INTRODUCTION: 

Vision is ultimately about learning how to see. I wonder how often we fail to see a God who is always near and present. Have we the ability to discern him in all things? Have we seen him in the goodness? Or have we seen him in the difficulty? Do we see him in the things we possess? Or do we see him in what we place before our eyes? Because he is worth being seen. The vision we have a Jesus is the beginning of how we start towards flourishing. You must see him to follow him. 

But what do we do when we can’t see? How do we handle it when things are obscure? When vision is difficult, what is my default? Too often our default for vision is to attain it and to work harder for clarity, instead of affirming what we see even if it isn’t understood. It’s probably more often the way of Jesus via parables and random insights about the Kingdom to be obscure than it’s some crystalline clear perspective. His desire in parables and sideline conversations about himself and life is to invite us in to a further, deeper reality than what we just understand. Some might even say that true vision calls us into mystery. 

The mystery of God’s ways and nature requires the constant reception of life. We receive vision through mystery. We don’t always know, but we do always see. Help us Lord, to seek vision first before answers. And a good way to see and not understand is through the power of creativity or art. The mind of the artist is to create and invite; but not always to explain. We need this approach when receiving vision - see without understanding.

WEEK 3: VISION FROM CREATIVITY

This week, we want to practice the art of awareness through: Vision from Creativity. This vision from creativity is going to come from viewing three pieces of artwork. As we look at these three unique pieces of art, we ought to ask ourselves - what vision are these artists bringing to the forefront of our minds as we view them. This is helping us to see things in mystery and not just in certainty. 

The Vision Activation directions are below: (Note: This can be done individually or together with family & friends)

1. Pray for eyes to see. 

2. Take a look at the three art pieces below. Take about 5 minutes to notice what you observe. 

3. Ask the core questions:

   1. Why did you notice that? 

   2. What does it mean to you? 

   3. How might it be revealing Jesus or his ways to you? 

4. Check out what these pictures are about and the brief bios of the artist and their descriptions. 

Week 3 - Vision from Creativity

(Art Pieces & Background Info) 

**Note: We were intentional in choosing these famous artist’s pieces on trees as we have been focusing on Psalm 1 and it’s vision of being like a tree.  We are aware that these artists are not overtly Christian, but we used them because we wanted to seek for vision outside of our comfort zones of Christian bubbles. Art is all about cultivating an appreciation for the good, the lovely, and the beautiful, which we see in all of these pictures.

Gustav Klimt - The Tree of Life 

The Tree of life is an important symbol used by many theologies, philosophies and mythologies. It signifies the connection between heaven and earth and the underworld, and the same concept is illustrated by Gustav Klimt's famous mural, The Tree of Life. For Klimt's admirers, the mural also has another significance, being the only landscape created by the artist during his golden period. Klimt used oil painting techniques with gold paint, to create luxurious art pieces, during that time.

The concept of the tree of life is illustrated by Gustav Klimt's painting, in a bold and original manner. The swirling branches create mythical symbolism, suggesting the perpetuity of life. The branches twist, twirl, turn, spiral and undulate, creating a tangle of strong branches, long vines and fragile threads, an expression of life's complexity. With its branches reaching for the sky, the tree of life roots into the earth beneath, creating the connection between heaven and earth, a concept often used to explain the concept of the tree of life, in many cultures, religions and ideologies. The tree of life illustrated by Klimt also creates another connection, with the underworld, signifying the final determinism governing over any living thing, that is born, grows, and then returns back into the earth.

While many talk about the symbol of unity in Gustav Klimt' The Tree of Life, there are others that consider it an expression of masculine and feminine. From this different union, life is born, and the tree of life, as well.

Others say that the painting symbolizes the union between man's greatest virtues, which are strength, wisdom and beauty. The tree reaching for the sky is a symbol of man's perpetual yearning for becoming more, yet his roots are still bound to the earth.

One of the important qualities of The Tree of Life is that it challenges the viewer to spend more time admiring the painting, while gauging all its meanings. While the artist uses a richness of symbols, gold for paint and other luxurious techniques to illustrate a magical world, the presence of a single black bird draws the viewer towards the central part of the painting. The black bird is a reminder that everything that has a beginning also has an end, as black birds have been used as a symbol of death by many cultures.

Vincent Van Gogh - Wheat Field with Cypresses 

A Wheatfield with Cypresses is any of three similar 1889 oil paintings by Vincent van Gogh, as part of his wheat field series. All were exhibited at the Saint-Paul-de-Mausole mental asylum at Saint-Rémy near Arles, France, where Van Gogh was voluntarily a patient from May 1889 to May 1890. The works were inspired by the view from the window at the asylum towards the Alpilles mountains.

The painting depicts golden fields of ripe wheat, a dark fastigiate Provençal cypress towering like a green obelisk to the right and lighter green olive trees in the middle distance, with hills and mountains visible behind, and white clouds swirling in an azure sky above. The first version (F717) was painted in late June or early July 1889, during a period of frantic painting and shortly after Van Gogh completed The Starry Night, at a time when he was fascinated by the cypress. It is likely to have been painted "en plein air", near the subject, when Van Gogh was able to leave the precincts of the asylum. Van Gogh regarded this work as one of his best summer paintings. In a letter to his brother, Theo, written on 2 July 1889, Vincent described the painting: "I have a canvas of cypresses with some ears of wheat, some poppies, a blue sky like a piece of Scotch plaid; the former painted with a thick impasto like the Monticelli's, and the wheat field in the sun, which represents the extreme heat, very thick too."

Van Gogh had to take time off painting in order to deal with some severe problems due to mental illness in late July and early August, but was able to resume painting in late August and early September 1889. After making a reed-pen drawing of the work, now held by the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, he copied the composition twice in oils in his studio, one approximately the same size (F615) and a smaller version (F743). The larger studio version was probably painted in a single sitting, with a few minor later adjustments adding touches of yellow and brown. Van Gogh sketched out the design with charcoal underdrawing; he applied thin paint on the cypress trees and sky, with the ground allowed to show in places, and thick impasto for the foreground wheat and the clouds above. Characteristically, he preferred the brilliant white of zinc white (zinc oxide) for the white clouds rather than lead white, despite its poor drying qualities, with his palette also including cobalt blue for the sky, shades of chrome yellow for the wheat field, viridian and emerald green for the bushes and cypresses, and touches of vermilion for the poppies in the foreground and also synthetic ultramarine. The July "plein air" version was much more heavily worked, and may be considered a study for the more considered September studio painting. He sent the smaller and less accomplished studio version to his mother and sister as a gift.

Vincent sent the larger July and September versions to his brother in Paris later in September 1889. The July version was sold by Theo's widow in 1900 to artist Émile Schuffenecker. It passed through the hands of collector Alexandre Berthier and art dealer Paul Cassirer in Paris, where it was first exhibited and photographed at Galerie Eugène Druet in November 1909. It was sold to banker Franz von Mendelssohn (1865–1935) in Berlin in 1910 and remained with the Mendelssohn family in Germany and Switzerland until it was sold to industrialist Emil Bührle in Zurich in 1952. His son, Dieter Bührle, sold the painting in 1993 to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York for $57 million using funds donated by publisher, diplomat and philanthropist Walter Annenberg.

The National Gallery in London holds a similar version painted in Van Gogh's studio in September 1889, bought with the Courtauld Fund in 1923. It is unlined, and was never varnished or waxed. The third smaller version is held by a private collection (sold at Sotheby's in London in 1970; in the US in 1987).

Katsushika Hokusai - Mishima Pass in Kai Province (Kōshū Mishima goe), from the series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji (Fugaku sanjūrokkei) (ca. 1830–32)

Mishima Pass is in a mountainous area to the north of Mount Fuji, near the border of the former provinces of Kai and Suruga. A towering cypress is embraced by travelers who express their exuberance and triumph at reaching the ancient tree. Even Mount Fuji in the distance is dwarfed by the monumental tree. The contrast of the small human figures and the giant natural forms reveals Hokusai's empathy with the travelers.

The print Mishima Pass in Kai Province was produced in ca. 1830-1832 during the Edo period of between 1615 and 1868 in Japan. It was printed on a Polychrome woodblock print; ink and color on paper with dimensions of 9 3/4 × 14 3/4 in. and classified as a print. Expressing their exuberance and triumph in the print Mishima Pass in Kai Province, Hokusai, depicted joyous three travellers who had reached the ancient site of the cryptomeria tree and embrace its enormous trunk. ven Mount Fuji in the distance is dwarfed by the monumental tree. The contrast of the small human figures and the giant natural forms reveals Hokusai's empathy with the travelers.

Mishima Pass is believed to be around the present Kagosaka Pass. The rugged bark of the trees expresses the fact that it was an old monumental tree. Mount Fuji is seen on the solid clouds on the heads and lower sides. The Ukiyo-e style on this woodblock has employed the gradation of three colours in an artistic manner. In his later postscripts Hokusai believed that he could have done better in the art to the extent of bringing to life the images he painted with his brush strokes, if he could have lived up to the age of 150-years-old.

Thirty-six Views of Mt. Fuji feature many different images of the mountain, in a variety of seasonal conditions. Through these images, Hokusai expresses the power of nature, and, in doing so, questions the relationship of man to the natural world.