EPPH - Every Painter Paints Himself

Understanding how you are God

If you want a short and concise explanation of how today's mystical Christians think about God, read Carl McColman's excellent post on Does God = Consciousness? He responds to the letter of a theoretical physicist trying to reconcile his work with his spirituality. He explains how God resides in a point of nothingness inside us at our very core. It is a point that cannot be argued with or even thought about. It can only be approached in silence and understood in silence.

How Edouard Manet, the young and urbane Parisian with no known interest in spiritual matters, could zero in on that subject (above left) while he was still quite young is one of art's characteristic mysteries. He turned the monk in Fra Angelico's fresco into an alter ego holding a portfolio of drawings. He did so by changing the dimensions of the original book (possibly a Bible) into the characteristic shape of an artist's carrying-case. See his contemporaneous etching of a portfolio above right. It is larger but of similar shape. My personal belief is that true artists, great artists, are on a different plane than you or I; they learn spirituality intuitively with the help of earlier artists, then pass it on themselves, picture by picture, while remaining silent.