Description
Biblical artwork based on a powerful personal experience.
I made this Biblical artwork after one of my sojourns in the Sinai desert. The scenery is based on an actual place in the mountains of the high Sinai, where I came across a walled garden filled with huge boulders. The Burning Bush is shown within a similar garden, and Moses is standing on a boulder, outside the garden, while being addressed by G-d. He is dwarfed by the scale of everything around him. To the right is a large bastion-like, stepped structure. To me this symbolized the Egyptian establishment. Moses had to step outside of this in order to meet G-d. In the background, on another mountain, are two people sitting around a campfire, maybe drinking tea. This is to suggest that the miracle of the burning bush happened in the midst of ordinary life. What miracles are happening today, that we just miss while we’re having our tea?
וַיֹּ֖אמֶר אַל־תִּקְרַ֣ב הֲלֹ֑ם שַׁל־נְעָלֶ֨יךָ֙ מֵעַ֣ל רַגְלֶ֔יךָ כִּ֣י הַמָּק֗וֹם אֲשֶׁ֤ר אַתָּה֙ עוֹמֵ֣ד עָלָ֔יו אַדְמַת־קֹ֖דֶשׁ הֽוּא
“Do not come closer. Take your shoes from your feet, because the place upon which you stand is holy soil,” says G-d to Moses. ( Exodus / Shemot, 3.5 )
For a deeper discussion of this Torah portion, the late Rabbi Jonathan Sacks is a good starting point, here.
A sense of awe.
When traveling in the Sinai, I felt a sense of spiritual awe in the presence of the immutable mountains, the huge prevailing silence, and the warm breath of the wind. This is the feeling that I wanted to convey in my painting, and that’s why it’s a little different from most of my other Biblical artwork.
(Full image below)
