Sometimes, the Internet can be a wonderful thing. I recently received an e-mail from a Methodist Minister in eastern Pennsylvania, who had somehow come across this Weblog and seen the image of my painting, "The Orange Sail." He wrote to me that he wanted to use this image as an illustration for his sermon this Sunday. He said that my painting evoked the dynamic energy of God's Spirit, seen in the force of the wind that powers a sailboat over the waters. He drew moral and spiritual meaning from the picture, that I had never thought was there! He wanted to use the image in the PowerPoint slide show that accompanied his presentation.

Naturally I said yes, as long as he credited the image to me and included my contact information. I had no idea that ministers were now using PowerPoint, which I associate with business meetings or academic lectures. But this is the modern world and religious folk have to keep up to date, it seems. He said he would also feature the image in the more conventional paper leaflets handed out to the churchgoers.

When I painted "The Orange Sail" last year (from a design I had first made in 1991) all I was thinking of was a pleasant ocean scene which I remember from a beach near Gloucester, Mass. I had not intended any "spiritual" theme at all. It is a pleasant surprise that anyone would find spiritual meaning in it. Every so often I am reminded that my art has viewers, meanings, and consequences that I can in no way foresee. The Internet multiplies the chances of this happening, as does any form of public display. It's something to think about when I am working on art in isolation, not knowing whether anyone will see it or whether it will have any influence on the world.

So, if the few dozen worshippers of a small United Methodist church make it through the wet cold and snow to gather today for their service, they will see an image evoking a calm ocean and the balmy breezes of summer.

Posted at 4:02 am | link