, my son Joshua is a gifted artist and has an impeccable aptitude for artistic critique. When I need an honest opinion or I am not sure what is wrong with a painting I confer with him.
His pet peeve with my work is that he dislikes type on artwork. I understand his reasoning- the image should be self explanatory. But I must defend myself- The image here, as in other pieces in this series, is based on illluminated manuscripts. I love the relation between image and text.
I remember reading once that when Christopher Wren was re-building St. Paul's cathedral after the Great Fire of 1666, he unearthed from the rubble a stone inscribed with the word "Resurgam"-(I arise). From the ashes of the old, he built his masterpiece.
The Phoenix is familiar to many cultures and was an early Christian symbol of the Ressurection. The image of a phoenix inspires me- there are times in our lives when everything seems utterly lost. This is a time for transformation, it's from a place where there is nothing left to lose that our brilliance can shine through.
I agree with you! See, I understand the aesthetics of text. That is why you will never paint a picture of Joshua as an angel.
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