Lent Day 23: An Artist's Reflection

Perceiving What I Have Received, by Debra Fehsendfelt

This piece of symbolic art suggests a way of coming, seeing, and knowing. Perceiving What I Have Received was inspired by Exodus 20, Psalm 19, John 2, & Romans 7.

Notice that the central activity in this painting is the activity of God with the human person (gold wheels = vital activity of the Breath of God), but not only with the human person. Divine activity (every hint of gold) connects every element and extends into and beyond the suggested heights and depths. 

The book/written word of God is also positioned in a central location, though in the lower half of the painting because the written word is a creation of man, inspired by God. The written word enables perception (suggested by the flow of gold [Divine action] from the pages of the book through the human being) and stability (gravity/ intact ground on which to stand...suggesting that beyond the word of God is zero gravity/ space). 

We do not see the person’s face, the person’s feet or the person’s hands. This suggests that our attention is not intended to rest on the person as the principle subject of the painting. But we are led to wonder: why is this person’s back turned toward us? Toward what or whom is this person turned? And why are her/his hands and feet not manifest in this painting?

We are to notice what the person is noticing. Fed by the word of God, this person is simultaneously and perceptively reading another book...the Book of Nature, that which God has created (the earth is represented as half sun/half moon, with aspects of nature and the change of seasons depicted in the colors and elements, as well as the sky beyond the earth, representing all that is invisible and unknown, yet also created). The person brings nothing of his/her own making to this process (thus, no hands or feet); it is presently hers/his only to receive and perceive. It is all gift. 

The colors of the painting are colors of raw nature...except for the gold. To find gold like this in nature, one must search with intention and perception. It is there, but it is on the side of a buried rock or where the light hits the ice just right. When discovered, it is magnificent. 

The person’s clothing symbolizes one who lives both within (green) and beyond (yellow) the visible, known world. Gold is woven through the green and the yellow.

The children of Israel in Exodus, David in the psalm, the disciples in John, Paul in Romans...they are all seeking sense in what they experience. They must reach back in their memories and perceive what it is they have received. This requires coming, turning toward the One who transforms and enables the human senses to perceive “Gold” in every nook and cranny of lived experience. 

Of joyous note — the subtle hint of darkness (black lines) being overrun by the flow of gold, both within the person and without. This is most evident with a closer look at the gold wheels. They appear to be pushing back darkness and misperception. Each is surrounded by a band of darker gold, outlined with a fine line of black...as if the black is shrinking and will soon be altogether obliterated.