Description
On a beautiful cool morning, as the sun rises, the sky lightens and rays of sunlight cause the ripened fruit to glow, the farmers begin to work. The fruit is a gift of their labor. Some tend to the plants and others the soil.
They gather the blessings of an abundant harvest. They work together to support their families. With gratitude, they share their harvest with their community.
Our God has blessed the earth
with a wonderful harvest!
– Psalm 67:6
As long as humans have existed, we’ve turned to art to express the inexpressible.
Mircea Eliade writes that, “sacred art seeks to represent the invisible by means of the visible. . . . Even in archaic and ‘folk’ cultures, lacking any philosophical system and vocabulary, the function of sacred art was the same: it translated religious experience and a metaphysical conception of the world and of human existence into a concrete, representational form. This translation was not considered wholly the work of man: the divinity also participated by revealing himself to man and allowing himself to be perceived in form or figure.”
Richard Rohr, Art and Poetry, Sept. 30, 2015
PSALM 67 represents to me something of what this description points to, a revelation of something deeper. The abundance of the harvest touches something in me.
-Br. Ignatius Sudol, O.H.
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PSALM 67- Image History of Gardening and Planting A few of the paintings and sketches which helped me to develop PSALM 67. |
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TREE PLANTING |
TREE PLANTING |
TREE PLANTING |
TREE PLANTING |
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GARDENERS |
GARDENERS |
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PSALM 85 |
Psalm 85 |
PSALM 85 |
PSALM 85 |
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ABRAHAM AND ISSAC |
ABRAHAM AND ISSAC (detail) |
ABRAHAM AND ISSAC (detail) |
ABRAHAM AND ISSAC (detail) |
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THE LAST SUPPER |
THE LAST SUPPER (details) |
THE LAST SUPPER (details) |
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THE GARDENERS: PSALM 67 |
THE GARDENERS: PSALM 67 |
THE GARDENERS: PSALM 67 |
THE GARDENERS: PSALM 67 |
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PSALM 67- Giclee Printing
In February, 2014, the John August Swanson Studio borrowed Mr. Swanson’s 1989 painting, The Gardeners from the collection of Harold and Bonnie Shimmin. The original painting was scanned at 512 dots per inch, at ArtScans Studio in Los Angeles. This file was digitally lightened and enhanced under the direction of John August Swanson, and a single giclee was printed on January 21, 2015.Over the course of the next six months, John August Swanson created a new, brighter, and more elaborate painting from the work.On July 31, 2015, the newly completed painting was sent to ArtScans Studio to be scanned at 512 dots per inch,. The digital file was then delivered to the Swanson Studio on August 5, 2015.On August 7, 2015, the enhanced digital file was sent to Kolibri Art Studio in Torrance, CA, and a proof was printed. Under the supervision of John August Swanson, additional color changes and details, both scanned hand drawn and digital, were added to the digital file. The final and completed giclee image file was sent to Kolibri Art Studio on September 9, 2015 for printing.On October 2, 2015, the first twenty giclee prints were delivered and approved by John August Swanson. |
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THE GARDENERS 1989-2015
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Scan of 1989 Painting |
Lightened and Digitally Enhanced Scan THE GARDENERS |
Photo Of Completed 2015 Painting THE GARDENERS: PSALM 67 |
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PSALM 67 Scan to Final Giclee
8/5/15 – 9/9/2015
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Scan of Completed 2015 |
Initial Color Changes Made to Scan PSALM 67 |
Completed Giclee File PSALM 67 |
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Reflections on PSALM 67
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David Farley California-Pacific Conference United Methodist Church
Director of Justice and Compassion Ministries |
For those who work on the land, for those who plant the seed, |
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Saint Isidore the Farmer
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Father and Divine Creator, we thank You for the example of St. Isidore the Farmer and ask for Your blessing on our crops and labor, as we walk humbly in his footsteps and toil in our gardens and fields. Instill in us the virtues of patience and industry, so that in the evening of life we may yield an abundant harvest of good works and worthy sacrifice. We ask this through Christ, Your Son and Our Lord. Amen.
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Carl Jung (artwork-
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No noble, well grown tree ever disowned its dark roots, for it grows
not only upwards but downwards as well.   |
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David Gill Art-Nonsense
and other Essays
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Though not every man is called to the life of religion, every man is called to love of God and every man is called to give love to the work of his hands; every man is called to be an artist.
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Wendell Berry |
The soil is the great connector of lives, the source and destination of all. It is the healer and restorer and resurrector, by which disease passes into health, age into youth, death into life. Without proper care for it we can have no community, because without proper care for it we can have no life.
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Richard Rohr, |
As long as humans have existed, it seems that we’ve turned to art to express the inexpressible. Mircea Eliade (1907-1986), Romanian historian of religion, writes that “sacred art seeks to represent the invisible by means of the visible. . . . Even in archaic and ‘folk’ cultures, lacking any philosophical system and vocabulary, the function of sacred art was the same: it translated religious experience and a metaphysical conception of the world and of human existence into a concrete, representational form. This translation was not considered wholly the work of man: the divinity also participated by revealing himself to man and allowing himself to be perceived in form or figure.” PSALM 67 represents to me something of what this description points to, a revelation of something deeper. The abundance of the harvest touches something in me. |
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Leave This |
Whom dost thou worship in this lonely dark corner of a temple with doors all shut? Open thine eyes and see thy God is not before thee! He is there where the tiller is tilling the hard ground and where the path-maker is breaking stones. He is with them in sun and in shower, and his garment is covered with dust. Put off thy holy mantle and even like him come down on the dusty soil! Deliverance? Where is this deliverance to be found? Our master himself has joyfully taken upon him the bonds of creation; he is bound with us all for ever. Come out of thy meditations and leave aside thy flowers and incense! What harm is there if thy clothes become tattered and stained? Meet him and stand by him in toil and in sweat of thy brow. |
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A Prayer Before Nature Calligraphy by John August Swanson |
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A Turkish Muslim woman Calligraphy by John August Swanson |
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Wandering |
“Trees are sanctuaries. Whoever knows how to speak to them, whoever knows how to listen to them, can learn the truth. They do not preach learning and precepts, they preach, undeterred by particulars, the ancient law of life.” “For me, trees have always been the most penetrating preachers. I revere them when they live in tribes and families, in forests and groves. And even more I revere them when they stand alone. They are like lonely persons. Not like hermits who have stolen away out of some weakness, but like great, solitary men, like Beethoven and Nietzsche. In their highest boughs the world rustles, their roots rest in infinity; but they do not lose themselves there, they struggle with all the force of their lives for one thing only: to fulfill themselves according to their own laws, to build up their own form, to represent themselves. Nothing is holier, nothing is more exemplary than a beautiful, strong tree. When a tree is cut down and reveals its naked death-wound to the sun, one can read its whole history in the luminous, inscribed disk of its trunk: in the rings of its years, its scars, all the struggle, all the suffering, all the sickness, all the happiness and prosperity stand truly written, the narrow years and the luxurious years, the attacks withstood, the storms endured. And every young farm boy knows that the hardest and noblest wood has the narrowest rings, that high on the mountains and in continuing danger the most indestructible, the strongest, the ideal trees grow.” |
