ArtPrize 2016 PAID It Is Finished
PAID: It Is Finished
Events and Dates
ArtPrize 2016: Sept. 21 – Oct. 9, 2016
Located at the First United Methodist Church of Grand Rapids, at 227 East Fulton Street
Colors of Community Art Festival: Oct. 27 – Nov. 14, 2016
Located at Life Stream Church in Allendale, at 6561 Lake Michigan Drive
(Thursdays through Saturdays – 5-9pm)
Images
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- ArtPrize 2016 PAID It Is Finished
Overview
PAID: It Is Finished. was created as my entry into this year’s ArtPrize event. (You can check out its page on the ArtPrize website here.) PAID: It Is Finished has been created as a study into the verses from John 3:16-17. It consists of a montage of three images, and each image includes one of the three verses at the bottom. For the first time, I have employed the use of words at the macro level – i.e. words that can be read from a distance, such as from across the street – to these images. Whereas at the micro level, the words provide the colors from which the image derives its form and substance, it is the image itself that provides the form from which the words take shape at the macro level. (For more information including some behind the scenes images and photos of the installation of the project, check out our Facebook page.)
During ArtPrize, PAID: It Is Finished. is being hosted by the First United Methodist Church located at 227 E. Fulton Street. It is just up the hill from the Division/Fulton intersection, on the left (north) side of the road. The piece can be viewed from the road, although of course to see any degree of the details upon which the images are built it would be better to see them on foot.
Following ArtPrize, PAID: It Is Finished. is planned to be included in the Colors of Community Art Festival held by Life Stream Church in Allendale, Michigan. If you’re in the area, please drop in and see it with your friends. There will be voting, so your votes will be appreciated, as well 🙂
Explanations
John3:16 – For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
John 3:17 – For God sent not His Son into the World to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.
John 3:18 – He that believeth on Him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed on the only begotten Son of God
… and who wants to be condemned…?
Poetic Ponderings
The skies proclaim their Maker’s Glory;
Nature shows a Grand Design –
But allergy to all that’s Holy
Blinds many brighter minds.
…excerpted from The Ocean Swell of Time © 2013 by Don Teachout
Castles in the Sand © 2013 by Don Teachout
Walking down a beach one day,
I found there in the sand
A drip-sand castle with a moat,
And prints of little hands.
I did not see a soul about,
But still, you must agree –
Mere chance provides no answer
Of how it came to be!
Whenever you find order
Amidst chaos and decay,
You know that there’s a reason
Entropy didn’t get it’s way.
Descent of order into chaos,
Unraveling with Time
Cannot explain the presence
Of order and design.
So when I saw that castle,
I saw proof of unseen hands –
Of a mind directing action
To challenge chaos in the sand.
_ _ __ ___ ____ _______
Forget a moment all you’ve learned
As “Scientific Fact” –
Those theories pushed as science
Despite logic that is cracked.
Since entropy still is working
To bring design to naught,
The evidence is rampant
‘Gainst what’s so often taught.
Look at the world with newborn eyes,
And study what you can –
You’ll find that there’s an awful lot
Of “castles” in the “sand”
From newborn babes to birds in flight –
And kittens, corn and seeds –
Bees and berries, bears and birth
And even you and me!
All give the lie to random chance
As cause for what you see –
You know there must be more behind
What’s clearly come to be.
The architectural excellence –
And aesthetic mastery
Are not-so-subtle themes that hint
That Intelligence was key.
The signs that we see everywhere
Demonstrate Grand Design –
It’s all the proof we really need
Of a vastly superior Mind.
And since it’s clearly far beyond
The skills of you or me,
We’d best approach with reverence
The Mind Whose work we see.
A Mind that’s clearly gone before,
And left for us to find
The clues we’d need to find Him
As we walk these sands of time.
About The Artist
Don was born in Africa and was exposed to a wide diversity of cultures at a young age. His life experiences have given him an appreciation of perspective and an awareness of its importance in the process of communication. He enjoys focusing on the details. He loves the beauty that pervades nature. He is in a constant state of awe and appreciation for the design and detail found in God’s creations.
Don started creating art out of words in 2010. Long fascinated by the diversity available within the realms of visual and verbal communication, he finds great personal satisfaction in merging the two forms of expression into a singular form of art that he likes to call Pictures of 1000 Words. If you have the chance, he hopes you will take some time to check out his work and perhaps even discover new ways of looking at things you may have previously dismissed or taken for granted 🙂