By Caleb Hamm
The Artist Statement
“Lift up your heart to God with a gentle stirring of love. Focus on him alone. Want him, and not anything he’s made. Think on nothing but him.”
Drawing inspirations from the famous book, The Cloud of Unknowing, written by an anonymous mystic from the 14th Century, the painting reflects upon the notion of contemplative prayer. Of the night, Thomas Merton spoke of “a darkness illuminated by joy and by the presence of the Lord, all the more joyous precisely because the night brings Him nearer and unites us to Him more intimately than any light.” From his ‘Ways of the Christian Mystics.’
The palette of the mural reflects on a prayer of fire or a baptism of fire or the fire of love. Metaphoric of the tongues of flame in the upper room of Acts, a mist of the Holy Spirit veils the painting in reference to the Cloud and the presence. This isn’t meant to equate the two, but rather to reference them equally. The fluidity and motion of the piece suggests ripples and echoes emanating from an act of silent devotion. To press into that cloud with humble abandon.
“Let that joyful stirring of love make you resolute, and in its enthusiasm bravely step over meditation and reach up to penetrate the darkness above you. Then beat on that thick cloud of unknowing with the sharp arrows of longing and never stop loving, no matter what comes your way.”
https://www.behance.net/gallery/47415155/The-Cloud-of-Unknowing