CONTEMPORARY PORTRAITS: IN SEARCH OF THE SACRED

AND GOD CREATED MAN IN HIS OWN IMAGE, IN THE IMAGE OF GOD CREATED HE HIM; MALE AND FEMALE CREATED HE THEM...

 The Holy Scriptures. Genesis 1:27


Would the Bible have been as meaningful to Western culture, if someone, somehow, had lost a few letters (characters), here and there, before it got to us?

      St. Gregory the Great. Prague. 15th Century

If it were edited -- pruned -- along the lines of "less is more." Would that make the Bible even better? More essential? More profound?

Sarah of Glasgow. 2020. 11 x 14"

My answer is: Every letter, every word, every chapter counts. And contributes meaningfully.

  A young lady. 2019. 11 x 14"

All of us are characters in the book of life. And frankly, I think our world would be poorer without you.

Cassidy of Phoenix. 2019 11 x 14"

Whoever you are. You are essential to this moment. To this conversation. You are, in a word, sacred.

Native American Model. 2019 @ 16 x 14"

And that's what I'm trying to capture when I paint a portrait these days. Yes, I want the portrait to resemble the person portrayed. 

Blue-eyed Visionary. 2019 @ 12 x 10"

  I also want the image to feel as special, as essential as the person I have the privilege of painting.

Greg of Phoenix. 2019. 11 x 14" 

Anyway, that's the goal.

A Patriach. 2019  11 x 14" 

In the words of the Man from Mars, "Thou art God." (Stranger in a Strange Land, Robt. Heinlein)

Can you grok it?

Waiting for the Feeling. 2019  11 x 14"

Medium: Oil paint on acrylic ground. Artist: Glenn Scott Michaels. Phoenix, AZ.


Copyright 2020 All Rights Reserved. Images and photographs by the author, with the exception of St. Gregoary the Great.

SHE IS LOAM. HE IS CLAY.

A love song to posterity, David & Roberta Chorlton.

Sponsored by the award-winning commercial design specialists of NM Interiors Group at www.nminteriors.biz.

She is loam. He is clay. 

You - sand, me - dust.

Over there - nightsoil. 

Limestone, shale, mulch -

there is no waste.

Our was supplies your will, with joy.

Our ardour is like no other. 

Eyeless. Armless. Moist. Ripe.

We bed your seed, cradle your filaments, 

hug your root...

Absorb all deliciousness

with omnivorous delight.

Glenn S. Michaels

October 2015

TOO MUCH GOOD ADVICE JUST ISN'T

Good advice is eating us alive.

Sponsored by the award-winning commercial design specialists of NM Interiors Group at www.nminteriors.biz.

Play more. Learn this. Master that. Volunteer there. Contribute more. Save more. Read more. Arrive earlier. Stay later. Get more exercise. Spend more time with the family. Eat right. Eat less. Eat more often. Smell the roses! Invest wisely. Vote. Prioritize. Hurry! But be careful. 

I cannot keep up. Can you?

When the failure to keep up signifies being left-behind, the unjust consequence is, often enough, self-destructive thoughts and behavior.

The solution? Oh, please.

Instead of looking for a solution, try remembering. What was it that you set out to do in life? Have you done any of that recently?

Did you fall short? Falling short isn’t failure. It is how we know that we have something more to learn; it means another chance to grow. 

Why waste your good heart and mind listening to negative internal and external voices?  There isn’t another person on earth capable of walking the exact same path as you have. Not one.

By the way, have you remembered to thank the marvelous folks who helped you along the way? What about the big meanies – the nasty people that forced you to prove them wrong? Have you stopped to appreciate the incredible people who have chosen to challenge themselves on paths parallel to your own?

Must you really be the first or the fastest? Isn’t the point just to make yourself the master of your circumstances? To own them (and discard them) as opposed to being overrun by them?

Hello! Because of you, the lives of untold thousands have more meaning. You listened to their ideas. You ate the food they helped make possible, travelled to places that they built. You listened to their music. You purchased, used and benefited from the results of their hard work, their commitment. And now you have done the same for me.

You are terrific. Don’t get over it.

Photo: Two of six figures from Auguste Rodin's Burghers of Calais (1884-95). 

Glenn Scott Michaels

October 2015