Angels Unveiled - Evensong Montana Black
Centennial Hills Library Jan. 12 - Mar. 28
Laughlin Library Feb. 27 - Apr. 22
An exhibition featuring the recent series of paintings by Artist Montana Black, depicting human angels communing with animals and fish, is the Art's opportunity to talk about the divinity of humanity and all living things on this planet.
Artist's Statement
I began this series with a view to create dream-like images and wound up mostly talking about Eve, her apple and our supposed “fall from grace”. It all began with a photograph of a beautiful little girl whose mother was part of an annual photo shoot of friends and family I do to get images for my paintings. When l saw her pose in one of the photos, I immediately saw the painting I would do. She became my Eve in my Garden (a garden of all possibilities), contemplating the metaphoric apple. Eve as a little innocent child makes sense to me because to me she never loses that innocence, that grace, by making a choice to experience something other than paradise for a tttime.'' And she comes to represent all women, for it is through woman that all of human kind comes to this earthly plane.
For me, eating the apple is a metaphor for choosing an experience of time, choosing an experience of life. We choose to leave the timeless state of being that is paradise to be born into bodies that are time-bound and finite. Of course, l am making the assumption that being born is a choice and there are many who would disagree. We won't really know the truth of that until our time here is done and maybe not even then. But I would like us to at least entertain the idea that the Genesis story can be retold in a different light. There is no such thing as original sin. We were never cast out, but perhaps shown a way out to another experience.
Bless the Lady Eve for she keeps open the portal of time to grant us the experience of finality.
We can also view eating the apple as a metaphor for choosing to live life fully in this moment. To feel all there is to feel, the highs and the lows; fall in love, fall out of love; fight for causes (I love the Irish saying: “Is this a private fight or can anyone join in?''); to try new things, or be completely happy with doing old things: these are what it means to live fully, completely within the here and now. To not eat the apple is as futile as trying to live outside of time. As Joseph Campbell puts it, “. . . the experience of eternity right here and now is the function of life. Heaven is not the place to have the experience; here is the place to have the experience.” In Heaven we will be too busy looking at God to have our own experiences.
In the painting entitled “The Gift”, an angel is offering the apple to you, the viewer. On the angel's face is a big smile of joy and invitation. You are always, in each moment, invited to fully participate in your life.
In the painting entitled “Our Other Self”, I have painted my friend Tony resisting his darker side, as represented by a raven. This is what we encounter when we decide to step into a world that is finite and contains pairs of opposites. Where there is light there must also be darkness, but the darkness is not necessarily the enemy. The painting incorporates two quotations, one by the poet Gregory Crosby (“You are the house that
haunts its self, the ghost of fight or flight”) and one by Carl Jung: “Knowing your own darkness is the best method for dealing with the darkness of others”.
These quotations point to the fact that you are what you are struggling against most of the time. It is our own selves that we often times resist and hurt the most, because we don't understand that what we are made up of is both light and dark. When we can successfully integrate the two, that's when true peace is achieved. Nietzsche: “Be careful lest in casting out your devils that you cast out the best thing that's in you”.
I want to touch on one more painting. The piece entitled “Evermore'' is the result of collaboration with Gregory Crosby, and is in fact a portrait of Mr. Crosby. His beautiful poem, “Evermore,'' reproduced next to the painting, inspired the inclusion of a second raven.
All of my work I consider collaborations; collaborations between me and my subject matter, and collaborations between me and my partner Ken Gerard, whose photography, mechanical and computer skills, along with an unfailing belief in my art, is invaluable. But l have never collaborated on a piece with a poet before, and found the whole experience delightful and inspiring.
Enjoy the show.
I began this series with a view to create dream-like images and wound up mostly talking about Eve, her apple and our supposed “fall from grace”. It all began with a photograph of a beautiful little girl whose mother was part of an annual photo shoot of friends and family I do to get images for my paintings. When l saw her pose in one of the photos, I immediately saw the painting I would do. She became my Eve in my Garden (a garden of all possibilities), contemplating the metaphoric apple. Eve as a little innocent child makes sense to me because to me she never loses that innocence, that grace, by making a choice to experience something other than paradise for a tttime.'' And she comes to represent all women, for it is through woman that all of human kind comes to this earthly plane.
For me, eating the apple is a metaphor for choosing an experience of time, choosing an experience of life. We choose to leave the timeless state of being that is paradise to be born into bodies that are time-bound and finite. Of course, l am making the assumption that being born is a choice and there are many who would disagree. We won't really know the truth of that until our time here is done and maybe not even then. But I would like us to at least entertain the idea that the Genesis story can be retold in a different light. There is no such thing as original sin. We were never cast out, but perhaps shown a way out to another experience.
Bless the Lady Eve for she keeps open the portal of time to grant us the experience of finality.
We can also view eating the apple as a metaphor for choosing to live life fully in this moment. To feel all there is to feel, the highs and the lows; fall in love, fall out of love; fight for causes (I love the Irish saying: “Is this a private fight or can anyone join in?''); to try new things, or be completely happy with doing old things: these are what it means to live fully, completely within the here and now. To not eat the apple is as futile as trying to live outside of time. As Joseph Campbell puts it, “. . . the experience of eternity right here and now is the function of life. Heaven is not the place to have the experience; here is the place to have the experience.” In Heaven we will be too busy looking at God to have our own experiences.
In the painting entitled “The Gift”, an angel is offering the apple to you, the viewer. On the angel's face is a big smile of joy and invitation. You are always, in each moment, invited to fully participate in your life.
In the painting entitled “Our Other Self”, I have painted my friend Tony resisting his darker side, as represented by a raven. This is what we encounter when we decide to step into a world that is finite and contains pairs of opposites. Where there is light there must also be darkness, but the darkness is not necessarily the enemy. The painting incorporates two quotations, one by the poet Gregory Crosby (“You are the house that
haunts its self, the ghost of fight or flight”) and one by Carl Jung: “Knowing your own darkness is the best method for dealing with the darkness of others”.
These quotations point to the fact that you are what you are struggling against most of the time. It is our own selves that we often times resist and hurt the most, because we don't understand that what we are made up of is both light and dark. When we can successfully integrate the two, that's when true peace is achieved. Nietzsche: “Be careful lest in casting out your devils that you cast out the best thing that's in you”.
I want to touch on one more painting. The piece entitled “Evermore'' is the result of collaboration with Gregory Crosby, and is in fact a portrait of Mr. Crosby. His beautiful poem, “Evermore,'' reproduced next to the painting, inspired the inclusion of a second raven.
All of my work I consider collaborations; collaborations between me and my subject matter, and collaborations between me and my partner Ken Gerard, whose photography, mechanical and computer skills, along with an unfailing belief in my art, is invaluable. But l have never collaborated on a piece with a poet before, and found the whole experience delightful and inspiring.
Enjoy the show.