I love maps

My father, who was a master bookbinder, collected beautiful National Geographic maps. He bound a handsome portfolio for his maps and one day he gave me the portfolio. Mapping remains a source of discovery and inspiration. During my advertising agency years, I mapped many a creative and marketing strategy. In my studio, each drawing and each painting is a map to lead the viewer and myself from one place to another, whether abstractly or representationally. Ministry is a map that leads from promise to deliverance, from forgiveness to healing. Undergraduate and graduate studies have been expansive maps of knowledge management and knowledge creation. Communication is a map to bring a relationship forward from the early stages of contact to mature stages of fellowship, with the promise of uncertainty reduction en route to fulfilled and loving relationships. The Bible is a map of God’s Master Plan for life. Life in the Spirit is a map for learning to trust the voice of God as I venture along the “highway of holiness” towards greater freedom. One such map has become a passion I cannot contain. It’s the map of the Kingdom of God, a profoundly experiential journey that offers laughter and tears, and with each step the glimpses of the kingdom become a vision, a greater revelation of the incredible destiny that lies ahead.

“Cerulean’s Map,” by Gerrit Verstraete, 30 X 22, 2009. Cat. No.1133. Metal point media on ground on Stonehenge Paper ( 76.4 X 56.7 cm ).

Cerulean's Odyssey

Cerulean’s Odyssey is a narrative, my narrative, woven into the fabric of an epic poem, written in a conceptual style, begun in 2004 and nearing completion in 2012. Comprising over 23,500 lines and 127,350 words, the account is one man’s journey towards that elusive “city not built with human hands.” It’s a personal journey of faith that has often left the long distance voyager rough around the edges. For the quest is not easy. Cerulean is tempted from within and from without. Often he feels alone only to discover he is not. In the balance he weighs the gravity of reason, logic, and the written tradition, with the oral tradition and the experience of faith. His travels have taken him to distant places beyond horizons of reality, with emotions stretched to breaking and his will challenged at every step. Such has been the essence of my journey of life, and as age 67 dawns, I recognize the “good fight of faith” is not an epic battle between opinions, dogma, traditions, and doctrines, but a battle within. It’s a battle for the mind that touches the core of the human spirit. Yet, deep inside, faith assures a glimpse of the outcome, and my spirit is flooded with hope. Much depends on where I stand in the battle. Hidden among the tall grass and looking up at a fleeting sky, or among the clouds from where life looks like a mosaic of possibilities. It’s a choice Cerulean must make every day. And when he encounters those among the tall grasses, and his and their edges are somewhat rough because life is not a flat line, he at least can say, “I know of another view. Care to have a look?”

“Touch Me,” by Gerrit Verstraete, 30 X 22, 2010, Cat.No.1178. Mixed media acrylics on Stonehenge Paper. ( 76.4 X 56.7 cm )