Artist: Rachel Jensen
Title: Creation, Fall, Atonement II
Medium: Original acrylic on wood panel
Size:
Artist Statement:
This painting is inspired by Jared Halverson’s model of faith development . We have times in our life, where things are going well and we live in our beautiful green "Garden of Eden ". Then comes a "fall" - it could be in many forms- illness, death, grief, a trial, faith crisis, challenges that feel insurmountable and cause us to question how we previously viewed life. But if we keep moving forward, even if it feels downward for a while, we can experience growth, (Atonement) which can lead to a perspective that is more beautiful than our original "garden". Our beautiful green garden, after the "fall" becomes more colorful and varied, beyond what we could have imagined. My first iteration of this was more linear, but I believe we cycle through this pattern many times in our lives, thus the circle depicted in this piece. We have times of peace, times for challenges and trial, and times of growth and beauty, and then we may reach a new "normal" and start the process again. The key is to hang on with hope, and to allow ourselves to "fall" so that as we travel through the hard, we can experience growth and understanding beyond what we have previously known.