Reflection on Class Painting

Not only did I do a painting in response to the book of Joel in class, but I also made a water color painting in response to reading it the night before. The painting from the night before depicts God’s judgment and the less appealing visuals from Joel. In class I decided to make a painting contrasting the first. I painted a grape vine and a fig tree both yielding fruit as described by the prophet Joel. Both the tree and the vine are very healthy and lush. The part of Joel being represented in my second painting is speaking about how God will redeem Israel.
Before this class I had never taken such an approach to interpreting literature. I really enjoyed the process and feel I was able to gain much more than I would have been able to just reading Joel silently in my head. The whole process of first reading it to myself, then reading it out loud, and finally illustrating sections of it has really helped to bring the text to life. Before this assignment I tended to associate literature with school assignments and a sense of boredom. Discovering that scripture can is also a form of literature really helped to connect what was required of me to read with what I enjoy to read on my on. Seeing other people’s paintings in class was also an interesting experience. It was nice to see how other people were envisioning the same text. It was possible that this helped shed light more accurately on what the author may have been trying to convey. Over all painting the very visual literature found in the book of Joel serves a great bridge between literature and the upcoming class field trip to an art museum. With out illustrating literature for myself I might not have made the connection between literary and visual art forms.

-Do to technical difficulties the painting will be posted shortly.