Early to Bed, Early to Rise

Healthy, Wealthy, and Foolish

We rise, we step into our masks. We gain wealth, we gain acceptance. We leave our masks on. We worship our masks, we live for them. We finish a day, we pull off our mask. We are disgusted with who we are and who we claim to be, and why we choose for the mask that can so quickly become our reality.

Is honesty truly that terrifying? 

I, Me, and Myself

Niños

Children are art. They are God's gift to a lonely, broken world. I would more often than not associate myself with a child. My hopes, my dreams, my heart, my actions, my attitude are all very childlike. Growing up is a blessing and a curse. We are hit with almost too many doses of reality in a very short amount of time that the world we live in is fallen. But as we grow, we also mature into the spiritual character that God calls us into. So it cannot be definitively labeled as either positive or negative, but nevertheless is both at times. 


Children are beautiful.  They reveal the beauty of the earth, they are always in wonder of the created world, and they see in ways that our adult, glazed-over eyes cannot. Children are able to easily find beauty in a world that we adults too quickly pass off as ugly and riddled with pain.  They let us see through them. I never want to lose my wonder, my amazement, my playfulness, my child. This is my true self: a child. I want to be like a child and be blindly trusting. I want to love, to live, to see. To be a gift to others, but also be gifted by the lens through which I view the world.  I do not want to be blissfully ignorant of the problems of the world, but want to retain child-like nature through the harsh realities we must face every day. This picture is a beautiful juxtaposition of these two concepts: being aware of reality, but retaining childhood. The world is not a beautiful place, yet we as children of the King must continue to find beauty in the gift of life we are given every day.

Scape of the Land

Permanence: Frailty

It is striking to me that we as humans continue forcing our existence on something that is much more permanent than our race will ever be. Our society is an earthwork, developed by technology and time, built from the very thing on which we live. In this sense, we are artists: sculptors, painters, creators. But we must recall that we are much less than the Creator, and that our creations will be outlasted by his Creation. This landscape shows the decrepit creation of man against the forces of nature and time, along with the brevity of humanity's existence as seen in the translucence of the figure in the foreground.

Motion is crucial in this picture. The light from a car passing by, reflecting on the moving figure is not the only motion that should be given attention to in this picture. There is motion, much more slow, more methodical, of nature overcoming our creation. The building is falling apart, and nature is unwavering.

My earthwork pictures are opposite of this picture. We created a maypole, a creation of man that celebrates life, and this picture creates a brevity of existence. Impermanence. The creation of man shall not last. Both are created, and both created by the earth and those on the earth, so in that sense they share similarity. Conceptually they differ immensely.

Portraits of Natalya Rodriguez: Real vs. Ideal

REAL

VERSUS

IDEAL

Underneath

Masked Madness

Le Masque

Masks are used, intentionally or not, for many situations and occasions. Festivals of renewal, rites of passage, gender, offense and defense, and theater, among others are some of the most popular uses. In the movie our group made, we addressed masks mainly theatrically, but in other ways as well.

As seen in the movie, there are several visual hints as to what we are trying to get at: an improv poster, a mask that is Pinnochio-esque, and an empty room. All of these elements contribute to the sense that we use masks theatrically-as a coverup- of who we really are. This is a tragic happenstance, but a regular one nonetheless. We are all guilty of wearing masks. We all hide from others, and even ourselves. It can't be avoided.

The girl wearing Wheaton clothes in the movie represents repression, ideology, and cultural tension. All of these are found easily at Wheaton. Repression of personality/individuality, the ideology that we need to be someone else, and the cultural tension between being who you really are and conforming to the cultural standards of who you think people want you to be. The clothes themselves can be a mask, because if you're wearing Wheaton clothes, people will associate you with a good school where no one does anything wrong, besides constantly deceive every person around them. But no one knows that they do because they are deceiving themselves. Would it really be good if everyone was always who they were? What would the world be like if we all were honest. I think we'd all be disappointed daily, if not by the minute.

The empty room in the movie to me is also significant, insofar as when you are wearing your mask, it is a lonely place. You don't feel known, you don't feel accepted, you don't feel wanted, desired, enjoyed, or even cared for. But this is the mask-wearers fault for isolating themselves so. The nose of Pinnochio on the mask gives away the defensive nature of a mask, because even though you are presenting something other than what you are, your mask can still be seen as a lie. This is not always true, because the more you wear your mask, the more adept you become at keeping it on and disguising it to not only others around you but also to yourself.

Our improvisation of life with a mask on becomes reality if gone unchecked.  Are we actually living as who we claim to be? Or are we acting?  Words must match action.

Got Sentimental?

But seriously...

I don't really know how you can be a Christian, look at this picture, and not think of God. It is Christian sentimentality at its best, and quite honestly, even though it accomplishes its purpose, I can't stand how it is nonetheless a portrayal of God. Should it be what makes us think of God, and can we wrap him up into a nicely composed, graphically appealing picture? I think we should already be careful with how we portray God, and to put him into sentimental, everyday, easily mistaken for a water ad-type picture is just a big mistake. He is so far beyond this, and anything we could try to smash his immeasurable character into with our human ambition.

I guess I have realized that in completing this assignment, that I failed in almost every way trying to portray God as the deity he is. As he should be. As I imagine him. God is so much more of a concept than this sentimental, emotionally charged photograph that I produced. I am bothered by how cliche it is, and how it doesn't do for me what it should. Granted it might cause the correct emotional response from other viewers and other people at different points in their respective lives, but it failed me at this point in mine. Every other picture I chose to speak of on my blog exhibit our God as a powerful, expansive reality and sadly, my picture encapsulates all to swiftly the character of something that should never be encapsulated.

Post-Modern Religiosity

“Eleanor and Barbara, Lake Michigan, 1953″

Harry Callahan did several studies on intimacy with his wife Eleanor, and the relationship between her body and various surroundings, and also attempts to manipulate space in order to further investigate the issue.  He took many photographs of her through their married life, and a various locations to show the environment engulfing her figure.  This picture of her at Lake Michigan completely eclipses her figure against the immensity of nature and her surroundings.

The immensity and grandeur of God's character is overwhelmingly apparent in this picture.  The infinitesimal portrayal of the human figure as compared to the overbearing emptiness and vacuity of the surroundings is stark and why this picture reminds me of God.  We are but a breath, he is eternal. We are but a speck in the universe, but God is the creator of the universe in which we will exist and disappear in but a fleeting second.

This image is true, however, because even though we are such a small part of the universe, we are a part of it nonetheless. God's creation is massive and eternal, mirroring his character. He is Lord over all, and in order to be such he must be larger than what he created. At least I believe that in order to be the Lord of the created, he must be equal to or greater than it.  His character is true, his character is large, his creation is large, he is large, he is Lord.

JESUSMANGODFRIENDKINGLORDHALLELUJAHAMEN

"Look upon these with favorable

and gracious countenance and accept them,

as you accepted the gifts of your just servant Abel

and the sacrifice of our Patriarch Abraham

and that which your High Priest Melchizedek

offered to you, a holy sacrifice, an unspotted victim."

The prayer above has been recited during the Eucharist of the San Vitale Basilica in Ravenna, Italy since its consecration by the Archbishop of Ravenna in 548 A.D. This image historically has been used contemplatively in manner. Only one small, yet crucial part of the mosaic, the figure of Christ is centered, receiving offerings from many, Melchizedek and Abel included. The image was positioned above and behind the high altar with the intention of meditation on the sacrifice of Christ, specifically with visual references to the Last Supper: the first Communion.

This image is Christ. The first and only sacrifice from God for all of humanity. Yes, he was fully man, but Jesus Christ is a triune God, and Lord of all Creation. How do you view God? As a supreme ruler, or as a friend? It should not necessarily be an either/or situation, but a question that many have asked or been asked nonetheless. I answer this differently depending on where I am in life, and frankly, right now God is King; although, much of life I would have answered the opposite. Even though this picture is a holy representation of Christ and centralizes much more around his divinity rather than humanity, he is still man. It is a deified image of Christ, the one in the trinity who I most often refer to as my friend at those times in my life, but I find this image compelling because it presents Jesus as King in my eyes, rather than Jesus as man.

All of my ramblings taken into account, yes, this image is true. Much more true now to me that it might be at other times in my life, but true nevertheless. Is it true to you? Potentially... That's for you to decide.

From Dust

From Dust

"In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread,

till thou return unto the ground;

for out of it wast thou taken:

for dust thou art,

and unto dust shalt thou return."

I'm constantly stricken by the temporal nature of existence.

We live, we breathe, we move, we touch, but nothing is permanent.

How do we deal with the fact that life goes on when we are gone?

How do we reckon with the truth that there is eternal and our lives

are but a blink of the eye of time?

We can sense eternity, and other concepts outside of ourselves,

yet we are bound by space and time even though we reach for more.

We came from dust, were instilled with a sense of eternity,

and will once again return to the dust from which we came.

Should we bury this paradox? Should be beleaguer

over this contradiction? We can long for eternity,

but we must not forget our human lives will end.

We are made for more, and this is not where

and who we're intended to be.