Heretical Paintings:
Meister Eckhart's Spirituality 1999-2001
Meister Eckhart, 14th-century Dominican monk and mystic, advocated a far-sweeping spirituality, one echoing (and perhaps influenced by) the Buddhists and Sufis. Eschewing the necessity of organized worship, Eckhart proposed that man could attain a personal relationship with God, bypassing the church hierarchy and communing directly with the divine. Indeed, Eckhart's open-minded legacy bears little resemblance to the heavy-handed doctrine of the medieval Church.
Apparently, the church elders felt so as well. Eckhart was summoned to the papal court in Avignon and spent his final days defending himself against charges of heresy. On March 27, 1329, Pope John XXII posthumously declared Meister Eckhart a heretic.
This series of paintings captures the intent and spiritual passion of Meister Eckhart's mysticism. Working on raw and pitted wood, I created images that address specific aspects of the Master's message. Echoes of Christian symbolism – the wood; the reoccurrence of trinities of corresponding images – interact with surprising and unknown forms. These images echo Eckhart's beautiful messages.
Ultimately, these paintings are steeped in the belief that ecstatic mysticism of the sort that Meister Eckhart proposes is an emotional experience. Based in specific Eckhart sayings, the paintings are deeply emotional expressions, with rich color and swimming images interacting to produce a visceral response. By using recovered trash-wood as a support upon which to base the meditations, I have addressed Eckhart's ultimate conundrum: How we can learn to see God in even the basest of human experience.
Angel Flea
oil on wood, 40” x 39”, 2000 SOLD
A flea, to the extent that it is in God (and it is!), ranks above the highest angel in its own right. Thus, in God all things are equal and are God itself.
Delicious Temptation
oil on wood, 40" x 39", 2000 SOLD
It is not being tempted to sin that is sinful, but consenting to sin. The weaker one is, the more he or she is warned to strength and self conquest; for virtue, like vice, is a matter of the will.
Even a Stone
oil on wood, 28” x 32”, 2000 SOLD
Even a stone has love - for the ground!
God Enjoys Itself
oil on wood, 38” x 39”, 2000 $4000
God enjoys itself. God's own inner enjoyment is such that it includes God's enjoyment of all creatures not as creatures, but as God.
The Hindrance of Time and Space
oil on wood, 25” x 41”, 2000 $2500
Nothing hinders the soul's knowledge of God as much as time and space, for time and space are fragments and God is one!
The Humility of Acceptance
oil on wood, 44” x 39”, 2000 SOLD
I much prefer a person who can love God enough to take a handout of bread, to a person who can write a check for charity. The giver is glad to be so good-natured and is proud of it, but the taker has to subdue his feelings and despise his status.
The Loneliness of Ritual
oil on wood, 41” x 44”, 2000 $4500
To seek God by ritual is to get the ritual and lose God in the process, for God hides behind it.
The Necessity of Service
oil on wood, 32” x 30”, 2000 $2500
No person in this life may reach the point at which he or she can be excused
from outward service. Even if he or she is given to a life of contemplation,
still they cannot refrain from going out and taking an active part in life.
Stillness Painting
oil on wood, 33” x 33”, 2000 SOLD
Nothing in creation is so like God as stillness; it is in the stillness, in the silence that the word of God is to be heard.
Stolen Grace
oil on wood, 28” x 34”, 2000 $2500
We should continue not to need to pray to God, asking for God's grace and divine goodness, but we should take it without asking.