Giclée print on Arches Cold Press
34″ x 34″
2010
Our immortal souls travel through an earthly life journey thoughtlessly trampling past precious visions of our Creator’s designs of perfection. Day after day our senses become dulled by repetition instead of them being heightened by sensing a deeper meanings in each encounter.
Our eyes may glimpse but it is our soul which sees that which is given in prayerful introspection and infused by graces of insight. These graces prompt reflections which dynamically thrust a soul forward as it searches in tireless hunger and thirst to know God and experience Him. These graces lead a soul in stillness to contemplate His beauty through prayer.
Photographic works capture a physical image but I encourage the viewer to look beyond the corporeality of what they see and internally meditate upon the beauty of the subject. With grace, this time spent in prayer may help to transform a soul and thrust it forward on its journey to seek the eternal beauty and presence of God.
Employing long standing conceptions of symbolism and iconography I hope to engage the viewer to reflect upon that which can known only through the eyes of a prayerful soul.
This particular image, Aeternae Caritatis, is a visual interpretation of Christ’s ultimate sacrifice of love as He poured it out upon humanity by His redemptive act of suffering upon the cross. Through everlasting charitable love Christ transformed the stigma of the shameful cross into a symbol of beauty which we in thanksgiving now venerate.
Connected with water the dragonfly traditionally represents a messenger but its natural cruciform shape also symbolizes the most common symbol of Christ’s passion – the holy cross. The cruciform is circumscribed by thorns and is supported by a nautilus shell and white rose – maternal symbols of the Virgin Mary who in station keeping stood sorrowfully at Jesus side during His final hours.