Closing this site

I am closing this site and will not enter anymore posts here. The contents are being migrated to another blog site:

URL: http://thevisualword.blogspot.com

I am dedicating my final entry to my dear colleague and friend, Mrs Karen McConnell who passed away this week.

Dear Karen

This Christmas, the memory of you, your love for Walt and your girls, and your faithful service with OMF and at SBC remains with us.

We will miss you, and we continue to weep our loss, comforted only by the knowledge that you are with our Great Shepherd and Redeemer.

Holy Bible Sketchpad by Deborah A. Reeder

There is a really nice site which hosts a really creative collection of sketches inspired by the Bible. The artist is Deborah Reeder. There is no additional information about her in the website, but you do want to visit the site to view her great sketches. Some of them have very contemporary interpretation and special cultural applications embedded in the sketches. All in all, this is a great collection of 152 sketches.
Abasalom's Hair (2 Sam 18:9)
King Joash - he started off a good king, go read about the rest of his life (2 Chron 24)
URL: http://www.holybiblesketchpad.com

Shlomo Katz (1937 - 1992)

There is another very stylized collection of biblical lithographs found in the Shlomo Katz Gallery. This is a commercial artist who portrays his characters with slender, angular forms. Let's put it this way, it's not quite Botero!

The 10 commandments
URL: http://strictlylimited.com/katz_gallery.html

John August Swanson (1938-)

A contemporary collection which you can view is at the gallery of John August Swanson. I just love this collection. Its beautiful! The information below is from his website:

JOHN AUGUST SWANSON makes his home in Los Angeles, California, where he was born in 1938. He paints in oil, watercolor, acrylic and mixed media, and is an independent printmaker of limited edition serigraphs, lithographs and etchings.

His art reflects the strong heritage of storytelling he inherited from his Mexican mother and Swedish father. John Swanson’s narrative is direct and easily understood. He addresses himself to human values, cultural roots, and his quest for self-discovery through visual images. These include Bible stories and social celebrations such as attending the circus, the concert, and the opera. He also tells of everyday existence, of city and country walks, of visits to the library, the train station or the schoolroom. All his parables optimistically embrace life and one’s spiritual transformation.
(...read more on his website)

URL: http://www.johnaugustswanson.com/

Sadao Watanabe (1913-1996)

Another interesting Asian collection is by the Japanese artist Sadao Watanabe. Watanabe's work is very stylized, but he uses very strong and vibrant images. This picture has its reference, the encounter between Abraham, Sarah and the three angels, and is found in the book of Genesis in the Old Testament. The picture is entitled "Sarah, Abraham, and the 3 visitors." You can visit the rest of his collection at The Scriptum, a gallery which specializes in 19th and 20th century contemporary Japanese prints in woodblock, etchings, engraving, stencil and mixed media. More information about him can be accessed here.
URL: http://www.japaneseprintart.com

Asian Christian Art Association

There is a really interesting website hosted by the Asian Christan Art Association which features various Asian artists. The featured artists include i) Ni Ketut Sri Wardani (Indonesia), ii) Kim Jae Im (Korea), iii) . Hari Santosa (Indonesia), iv) Hanna Cheriyan Varghese (Malaysia), v) Geoff Todd (Australia), vi) He Qi (China), vii) Li Wei San (China), viii) Dr. P. Solomon RAJ (India), ix) Kang Joon-Ho (Korea), x) Shim Hyun-Joo (Korea), and xi) Wisnu Sasongko (Indonesia).

I like the work of two artists and have reproduced their bios taken from the website:

Hari Santosa (Indonesia) is an Indonesian Christian artist and ACAA member live in Yogyakarta. In 1979 he established and organized 'Sanggar Melati', children art studio, which has accomplished various achievements in both national and international scopes. He seriously started painting in 1998. The pictures displayed on this gallery are some of his new paintings in 2001 and 2002.
Note the elephants in the nativity scene above

Dr. He Qi (China) is a professor at the Nanjing Union Theological Seminary and a tutor for master candidate students in the Philosophy Department of Nanjing University. He is also a member of the China Art Association and a council member of the Asian Christian Art Association. He has been committed to the artistic creation of modern Chinese Christian Art for more then twelve years. He hopes to help change the "foreign image" of Christianity in China by using artistic language, and at the same time, to supplement Chinese Art the way Buddhist art did in ancient times.
Saul and David 1
Pilate washes his hands URL: http://www.asianchristianart.org/profile/profile.htm

Jesus Mafa: African Jesus

In this generation there are so many sites which present the biblical story dressed in cultural imagery. I will feature several sites later which is uniquely Asian, but I want to start with African Jesus.

The site I want to feature is "The life of Jesus Mafa: Jésus in Black African Countries." The following is a short writeup which you can find in their website:
The MAFA pictures are a coherent set of african illustrations of the Gospel. They permit a good visualisation of the Sunday mass texts for the believer's faith, the catechist's comment and the celebrant's homely. Moreover they lead to prayer and, in a spirit of acculturation, the contemplation of a black Jesus.

So why an African Christ? Click here to read the reasons!

URL" http://www.jesusmafa.com/anglais/pagetprod2.htm The catalogue contains 7 parts: Part one: Virgins with the Child, Part two: Childhood of Jesus, Part Three: Life and Teaching of Jesus, Part four: Miracles of Jesus, Part five: Parables, Part six: Passion of Jesus, and Part seven: Jesus has been raised. The seven parts show the 65 pictures of LIFE OF JESUS MAFA. 62 evangelic scenes and 3 pictures of Virgins with the Child.

Walter Habdank (1930-2001)

Here is a site which you will love. This is a collection of art in various media by Walter Habdank. I have included his bios from his website:

Walter Habdank is an artist of engaging and representational expression. For him, the human being balances in the tension between the extremes of joy and pain, comfort and desolation. The artist presents this again and again in his woodcuts, water-colours, and paintings in symbols and parables of mythological or biblical origin – they are prototypes of human existence. With his works, Walter Habdank inspires his “picture viewers,” as he often said, to accept the whole of creation, to encounter themselves and their own sensibilities critically and without pretense. This perspective is one of affection and comfort and directs one beyond oneself and one’s own life.

Read more about Habdank here.
Incarnation (Watercolor, 1992) Simeon (Woodcut, 1973 based on Luke 2:25-32)

So what do the two pictures have in common? Have you noticed how hands are a big theme in Habdank's work?
URL: http://www.habdank-walter.de/2english/seiten/uebersicht.html

The Artwork of Michael Falk (b. 1929)

One of the most beautiful contemporary collections of biblical scenes I know of is by an artist named Michael Falk. Falk is a commercial artist and his works are posted online for viewing. The picture below is entitled "Jacob Blessing Ephraim and Manasseh." Here is a little bibliographic information of Falk:

Michael Falk was born in Germany in 1929. Following the events of the Crystal Night in November 1938, his parents, recognizing the dangers ahead, managed to obtain permission for him to leave the country. At the age of 10, he left his parents behind in Germany and traveled alone to Ireland, where he found refuge. Michael was taken in by a foster family in Dublin, who cared for him until the end of World War II. While in Dublin, Michael was accepted at the National College of Art, where he studied until 1946.

In 1946 Michael rejoined his parents, who had managed to escape the holocaust and were able to settle in the U.S. In New York, he continued his studies in art, attending the Cooper Union School of Art and Engineering in New York.

In 1950 Michael immigrated to Israel, joining Kibbutz Gal-On in the Northen Negev of Israel, where he worked in farming. In 1957 he moved his family to a moshav (small holders co-op) where he raised sheep and grew avocados. Throughout the entire period, Michael continued to engage in art, spending whatever free time he could find to paint.

Since retiring from farming in 1991, Michael Falk has devoted himself entirely to painting. Many of his themes are taken from the Old Testament, but his paintings also reveal his deep love for the land and animals which have been so much a part of his adult life.

Michael's paintings have been exhibited in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv and are to be found in private collections in Israel and abroad.
A sample of Falk's beautiful work in his website
URL: http://www27.brinkster.com/mfalk/BibleStories.htm Make sure you view his 10 plagues of Egypt collection.

The Borg

Here is site where you can get a few extensive collections of more contemporary pictures which tell the story. If you visit the URL below, you will find yourself at a site called the Borg. On the LHS, you will find several links. Click on the "Spiritual" link as indicated in the screenshot below:

In just page 1 of "Spiritual," you will find some nice collections. My favourites include
i) the entry dated 12-6-05 entitled "Jesus." Here is a nice picture from the subsection "Jesus and women."

ii) the entry dated 1-3-05 entitled "http://ph.crossmap.com Hundreds of beautiful pictures from the Bible." Here is a nice picture of Daniel in the lion's den.


iii) the entry dated 6-21-04 entitled "Bible." Here is a great picture from the Acts section showing the Apostle Paul being led out of jail by the angel.

Hmmm.....I'm wondering where these pictures came from???
URL: http://www.eborg2.com/Index2.htm

Marc Chagall (1887-1985)

Moving into the 21st century requires moving through the 19th and 20th century. An interesting artist of that era who produced both etchings and lithographs is Marc Chagall. There is a wonderful digitized collection of his work at the Spaightwood Galleries. There you can find an exhibition of his work entitled "Marc Chagall and the Bible: Etchings and Lithographs from 1930 to 1980." Read a little more about his background. It is very interesting.
Disobedient Prophet killed by a Lion (H. 357, S. 282). Original etching, 1931-1939; completed 1952-1956. This picture is from the "Bible Etchings 3" collection.
Cain and Abel (M. 238). Original color lithograph, 1960. This picture is from the "1960 Bible Lithographs 2" Collection.
URL: http://www.spaightwoodgalleries.com/Pages/Chagall_Bible.html

Moving on to the visual world of the 21stC

I am dying to move on to feature some of the sites which host the more contemporary visual, digitized expressions of the Christian story, but I feel that there are two collections from the past that just cannot be passed by. Both have in common the fact that they are in black and white.

The first site contains etchings by Rembrandt hosted by Connecticut College, a private liberal arts situated in New London, Connecticut. I love this collection of etchings. Rembrandt has this ability to capture very delicate emotions with the detailed strokes in his etchings.

URL of the Connecticut College Collection of Rembrandt etchings: http://camel2.conncoll.edu/visual/Rembrandt-prints/index-main.html

Interestingly, the Bijbils Museum in Amsterdam just completed hosting an exhibition entitled "Rembrandt and the Bible: The complete etchings" from September 15 - December 10, 2006

The information about Rembrandt's etchings is interesting and I have taken the liberty to reproduce that info here:
Rembrandt made more than 70 etchings of biblical stories and figures. For the first time all these works are to be shown in a single exhibition, offering a splendid overview of Rembrandt’s development as one of the world’s greatest graphic artists and insight into his unique way of depicting biblical stories. Besides the most famous pieces, very rare etchings will also be on display. Whether the works are new or familiar, visitors will be both surprised and moved by the quality, the variation in style and technique, the unique composition and the great emotional expressiveness of Rembrandt’s biblical etchings.

The second site I want to feature is a collection of woodcuts and metal engravings from 16th-19th century publications which are found in the digitized illustrations of the biblical text, church architecture, and portraits of religious leaders from the rare book collection at Pitts Theology Library.
A rendering of the Israelites camped in proper array around the tabernacle

To access the site, you will need to do go through an additional step which I will guide you through. The collection is part of the American Theological Library Association's Cooperative Digital Resources Initiative which has seen several theological libraries cooperating in the task of digitizing their image collections. What you need to do is to go to the the browse page of the CDRI. When you are there, scroll down to the bottom until you see "Woodcuts and metal engravings from 16th-19th century publications." Check the box there and then click on the "Submit" button somewhere in the left hand column of that page. There are 800 images in that collection and you will have to plough through that collection to see what is useful.

An era of illlustrations

What I find interesting about the collections I have featured is that they all are bound to a similar time and location. What we have are European collections from the 1700s-1800s with most of the pictures in black and white or sepia. I think some of us may have real difficulty identifying with the pictures because they are a little dated. I think the younger ones are probably more able to make emotional connections with Henry Martin's collection better or even with the World Mission collection. Would you wear a T-shirt with a picture by Julius Schnoor von Carolsfeld or by Henry Martin? That would be an interesting poll to take!

There are however lessons to be learnt from history. While these pictures are by authors who were living in Christian or Christianized nations and living under some sort of a sacred canopy, it is interesting to note that that was a period where there was a flowering of Biblical illustrations. I wonder why? Was it because of poor literacy? Was it because there was a felt need to illustrate the Biblical text? Were there some political reason or push from a rich patron to illustrate the Bible? One is tempted to say that that period was a period of greater biblical literacy, but it might be saying too much to suggest that there was high biblical literacy across all segments of society. The issue of biblical literacy of course is an issue faced amongst churches located in the 21st C!

The West is sometimes described as post-Christian. In Asia, while it is meaningless to speak of a post-Christian society (since Asia never had a period of being Christian or Christianized), parts of it is now post-literate. Given this mood with its proliferation of and heavy consumption of multimedia content, I suspect that there is deep desire for visual, even multimedia biblical content. If you visit the Canadian Bible Society, you will find several examples - what they call "e-scriptures or flash scripture movies." One of my favourite movies from that collection is the story of the Woman at the Well which is based on the Gospel of John chapter 4:5-42. Enjoy!

The emphasis of this blog however is on stills rather than on moving objects, which is why I continue to explore collections of digitized stills which illustrate Biblical narratives. Continue to look out for links, descriptions and comments on issues accompanying the use of visuals to tell the story! I wonder what the place of visuals will be for promoting bible literacy amongst the young people today???

William Blake (1757-1827)

The English poet, painter, and printmaker William Blake has contributed a wealth of visuals illutrating religious and other literary texts. His most famous Bible related work would be illustrations of The book of Job. Actually, if you read the Wikipedia entry for "William Blake," you will find that "despite his work in illustrating the Book of Job, Blake's affection for the Bible was belied by his hostility for the church, his beliefs modified by a fascination with Mysticism and the unfolding of the Romantic movement around him." Hmmm....a person's commitment to religious art is not automatically linked to any commitment a religion or relationship with the Almighty.

Anyway, the William Blake archive is a hypermedia archive sponsored by the Library of Congress and supported by the Preservation and Access Division of the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities at the University of Virginia, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Sun Microsystems and Inso Corporation. If you visit this site, you will be able to find Blake's illustrations. You can access the site at the URLs listed below.

Job Accused By His Friends

URL: a) Colour Plates http://www.blakearchive.org/exist/blake/archive/copy.xq?copyid=but550.1&java=yes

b) Black and White Plates http://www.blakearchive.org/exist/blake/archive/copy.xq?copyid=bb421.1&java=yes

Gustave Dore (1832-1883)

Here is another site which has a extensive collection of 212 images which can be used to tell the biblical story. These are by the artist Gustave Dore. I have taken the liberty to provide information about him which can be accessed from the weblink posted below.
Gustave Doré: Refered to as an "Artist of the People" by Vincent van Gogh, Gustave Doré was the greatest illustrator in history.

Born of humble origins in Strasbourg, France in January 1832, he quickly established himself as the ultimate child prodigy. By the age of 12 he was carving his own lithographs and writing the stories to go with them.

Fame came at the age of 15 when his work captured the attention of a prominent Parisian publisher. Hired to illustrate a new humor weekly, Doré managed to also have his first book published. With success as an illustrator and writer, Doré become the toast of Paris.

Commissions for works by Rabelais, Balzac, Dante and Lord Byron solidified his position in the French art world but nothing would prepare him for the attention brought by his illustrations from the Bible.

Published in 1865, Doré's English Bible became a phenominal success. Samuel Clemons even mentions it in Tom Sawyer on page 46. The Doré Gallery opened in London and remained for 25 years.

In 1883, as the finishing touches were being put on the illustrations for Edger Allen Poe's The Raven, Doré passed away. For many his success came too easy, Doré had not paid his dues as a struggling artist. Instead, Doré succeeded at an early age but died a broken man, savaged by the critics but adored by millions around the world.
Elisha is Jeered (2 Kings 2:23,24)

URL: http://www.studylight.org/art/dore/

Figures de la Bible (1728)

As the title suggests, this is an older collection entitled "Figures de la Bible." The collection of 242 images is illustrated by Gerard Hoet, and others and published by P. de Hondt in The Hague (La Haye), 1728. The digitized collection is made available to the public courtersy Kerry Magruder and the Bizzell Bible Collection at the University of Oklahoma.

Like some of the other older collections, I love how the collection covers stories which are not normally mentioned in modern children's story books. This closed selection seem to only repeat certain more popular stories resulting in a limited understanding of "the whole counsel of God" and a "canon within a canon" effect for our kids! Also, there is a caption and commentary accompanying the picture which is great! This picture for example is accompanied by the following text:

The battle betwixt Joshua and the five Kings. Joshua 10:11

And it came to pass, as they fled from before Israel, and were in the going down to Bethhoron, that the Lord cast down great stones from heaven upon them unto Azekah,and they died: they were more which died with hailstones than they whom the children of Israel slew with the sword. (KJV)

URL: http://www.mythfolklore.net/lahaye/

The World Mission Collection Clip Art Graphics

The World Mission Collection is a delightful collection which tells the story from Genesis to Revelation. Actually there are two volumes here.

Volume 1 contains black and white woodcut illustrations by Julius Schnoor von Carolsfeld copied from Das Buch der Bücher in Bilden . There are 3 parts in this 240 image volume: i) Part A (Genesis to Ruth), ii) Part B (Samuel to Daniel), and iii) Part C (New Testament). The picture to the left shows "Joseph's reunion with his brother" from Vol 1, Part A.

Volume 2 contains water color Bible illustrations done for "Communicating Christ" in Bogota, Colombia. Part A contains images from the Old Testament, while Part B contains New Testament images. The picture to the left shows "Jesus at Twelve in the Temple" from Vol 2, Part B.

Note the following stipulation:
The permission to use these copyrighted items is limited to personal and congregational use. The materials can not be produced for resale. The Multi-Language Literature Committee reserves all rights for publication and distribution. For specific requests concerning copyright permission for the materials, contact the World Mission Collection (wmc@wls.wels.net).

URL: http://www.wels.net/wmc/html/clip_art_graphics.html

The other site you can visit to read more about Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld is http://www.all-art.org/history1-bible2.html

A wealth of visual images telling the Bible Story: Henry Martin Collection

So, what are the sites which one can visit for great images?

I am going to start with my favourite site which is found someplace in the UK from the canvas of Rev Henry Martin. Read what he says about himself:

I am a Christian who enjoys painting and sketching in free moments. I also enjoy hill walking with my dog. I am a vicar and usually can be found in St James, Higher Broughton, Salford, UK. I have been here 3 years now and love it! (Salford is very to near Manchester in the North of England.) Being a vicar in the Church of England is a fantastic job since I can combine my love of Jesus with my habit of doodling cartoons.

I am passionate in my belief that God is alive and full of life – and that we who are privileged to share his good news must try to express his life and liveliness in every possible way. My best attempts are these pictures – please use them if they help liven your sermons, kids talks or school assemblies (but not for financial profit) and point more people to the glorious joy of God.
Peter sinking into the water
Rev Martin's pictures are great watercolors and he has even prepared a series of Powerpoint slides which allow you to down them for immediate use. What I really like about them is that you can tell complete stories using visuals which come in a set. I have found in the past that it is really difficult to find digital images of high quality which enable you to do that. I find some websites or powerpoint presentations are comprised of images of a peculiar spatio-temporal location interspersed with those of another location. That becomes very confusing for the listener/viewer.

Thanks Rev Martin for your contribution to education within the church!
URL: http://sermons4kids.com/hmartin.htm

Why this site

I am starting this blog because of an educational problem evident in the 21st C. Having moved from the modernist, "Dr Spock of the old Enterprise" generation toward late modernity, we are presently encountering a generation which is "post-literate," "Net-savvy," and certainly more visually attuned. In this world we live in, communication is at lot more visual. Just look at how hawker centres in Singapore have been transformed. The old sign boards used to have a line of blue English text followed by a line of red Chinese texts on a white background. Now a lot of the new signboards are a multimedia experience to behold.

In my teaching, I have also tried to be more sensitive to the information processing styles of students. I have tried to respect the reality of multiple intelligences , the presence of visual learners, the learning preferences of concrete relational learners.

In my recent search/research spanning over a year, I have discovered a wealth of visual resources which can be used for communicating the many stories found in the bible. Some of these images were created in series to tell as story. Some of the images are interpretations of a moment of time recorded in the Bible.

Interestingly, as I sought to explore the use of these images for communication and educational purposes, the fact that images contain levels of the artist's social location and interpretation which shout out at the viewer (sometimes even louder than the biblical idea!) was a theme which kept repeating itself. Viewing a pictorial representation of the biblical text is never "a simple act of appropriating biblical truth." There are many layers that need to be negotiated...to paraphrase Eileen M. Daily, communicating through art involves the telling of four stories: i) the retelling of the biblical narrative, ii) the story of the community for whom the artist was painting, iii) the artist's personal story, and iv) the story of the Holy Spirit's action of inspiring. Visit this link and you will understand what I mean!

A visual image is thus, to use her metaphor, a multi-storied building! That is the reason why the blog's url contains the phrase "Visual Exegesis." While it is aimed at creating awareness of the many Bible visual sites, it also invites dialogue and reflection about why we feel certain ways about certain images because of the interplay between the four stories.

What I am planning to do is to introduce several sites which contain great bible visuals and along the way make short commentaries about them.

At a later time, I will put up a short reference list of books and articles which contribute to our learning.