The Great Wave
/Image #11
Physical Inspiration: The Great Wave
Many hours of video footage scared me into making this erasing. It is 3.8ft. x 7ft. and one of the largest of the bunch.
The most recent Tsunami in Japan March 11, 2011 - At 2:46pm, a 9.0 magnitude earthquake took place 231 miles northeast of Tokyo, Japan, at a depth of 15.2 miles. The earthquake caused a tsunami with 30 ft waves that damaged an estimated 25 trillion yen or $300 billion and took many lives.
I've always been enamored with a wave image made by the Japanese artist Hokusai which was published sometime between 1830 and 1833 titled "The Great Wave off Kanagawa" (神奈川沖浪裏) or "In the well of a wave off Kanagawa", also known as The Great Wave or simply The Wave.
My wave confronts the viewer almost straight on, with a gentle strength and an impending power about to drop its force.
Spiritual Inspiration: Raging waves of the sea, foaming up their own shame; wandering stars for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever. Jude 1:13
Jude, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James wrote a letter to people of faith and reminded them that God saved them out of Eygpt but shortly there after, God destroyed those who did not believe. There are many examples of waves in the Bible; the wave of destruction, in the form judgement, that ran through Sodom and Gomorrah or when Mark and Luke recorded Jesus rebuking the wind and the waves saying, "Quiet! Be still!" and they were.
Jude's passage is difficult to contend with. For me it is much like reconciling why God allows natural disasters to occur because of the suffering that they cause. Waves both natural and spiritual can be seen as destructive and cleansing. But as the Psalmist says to God, "You rule the raging of the sea; When its waves rise, You still them".
May we learn to see the signs of life's impending waves as a warning that will ultimately bring forth a spiritual cleansing once we return our gaze toward God.
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Title: Observed and Recorded Permutation of The Holy Spirit - XII
40 inches x 82 inches-pastel erasing on dura-lar
Location: Bakersfield Museum of Art
Event: #OpeningReception Extended