A bird with broken wings

April 2001: I began a series of drawings that marked the first time I had ventured deep into my own soul to express emotions associated with seeing a friend depart for Europe. Not only was she a friend, my wife and I counseled her for six months, as she "rose from the ashes" of a broken life in which she lost everything: a husband who deserted her for another woman, plus all her possessions, and a house by the ocean. She came into our lives as "a bird with broken wings," and she rose again healed, strong in her faith, and determined to get up and start again. I wrote about her experience in a poem. A month later, I felt inspired to express the emotions and thoughts of that poem into a series of drawings. The drawings sold and regrettably, I failed to take photographs for my archives. Yet the healing memories are still vivid over ten years later. It wouldn’t be the first time I experienced the healing blessing of creative expression such as in the similar series titled: “Soulscapes.” Perhaps Sallie McFague’s concept of a “new sensibility” for a contemporary theology could include a creative expression of Paul Jones’ “Theological Worlds,” through art – an art of the spirit that heals.

“Soulscape 1,” by Gerrit Verstraete. 2001. 17 X 25. Silverpoint and graphite on metalpoint ground on dark grey paper (images for “Bird with broken wings,” were not available – “Soulscape 1,” followed the “Bird with broken wings.”)