C.S. Lewis = inspiration

I was recently asked to pick a book and lead discussion for a book club and I picked C.S. Lewis's "The Great Divorce." The leader of the book club knew of my Aslan painting and asked if I would talk about the way C.S. Lewis inspired my artwork, too.

Aslan, lost in the toy room behind piles of puzzles.

Lately, I've been trying to rediscover some of my old dreams, and this inspiration points to one of my dream projects that I'd like to re-discover.  I painted the above painting, and all the below sketches (except one) around eight years ago. When I was painting Aslan, I dreamed of painting a whole series of religious symbolism in the Chronicles of Narnia. Aslan, obviously, is the Christ.

The second painting would be the Crucifixion, but I think I would title it "Breaking the bonds of death." I planned on having a detailed stone table with a crack down the middle. In the background would be a dramatic sunrise framed by the silhouettes of arching branches.

I remember after sketching this being really disappointed at the precarious look and frailty of the stone table. Breaking the bonds of death is a big deal, a miracle, not something that could happen casually because of poor construction. I compare the stone table to the rent in the temple veil after Christ died on the cross. They say the temple veil was a hand's width thick. I've also heard three inches and four inches. I don't have any authoritative sources for that information, but that's what I imagine when I think of a rent veil. It was a completely impossible, miraculous miracle that the veil was ripped. I wanted the stone table to feel that way, too.

So I did research on historical and fictional sacrificial tables/altars and languages. I eventually felt like the one in the middle of the right page below gave the feel I was looking for, inspired by a sacrificial table from Luxor, Egypt, engraved with a language that I made up.

The third painting would be the Resurrection. When Aslan goes to the White Queen's court filled with creatures she has turned to stone, he breathes on them and brings them back to life, one by one. I envisioned a massive courtyard completely filled with dynamic creatures. The left half of the image would be vibrant with color and motion, Lucy dancing with Mr. Tumnus in unbridled joy, characters embracing each other again after untold amounts of time being separated by the immobility of stone. The right half of the image would be dark, dreary and gray, creatures frozen in stone, bodies in various positions. The legs of the giant would have color growing up from the feet, slowly working up the legs while Susan watched in amazement. The center of the image would be Aslan, calmly, patiently working his way through the courtyard. His regal calm is in contrast to the chaotic joy around him.

I'm kind of embarrassed by this sketch. I had clearly been sketching a lot of lions around this time, because Aslan seemed easy and well proportioned. My horses are atrocious. I have a unicorn, a pegasus, a centaur, and a generic horse rear in this that all need a tremendous amount of realistic horse character. I had another page where I wrote a list of all the creatures listed in the courtyard from the book, and on that page I had a few sketches that were similarly embarrassing (I didn't take a photo of that page).

Coming back to this 8 years later, it's obvious that this painting is the one that will take the most work, preparation, creativity, planning, etc. So, a couple weeks ago I rented a "how to draw horses" book from the library. I always disliked those kinds of books, but I needed to start somewhere. Here are some of my sketches from the past couple weeks.

The first three paintings came from The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, but the rest of my ideas for religious symbolism come from other books in the series. In The Magician's Nephew, we hear the story of the creation of Narnia. One scene in the book struck me as a particularly stunning image representing Adam and Eve struggling over the forbidden fruit, which in this case is a bell that they are not supposed to ring. This painting would be called Forbidden Fruit. The sketch is only vaguely suggestive, and might not make sense unless you've read the book.

Make your choice, adventurous Stranger;

Strike the bell and bide the danger,

Or wonder, till it drives you mad,

What would have followed if you had.

One of the things that is so fascinating to me about this "Eden" as it would be, is the static nature of the world the two main characters were on. There were hundreds of people who were completely static figures. The room was filled with magic, but nothing could change... until the bell was hit. Our understanding of Eden is similar in that everything in the Garden remained the same until the first transgression.

I also had ideas for Repentence (Eustace as the Dragon in Voyage of the Dawn Treader) and several other gospel topics that escape me now. I'm kind of fired up about it again, but I don't know how realistic it is that I'll be able to work on this series. I'll see what I can do and keep you updated.