Natural Growth

One of the things I love about being an artist is the freedom that comes with creation.  Most of my pieces I create because I love the process, I like the combinations and colors I use, and the end result is aesthetically pleasing to me.  In this case I leave it up to others to see what they will.  Sometimes, however, I have a deeper meaning in mind when I pull a piece together.  This is one of the occasions when that deeper meaning pushed through as I was working.

I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, or the Mormon church as some refer to it.  One of the things we believe is that God still speaks to his children today, through prophets and apostles.  One of the ways this belief is manifest is through our recognition of additional scripture, most notably the Book of Mormon.  The reason I mention this is this piece was based on the following verse from this book of scripture.

“For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be forever and ever unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy spirit and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father.” (Mosiah 3:19)

Now I realize there is a lot we could talk about in this verse.  What I focused on was the natural man, what happens to us when we pursue our own carnal, physical natures instead of turning to Christ and striving to emulate him through the atonement.  The red background I saw as the perfect “soil” for evil growth.  We each have misconceptions or attitudes that make it difficult for more Christlike growth.  The black pieces are the results of those attitudes- the habits we develop as we give into our own selfishness.