Great...or Grate?

Great…or Grate?

By Tom Wachunas

    So I suppose it should come as no surprise to those of you familiar with  my art work over the past several years that the two most recent pieces I’ve made are about the disunited state of America. In both, my concerns are not political so much as they’re spiritual. Make of them what you will.

   Shortly after I heard the outcome of the Presidential election, I felt strangely compelled to make an A-to-Z inventory of…what?  A spontaneous eruption of possible responses, attitudes, feelings, behaviors, reactions, choices, decisions. Make of them what you will.

   Angry, arrogant, arrested, adoring, accepting, agog, aghast, amazed,  boastful, blushing, bashing, brave, bellicose,  bullying, benevolent, charitable, contemplative, content, conceited, cantankerous, calm, conquered, cool, childish, collected, criminal, cautious, cynical, catatonic, dreadful, decided, deceitful, damned, dubious, doubtful, defeated, enraged, excited, ebullient, ennobled, enjoined, engulfed, enlarged, eager, fretful, faithful, forgiving, foreboding, fatigued, fearful, grateful, giving, gracious, glorified, giddy, hateful, haughty, horrified, humbled, honest, heated, hysterical, inciting, insouciant, insightful, insipid, intelligent, inspired, irritated, impish, ill, jaded, joyful, jubilant, just, justified, kind, keen, kicking, knowing, kindled, kissing, loving, loathing, laughing, leaping, mortified, mollified, malicious, magnanimous, mitigated, mystified, mauled, murderous, nihilistic, nutty, numb, naughty, overcome, ornery, ostentatious, obtuse, oblivious, obstinate, powerless, prideful, prayerful, patient, patronizing, pitying, quiet, questioning, quarrelsome, quivering, queasy, quitting, quiescent, quixotic, resentful, rueful, riotous, raped, ranting, ruined, ravaged, raving, repenting, rejuvenated, righteous, satisfied, sane, serene, sorry, sore, saturated, scared, scarred, sagacious, skeptical, seared, surrendered,  thankful, tearful, torn, tormented, tortured, tender, truthful, taught, tickled, tamed, useful, used, unforgiving, unforgiven,  upset, unmoved, usurped, united, ugly, undaunted, vane, vicious, vanquished, vapid, valiant, verified, validated, vengeful, vociferous, willful, wanting, wasted, wild, wrong, xenophobic, xenial, yearning, yawning, yowling, yielding, yelling, youthful, zany, zipped, zapped, zesty…

   Zounds.  Who are we? Where did we come from? Where are we going?

   We’ve made our bed. As we sleep in it, I offer the following words in the hope that they inspire pleasant dreams. Make of them what God wills. Now, please.

     See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ.  – Colossians 2:8

   Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.  – Romans 12:2

   It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man. It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in princes. – Proverbs 118: 8-9

   And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.  –Romans 8:28

    Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.  - Ephesians 4: 31-32

   PHOTOS from top: Broken English Readymade, mixed media, 2016; Supplication, mixed media, 2016; Supplication, detail