May 20, 2010— Today is my birthday.
It’s appropriate that I begin this project on my birthday because my birthday was never just about me. If my father, Hendrik, were alive, he would have telephoned to wish me a Happy Birthday and to remind me, as he had every birthday of my life, that this is also the anniversary of our family’s immigration. I was one year old when we immigrated from The Netherlands to Canada. This is significant to me because it means that I was born in Holland and it means that I traveled at a very young age. I love traveling, but I digress.
My family was deeply religious which is not the same as being deeply Christian. The Christian part came later for some of us but, sadly, not all of us. In our home, my father read the Bible aloud every day after breakfast and dinner. Until I was 10, he read in Dutch. When my older sister began to date the dashing Antonio, my Dad began to read it in English. My parents also read newspapers religiously.
As recent immigrants, it was important for our family to make sense of a new world by engaging in current events, either by watching or listening to the news or reading the daily paper. This makes me think of a quote by the
German theologian, Karl Barth, (May 10, 1886 -
Dec 10, 1968) who advised young theologians to “take your Bible and take your newspaper, and read both. But interpret newspapers from your Bible." Read more at http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,873557,00.html.I worked in the newspaper industry for part of my career as a graphic designer and art director, I loved the newsroom, the genuine camaraderie, and the deadlines and debates among journalists, mostly about angles and perspectives of stories. Barth says that “Journalists form public opinion. They hold terribly important positions.”
It seems that only certain people get to tell public stories, and they do so from only one perspective? But where does their perspective come from? Is it important to the people who read or see or hear the stories to know? Or can each audience's, each person's perspective on life be be what discerns a story told?
Lately, I’ve been doing much thinking about what it means to be culturally aware, or to make culture. “Banished to Culture” is a recent painting that explores the idea of being banished by God from the garden. We go out and create new things out of what is there already, doing it all because of Christ who redeemed this chaos.
Okay, so what does this have to do with my project? Simply this—I plan to commit myself to do what Barth suggests. I intend to read the newspaper and the Bible everyday and interpret what I read in the form of drawings and paintings, angles and perspectives. I plan to create a collection of sketches and draw parallels to what I read in each. From these sketches I hope to produce paintings that encompass the things that I've learned. This project has much potential and I’m excited by the yet unknown and endless possibilities for growth.
