river of life

I've been working on a new series of assemblage artworks that explore the concept of home - for me, I can't really think about home without thinking of my final home, Heaven. I have these works on display in my studio at the Kennedy Gallery, and sometimes the discussion gets to all that a piece means, but often not, so I wanted to share these works in detail here.

This piece is titled "River of Life" which can have multiple meanings. I live and am from the Sacramento area and we live at the confluence of two major rivers. Indeed, rivers were the reason the town was built here and still are the genesis of our drinking water, the irrigation for the agriculture here and a popular recreation location. My home town wouldn't be what it is without it's rivers.

But of course, the River of Life is also present in heaven, and Christ is referred to as living water - my true home is the reality that my earthly home faintly copies and what is even better, is that heaven will come down to earth and the earth/home God has given us to love & care for will be restored to perfection. I can't begin to accurately express all that in a piece of artwork, but that's the direction I'm heading.

new visions

New versions of some of my original Visions of Heaven work, all three here are black & white photos collaged onto 8x8" canvas with mixed media.



"River of Life"



"My Father's House"



"City of God"

hope

I just finished a new piece titled "Hope." (You can click on the image to see it bigger.) Sometimes things seem very hard, but if we just look we'll see the hope shining through a situation. Hope is referred to many times in Scripture, and often is a direct reference to the knowledge that we will have eternal life with Christ in heaven - which when we really think about it, can really put things into perspective...

I'm thinking that this will start a new series for me, I really want to look forward a bit more. It's so easy to get caught in what we have to deal with now, and it can be hard to remember the hope we have to look forward to.

(You can see a little more about how this piece came to be on my Wanderings blog.)

quiet waters

I can't believe it has taken me so long to get back to this blog - but back again I am. This is work from another photographer in the group, Heather Montgomery, who joined us as we started our current "Creative Call" study. Heather's goal with her artwork is to capture the beauty she sees and to give glory to the God who created it all.

This black and white photo was inspired by Psalm 23:2,“He leads me beside quiet waters.” Heather says this about the work, "Here we see the beauty of God’s creation. The water is calm and relaxing which allows you to just be at peace and experience the closeness of God. If you just open your eyes, you will see that God’s beauty is all around us."

I think that sums it up pretty well.

grape vine "tree" updated

I recently got an email asking about the "vine tree" and I wanted to clarify some things about that, as well as share a "vine tree" image of my own. What I'm referring to isn't actually a tree, but a grape vine, as a botanical possibility of the tree of life.

There's alot more on the whole matter in the context of Jewish culture at Nehi's Tree of Life.



This is a new image of mine, not specifically intended to reflect an aspect of heaven, but does anyway, as my work usually does. Some time ago, I realized that all of my work illustrates my longing to be in perfect communion with God, like Adam and Eve had in the garden.

Sometimes when I'm working, especially shooting out in some quiet place all alone, I can almost be in that state, but it can be a hard thing for us to do now when we're on this currently imperfect earth. That's when I long for heaven to be brought down and the earth remade into something the same but more wonderful - and that's what always seems to come through in my work - at least when I've done it right...

mustard tree complete

As part of my catching up with all our visions, I've discovered I hadn't posted the completed Mustard Tree piece that I had first written about last July... of course, it was complete and on display for the show in December, but I'm just now getting it posted here. (As always, just click on the image to see it larger.)

This is also part of my Tree Stories series, and is titled Tree Story #30: The Mustard Tree. It was inspired by Matthew 13: 31-32, "The Kingdom of Heaven is like a mustard seed planted in a field. It is the smallest of all seeds, but it becomes the largest of garden plants; it grows into a tree, and birds come and make nests in its branches." (See also Luke 13:18-19.) You can see the whole explanation about the mustard tree on the previous post.

This piece is available as limited edition pigment prints:
8x10" (matted to 11x14") - $65
11x14" (matted to 16x20") - $125
16x20" (matted to 20x24") - $250
20x24" on 24x32" paper - $500
Just email me at judith@judithmonroe.com if you're interested.

process and the river of life

Today I'm going to take you through the process for one of my mixed media photographs, "River of Life." I'll actually show you the step by step process I've gone through in my artist's journal I've been keeping just for this project.

The first step was reading through the book "In Light of Eternity" by Randy Alcorn and looking up all the scriptural references that he cites in his book. This has been the basis for all of the artwork done by all of the artists over the course of this past year. There were actually a couple of pieces of scripture that inspired this particular piece. First, in Revelation 22:1, it says, "Then the angel showed me a river with the water of life, clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb."


One of the first things this scripture does is make me think of what river images I might already have, like this photo taken for no particular reason at the time but has been patiently waiting for me to print it. I made a digital copy to color and put in my journal, waiting for the next piece of the work to come together. You can see I also doodled some palm trees onto it, to see how I'd like to work in the palm tree element that I want to keep as a theme in this project.


Another verse helped influence this piece, Genesis 2:10-14, "A river watered the garden and then flowed out of Eden and divided into four branches. The first branch, called the Pishon, flowed around the entire land of Havilah, where gold is found... The second branch, called the Gihon, flowed around the entire land of Cush. The third branch, called the Tigris, flowed east of the land of Asshur. The fourth branch is called the Euphrates." I really like the link between maps of a place and the image of the place, and I've used maps for overlays before this project, so it wasn't a great stretch for me to think of a map of Eden's rivers to connect the River of Life in Heaven and the river that fed the whole earth from Eden, possibly even the same river? The thought intrigues me that there is a close link between Eden, referred to as Paradise in the Bible, and Heaven, also referred to as Paradise...


In my journal, I can overlap the photographic image and the map, to work out how the two will fit together in the darkroom, change it if I want to, mull it over, move it, or change it completely.


This is the black and white contact print, with the map and a single palm tree as an overlay. When you look at this image and the next one, you can see that the overlay can move around, making no two in the series exactly alike.


Finally, I use watercolors, then dry colored pencils to add the final dimension of color to the piece. In this case, I decided to make the sky yellow in a reference to God's light in Heaven, eliminating the need for the sun or moon, but not necessarily eliminating the sun & the moon themselves, as found in Revelation 22:5. "And there will be no night there - no need for lamps or sun - for the Lord God will shine on them."

So that takes you from beginning to end in the process. By the way, the first entry for this in my journal is dated February 2007, and I just finished it November 2007: about nine months, so I guess it's appropriate for me to think of the finished piece as one of my babies.

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.

time for refreshments!

And finally, the notes for my last New Jerusalm Palms image, "Times of Refreshment." This inspiration for this piece comes from Acts 3:20-21. "Then times of refreshment will come from the presence of the Lord, and he will again send you Jesus, your appointed Messiah. For he must remain in heaven until the time for the final restoration of all things, as God promised long ago through his holy prophets."



Here's the whole page with overlays in my journal - you can see the scriptural reference noted to the right -



Here's the map overlay by itself, again a map of ancient Jerusalem. I really like the idea of the old Jerusalm connecting with the New Jerusalem, illustrating God's timelessness in his city.



And finally the palm image by itself. Of course, I ended up painting them somewhat differently, but that just shows that the creative process can take twists & turns...

heaven in the studio

This is actually my entry for today on my personal art blog, which you can find at www.judithmonroe.com/journal.html, but it's about my work for this heaven project, so I figured I'd just post it here, too:

More studio work today - and last night -



Wet watercolors on the New Jerusalem Palms mini series (and here you thought that was only on tv.)



This morning, I was working on two things at once - actually alternately, but saying at once is more impressive - in the foreground you can see the new Polaroid transfer wall art plaques I'm working on for a couple venues and back on my drawing table I'm doing the pencil work on the New Jerusalem Palms quartet.

By noon I've already finished the New Jerualem Palms, so I'll share...

My Father's House 1/5

Heavenly Homeland 1/5

City of God 1/5

Times of Refreshment 1/5

dad's house

I spent a couple hours in the darkroom today, printing what I'm now calling my New Jerusalem Palms series. I've shared my journal pages of two of the four pieces already, so I'll share another today, then the uncolored prints (which are drying right now) and finally the finished pieces.


This is the page complete with overlay and miscellaneous notes. The Scripture I'm basing this image on is John 14:1-3, "Don't let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me. There is more than enough room in my Father's home. If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am."


My first thought coming from this verse was of a long driveway lined with palms leading to a grand house, like can be found here in the Central Valley. Actually finding what I had in my head proved to be a challenge, and in looking for palms for other images in this series, I found my rows of palms and then thought I could overlay a small image of a home, or an architectural sketch but then realized I already had found an image of a mosaic map of ancient Jerusalem which portrayed buildings, bringing to my mind the idea of a home with many rooms, almost like a city...


So I created an overlay based on the mosaic to use with the palm trees and also create another visual reference to Jerusalem. Of course, the images never work out quite the same in the darkroom as they do in my journal. In this case, the image of the palms was too busy when the overlay was completely over it, but I like the effect on the wide black border around the image, so I cut a hole in the overlay to allow the palms to come through more readable.

It's really exciting for me to have all the pieces come together after messing around with them. This whole conceptual process is new to me, but I'm finding it rewarding in a whole new way.

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.

more book visions

And so I return to this blog, after a week of computer problems... ;)

Here's another page in my altered book, "Visions of Heaven." I'm not revealing every page in this book, partly because it would be so tedious, and also to provide some little surprises for those who come to the actual show to see it. You'll notice I've again employed my palm tree motif on this page, it's a recurring theme throughout and you can find other posts that talk more about that by clicking on the tag at the end of this post. The image itself in an orignial Polaroid transfer, hand colored with pencils. On the facing page I put this verse: "The creation looks forward to the day when it will join God's children in glorious freedom from death and decay... We, too, wait with eager hope for the day when God will give us our full rights as his adopted children, including the new bodies he has promised us." (Romans 8:19-24) I find this whole concept of creation's redemption utterly amazing. We are so connected with the earth that it suffered the curse with us, which is found in Genesis 3, and then is redeemed with us as well, which is shown in Revelation 21.

You can see this theme continued on the next page of my book, where I have revealed a sort of hidden code in the book's original text. Of course, I could have chosen to say most anything in this hidden code, but that is the beauty of this device. I first adopt the initial sentence of the page, as it was quite apt for me, "I began asking questions." Which is the beginning of any learning, and then reveal the letters r-e-d-e-m-t-i-o-n, then the word "of" and "the world." Finally I ask the reader of my book to "break free of the expectations" that they might come to the piece with. That is all any artist can ask, that a viewer be open to the message an artist is trying to convey.

visions in a book

This is one of the pages from my "Visions of Heaven" altered book. The image is a refelction of the heavens over our head, in a reference to the idea that we can only "see" heaven as though in a poor reflection, found at the end of 1 Corinithians 13 and then is paired with a verse, Isaiah 65:17, "Look! I am creating a new heavens and a new earth, and no one will even think about the old ones anymore." In this verse, God is telling us that he will make heaven and earth new again.

On this next page, I again use a verse that refers to the new heavens and new earth, but this time from the New Testament. "We are looking forward to the new heaven and new earth he has promised, a world filled with God's righteousness." 2 Peter 3:13 This verse also refers back to the promises of a new earth made in Isaiah. The image I used, like all of the images in this book, is a Polaroid transfer, which comes from a color slide, but results in a stylized vision of what was photographed. In the same way, the new earth we are promised will be recognizable as our earth, but a new a wonderful vision of what it is now.

the mustard tree

As I've been reading through the New Testament now, I've found that Jesus tells a lot of stories that start, "The kingdom of heaven is like..." and proceeds to give an illustration of some aspect of God's domain. The story of the mustard seed is one of those stories, found almost verbatim both in Matthew 13: 31-32 and Luke 13: 18-19. Jesus says, "The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed planted in a field. It is the smallest of all seeds, but it becomes the largest of garden plants; it grows into a tree, and birds come and make nests in its branches." (Matthew)

Many of you know that I have a personal ongoing project called Tree Stories, with an accompanying blog at http://www.tree-stories.blogspot.com/, so the story of heaven being like a tree was something I had to jump at. So the first thing I set out to do was find out what a mustard tree looked like, and see if there were any near me that I could get a photograph of. Not long into my online research, I realized there is no such thing as a mustard tree - so what, I had to ask, was Jesus talking about? And I found a commentary that seemed to answer that exact question, better than anything I had ever heard. (Unfortunately I don't know where that was, but if someone else finds it again, I'll put a link in here.)

So here's what Jesus was saying, that heaven is like a seed you plant, the tiniest of seeds, expecting to get a bush, actually a pretty big bush from such a small seed, and what you get is a tree, larger than anything else in the garden, bigger and better than you would have ever expected. It's not just the concept of a huge thing coming from a small thing, like I have seen some translations make the story a pine nut and a huge pine tree - no, heaven is more than what you expect, impossible for you to completely imagine, better than your wildest dreams! Jesus wasn't referring to some obscure tree and as the Creator himself, he certainly knew that trees don't grow from mustard seeds - but he wanted us to understand that is exactly what heaven is like - the impossible come to life.

So this will become one of my Visions of Heaven, also one of my Tree Stories, and the title is Tree Story #30: The Mustard Tree. This colored version here is just a colored copy, but I'll post the final here when I get that far. I've got other pieces that are Visions of Heaven Tree Stories, which you can find on my Tree Stories blog, but I'll post here with a little more commentary at a later date.

(If you click on the "mustard tree" link below, you will see all my posts on the subject, including the final piece.)

jerusalem palms

Last week I finally got some new palm tree shots for this project - sometimes squeezing in a long term project like this is tricky amongst the current deadlines - you can see my journal for the shooting session at my Wanderings blog (http://www.judithmonroe.com/journal.html.)

So I was able to insert a copy of photos into my heaven journal, to help guide me when I go into the darkroom - also tricky to squeeze in sometimes - this is what the whole thing looks like when layered, a sort of approximation of the final image, much less refined, but the basic idea.



The topmost layer is a map of ancient Jerusalem, showing the history of the city.



The center layer is the colored photograph of the palms and a clock tower, representing the future Jerusalem.



The bottom layer in my journal will likely be part of the overlay in the finished product, but it's appropriate here as the foundation of the work, the scripture that the whole concept of heaven is based on.



This particular scripture comes from Zechariah 2:4-5, "Jerusalem will someday be so full of people and livestock that there won't be room enough for everyone! Many will live outside the city walls. Then, I, myself, will be a protective wall of fire around Jerusalem, says the Lord. And I will be the glory inside the city!" This ties in with the references to the New Jerusalem in Revelation, speaking of a huge cube-like city brought down from heaven to earth, so much larger than the Jerusalem of the past, that it could house incredibly large numbers of people. We can only begin to imagine the glory of it all...

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.)

first image posting: Timeline of Heaven

This piece is titled "Timeline of Heaven", a mixed media photograph by Judith Monroe (that would be me.)

I hope we can post more images soon - maybe something cool from Jared?