Submission; May the Spirit Go with You
During a 2004 sabbatical leave from Dordt, I proposed to produce new paintings, Plene Air style and a secondary interest in printmaking and ceramic sculpture. The paintings were difficult. My advice is to not drop techniques that you finally master, and for me, 20 years was a long time to get my painting legs back; I did get them back, but not before deviating to stone lithography and clay sculpture that came more naturally to me having kept those skills up. I produced several promising 3ft tall figurative works in stoneware and porcelain clay and one in particular, called Submission, involved an angelic figure locked behind the arms and embracing an ambiguous, anthropomorphic form. It has held a strong interest for me and in 2017, I completed a 5ft tall, 485 lb. version in stoneware in 3 sections. The following is a statement for the work:
The essential female figure represents both vulnerability and acceptance of complete control; submission to a higher force. The newest work is larger, more complex, and also has spiritual undertones. I have worked with Angel entities; the investigation of the mystery of celestial beings through a variety of images in drawings, prints, and clay sculpture for the past 45 years. See https://jakevanwyk.com/artwork/fine-art-prints-drawings/gallery/ and https://jakevanwyk.com/artwork/clay-vessels-sculpture/gallery/ Submission took on a life of its own during creation with the intertwining figures and additional limbs suggesting simultaneous support and constraint. This is a natural outcome of this method of working as one must allow the lower portions to dry enough to support the weight of the clay as it builds up and planning must proceed in-progress with few changes possible on the lower portions due to the drying clay.
From another artist: “Thank you for sharing your powerful work. It transcends any interpretation that I try to place on it, and yet evokes a sense of strength and beauty in its ‘struggle’ which is further enhanced by the use of blue on the front figure. I keep moving from front to back, female to male, and then another interpretation presents itself. Inspiring, beautiful, professional piece of art. “ Most who view the work, are positively impacted, often not knowing what to say, but moved in-spite of its ambiguity. It also won a best of Show at a regional show at Northwestern College, Orange City, where 140 works were submitted and 40 were displayed. While the responses were encouraging, one never quite knows how edgy works may be received, and I often think of a quote I recently became aware of from an art student at Dordt in connection with a work such as Submission. ‘Art comforts the disturbed, and disturbs the comfortable.’ The latest display of Apocalyptic Vision exhibit, where Submission was initially included, was in November 2023 at Dordt University. Many of these pieces included the mystery of Angels, the depiction and emphasis of Eyes, and animals in strife as metaphors for human struggle were also seen in the 2014 Angel Beast exhibit at Dordt. Though the general feeling and response to this work continued to be disturbing, two large works were asked to be removed; deemed too disturbing, too much nudity, and possibly offensive to visitors given the public location of the art gallery in the Campus Center. Ironically, Submission was deemed to be too challenging, along with Resurrection the Gift of Life, a direct interpretation of Revelations 12, an account of the ten crowned dragon, about to devour a child about to be born. While I didn’t hesitate to remove the works, it still was a bit troubling to see a celebrated piece pulled and after thinking about the concept and history of rejection in past art works, I was moved to write an article about the experience, and it was published in the December Arts Issue of 2024. You can read it at . The reception for the 2023 exhibit was well attended and my essential defense then as well as in the article was the same as Vincent Van Gogh’s response to a priest’s accusation that he found his work to be disturbing and ugly. His, and my response is to ask why God would give us the gift of art to do ugly and disturbing work.