Mercy
Acrylic on Canvas 48"x36" - Montreal 2018 - [Micah 6:8] - I remember as I painted this image being absorbed into the song, You’re Carrying Me. The colors were running freely as I rotated the canvas. The passion of yellow, orange, and red are the backdrop against which the contrasting purples ran. I was drawn to the interplay between the two faces and their posture toward each other. The woman embraces the man. The profile of the female face looking upward for strength is not strained, but at one with mercy. The man is bowed to receive that mercy. In Hebrew, the word for mercy or kindness is ‘chêsêd’. It literally means to bow in respect for another's value. To show mercy, a king might bow to another as a sign of equality or to say all debt between the two is removed. Mercy releases the power of the debt. The purple running from left to right articulates the majesty within the source of the woman’s actions. She offers the undeserved freely in the same way God has done for this whole world. The head of the man looks almost like the sphere of this world within the embrace of the creator.
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