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Saturday, August 13, 2005
The Sacred Domestic Sphere
I have been a father exactly for 9 weeks. A highlight of this experience has to do with ways in which I have re-claimed what fatherhood means for me--these are ways in which I have consciously attempted to deconstruct the skeleton of patriarchy in my closet. As a father, I have learned to integrate and claim the mother in me: the one that nurtures unconditionally to a sacred human being. I have learned to embody one of the most sacred callings: to be nurturer, to be a care-giver, to be proud of the feminine spirit inherent in all of us.
On a spiritual level, I find this re-claiming of fatherhood significant. Vincent Van Gogh considered the icon of Mary and the baby Jesus to the most sacred human images. When he painted La Berceuse, he reflected the the two attributes of the Sacred coexist: the caring nurturer, and the vulnerable child. Somehow the Sacred gives and receives simultaneously.
Posted at 04:47 pm by dmiller-mutia
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Tuesday, January 25, 2005
The Ocean as Inward Reality, the Reality of the Soul
...I will take the risk, I will push off to the open sea. And you will immediately get a certain somber earnestness--something mighty serious will rise up within you--one looks at the quiet coast, all right, it is pretty enough--but the secret of the depth, the intimate, serious charm of the Ocean of an artist's life--with Something on High over it--will take hold of you. (L339, Letters 2:203.)
Van Gogh scholar, Cliff Edwards, viewed Vincent Van Gogh's perception of nature as simultaneously real and symbolic. His claim is best viewed in Vincent's quote above. The sea that one sees at the "quiet coast...is pretty enough"--but the "Ocean of the artist's life" is not just what one sees through one's eyes. It is more. The Ocean of an artist's life that Vincent speaks of here is not just an outward reality to be appreciated with one's eyes, but also an inward reality, a reality of the soul, which has depth, intimacy, and serious charm. In this case, God's invitation to risk and adventure is not subtle. While the sea that one sees stirs in the depths of the human soul, causing something to rise, God, on the other hand, meets this rising by grabbing the human spirit. When this happens, we are closer to God.
Posted at 02:23 pm by dmiller-mutia
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Friday, January 21, 2005
Vincent Van Gogh's Invitation to Spiritual Life
My recent aha: Vincent Van Gogh's spirituality seems to hold a dynamic tension between risk and having ground under one's feet. He invites Theo to become an artist like himself, for instance, and yet at the same time, he tells his brother that having a family and being a parent is a very sacred vocation. In this dynamic tension, Vincent invites us to move with the "ebb and flow"--to be fully aware of the present moment and fully participate in life.
Donnel Miller-Mutia
donnelmutia@hotmail.com
Posted at 11:48 am by dmiller-mutia
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Wednesday, January 19, 2005
Break Down of Van Gogh's Boat Paintings
I begin with the premise that the inward shift(s) that catalyzed Vincent Van Gogh's spiritual quest is best represented by his interest in the Sea imagery (perhaps as an archetype?), which also involves boats and fishermen. This shift is a movement towards self-liberation and creativity, towards the integration of his many interests (Bible, nature, novels of his day, Japanese art). If we use the Sea imagery as a clue to his calling towards creativity, then a numerical breakdown of Vincent's boat paintings in specific geographical locations in his life makes sense.
The changes that occurred in Vincent in the Arles are evident in a numerical table of thematic motifs provided by Tsukasa Kodera in Vincent Van Gogh: Christianity Versus Nature. Out of fifty-five paintings with a boat imagery, eight were painted in 1882, four were painted in 1883, one was painted in 1885, as well as 1886, ten were painted in 1887, and a couple were painted in 1890, but a whopping twenty-nine were painted in 1888. To our knowledge, 1888 is the very year that Vincent lived in Arles. In March, he began painting the blossoming orchards, much like those in Japan. In June, he briefly visited Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer to sketch boats and the sea.
See Tsukasa Kodera, Vincent van Gogh: Christianity versus Nature (Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company, 1990), 152.
Donnel Miller-Mutia
donnelmutia@hotmail.com
Posted at 10:09 pm by dmiller-mutia
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Tuesday, January 18, 2005
Article from the Van Gogh Museum: Van Gogh and the Sea
Posted at 03:44 pm by dmiller-mutia
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Monday, January 17, 2005
Van Gogh and the Sea of Life
When I was in grad school I wrote my thesis on Vincent Van Gogh's theology, particularly his interest in the Sea motif, which for him symbolized as an invitation to spiritual life: a life where we are called to risk, to go beyond the borders of our familiar ground. A few clues led me to this conclusion. First, Vincent wrote about the sea imagery a number of times in his letters. Second, written within the same month when he was in Saintes-Maries to paint "Fishing Boats on the Beach at Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer," he made a comment about Eugene Delacroix's "Christ in the Boat on the Sea of Gennesaret." In this painting, Jesus is peacefully asleep in the storm, while his disciples are in terror. In this same letter, he revered Jesus as an artist, much like himself.
The first part of his Sea-of-Life theology deals with action: to throw oneself "into the depths" to catch something (L121, 3 April 1878, Letters 1:167). He points at the need to take risks, to confront one's finitude by facing death, to embark on an adventure of an unknown future. He did this very well: he left the art-dealing business, then he left the academic route to enter a missionary training school to do ministry at the Belgian mining district, then he left for Paris, and then for Arles in Southern France.
Second, he highlights transitoriness as the constant with which we have to put our lives in accord, that is, "we move with the ebb and flow" (L265, 8 February, Letters 1:536). Our true element is not the shell of the "academic way." Although we dwell in our shells, we are called to break out of it and drive ourselves to the open sea. His process of breaking away is clear in the ways in which he viewed the institutional religion of his father, and also the way he viewed academic norms of doing art. For him, the academic school is "detestable [and] tyrannical" because they are filled with people, which he called "Pharisees of art," who put on a "cuirass, a steel armor, of prejudices and conventions." So to Vincent, pharisees of art are those who have too much ground under their feet--the sort who "attach too much importance to the good in [themselves];" they refuse to break the walls of self-centeredness and move with the ebb and flow of the sea.
Third, as humans we cannot tarry out in the sea forever; one should come back to solid ground to be in one's "cottage" (R6, 23 November 1881, Letters 3:318). However, remaining too long in the cottage is neither advisable. As he broke away from normative ways of understanding Christianity or art, he always found his relationships with others in tension, such as his parents and some of his friends. As much as he felt comfortable of being by himself while doing intensive work, he always needed his deep friendships with his family, such as Theo, and friends so he can express his will, conviction and principles--so he can fully express his full potential as an artist and religious thinker.
For questions about my thesis paper: "God's Call to Creativity and Adventure: An Analysis of Vincent Van Gogh's Sea-of-Life Theology and Fishing Boats on the Beach at Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer," e-mail me at donnelmutia@hotmail.com . This material is accessible at the Graduate Theological Union's "Flora Lamson Hewlett Library" in Berkeley, CA.
Read Vincent Van Gogh's Letters in:
The Complete Letters of Vincent Van Gogh. 3 vols. Introduction by V.W. van Gogh. Preface and Memoir by Johanna van Gogh-Bonger. Greenwich, Conn.: New york Graphic Society, 1958.
Posted at 12:17 pm by dmiller-mutia
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