As a conceptual artist I enjoy the planning and preparation of my paintings. I have to think first what is going to be the main concept and as soon as I know what I am going to do, the process of planning starts and I ask to myself where each element is going to be located, what is going to be the meaning for each figure or color and how I am going to integrate those elements together.
I painted about seven years ago this painting and is titled as: “My past, my present and my future.” This painting has been in my closet for all this years. I always had the hope to find a meaningful time to express my feelings when I painted this artwork but I did not find it until today.
The psalm 25: 1-10 reminds me this painting. When we ask to God for guidance because God is the only person in who we can trust. In the times of distress and weakness we raise our voice to God and we can find comfort and relief.
Many times we see us like this woman, in the present time, thinking about the past and how the future would be. This woman expects something for her life, she does not know exactly what she expecting, but she is expecting for a change, a new beginning.
Being Christian is not an easy thing to do. Sometimes we feel rejection of others because they do not have the same beliefs that we have, they ask themselves why we have to pray so much, why we must go to the sanctuary many times or why we always are trying to solve or do something for the people who is around us. The verses 1 and 2 of Psalm 25 show us when we ask God to give us strength to continue and not being ashamed for several reasons but one of those reasons is to continue being Christian without thinking about what others say or do not say and our relationship with God in the times of distress and doubts.
The verses 4 and 5, talk about the request that we as humans beings have. When we implore to God in relation to the teaching and the affirmation of seeing God as savior. The advent season is a time when we must think and analyze what we do in our daily lives as Christians and renew the votes of our faith through the light that has to be on in our hearts and in all our thoughts.
If we go back to the painting we can notice that the woman is facing the front but is looking to another place and at the same time is thinking about what is going to happen. The expression on her face says it all, a gesture of fear and questioning because she does not know what possibly is happening and what will happen in her life. At the same time it can be noticed that the woman has a glass with a flower. What that means? She is holding a flower of hope, the hope that we as Christians should live alive.
In verses 6 through 7 it is clear the petition to God in forgetting the sins that we as humans committed in the past. Only with love and kindness of God we can move forward without looking back. But in these verses is visible the urgency that God remembers that unconditional love to us.
The painting has an interesting detail. The woman who is facing the front but is seeing to other direction is worried, that is totally clear but why she is worried? One of the answers can be if we see to the other side of the painting we see two kids and probably when she was young she did some things that were wrong with those kids and she is concerned and thinking about what happened.
In the verses 8 through 10 it is clear the claim that God is good and God’s actions before sinners like us. Some of the ways in which we see expressed God’s love is through justice and through God’s teachings.
If we go back to the painting again we can see now all the elements integrated and with a new vision. We might interpret it through the features of the woman’s face who is anxious for some reasons, on the other hand, we see that she is living her present, but at the same time she is thinking about her past and about her future.
The planning of how I was going to make this painting was based on how would my process should capture the main elements and then to understand its meaning. To be prepare for this painting took me some time, a lot of analysis and absolute commitment to what I would do and to what I would leave captured on the canvas.
The Advent season is similar to the process of planning and preparation. It is to wait but that wait is based on the actions to ask ourselves what we are doing as Christians.
The planning starts to accept when we decide to put aside our worries and shame. The planning starts when we decide and how we decide to focus our look to God. At the same time the season of advent is the preparation to accept and receive the continuous light of hope and changes in our lives.
The question that we have to ask ourselves is when we are going to be ready to start at least to think in a change, in the renewal relationship with God? How we are going to do it? Are we going to forget what is around us and we are going to continue walking without understanding the true meaning of our waiting?
