God the Geometer.

God the Geometer (from the medieval manuscript Bible moralisée, 1220-1230, France).

 Fused glass powder painting. December 2012.

Would it be interesting to know how everything was created? According to some religions – God created everything twice. The first approach was not successful. God did not like it…

There is something in this version that seems very interesting…

According to the Bible it took God six days to create the world…

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.  And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness.  God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day. And God said, “Let there be a vault between the waters to separate water from water.”  So God made the vault and separated the water under the vault from the water above it. And it was so. God called the vault “sky.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the second day. And God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear.” And it was so. God called the dry ground “land,” and the gathered waters he called “seas.” And God saw that it was good.” (Genesis 1:1-9)

When I saw this painting from the medieval manuscript, called the Bible moralisée which dates back in 1220… I thought it would not be technically possible to create it with glass.

I knew that if I was to create this God the Geometer, I would only get one chance. The importance of this piece for me is such, which you have to do it to the best of your ability. When you are heading into the subject of Creating Worlds you are responsible for the Beauty of the Creation.

I did not know how to make the folds on the robe – technically, it was probably the biggest challenge for me in this project. I wanted the blue dress to look light on Him and aerie and at a same time to show the movement of God’s step. I wanted the reddish chiton to look …aged. At a same time I wanted to have a feeling of there being real folds in his attire. In the glass piece, the lighter folds are actually higher than the darker ones to give the effect of flowing folds.

When I was doing this work – I was trying to think what I would be thinking if I was Creating the World. I would definitely do lots of preliminary thoughts, sketches and measurements. If I was creating worlds myself, I would find it very convenient to have a compass J