Reflections: On the Edge, Oil on Canvas, 40″ x 30″ ©Michelle Arnold Paine 2014
This painting – one of the newer ones in my series of Figurative Paintings reflecting on the Virgin Mary – is on its way to the Kreft Arts Center at Concordia University Ann Arbor to be included in the juried exhibit “Body and Soul”. Artworks in the exhibit can be viewed on the Kreft Arts Center Facebook page.
The juror Joe Levickas said this about the exhibit: “In many ways, I think the work being made about this concept touches upon questions that are absolutely essential not just in the creation of art, but also gets to the core of how we understand ourselves as human beings.” This resonates with me. I paint to wrestle out my relationship to the created world around me – this dwelling between earth and sky, the convergence of body and soul.
This painting specifically reflects on the image of the Annunciation (Luke Chapter 2), which has haunted me for years, and continues to appear in my paintings. The metaphors and paradoxes of prophecy and fulfillment between Eve and Mary intrigue me, how the poetry overpowers the space-time continuum at the fusion of celestial and terrestial in the Incarnation.
The exhibit runs March 24 – April 10, 2015.
“On the Edge: Reflections” packed and ready to go
