Not Just Black and White
40" x 30"
Acrylic Paint on canvas weaved

THOUGHT BEHIND THE PAINTING:  What are the gray areas of life?  Who are found there in between?  Who are those caught in the middle – not belonging to one side or the other?  Who are those who love both sides and long to see them interwoven in a beautiful deep relationship?  Who are those wrestling with deep questions of life, faith, calling, and willing to do the hard work to bring two sides together?  Who is willing to reside in this often unsettled, unnoticed, messy space?  Who is willing to lay his or her opinion aside for the greater good?  Is it you?  Is it I?  Who will live between worlds and be the weaver of the gray in patience and grace?  

HOW IT RELATES TO THIS SERIES:  I have found myself caught in the middle lately on many levels.  1.  I feel caught in the middle generationally as a Gen-Xer.  2.  I’m someone who loves the church and longs to see it growing in depth of faith through art.  And 3.  I am called to create art for the church and in the community simultaneously.  I have recently been called to obey and walk into hard conversations in hopes of true beauty coming forth.  I have been called to patience and grace in the midst of a huge desire to see believers truly understand grace for one another, especially in the specific area of tattoos.   Can we choose to listen, choose to see the world from someone else’s viewpoint?  Maybe if we do, we will see a beauty in the grace we’ve never witnessed before. 

HOW THE PIECE WAS MADE:  Thin black and white paints were put into bottles, hung upside down over a thin narrow piece of rectangular canvas and released.  As the bottle swung back and forth over the canvas gravity pulled the paint into streams on the canvas.  The canvas was resting on a slightly angled surface which caused the colors to run and pool.  As the colors pooled they created beautiful mixes of grays.  The pieces were left to dry.  The dried pieces didn’t turn out exactly as I’d hoped so I set them aside and then God brought to mind the idea of the black and white side and weaving the pieces I’d made through the center of the painted canvas.