Contemplation

Solitude.

A painting of a desert recluse.

Brothers Of The TAU

This painting I am working on is of a Religious Orders of Brothers that use the Greek letter 'Tau'

on their habits.

Note: St. Francis of Assisi marked his very first habit, a peasant's cloak, with

a 'T' in the front with a piece of chalk. He was always fond of the Greek 'Tau'

because of its visual association with the Cross of Christ. In the only handwriting of his

preserved, a blessing he wrote to his dear friend Bro. Leo,  one can see that he signed it with a 'T'.

In a quiet place

A recluse in the woods.

Happy feast of St. Joseph

Fleeing the world

I have just finished a piece called FLEEING THE WORLD.

It presents the viewer with a woman, looking back over her shoulder and hand outstretched. By her gesture we are told to stop; to not follow but let her go on into the dark arched tunnel.

What inspired this work was a good deal of thought and reading on a subject quite un related yet not really. I have been reading and reflecting on St. Francis of Assisi and his love of solitude. There was always a little bit of the eremetical calling in him. He prefered remote mountain places for his abode. During the time before he left the world he was wont to go up into the old Etruscan tombs on Mt. Subasio (or caves) and there to give himself to continual prayer to better know the God who was calling him to an intimate and most dramatic calling.

Many are the great hermits and anchorites of centuries past who fled society and it's corruptness to the spirit.

And so my woman does the same. She wants no attention from the world, no praise for her act. She seeks only paradise and the things of paradise.