{"id":4695,"date":"2015-12-23T00:02:07","date_gmt":"2015-12-23T07:02:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/egallery\/?p=4695"},"modified":"2015-12-23T10:42:18","modified_gmt":"2015-12-23T17:42:18","slug":"christ-of-the-cosmos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/egallery\/2015\/12\/23\/christ-of-the-cosmos\/","title":{"rendered":"Christ of the Cosmos"},"content":{"rendered":"

I read in the paper that the Dana Point Boat Parade of Lights is themed, “A Galactic Holiday.” I had no idea we were thinking along the same lines when I painted my version of the Nativity. The difference: The yachts-folk were thinking Star Wars<\/em>. I was thinking Jesus<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"NativScene-detail\"<\/a><\/p>\n

“Detail,”\u00a0click on picture for larger view.<\/h6>\n

My friend Christine Gunn-Danforth asked me to do it. She commissioned ten or so artists to depict various aspects of the Christmas story to display in Barrington, Illinois, near\u00a0Chicago. Mine was the Nativity itself. Two weeks ago Anne and I traveled there to present it. Above is a detail.\u00a0Keep scrolling for the full picture.<\/p>\n

\"NativScene-final\"<\/a><\/p>\n

“Creator\u00a0of the Cosmos in a Manger<\/em>,” oil on canvas print, 80×32.
\nClick, and then again, for larger view.<\/h6>\n

Now you’ll see what I mean by “Galactic Holiday.” Not only was it\u00a0a starry night, if they’d had the Hubble telescope they’d have wondered beyond wonder. I heard on NPR that there are 100-billion stars in our galaxy, and there are 100-billion galaxies that we know of! \u00a0It’s too much to fathom.<\/p>\n

Here’s another beyond fathoming: The whole thing was\u00a0created and sustained by the One who came to earth that night.*<\/p>\n

The names in the sky\u00a0are two genealogies, separating off and joining back again. The documentation was necessary:\u00a0Messiah would come through a certain line. Whether he knew it or not, step-father<\/em> Joseph was qualified to be king. I took liberties; I gave him a purple robe.<\/p>\n

The Virgin Mary would not likely have been wearing red, but I like red. So\u00a0does God. Witness those bantam hens.<\/p>\n

Then there are the shepherds who came to check. Not that gawking at babies is generally a man thing; they were confirming their non-hallucination in the field . . . radiant\u00a0personages\u00a0breaking though with a message not to miss.<\/p>\n

Regarding that central star, a viewer identified it\u00a0as Vega<\/em>. \u00a0So I looked it up. Vega<\/em> is our brightest star, 25 light years away, and still in our galaxy! It’s not the star of the Biblical\u00a0account, but so be that, it serves a purpose in my painting . . . star reflecting star.<\/p>\n

\"NativScene-in-process\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Here’s the painting as it was coming together. It’s the size of a door (on which it was later mounted). You’ll note my ironing board palette and my ladder for the upper reaches. As I painted, I listened to Handel’s Messiah,<\/em>\u00a0receiving\u00a0new insights right along about the wonder of it all. Rarely do I call painting a “spiritual experience,” except this time.<\/p>\n

It is a galactic holiday, indeed.
\n________
\n*Psalm 8:1-4, John 1:1-3, Colossians 1:13-20, Hebrews 1:1-3, 10<\/em><\/p>\n

________<\/p>\n

Painting Live Christmas Eve<\/h1>\n

I’ll be sharing all this, plus making a new rendition of the painting, live, during\u00a0the candlelight Christmas\u00a0Eve service at Heritage Christian Fellowship.
\nTimes: 3:00 and 5:00 pm.
\nAddress: 190 Avenida La Pata, San Clemente.
\nAll welcome.
\nWould be great to see you there.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s a painting for the season, with fresh insights . . . along with an invitation to see it come alive on Christmas eve.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/egallery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4695"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/egallery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/egallery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/egallery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/egallery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4695"}],"version-history":[{"count":54,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/egallery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4695\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4754,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/egallery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4695\/revisions\/4754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/egallery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4695"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/egallery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4695"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/egallery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4695"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}