Fired Up

 

Fired Up

By Tom Wachunas 

“…We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed...”  2 Corinthians 4: 8-9

   Yes. I’m fired up. About my most recent artwork. It’s a meditation, a prayer of celebration, renewal and gratitude.

    This piece, this peace, which I have named “Holy Ground,” was inspired by Exodus chapter 3, wherein God says to Moses (who was perplexed by how a bush could be on fire yet not burn up), “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.”  

   The high-relief forms here were made with paint-stiffened, repurposed clothing adhered to the gold- colored ground of the canvas. I wanted the somewhat twisted perspective of the wrinkled white figure - its open heart indwelt by the fiery glow of divinity - to simultaneously suggest a posture of kneeling and an ecstatic leap. A synchrony of groundedness and joyous levitation. Surrender and victory.

   Moses asked what specific name he should give to God. The red calligraphy at the top of my work is the Hebrew transcription of God’s answer: “I AM WHO I AM,” or simply, “I AM.”

   He is indeed. And I’m glad of it. This is my Happy Force of July.