Artist's Statement
About Faith
by David Berry
The place of the idol-maker is a tenuous one. We should worship God, not idols, and this puts the painter of spiritually imagery, particularly a portrait painter of the Christ, in a precarious position. In Islam there is a niche in the front wall of every mosque pointing towards The Kaba in Mecca. I like to think that a spiritual painting is like a niche in the wall, directing your spiritual attention in a particular direction.
I am not a follower of a particular religion, but I do think of myself as a Christian. I embrace the Word of God in the many forms it has appeared, and find the message is often the same. I believe The Christ has returned to earthly form as the single Son of God more than once. With each visit, Christ brings the same message of love that can be found in the four Gospels of Christ in the Bible. By accepting Meher Baba as The Christ retuned again, I suppose this puts me in the same position as early Christians - those Jews who believed that Jesus was the Messiah. They were no longer Jewish in the truest sense, but they were not yet called Christians.
I am not a Sufi or a follower of Meher Baba specifically. I am not particular about which Christ or in what form God chooses to guide me as my master. For me, the Truth of the Word of God is to be found in many places with the same result - to fill my heart with love and to focus my mind on service. By finding that message in other religions and in ideas that once seemed very foreign, I have come to understand that the Love of God is universal and completely independent of the belief of any individual or religion. The Word often appears in a form suitable for great numbers of people, like The Bible, Qu’ran or the Discourses. Contradictions and confusion makes my obedience as a servant no less difficult when these scriptures are applied to particular circumstances in my life.
There are many religions to follow which make it easier to live a spiritual life, but there is so much dogma and ritual that often the very essence is lost as we learn to divide the world into those we judge as true believers or infidels. Even so, for each of us there is one true religion, despite it's inevitable flaws, in which we can find the belief, faith and trust that comes with knowing the Love of God. For most of us our religion is an essence of our family and society, and that is as it should be. To serve we must not isolate ourselves, and we must be part of our family and community. There is no such thing as a religion with a membership of one. We must have our spiritual attention directed in a particular direction for it to have a practical purpose.
About Faith
Faith leads us in a particular direction, and art can be a compass to point the way.
About Spiritual Painting
The source of art is a singular essence, and painting is a means of sharing spiritual vistas.
About Fluid Style
My own style reflects the fragile and incomplete nature of our understanding of reality.
About Other Styles
An artist develops style by exploring art of the past, and new art is judged by the legacy of what has gone before.
About Evocation
At the very core the purpose of art is to evoke some inner feeling or memory.
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