When the specter of a permanent dwelling surfaces, new questions arise. Questions like
- What do I want this space to look like?
- What do I want this space to say?
Accordingly, I’ve been thinking quite a bit about art. More specifically, what art I would like to hang in my office. There are two pieces I am thinking about, one comical, the other religious.
Comical
First, I’d like to get a set of decoupages ((this is where one takes a picture of a painting and paints clear painty stuff over it as if one was painting the actual picture – the next effect is the illusion of a painting. )) of images from comics. After looking around, I settled on the JLA covers to Final Crisis:
Each piece, aside from being beautiful and striking, showcases particular virtues and activates particular stories, stories which I value and allow to shape my identity.
Then there is Darkseid. In a lot of ways, he it the antithesis of those virtues. I think I’d like to keep him in there for purposes of juxtaposition. ((I totally have not talked about virtue ethics in three of my classes))
Religious?
The second thing I’d like to have on my wall is a telescopic view from the Holy of Holies from the 2nd Temple through each of the walls/divisions of creation and out past the borders of the city, of Samaria, through the wilderness, and finally on to Rome. It might even be neat to place biblical scenes in each location, such as Eden in the Holy of Holies, or replace Rome with Babylon and move it into the 1st Temple Period. Perhaps you’d have a sea past the wilderness or something.
I’ve had such a vision for such a painting ever since I read a book my first year of grad school which emphasized this sacred view of space, division, and order within Judaism. ((The name of the book escapes me – I’ll have to look it up when I get home.))
It would emphasize the ordered-ness of God’s creation and move toward the lack of order – the chaos of the wilderness, and ending finally the rebelling ordering of the world by humans. I’d even want the fabled sign on the edge of the court of gentiles that said that any gentile passing this gate would be killed.
Shalom-Chaos-Empire.
Not only would it be an awesome painting, but it would be such a conversation piece, such a reminder, and even such a thing to use for lecture points. You’d be able to see how Israel saw the world, you’d see the juxtaposition between the ways of God and the ways of humans and how they are set against each other.
And it would not be a Christian piece, per se, it would be a 2nd Temple piece and would therefore invite discussion and pondering about the relationship between 2nd Temple Judaism and Xianity / Rabbinic Judaism / other religions / Rome / other empires / politics / and God.
Do you have any thoughts on great wall pieces?
