AlephBet

The End of a Matter...

The instruction of the Lord is perfect...

Psalm 19:7 

     In the Hebrew language, form embraces function, and to ignore the aesthetic element is to ignore the fabric of the King's robe. Each Hebrew character carries meaning- an intentional weaving together of symbols, numbers, and ideas, with nuances that stagger the imagination. Martin Luther said,

"The words of the Hebrew tongue have a peculiar energy. It is impossible to convey so much so briefly in any other language. To render them intelligibly we must not attempt to give word for word, but only aim at the sense and the idea."

     It is unfortunate that the Hebrew word Torah is most often translated Law. A more accurate translation would be direction, teaching or instruction. The word is written as follows:

 

Here are the names of the characters:

 Albert Szent-Gyorgyi said, "Discovery consists of seeing what everybody has seen and thinking what nobody has thought." As I meditate on the sacred text of the Hebrew scripture I am intrigued by the letterforms, by the aesthetic nuances, and I read stories within stories. Some may say I am 'seeing' things, but because I believe the text to be God breathed, I wonder... perhaps the grammar structure itself is intended to reveal aspects of the Creator's imagination.

     The final character in the word Torah is the hey. The Jewish mystics believed the hey represented the breath of God, and in early forms symbolized a man with outstretched arms- as if to say, "Behold!" When the word Torah is in the construct state (indicating possession) the hey changes to a tau, the final character of the Hebrew alphabet. In early forms, the tau symbolized a cross.

 

     Psalm 19:7 begins with-

The Torah of the Lord God is perfect, restoring the soul...

and because Torah, in this case, is in the construct state the word begins and ends with the letter tau... the last and final character is both the beginning and the end. The perfect direction of God is exhibited with a resh and a vav, placed between two crosses.

Making Visible Words

     William Hazlitt said, "There is a feeling of Eternity in youth..." Perhaps that is why youth returns when we make art; we participate in something that extends beyond us. I have observed a curious thing- give a group of serious-minded business people watercolors and in a matter of moments the surrounding atmosphere will shift... giggles may even be heard. The making of things brings a mysterious joy into the moment, a joy reserved for child-likeness.

     Art is a conversation that, as Suzanne Farrell puts it,

"reminds us how good life can be." 

     I was raised by God-fearing parents who lived out their faith. At an early age I began reading the Bible and discovered something that, for many years, has determined the direction of my art:

Words, rightly ordered, strike a ring of truth that awaken the Soul. 

     And so, I paint The Word. As I read Scripture I wonder, "how would I visualize what I am reading?" The literal words, Hebrew or Greek, are integral to what I sketch. Here are a couple of recent thoughts made visible:

Concept Sketch

 

 Isaiah 28:16

In Progress

Watercolor and Gold Leaf

Concept Sketch

 

 

 

Hiram's Capital

 Bordered with Hosea 14:5

 Clay, Paint, and Gold Leaf

 

     I would be honored to make an original work of art for you, whether it be a personal piece for your workspace or prayer closet, or a large center piece for your family room. I could 'make visible' your favorite Scripture, bordered with the original language, in watercolor, oil, ink, or a giclee tradigital image.

 

Let's begin the conversation. 

 

 

Lately, my wife and I have been receiving requests to place our art on Church bulletins. Here are a couple:

 

 

Let me know if your church is interested in our art as well. You can contact me at-

 

mrcarter56@gmail.com

    

 

 

 

  

 

God will provide the Lamb

"God will provide the Lamb"

Michael R. Carter

32" x 14"

Oil on corrugated cardboard

     And Isaac spoke to Abraham his father and said, "My father!" And he said, "Here I am, my son." And he said, "Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?" And Abraham said, "God will provide for Himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son." So the two of them walked on together.

Genesis 22:7,8 NASB

     Tests come in many forms. Teachers test their students. People test our patience. Situations test our convictions. Chapter 22 of Genesis begins with these words:

'Now it came about after these things, that God tested Abraham...'

Teresa of Avila, in the Interior Castle, commented-

"We are fonder of consolations than we are of the Cross. Test us, Lord- for You know the truth- so that we may know ourselves."

     Tests are life's litmus paper, revealing the acidity or baseness of our character. Abraham's test revealed his faith.

The texture of Truth tempers the test.

     This painting is the result of a friend's question- "Have you considered painting the story of Abraham?" Click here for the original post.

    
      As the painting progressed, the work became a collaborative effort. My friend noticed the Hebrew word for love- ahava- contained within Abraham's name.  Two names, Abraham and Elohim, touch at the tip of the ram's horn. The tip of the horn crosses the final letter of Abraham, forming the A of AHAVA. The ram's horn later became an instrument, the shofar, to be blown on Rosh Hashanah. In this image, God and Abraham meet at the mouthpiece of the shofar. In the blowing of the shofar, God-breathed man offers breath in return, as a reminder of sacrificial love.

   

     As a final note, the inclusion of two Arabic words were suggested- the word for 'sacrifice' on the left and the word 'Moriah' on the right. In the story of Abraham, three faith-groups meet: Christianity, Judaism and Islam.

     If the viewer 'reads' the painting from the left, the story begins with an instrument of death. If, however, the painting is treated as the reading of Hebrew, the story begins with the sacrificial life. And in the middle are the thorns. 

God Will Provide the Lamb

    "Behold, the Lamb of God

who takes away the sin of the world!"

John, the Baptizer, upon seeing Jesus

      My friend, Deborah Mrantz, challenged me in a email. She wrote, 'Have you considered doing something (visually) with Abraham?' So, while driving, this came to me-

I imagined a series of three images- A knife, thorns and a ram's horn.

I roughed out a quick version on corrugated paper-

God Will Provide The Lamb

Oil on Corrugated Paper

The layers within the Hebrew language run deep, forming a network that both inspires and defies human comprehension. Within the verses of text the individual words speak; within the words the individual characters have a voice.

In Genesis, chapter 22, Abraham and his son Isaac are climbing a mountain when Isaac asks, "Where is the lamb for the sacrifice?" Abraham replies,

"God will provide the lamb."

In my minds-eye I saw the Hebrew lettering for 'the lamb' amidst the thorns, between the knife and the horn. It was as I painted these characters that I focused on their nature as letterforms. The expression 'the lamb' is constructed with three characters: 

The two outer characters are both the letter Hey, making the sound of a breath:

Originally, the character symbolized two outstretched arms.

The character says, 'Behold!' 

During a Jewish wedding ceremony, the couple whispers to each other, "Behold (hey), I will try with all my being to be present for you."

(from The Book of Letters by Rabbi Lawrence Kushner).

The name of the character in the center of 'the lamb' is

sin:

To the ancients, the character symbolized teeth, meaning to devour or consume.

As I meditated on the letters and their meanings, 'the lamb' became pictured to me hebraically as sin, enclosed, consumed and destroyed between the outstretched arms of God the Father and God the Holy Spirit-

the three-in-one God who promises, with all His being, to be present for me.

can you hear me now?

shema

Strong's #8085

to hear, to listen, to understand, to obey

Last night, I asked my wife, "If your life was a movie, what channel would it be on?" She thought for a moment and said, "The Discovery Channel."

I like that.

So I am reading through the Old Testament in a different translation than I usually read and I come across this-

God asked Solomon,

"What do you want? Ask, and I will give it to you."

Solomon said,

"Give me an understanding heart so that I can govern Your people well and know the difference between right and wrong."

An understanding heart. God liked that. In the Hebrew, the word translated understanding is

shema,

a word that is, according to my Lexical Aids to the Old Testament,

...one of the most important verbs in the Hebrew Old Testament. It appears 1,160 times. The main idea is perceiving a message or sensing a sound.'

What we all want, ultimately, is security. We want assurance that our needs are secured. The need for food, shelter, money... hope must become fact. Security must become an indelible stain on our hearts and minds because the threat of insecurity is dibilitating to the soul. Perhaps Solomon knew that to hear God is security.

"Hear (shema), O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one!"