Of Snakes and Art

Praying in Color

A few weeks before my recent surgery, a dear friend gave me a copy of Sybil MacBeth's book, Praying in Color, published by Paraclete Press.

An epiphany for me for sure.  Over the years I have often considered some of my art to be prayers; way back I even started a series of "Prayer Rugs"--designs for rugs on which to pray for certain things.  I still have several, but they were carefully drawn and executed, taking many hours to complete.  They would probably not serve for a serious prayer life for most people. 

Sybil MacBeth has cut through the technical difficulties I, the artist, created for myself.  Her book is not about art, but about prayer.   Click here to read her words and those of others praising the virtues of the idea.

I can only say that at a time when I very much needed an anchor for my prayer life, this technique gave me one.   I owe Sybil and Paraclete Press a debt of gratitude for bringing us this book.

Creation of Man and Warning

^{Genesis 2:7 - 17}

⁷then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground,^* and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being. ⁸And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east; and there he put the man whom he had formed. ⁹Out of the ground the Lord God made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

10 A river flows out of Eden to water the garden, and from there it divides and becomes four branches. ¹¹The name of the first is Pishon; it is the one that flows around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold; ¹²and the gold of that land is good; bdellium and onyx stone are there. ¹³The name of the second river is Gihon; it is the one that flows around the whole land of Cush. ¹⁴The name of the third river is Tigris, which flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.

15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it. ¹⁶And the Lord God commanded the man, ‘You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; ¹⁷but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.’

My comment:

Knowing full well the dangers of interpreting a text such as this in a translation, I am nonetheless going to wade in.  If you know more about this subject than I, please leave comments.  Leave comments in any case.

I am struck by verse 17 where God says that if Adam eats of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he will die.  Did Adam know what death was?  If he did know, was he willing to trade immortality for knowledge?  Is that simply the nature of being human?

The Bible

In the last few weeks, I have become increasingly aware that people younger than I am are quite unfamiliar with things in The Bible.  Most of my ninth graders looked at me with blank stares the other day when I started talking about Adam and Eve.  Naturally, I filled them in.  It is one of the basic myths of Western Culture. 

Yesterday, I was in a conversation with people in their 30's and 40's discussing an article by Charles Darwin concerning "survival of the fittest."  When I began talking about its relationship to the creation stories in The Bible, one person began talking about the Snake and the Apple; another just stared and did not respond.

I was raised on these stories; most people living today were not.  Therefore, I will begin a series of posts reciting the stories.  Who knows?  I may learn something in the process as well.         

Morning Prayer and Snakes

While I had already been painting snakes for some time, I was struggling with the question of whether I should devote myself 100% to snakes and let the other ideas go. I had committed to a solo show three months away so there was some urgency to resolving the issue. I had thought and prayed and discussed; still the notion of such a strange narrow focus left me unsure.

That early July morning in 2006 while visiting my sister in Russellville, Arkansas, my husband Ron and I decided to explore the local walking trail at Bona Dea Park. Before the walk we sat in the gazebo at the trail head and read morning prayer as food for our meditation and conversation during the 3 1/2 miles through the swampy bottom land below the Lake Dardenelle Dam. It fell to me to read the scriptures. The old testament lesson assigned for that day was the story of Moses raising the bronze snake on the pole in the wilderness. Considering it a sign, I could hardly read. Well, there was food for conversation!

We completed the liturgy and set off down the trail, a nice broad washed gravel trail. About a half mile in, I saw what looked like a stick lying across the path. As we got closer, I realized it was a copperhead, about 20 inches long. It lay so straight and still that I thought it was dead. As it raised its small head to look at us, I was assured it was not. We kept our distance and picked up pebbles to throw to encourage it to move on. Unfazed it continued to lie there and look at us. Two more walkers approached us from behind and we motioned for them to stop. No amount of prodding with either stones or sticks could get the critter to budge. Finally we had to walk into the bushes at the side of the trail to get around it. After we had gone about 50 feet, I turned and saw that resolute serpent make an about face and head into the underbrush.

There was not much to say after that. Snakes it would be.

A few miles on we watched a large momma turtle laying her eggs in a damp hole she had scraped in the sand beside a slow-moving stream.