In a Mirror, Dimly

In a Mirror, Dimly.  Acrylic and gold leaf on canvas.  12 x 24 inches. (2017).  $525.  SOLD

For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face.  Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I am known.  And now abide faith, hope and love these three.  But the greatest of these is love.

(1 Corinthians 13: 12-13).

The truth of life is that we do not always see clearly in the present.  We do not always understand why things happen the way they do, and we often struggle to find purpose and beauty in the pain.  Yet the scripture reminds us that this is normal and that this side of heaven, things appear dim and difficult to understand.  As the Puritan author, John Flavel, wrote, “The providence of God is like Hebrew words–it can be read only backwards.”

This painting seeks to explain with intricate colors how even things which are not perfectly definable contain beauty.  Life does not have to be intelligible to be beautiful, and like the sea glass coloration of the painting, the things which spend the most time out at sea may be the most beautiful.