Copyright © Edward Riojas
Some may have noticed that my posts have become a bit irregular. Normally, I'm a creature of habit and follow a rather ordered life. But life is not always ordered.
I am still certainly creating sacred art and I am still hammering away at the mountain of work before me. I have, however, other vocations. One of them is that of son.
I looked through my handbook of life and could not find anywhere the chapter on cancer and aging mothers. I suspect, though, that I will be able to write a detailed chapter on the subject when all is said and done.
My mother was in a select group of society who were not dealt a good hand when all gathered at a table to play this game of pandemic. Contrary to what our governor declared, we were NOT all in this together. Those who were just short of diagnosis had to wait. Those who were in the middle of treatment had to wait. Only those relative few with a virus were given preferential treatment. But cancer doesn't care. Or wait.
Now I am in the midst of finally helping my Mom through the seemingly countless hoops that come before radiation therapy can begin. My job; my vocation as son is to give her support. My vocation now is to give her smiles when I am hurting inside. My job is to get her to appointments that must first give her pain before she has a chance to feel better. My job is to be the rock that my late father would have been. My job sucks, but it is MY job, and I will do it to the best of my ability. This is what the Good Lord is calling me to do.
So please forgive me if my other vocation of sacred artist is not always in the front seat; forgive me if the posts are infrequent or are not so "happy-clappy;" forgive me if it seems I am being lazy. Please pray that I faithfully perform my vocations - all of them - to the best of my ability.
Friday, July 31, 2020
Friday, July 17, 2020
“Ode to the Age of Innocence”
Copyright © Edward Riojas
Among the many casualties of the Covid-19 pandemic was the cancellation of ArtPrize 2020. Just when artists had gotten used to the every-other-year format and had ignored the inconsequential in-between event, a dumb virus unleashed wholesale paranoia on just about every county fair, concert, and festival in the land. The event which drew hundreds of thousands of visitors to sidewalks and venues was doomed months before its mid-September start date. Social distancing simply could not handle those kinds of numbers.
To be fair, babysitting my piece for days on end was a sure way to come down with some kind of illness. It sometimes seemed as if I inherited the flue, cholera, typhus, and schistosomiasis all at once. Visitors like to get up close and personal with art and artists, and handshakes come with the territory. So do germs.
Unfortunately, some of us artists put considerable time into our pieces, and this year was no exception. Finished pieces might be accepted in a future ArtPrize, but careful wording of the cancellation announcement gave no such certainty. Hence, I feel obliged to give a digital unveiling of my entry, “Ode to the Age of Innocence.”
This piece, of course, comes from a very different facet of my work than what some are normally accustomed. It is not a sacred piece, and it is not quite illustration. This is the fourth large installment of a ‘troll’ painting.
Like my other paintings of the same genre, it is intentionally vague, while avoiding hidden agendas, allegory, and double entendres. It is unassuming. If the viewer can suspend every urge to place meaning where there is none [including nonsensical ‘White entitlement’], then the tableau opens with child-like wonderment. Even the puzzled trolls are disarming. The figures give a vague nod to the children’s book illustrations of Scandinavia, and one senses a story, but the real intent is simple to enjoy a view through a child’s eye and hearken to former days when things were more simple. And simply imaginative.
Neither I, nor anyone else could foresee the events that would transpire the past months. The fact that our senses have been assaulted on several fronts makes this piece more refreshing than it might normally be. This is where the fine arts have massive power to transport us.
‘Ode’ not only suggests a place and time in our imaginative memory, but it also draws on associated feelings. Perhaps the viewer will smile. Perhaps the viewer will think of something from a different, but pleasant, context. The greatest achievement artists can accomplish is tricking the viewer into forgetting, if only for a moment, the problems of this sorry world, and confront instead a complex illusion made with bits of paint on a flat surface.
........................................
Giclée prints of cover art, “Ode to the Age of Innocence,” are available from the artist. Prints are signed, and domestic shipping is included for U.S. residents. Sizes/Prices for prints:
20.5” x 36” / $160
17” x 30” / $130
13.6” x 24” / $100
10.25” x 18” / $80
To order, or for more information about this print or any other that I offer, please e-mail me at edriojasartist@gmail.com
Among the many casualties of the Covid-19 pandemic was the cancellation of ArtPrize 2020. Just when artists had gotten used to the every-other-year format and had ignored the inconsequential in-between event, a dumb virus unleashed wholesale paranoia on just about every county fair, concert, and festival in the land. The event which drew hundreds of thousands of visitors to sidewalks and venues was doomed months before its mid-September start date. Social distancing simply could not handle those kinds of numbers.
To be fair, babysitting my piece for days on end was a sure way to come down with some kind of illness. It sometimes seemed as if I inherited the flue, cholera, typhus, and schistosomiasis all at once. Visitors like to get up close and personal with art and artists, and handshakes come with the territory. So do germs.
 |
| "Ode to the Age of Innocence." Edward Riojas. 2020. Oil on panel. |
This piece, of course, comes from a very different facet of my work than what some are normally accustomed. It is not a sacred piece, and it is not quite illustration. This is the fourth large installment of a ‘troll’ painting.
Like my other paintings of the same genre, it is intentionally vague, while avoiding hidden agendas, allegory, and double entendres. It is unassuming. If the viewer can suspend every urge to place meaning where there is none [including nonsensical ‘White entitlement’], then the tableau opens with child-like wonderment. Even the puzzled trolls are disarming. The figures give a vague nod to the children’s book illustrations of Scandinavia, and one senses a story, but the real intent is simple to enjoy a view through a child’s eye and hearken to former days when things were more simple. And simply imaginative.
Neither I, nor anyone else could foresee the events that would transpire the past months. The fact that our senses have been assaulted on several fronts makes this piece more refreshing than it might normally be. This is where the fine arts have massive power to transport us.
‘Ode’ not only suggests a place and time in our imaginative memory, but it also draws on associated feelings. Perhaps the viewer will smile. Perhaps the viewer will think of something from a different, but pleasant, context. The greatest achievement artists can accomplish is tricking the viewer into forgetting, if only for a moment, the problems of this sorry world, and confront instead a complex illusion made with bits of paint on a flat surface.
........................................
Giclée prints of cover art, “Ode to the Age of Innocence,” are available from the artist. Prints are signed, and domestic shipping is included for U.S. residents. Sizes/Prices for prints:
20.5” x 36” / $160
17” x 30” / $130
13.6” x 24” / $100
10.25” x 18” / $80
To order, or for more information about this print or any other that I offer, please e-mail me at edriojasartist@gmail.com
Friday, July 10, 2020
“The Axe Is Laid”
Copyright © Edward Riojas
Some of us grew up having school teachers who gave subtle hints that we shouldn’t trifle with them. You know who they were. Those particular teachers didn’t necessarily incessantly yell or haul students by the ear out of the classroom and into the scholastic netherworld or burden students with punitive tasks. Those teachers simply made sure a yard stick was visible for all to see. Perhaps they would conspicuously place it on the chalkboard’s bottom rail [even though measuring was rarely needed]. Maybe they gently laid it on their desk at the start of the day. We all knew what its presence meant, and most, if not all, students strove to keep that yardstick in its place.
A while back I was asked by Rev. Michael Holmen to create cover art for a newly released book, “The Hardening of Israel’s Heart & The Hardening of Heart in the Church.” Holmen edited the volume, which was written by Rev. Paul Hensel and translated by Floyd Brand.
Several visual concepts were fused into one simple image for the cover art, but the theme lays heavily on the scathing words of John the Forerunner:
“But when [John] saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father,’ for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”” (Matthew 3:7-10)
Because the thrust of the book is on hardening, however, I pushed John’s visual a bit further in time. While the axe is an inanimate object, the tree begins to throw itself to the wind. Without taking in nourishment from the ground, its foliage scatters; its limbs bleach; its life wanes. This is a tree that has ignored the axe. This is a tree that strives to be something it is not. The tree’s future is foreshadowed as dropping leaves reveal a not-so-subtle skull of death.
While we may chastise, with 20/20 theological hindsight, the hardened, foolish Israelites or the wayward early Church, John’s warning is certainly for us also. We simply cannot live on our own without the life-giving waters that flow from our Savior’s side. We dare not attempt to ignore the Gospel in preference of our own supposed goodness. Our limbs will surely fail when we lift them up to the ugly persuits of man instead of the glory of our Lord. To that end, it is wise to listen carefully to the Forerunner’s admonition; to see in our mind’s eye that yardstick gently laid for all to see. The sharpened axe is indeed laid at the root of the tree.
........................................
Giclée prints of cover art, “The Axe is Laid at the Root of the Tree,” are available from the artist. Prints are signed, and domestic shipping is included for U.S. residents. Sizes/Prices for prints:
21” x 30” / $150
17” x 24” / $120
12.7” x 18” / $80
To order, or for more information about this print or any other that I offer, please e-mail me at edriojasartist@gmail.com
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