Jen Bromham was the person who first suggested the Rilke poem as a prompt for engaging visual and written art in dialog. She offers us these words along with her art.
I chose the poem because I experienced it as a kind of window into Incarnation. The poem weaves together words that suggest rich imagery, words that offer a potential for deeper ways of relating – with God and with the core sense of self.
The line that particularly caught my attention and continues to inspire me is:
Nearby is the country they call life. You will know it by its seriousness.
The art work is predominately created by my exploration of a digital art app. I found working in this way offered me vast opportunities for spontaneity and it is experiential. Digital art can be substantial in itself and can also provide ideas that can be developed into the more traditional art forms such as painting in oil or water colour. The figurative work is acrylic on canvas and was painted from one of my life drawing sketches. I present this painting as a woman in contemplation who is embodying ‘the country they call life!’
I completed illustrations for all but the last line – I will leave that to your imagination.
Give me your hand.
Several members of the Anawim Arts International Steering Committee have accepted the challenge of engaging with this poem by Rilke (see related post) and we look forward to sharing their work in our community conversations forum.
We welcome and challenge you to join the dialog between words and images and to share your resulting written or visual art. You can reach us at anawimarts@gmail.com to share your work.