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p a i n
t i n g s b y j o e l
l e w i s I can never make a pig. Someday go to
a farm and study a pig, You'll be amazed. Look at them as kinetic sculptures.
There is compelling drama in the hog lot. The textures, the subtle forms, the
aroma, the individuality--pigs have personality. Years back, when I lived and worked on a farm, I painted horses, cows, chickens, and pigs. Horses are thought to be noble--strong, beautiful, and romantic creatures. Chickens and cows not so much--but pigs! Who thinks that pigs are noble? Yet almost anything you carefully look at in nature will give you a sense of awe. God has
revealed Himself to us through the things that He has made. I paint because I
want to express appreciation and praise for the part of God that I can see.
The constantly changing light, His image revealed in the human figure, the
pattern of the seasons, and the beauty of an animal all are revelations of
God's glory. With paint, I can hardly make things better than the way they
are in life, but in the hours I spend painting at the hog lot, I see more of
the Divine. But I can
never make a pig. The best I can do is make a representation of a pig. So I
have to be content with limitations--two dimensions, technical difficulties,
and my own ability. These aspects make a perfectly real and alive and
God-made pig into an abstraction. This is the most essential definition of
abstraction: taking something from "the round" and normal life, and
making it into a flat interpretation, whatever that may be. No matter how
skillfully I paint, it will never be more than a painting. So why drive all the way to the gallery?
You probably have pigs in your own neighborhood. However--me and the pig, we're both part of
what God made. What I make, oddly enough, is part of God's creation too. When
you look at a pig, you see a part of God. When you look at a painting I did
of a pig, you see another part of God, equally valuable. Joel Lewis |
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