river of healing revisted

This is a pair of images I first showed some time ago as they appear in my journal, and now they're finally finished. They form a diptych, or two images that are considered one piece, and they actually have elements that run from one image to the next.





They were inspired by Ezekiel 47:7 & 9, "When I returned, I was surprised by the sight of many trees growing on both sides of the river... There will be swarms of living things wherever the water of this river flows... Life will flourish wherever this water flows." All this from a vision Ezekiel was having of heaven. Of course, we are also told about the river of life in heaven in Revelation 22:2, "It flowed down the center of the main street. On each side of the river grew a tree of life... the leaves were used for medicine to heal the nations." So the vision of John is different but certainly has commonalities with Ezekiel's vision.

The overlay images I used for this piece are actually maps of the rivers that flowed around Eden, or at least an interpretation of where they could have been, since Eden's exact location was lost to us when Adam & Eve sinned. It's thrilling to think that Paradise lost will become Paradise restored when Heaven is at last brought down to earth, which is what the maps signify in this piece.

I've continued that concept in the next piece I've finished, which I'll try to post tomorrow.

a warning & reminder

"You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone adorned you: ruby, topaz and emerald, chrysolite, onyx and jasper, sapphire, turquiose and beryl. Your setting and mounting were made of gold; on the day you were created they were prepared. You were annointed as a guardian cherub, for so I ordained you. You were on the holy mount of God; you walked among the fiery stones. You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created fill wickedness was found in you. Through your widespread trade you were filled with violence and you sinned. So I drove you in disgrace from the mount of God, I expelled you, O guardian cherub, from among the fiery stones. Your heart became proud on account of your beauty, and you corrupted your wisdom because of your splendor. So I threw you to the earth; I made you a spectacle of you before kings." Ezekiel 28: 14-16

This is the scene, set in Eden and heaven, that describes Satan being thrown out of heaven, giving us some background and understanding for Jared Konopitski's piece, "The Devil's Trickery", inspired by 2 Corinthians 11:14, which says, "Even Satan can disguise himself as an 'angel of light.'"

While this piece isn't strictly a vision of heaven, it certainly peeks into the workings of heaven and the invisible spiritual realm. Jared describes this colored pencil work as "more of warning and a reminder. Sometimes what seems like heaven may just be a devilish trick." Jared also reminds us to make sure things agree with scripture before taking it as heaven sent. While the message could be sent harshly, Jared's style softens the blow and makes this an approachable subject - even allowing us to laugh a little - yet maintains a somewhat sinister edge in his depiction of Satan.

Wait until you see what he has up his sleeve next - I mean Jared, not Satan -

heavenly homeland

Today I'll take you back to my personal journal work for this show, and the palm theme I've presented before. First, here is the layered image, as seen in my journal:


You can faintly see the map & then the image of palm trees underneath it. Also the last part of the scriptural reference, Hebrews 11: 13-16. "All these people died still believing what God has promised them. They did not receive what was promised, but they saw it all from a distance and welcomed it. They agreed that they were foreigners and nomads here on earth. Obviously people who say such things are looking forward to a country they can call their own. If they had longed for the country they came from, they could have gone back. But they were looking for a better place, a heavenly homeland. That is why God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them."

The people referred to in this passage were many of the faithful from the Old Testament, including Noah, Abraham, and then Moses, Rahab, David and many others. The map overlay I used for this came from a map of Jerusalem in 1947.


I did this to tie together the homeland of the ancient Jews, the modern land and then the future homeland referred to in the scripture. There are many references in the Old Testament to the land of Israel being God's permanent home. Leviticus 26:11 & 12 says, "I will live among you, and I will not despise you. I will walk among you; I will be your God, and you will be my people." And in Zechariah 2:10, "The Lord says, 'Shout and rejoice, O beautiful Jerusalem, for I am coming to live among you.'" The concept is a recurring theme among many of the minor prophets.

Finally, I place this all over one of my images of palm trees.


Palm trees can be a symbol for Israel itself, for the tree of life, and they also decorate the true temple, as I've noted before - check out Ezekiel 40 & 41 for yourself.

final book installment

Finally, I'll share a couple more images from my "Visions of Heaven" altered book. This first image shows another Polaroid transfer image of an almond orchard here in Northern California. I happen to love almonds & my family owned an almond ranch once upon a time, so it sort of speaks a bit of the concept of home for me as well. I used it to illustrate the verse, "Fruit trees of all kinds will grow along both sides of the river, the leaves of these trees will never turn brown and fall, and there will always be fruit on their branches." (Revelation 22:12) The river mentioned is the River of Life, also referred to in my final inscription, opposite the "hole" in my altered book.

When the flaps covering the final recessed section of the book are opened, it reveals a triptych of hand colored Polaroid transfers of a river scene. The scripture across the page comes from Ezekiel 47, verses 7 and 9, "I was surprised by the sight of many trees growing on both sides of the river... There will be swarms of living things wherever the water of this river flows... life will flourish wherever this water flows." Which explains the fruit trees always fruiting...

back to visions

Nearly a month has passed since I've posted here, but that's not to say that work hasn't been getting done... I have been pretty busy on a particular piece that I'll share bit by bit, an altered book titled, "Visions of Heaven." For those unfamiliar with the medium, an altered book is literally a standard published book that has been altered, or changed, into a work of art. Altered books can be written and drawn in, painted, collaged, even cut and glued to express the artist's intent. It's a medium I don't emply often, but it works well with photography, as I can incorporate my images into the book form - something many photographic artists do.

The first detail of the book that I'm sharing is the palm trees that I've added to most pages of the book. This is a recurrance of my palm tree facination, a reference to Ezekiel's tour of the true temple in heaven, which is adorned with carvings of palm trees (see Ezekiel 40.) (You should be able to see any image enlarged by clicking on it.)

The other detail that I'll share this time is the cover, which I have collaged onto with gold paper, a reference to Revelation 21:18, "The wall was made of jasper, and the (holy) city (of Jerusalem that descended out of heaven) was pure gold, as clear as glass." The other item collaged onto the cover is an actual Polaroid transfer of a cross, symbolizing that accepting Christ is the way into heaven, as in Romans 6:23. "For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord." Thank you, Jesus!

river of healing

As part of my working on this project, I find myself pouring over my Visions of Heaven journal. This helps me to remember ideas I've had and things I want to shoot, or things I need to print...

As a photographer, there is always a cache of negatives crying out to be printed, sometimes waiting for the right project, other times just waiting patiently for me to get my sorry behind into the darkroom! I've even made quick copies of what I want to print and paired them with scripture and ideas for this project, but other things have demanded my time first. Other shows booked, deadlines for juried events, classes, you name it. But I digress...




So this is a pair of images that I've decided I need to print up as a diptych, called the River of Healing, based on Ezekiel 47: 7 & 9, "When I returned, I was surprised by the sight on many trees growing on both sides of the river.... There will be swarms of living things wherever the water of this river flows... Life will fourish wherever this water flows." I'm back at Ezekiel's vision of heaven and this is his description of the River of Life that flows from the temple - that same one with the palm trees carved on the door posts.

I live in a town at the confluence of two rivers, the American and the Sacramento, and we can go to the edges of these rivers to enjoy the bounty of life there, especially along the American, where some time ago citizens had the foresight to preserve a large amount of wild space along the river. I've spent a fair amount of time shooting along the American, so it was pretty easy to find appropriately lush and wonderful river images to match with this bit of scripture. I'm fairly certain the final pieces will have the palm trees along the edges, but this gives an idea of how I think it will look when it's done.

(By the way, if you want to see this image or any other larger, just click on it.)

palm trees in heaven?

It all started during my regular cruise through the Bible. You know, that daily reading thing? Well, I just cruise through it, front to back, over and over again - eventually, anyway. So I just happened to be reading Ezekiel 40 one bright and sunny day and Ezekiel has this vision...

A guy who looks like bronze (no, really, like bronze) shows Ezekiel the temple area, first the east gate to the outer court, then the outer court, then the north gate, and so on. Mr. Bronze has a measuring stick and is measuring all these rooms for Ezekiel and Ezekiel dutifully tells us all the dimesions of these rooms. I'm thinking that this is an unusually slow day's worth of reading when I begin to notice something: each room is described in painfully measured detail, so long by so wide by so high, blah blah blah and then, "The doorjambs between the alcoves were decorated with palm trees." No really - boring measurements, then a little detail about decoration, the same decoration, six times over - go look it up for yourself.

The vision continues on through Ezekiel 41 and then in Ezekiel 43:7, "This is the place I will live with the Israelites forever." (That's God speaking.) I find this utterly facinating. God is showing Ezekiel his holy temple where he'll live forever, so that's on the New Earth, and he bothers to mention decorating the place with palm trees. Six times.

So being slightly obsessed with trees (you can see my Tree Stories blog by looking at my profile) I look up the significance of palm trees to Jews. I discover it has been a symbol of Judah and - drum roll, please - a symbol for the tree of life. The tree of life that was planted in Eden and is now in "the paradise of God" and will be alongside the river flowing out of the temple in the New Jerusalem. Pretty cool, huh?

I've decided to make the palm tree my own recurring theme for all my Heaven artwork, most likely always up the sides of my images, like the carvings on the temple doorposts. And no doubt, a few will show up in my photos, as they already have.