Under the influence

One of the workshops for the upcoming Trinity Institute will involve meditation and journaling exercises on the the Cross of Christ. ECVA's Executive Directer has been compiling images from archived exhibitions and blog posts to be used during the workshop, and in a recent email she observed to me that spending so much time looking at crosses and crucifixes was having a strong emotional impact on her.

Could it be that my reading of her note triggered this weekend's painting? It wouldn't be the first time that something I read, heard, or experienced influenced a painting... Not that I set out to create a crucifix; not that it really even IS a crucifix. But the shape is undeniable, and the random splatters somehow don't look quite that random in the finished work.

Another gentle reminder that we are strongly influenced by our emotional environments: even an email can resonate long after a computer is shut down. Or perhaps it's simply the power of that image, of the cross...