PIECE #4 - THOROUGHFARES

Title :  "Thoroughfares"

Date :  06/03/11

Materials:  Acrylic

The result of this one really struck me.  It really has moved me in the most beautiful manner.

I was struggling for ideas throughout most of the day.  I had read Ephesians 4 this morning, so I decided that unity in Christ was going to be my concept, but I really had no idea about the vessel in which to convey the message.  I hadn't even decided on a medium or technique. 

So, I just began by painting my block white.  While I was painting, I glanced over at a box of push-pins on the table.  After a little experimentation, I decided I was going to use the push-pins to scratch through the semi-wet acrylic, revealing the red-stained wood underneath.  I began in the center of the block and would swipe the pin out to the edge, repeating until the entire block was covered.  I did this five or six times, each time painting back over the scratches in order to build up a history.  The last time through, I left the scratches open and the paint scraps untouched.

As for reading into this piece, this was one of those pieces where I just start working, not knowing where the rhetoric may lie.  I'm just along for the ride.  With this piece in particular, I did not know what this piece was saying until after I had finished working on it.  In fact, my perspective changed quite a bit over the course of making this one.  I really like when that happens; when it leaves the overall message in tack but the form is dynamic enough to take on a multitude of projections from the audience.

At first, I viewed it as a bunch of paths leading into a central point; that was my intention upon starting the piece at least. They were representing lifetimes; linear, at least as far as our time on earth goes.  Each one unique but united with the same end. The ones faded by the paint were the lives of those who have already left earth.  All meeting at the epicenter that is God. 

I also viewed them as veins, our lives united by the well of blood that is Christ's that was spilled.  Veins, life giving, providing for the entire body.

Then, a few layers of paint in, I began noticing the violent nature of the center and how each scratch has so much energy as it shoots outward from the center.  Outward, that was surely different from the previous interpretations.  The more I looked at it, though, the more it looked like the aftermath of a great impact.  I began thinking of the word impact.  Christ's impact on humanity surely had some force behind it, maybe this was a representation of His impact upon coming to earth.  Then the scratches would be those sent out by his impact, not cast out, but sent; sent out on missions to bring people back to Him.  Bring people back?  If this is a site of impact, how is the act of bringing people back portrayed in this piece?  This caused another change.

As I was checking to see if the last coat was dry, I held the piece vertically to see if the paint scraps would remain on the block.  As I looked down the face of the piece, I was taken aback.  The landscape had totally changed!  It was vast!  It was intricate! An entire nation appeared before my eyes!  It was a densely populated city with countless tributaries feeding the central hub!  The scratches became roads on which people could enter the city and its inhabitants could be sent out to reach the outside world.  A system of imports and exports! A necessity for a city to thrive!  And the paint scraps, they were the people!  They were the cars, they were the buildings and they were the people!  Countless in number, all on the move!  And with my desk lamp casting golden light and long shadows over this kingdom, it looked as though dawn had just broke!   

This is what I mean when I mention the paint scraps.  This picture doesn't do it justice.  You will just have to see it in person.