"Foxy King David" By Cliff Derksen
Ceramic Sculpture with Patina Finish.
Ceramic Sculpture with Patina Finish.
Just a reminder, because our theme is living creatures this year, we will be drawing, painting and sculpting animals throughout this year in our art course.
When I do portraits for example, I as an artist want to communicate something of their essence to the viewer. For that to happen I need to know them to some degree. What is their field of expertise? What are their hobbies? Their favorite cloths etc. because otherwise the image could insult them even. I need enough knowledge and information to create an honest representation including emotion, feeling and understanding as to represent them for who they really are. Every portrait artist throughout history has had this challenging goal.
So it is with animals. How can we represent the essence of each animal without knowing something of them and their history? Including of course their present habitat, habits and unique personalities etc.
Now to be perfectly clear, I am not a theologian! But I do read, study, memorize and absorb as much of the scriptures I can. Why? you ask. Because I have discovered that is is the most "life giving" manual for life I have ever experienced. So here we go.
First, there is this direct statement that might surprise you, but animals were not made to be food for us or for one another! Crazy eh?
Look at this in Genesis 1:29 - 30, "Then God said, "I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth...They will be yours for food. And to all beasts of the earth and all the birds in the sky and all the creatures that move along the ground-everything that has the breath of life in it-I give every green plant for food." And it was so."
Meanwhile, we are moving ahead with this huge meat industry raising animals to be prepared on our BBQ's etc. for amazing meals with meat every day! How did that come about?
Even though mankind was instructed to rule over the animals, it apparently did not mean we should include killing and eating them as part of the power we were given over them!
Here is the second point I wish to mention here. Further along here is what happened. " The Lord God said, "it is not good for man to be alone. I will make a helper for him. Now the Lord had formed out of the ground all the wild animals and all the birds of the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them, and whatever the man called each living creature, that was it's name." Gen. 2:18-19
What a responsibility! This, naming the animals thing. You have to know the animal to name it! This meant Adam had to put thought into it! This was actually something like drawing a portrait of them! He could not just pick a random word out of mid air to name an animal, he had to "know" them to name them! What were they like? Characteristics, unique life habits, were did they live, on trees, in the air on or under the ground? You get my drift here right? You know he's not naming them to kill and eat them. He's friends with them, appreciates them, lives with them, talks to them, considers them his pets or at least respects and likes them as real companions of life..
Like someone has said, "you don't give an animal a meaningful name if you plan to kill it for food." This whole scene gives us an idea of the kind of relationship mankind and animals were meant to have, one of kind concern and care. A level of meaningful intimacy of one who's responsibility it was to rule over them kindly, considering their quality of life, so that they could truly live together as companions to one another.
Obviously, something happened and things changed drastically...to be continued.
When I do portraits for example, I as an artist want to communicate something of their essence to the viewer. For that to happen I need to know them to some degree. What is their field of expertise? What are their hobbies? Their favorite cloths etc. because otherwise the image could insult them even. I need enough knowledge and information to create an honest representation including emotion, feeling and understanding as to represent them for who they really are. Every portrait artist throughout history has had this challenging goal.
So it is with animals. How can we represent the essence of each animal without knowing something of them and their history? Including of course their present habitat, habits and unique personalities etc.
Now to be perfectly clear, I am not a theologian! But I do read, study, memorize and absorb as much of the scriptures I can. Why? you ask. Because I have discovered that is is the most "life giving" manual for life I have ever experienced. So here we go.
First, there is this direct statement that might surprise you, but animals were not made to be food for us or for one another! Crazy eh?
Look at this in Genesis 1:29 - 30, "Then God said, "I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth...They will be yours for food. And to all beasts of the earth and all the birds in the sky and all the creatures that move along the ground-everything that has the breath of life in it-I give every green plant for food." And it was so."
Meanwhile, we are moving ahead with this huge meat industry raising animals to be prepared on our BBQ's etc. for amazing meals with meat every day! How did that come about?
Even though mankind was instructed to rule over the animals, it apparently did not mean we should include killing and eating them as part of the power we were given over them!
Here is the second point I wish to mention here. Further along here is what happened. " The Lord God said, "it is not good for man to be alone. I will make a helper for him. Now the Lord had formed out of the ground all the wild animals and all the birds of the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them, and whatever the man called each living creature, that was it's name." Gen. 2:18-19
What a responsibility! This, naming the animals thing. You have to know the animal to name it! This meant Adam had to put thought into it! This was actually something like drawing a portrait of them! He could not just pick a random word out of mid air to name an animal, he had to "know" them to name them! What were they like? Characteristics, unique life habits, were did they live, on trees, in the air on or under the ground? You get my drift here right? You know he's not naming them to kill and eat them. He's friends with them, appreciates them, lives with them, talks to them, considers them his pets or at least respects and likes them as real companions of life..
Like someone has said, "you don't give an animal a meaningful name if you plan to kill it for food." This whole scene gives us an idea of the kind of relationship mankind and animals were meant to have, one of kind concern and care. A level of meaningful intimacy of one who's responsibility it was to rule over them kindly, considering their quality of life, so that they could truly live together as companions to one another.
Obviously, something happened and things changed drastically...to be continued.
“We patronize the animals for their incompleteness, for their tragic fate of having taken form so far below ourselves. And therein we err, and greatly err. For the animal shall not be measured by man. In a world older and more complete than ours, they are more finished and complete, gifted with extensions of the senses we have lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never hear. They are not brethren, they are not underlings; they are other Nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life and time, fellow prisoners of the splendour and travail of the earth.” ―Henry Beston
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