Exploring Truth

Exploring truth can take different forms: one person may enter into an academic pursuit to exercise the boundaries of the mind; another may write, exploring a concept as they pen words to paper; yet another may dialog by using the power of conversation to form and mold those truths. We probably all enter into a multitude of ways to deepen our understanding of truth. One of the ways I love to explore truth is through the process of visual representation. As I paint or draw I contemplate the subject in front of me. I find my heart, spirit, and mind open to the truth and understanding that God wants to give to me, and I find myself delighting in His goodness. 

Recently, I have been imagining several ideas I want to paint as entry points to deepen my understanding. One of which has been stirring in me since I worked through some academic drawing exercises from the Charles Bargue Drawing Course. Using a pencil to form hands on paper resulted in my awe at the beauty of these complicated, elegant, strong, tender end points of our arms. 

I studied the intricacy of the bones, sinews, and muscles overlaid with skin. I observed the form, the shadows, and the emotion that a hand can convey. 

And with that knowledge of just how beautiful hands can be, my mind has been replaying the first century scene where Jesus breaks the bread. I see his hands calloused from the hard work of carpentry. I see hands that prepare to receive the nails that would bind him to our sin to pay the price. I imagine those most beautiful hands tenderly breaking the bread as a symbol and as an act of remembrance. 

I have grappled with the concept of communion for a long time. I know that there are depths to be plumbed, a love to be understood, that still escapes me. I pray for that understanding to be revealed and I want to enter in deeper. By painting his hands breaking the bread, I will explore the myriad of colors on Christ's shadowed wrists, the bent knuckles, and the torn loaf. I want to know his love that set his gaze resolutely on the cross. That is the truth I want to explore with the bristles of a brush.