This page describes the object/painting Faith, but this painting is closely related to 2 other artworks by Akaija & Art: the painting Rose and the symbol Two Roads. The common thread here is the Two Roads project by Eliza White Buffalo.
Faith came into existence after meditating on Into the West
In 2003, I had already created a painting titled Into the West, a meditation painting that derives its title from a song by Annie Lennox, which is known as the soundtrack that is played after the final shots are shown of the final part of Lord of the Rings. Credits are given to the many people who contributed to this amazing movie.
Only a year later, in 2004 did I finally do what I told others to do with the painting Into the West: meditate on it. In the center is a vanishing point where you can ‘lose’ yourself, but the snakes guard you.
I think that after about fifteen minutes, I got an idea for a new form, in which the Holy Grail and a Celtic cross could be combined into one object. I rarely or never see anything finished in my imagination. I just have to start and then see where I end up.
However, this Holy Grail should in my mind,not be seen as a beautiful cup from the front, but viewed from an angle above! So that you can also see the contents, which is what it’s about. From directly above, you see the Grail as a round shape, but from an angle above, it becomes an oval. Here are a few sketches…
Faith - The Making Of
I was not yet aware of how inspiration works, shortly after Linda’s passing. ‘They’ (those who inspire me) are invisible and inaudible to me. But I already knew that ‘they’ (I assume being Linda one of them) would guide me step by step, starting with a ‘vague idea.’ I thought: “Once I begin with that, the next step will naturally follow over time.”
If I do it ‘right,’ it feels like a kind of click, like ‘yes, that’s it!’ Everything then aligns perfectly.
So I started with a Celtic cross, a cross with four equal arms and a circle. I drew this using the computer. The beauty of computers is that you can always take a step back if something doesn’t please you. On the other hand, they are so complicated that you may hours searching for a function, while you could draw it with a pencil in a few seconds.
Then I tilted the whole thing, creating an oval with a flattened cross. That was a step in the right direction, but ‘something’ still wasn’t right. What else could I think of? What is that function in drawing programs called again? Oh yes… ‘add perspective’!
When I did that, I was amazed at what happened, because the flattened Celtic cross suddenly became a Christian cross. I find such things wonderful… you just do something, and suddenly you see a completely unexpected effect that is exactly what you need. Because this immediately gave me that ‘yes’ feeling.
What still needed to be done was to create the bowl shape of the Holy Grail. How on Earth was I going to make that? Painting on a flat canvas is really easier. Yet… in the old days painters like Rembrandt had to make their own paints… part of the job. No worries about that now. Let me save the creation of the bowl shape for a plaster workshop somewhere in the future. Because that’s what I used: plaster bandage.
Below you can see the result six months later.
The red stone, which still has a role to play, can be seen in close up. It’s an artificially created lab grown ruby. It fits inside an 18 carat golden setting in the shape of an Akaija.
Now we needed a name for this object. In Dutch, I thought of Faith, because it had everything to do with crosses. However, in Dutch, there is a religious connotation to it, and I wanted to avoid that. The Dutch word for Faith is ‘Geloof’ and this is more like ‘believing’..
The English ‘Faith’ is stronger. It can also indicate trust, really trusting that everything is all right. At least, that is my thought as none-native English speaker..
This object measures just over 1.10 meters horizontally. It is made of wood and special plaster bandages. A red stone is hung on an invisible thread, set in a golden Akaija. The stone is a laboratory ruby of about 3 cm in size.
I had wondered about this… Should there be a stone there? But it felt right that there should be a red stone. Don’t ask me why. Linda… it must be her!
How important that detail was I learned much later when we came into contact with Eliza White Buffalo and the Two Roads, where the Red Stone of Power appears in almost exactly the same form.
All in all, I considered Faith a combination of several very important symbols in the world: the Holy Grail, all the Christian Crosses, the orthodox crosses, the Maltese Cross, the Celtic Cross, etc.
Mission accomplished, I thought. Next project.
But I had misjudged that. Read what happened a few years ago, because ‘Faith’ is closely connected to 2 other artworks by Akaija & Art: the painting ‘Rose‘ and the symbol ‘Two Roads‘. The common thread here is the concept of the Two Roads, a concept that was passed on by Spirit to the Lakota Holy Man Nicholas Black Elk, and which Eliza White Buffalo, a Northern medium, pays much attention to on her website www.elizawhitebuffalo.com.
Faith is the same symbol as Two Roads, but viewed from a specific perspective… as if you are looking diagonally over a dish. Two Roads is viewed directly from above, so you see a perfect round object. The moral of this story is that the Two Roads is a cross in which Love is central.
Almost every religion on Earth has a cross in some form as a central symbol. But each cross, and thus each religion, has a specific vision of what the Cross stands for. Something divine, something sacred, something related to Universal Love, referring to the Universal Source of Love and Life and Creation. No one knows exactly how to visualize that. And so everyone has a different idea about it, a different feeling about it, some kind of an opinion about it. Those are different perspectives.
It is the same with Faith: it shows just one perspective… in which the Cross, the Two Roads, plays the central role. Other perspectives include the Celtic Cross, Maltese Cross, Christian Cross, Isosceles Cross, Swastika, Greek Orthodox Cross, Sun Cross, Medicine Wheel, etc. etc.
Even the Two Roads is ‘merely’ a perspective… an attempt to visualize a Sacred, Divine Concept.
