December 1-4, 2010 is the live art exhibit in Bahrain that I’ve been invited to join, so I’m preparing for it now. The theme of this Islamic Art Society’s annual Christmas exhibit is that the coming of the prophet Jesus is light for all nations. Since this is the same theme of my recently published book, The Coming, I re-read it and meditated on all the writing and paintings, seeking a way to summarize them together into one painting. The above preliminary sketch is what I was given, and I’m continuing to work out the details.
You can see the samples of fabrics and trim I’m working with, some of which I found in the fabric souk (outdoor market) in Morocco. It was super fun to explore, since I love fabric!
Before I left Morocco for this trip to the Gulf, I figured out the plan for the under-layer of pieced fabric, and sewed it together on a borrowed sewing machine...and I've got plans to stitch a world map onto it before I begin painting on it.
I’ll continue to post as I work on the fabric which fills the lower two thirds and the collage for the top third, as well as all my preliminary drawings of the hands that will be painted.
view the GALLERY of process images for this painting