[Read Part 7]
As you read this I will be in Japan, meeting with leaders and creatives to assess the situation there. I’ll correspond about the ongoing efforts, as well as future possibilities, on my Twitter/Facebook, and www.begenerative.org.
Many viewers of the Four Holy Gospels project inquire about the illuminations’ origins. Tim Keller stated at the opening of the Four Holy Gospels exhibit at Dillon Gallery in NYC:
"According to Christian theology, the Illuminator is the Holy Spirit, and therefore I believe from what I can see that the Illuminator has illumined the illuminator of the illuminated bible, and will continue to illuminate through both the images and the words" (hear Keller’s whole message).
Prior Illumination
In other words, my heart had to first be illumined by the Word of God before I can illumine the text. As I did that, I realized that the illuminating process is a generative process that begins and ends with the text, along with multiple refractive touch points. Illumination should work for the viewer as a "one-to-many, and then many-to-one" process, where there can be multiple entry points for the viewer to engage with the text. Therefore these images work as a catalyst for engagement for those looking at the Four Holy Gospels.
What I find fascinating is that I find this this "one-to-many" process in the Scriptures. For instance, in Matthew 13-14 Jesus tells the disciples what his parables mean by using multiple metaphorical layers. He compares the kingdom of heaven to a "treasure hidden in the field," (v. 44) "a merchant in search of fine pearls," (v. 45) as well as "like a net that was thrown into the sea" (v. 18). As I meditated on these verses, I began taking an imaginative journey to know what it is like to be in a hunt for a treasure, or to look for fine pearls as a merchant, or even what it feels to be out fishing with nets.
I began working on the page with the last metaphor with the net in mind. I started drawing a net-like pattern with pulverized white malachite and azurite, as well as gold and earth pigments. I wanted the net to be full as in the parable—but instead of fish, it is here filled with God's Word.
Images Implicit, Not Explicit
Often in these pages, instead of painting in an explicit, one-to-one way, I intentionally leave the images implicit, so that the viewer can "fill them" with their imaginative capacities. I wanted to take the viewer on a journey similar to what the disciples must have gone through to jump from one metaphor to another. So after the net image was drawn, I let my hands keep moving to more of the roots pattern (which continues from the previous pages), and into Chapter 14, where the daughter of Herodias asks for the head of John the Baptist. There, the roots turn vermillion, a pattern more like a snake's split tongue. These lines can have multiple metaphors, entry points and interpretations, and became a visual language that is woven throughout the project.
— Four Holy Gospels is for sale at our online store.
Makoto Fujimura is an artist, writer, and founder of International Arts Movement. He has had over 100 exhibits worldwide, and from 2003-2009 was Presidentially appointed to the National Council on the Arts. An ordained elder (on sabbatical) at Redeemer Presbyterian Church, Mako and his wife, Judy, raised their three children in lower Manhattan.
