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Presenter: Larry_Seiler, -Artist
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Turning now to my presentation, I had prepared a large easel to upright and hold steady my black n' white painting of Jazz. Below the painting, I had put five containers of interior latex paint containing blue, yellow, red, green, and white with a brush in each. I began with my typical humor and candor with the audience, and as a known award winning wildlife artist in our state gave demonstrations of some of my vocalization abilities that call critters in the field. Everything from a river otter to whitetail bucks and does, and even a Canadian goose flock call method I've been told mimics the methods of the early Cree Indians. I then tossed out a couple t-shirts with my designs on them, a few blues CD's of my own and called for a couple volunteers to come up on stage. I had the volunteers put on oversized pants and shirts to act as paint smocks...and then handed each of them a pair of special goggles which when worn cause everything to be seen to simulate the worst stages of drunkenness. I mentioned that my work was a grisalle, a black and white underpainting...that required applications of color over the top to be finished, and gave my volunteers a few minutes to accomplish that for us. As you can imagine, there was staggering around on the part of the painters; good fun for us all, but the end result was this destroyed image below... |
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had some awards for my two volunteers and a round of applause, then
explained at that time the story of "Jazz"...and events leading
up to his being put to sleep. I shared in emotional detail his
antics of licking the tears off my face. I explained that the painting was a tribute on my part, and when compared to my paintings that display in galleries would at this size have been worth between $7,000 to $10,000. I wanted a sense of value and of personal worth to this piece of art understood, because I wanted the transference of "loss" to the audience to be felt. I was setting them up for the metaphor to come. |
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the same way that an accident from the act of driving drunk can take
the life of another innocent person, affecting families with endless
pain and regrets all the way around...I compared how this seemingly
innocent activity enjoyed by all came at the expense of my own
personal loss. Just like drinking can be thought of as having
fun, as is most acts of rebellion and sin...the consequences of such
can destroy. I compared how the goggles the volunteers wore could also represent worldview thinking, or how people in the world see and interpret life. You can believe you are seeing rightly...perhaps painting well, when in fact you are destroying what had intended to be good and true. Believing a lie, they become enemies of truth and all that is good. As such, it is sin. Finally, I compared the work as a type of "Christ" possessing the highest of value, sacrificed and destroyed that the truth of our rebellion, our sin... might be known and atoned for. Like the Father offering his Son to mankind, I felt pain from that which was part of me destroyed by those that did not understand. Though mine was such a minimal act by comparison, (naturally), both were acts of love. I ended the sesson with prayer for salvation and even for inner healing and forgiveness for those that might have wounded others. There was still one more day... |  |
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