Monday, June 02, 2008
The idea of painting, is the idea, not the painting.
"Trust me," He said."I don't know how..."
The last time I painted was back in secondary two. My then art teacher was a slightly eccentric lady who taught art by talking to the canvas. I remember that for a good part of our art lessons, we were made to draw apples. First, we had to use yellow paint to outline the shape of the apple. Then, we filled in the colours for the fruit. And lastly, the shadows and texture..."for a more realistic effect," she said to the canvas.
I dreaded art lessons because that was the one thing I couldn't do for nuts. Maybe it was the awkward way I held the paintbrush. Maybe I had the wrong technique of applying my brush strokes. Whatever the problem may be, I never seemed to get it right. And strangely enough, even though there was a certain formula to painting one freakin' apple, somehow, no two drawings turned out the same. "Her apple's a little fatter. Her apple's out of shape. Her apple's redder than mine..."
Over the weekend, I was at a retreat and to my horror, one of the activities was to paint! Instinctively, I wanted to run away. "God, I'd rather do something else. Anything." So I spoke to my SD, drank lots of tea (there was a good supply of funky tea in the pantry), sat by the gazebo to reflect about life, and went to the chapel to pray (and took a nap along the way). Basically, I did everything, but paint.
Then, it turned out that those who were painting got so excited that they decided to paint even more after dinner. By this time, I had finished all that I could do at the retreat centre and thought, what the heck, and decided to join them for the art session.
The process was really foreign for me, as you can probably imagine. I had to be told to pick out some brushes, take a palette, and the paints which I needed. I even had to ask if I should add water to the paints. After a painful preparation, I held my brush in one hand, canvas in the other, said a quick prayer (I was really nervous!), and then, like they say, the rest is history. If you're thinking that I painted like Leonardo, think again. The standard of my painting unfortunately, has not improved since my school-going days. Now however, I didn't have to draw silly red apples.
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In the beginning, God made heaven and earth. He divided the light from darkness, heaven from earth, water from land. He created seed-bearing vegetation, the greater and smaller light, and animals to roam the land. Finally, He made man in the image of Himself; male and female, He created them. God saw all that He had made, and indeed, it was all very good.
I spent the six days with God as He created the earth. I sat on His mighty shoulders and watched in awe as everything took its form. With the flick of His fingers, the blink of an eye, He made things happened. And indeed, it was all very good.
"Trust me," He said again.
This time, a resounding Yes was my reply.
