Transfiguration
For a long time, I’ve thought about the story of Jesus being transfigured on the mountain - how the three disciples went along with Jesus when he went to pray, how the brilliant cloud first overshadowed them and then enveloped them, how Jesus became radiant as he stood visiting with Moses and Elijah, the voice of God, like thunder but clearly understood. The whole story amazes me. Like Peter in the story, I think that if I can just capture the experience, I’ll understand and be able to hold on to it. While Peter proposed erecting three houses (one each for Jesus, Moses and Elijah), I simply painted three structures. The cloud above, it has seemed to me, is where the action was taking place, where God was intersecting our world. The image of God appearing in a cloud is sprinkled throughout the stories of scripture: the pillar of fire/cloud that led the Hebrew people through the desert on their way out of Egypt, the cloud that covered Mt. Sinai when Moses when up to meet with God, in the Psalms as the psalmist tried to describe God being present, the dark clouds on the day Jesus was crucified. So, do you suppose when God enters our atmosphere, the air condenses/reacts/glows? I almost always get a sci-fi picture to go with the cloud stories. This was my first attempt to paint my reaction to the story of the transfiguration. I got a bit of it, but will have to keep trying.