If you’ve been following my drawings at all, and my Sophia series, you might recognize this wall. It is reminiscent of the wall in my drawing, CAUGHT.
She’s grabbed a sledgehammer and returned to this wall to practice a bit of deconstruction. I believe she’s going to take it down. Stone by stone.
I love this picture because it symbolizes much of what I do. There is a time to build and a time to tear down. There is a time to plant and a time to uproot. Sophia has decided it’s tearing down time.
This is the way I see it: 99% of the problem is the hindrances, barriers, preventions, restrictions, laws, rules, expectations, lies, ideologies, propaganda, assumptions, controls, fences and walls.
They all combine to diminish the human spirit. 99% of my time is spent weeding the garden. Or tearing down the wall.
Own the original drawing.
My name is David Hayward, and I am the nakedpastor. I am a graffiti artist on the walls of religion.
I can relate to this one. Reminds me of the scene of the Spirit clearing the weeds out of the over grown mess of a garden patch in the book, “The Shack.”
kick at the darkness till it bleeds daylight sophia!
Yup…but getting rid of the “hindrances, barriers, preventions, restrictions, laws, rules, expectations, lies, ideologies, propaganda, assumptions, controls, fences and walls.” is darn hard…and a bit scary to a point.
Interesting post, though…it’s where I am right now. It’s taken a lifetime to get here and a lot of experiences.
It will be worth it.
if she needs a hand im available …
haha. perfect! i’ll be there too.
Interestingly, Buddhists feel that correcting our false understanding of “self” is key to undermining these hindrances. I strongly agree but I also think, as David illustrates, it is critically important to see through the obstructions, manipulations, propaganda, rules and controls and walls put up by others — religious or secular.
David, that is a fantastic drawing ! However, she still looks uncertain in this picture — still with a little doubt. I wonder if a coming drawing will be with one leg and shoulder leaning forward and her hammer lifted, and moving forward for determined demolition.
In the beginning much time is spent in deconstructing (John 12:24 Except the grain of wheat falling into the ground die, it abides alone; but if it die, it bears much fruit; but with time the ratio of time spent deconstructing grows less and reconstructing increases.
In the immediate years after my *conversion,* I spent a lot of time wrestling with God. Now I spent more time wrestling with my own dark side.
Maybe age has something to do with it. It has been said that the salient question is: “Is life too short to be taking shit or is life to short to be minding it?”
I thin that when we are young the first proposition is more valid. As we mature and have less energy and time on this good earth, the second is more valid. Part of growing wise is to learn to pick your battles.
Great drawing! Facing the wall, having taken some whacks, but no where near through!
I see her as not as doubting, but assessing the daunting task ahead. It’s a big wall.
Like the coming back from the previous drawing.
@Sabio…
I’m wondering if it is the stance, or perhaps she just needs a better instrument of destruction?
http://www.fastenal.com/web/products/detail.ex?sku=0294800
@Dave…
As I was looking for a good image of a sledge hammer, this image popped up in my search, and I immediately thought of it as a young Sophia…if she had had the chance to question sooner.
http://www.thedirtfloor.com/2011/03/06/sledgehammer-girl-by-dogbyte/
reminds me of Banksy
The image reminds me of the classic song/anthem/manifesto One More Brick in the Wall by Pink Floyd.
And of course the wall is just the very concrete manifestation (and projection) of our mind-forged-manacles.
Sabio, you make an interesting point with the Buddhist perspective. But it seems you contrast the deconstruction of the ego with society’s constructs. However, it appears more and more evident to me that seeing through the “self” requires much seeing through of these constructs. After all, is our concept of self and individuality not, ultimately, an interaction of our limited perspective and society’s operations? I would not say that seeing through ego requires first seeing through social conditioning, but that they are, in fact, one and the same.
The person who deems it necessary to attack or demolish the seeming wall with a sledge hammer is entirely convicted of the same self protective world-view or mind-forged-manacles that created the wall in the first place, and in every now-time moment too.
Good observation, John. It is when we no longer NEED to deconstruct for our OWN sake, that we can begin to deconstruct without rage or resentment for the sake of others rather than for ourselves.
We are not Christ, but if we want to be Christians, we must have some share in Christ’s large-heartedness by acting with responsibility and in freedom when the hour of danger comes, and by showing a real sympathy that springs, not from fear, but from the liberating and redeeming love of Christ for all who suffer. Mere waiting and looking on is not Christian behavior. The Christian is called to sympathy and action, not in the first place by his own sufferings, but by the sufferings of his brethren, for whose sake Christ suffered.
–Dietrich Bonhoeffer