artist's statement:
To reclaim the "holism of metaphor and intellect, spirit and flesh," I believe the Christian artist must find direction and truth in the richness of the Holy Scriptures. Jesus is both God and man, Spirit and flesh. He, the Word, resolves this seeming dichotomy. Therefore, my work often comes out of meditating on his word. The series of paintings Outside the Camp deal with separation and suffering of those travelers and pilgrims who have their eyes fixed on the eternal city. "Jesus also . . . through his own blood suffered outside the gate. Hence let us go out to him outside the camp bearing his reproach. For here we do not have a lasting city, but we are seeking the city which is to come" (Hebrews 13). Classical ruins have been vanitas symbols common to the artistic tradition-the earthly city that is passing away. It will be destroyed like Sodom. It is a "make-believe" city-a city of let's-make-believe-there-is-no-sin-and-misery, a city that pretends peace and unity and does not understand suffering and separation. Christ calls us out of this make-believe (and make-beliefs) city into the real world outside the camp. Here we know the truth about our future and the truth about each other. Here we acknowledge sin and death and understand out transience. And outside the camp we are given God's grace to bear our suffering. The earthy bodies in the painting are covered with the white robes of Christ's righteousness and suffering, and surrounded by his angels, as they leave the vanishing city in fellowship with Christ who died outside the camp. The other two pieces included here represent my research activities from 1997-99, an ongoing series of media explorations combining layered collage of various papers, low relief, impasto, gold leaf, graphite, acrylics, wax, and varnishes. It is focused on changing the conceptual and spacial context of recognizable figurative forms, often taken from past Christian imagery, and placing them on non-objective grounds or manipulating them in other ways. I am concerned with the dichotomy between abstraction and reality, form and content, and representation and non-representation.
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communique.gallery.fall.99
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selected
works of g.carol bomer
'weep
for the wiping of grace'
15"x15",
mixed media
featured on the October 1998 cover of Christianity Today
'outside
the camp I'
24"x20",
acrylic/wood panel
click the image to enlarge
'outside
the camp II'
25.5"x30",
acrylic/wood panel
click the image to enlarge
click here for a detail
'outside
the camp III'
29"x25",
acrylic/wood panel
click the image to enlarge
click here for a detail
'replacement
head'
15"x15",
mixed media
(collage, xerox transfers, graphite, oil glazes)
click the image to enlarge