Blessed for All Mankind

I did this piece for my World Belief class. It's a depiction of Abraham coming to the destination that the Lord had promised him.

This image was inspired in large part by the book "Abraham" by Bruce Feiler. It's an incredible, emotional text that details the history of Abraham and how the three major "western" religions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam) have traced thier origins back to him. At the same time Feiler tries to determine whether Abraham could perhaps be a uniting figure among his "children".

I don't talk about it openly much, but I often ponder and worry over the rifts that exist between the three Abrahamic faiths. It pains me to see all the violence and turmoil that we have all visited upon each other. And it angers me when I see people taking one of Abrahamic faiths and using them as justification in the spilling of blood. Every one of the Faiths has been perverted in this way. Every one has been twisted at one point or another by greedy hypocritical monsters. And it continues on today in ALL THREE faiths. It angers me, and frightens me because I've always been someone who has believed in the innate goodness and potential of humankind. Whatever the sins of the past, I've always believed that the human race has the potential for true and equal greatness. And yet, everyday the news of the world tries to chip away at that hope in me.

But I wont let it, I can't. I have faith. Faith in God, that he/she is still guiding, still urging us to meet our potential. And I have faith in humanity, that no matter how terrible things may be there is still an urge within us all to achieve something greater for ourselves and the generations that follow us. Faith that humanity is still a race of Hope, looking for ways to pull itself together.

And I believe Abraham can be one of those ways. Jews, Muslims and Christians dont have to be divided. We dont have to live with these rifts between us. All we have to do is remember that we come from common ground. And on that common ground we can forge something magnificant.

From Feiler's book: " If we look beyond the details, which we may disagree about, and follow the principles of Abraham-truth, morality, coexistence-then most of our problems would disappear." (this is a qoute from the head Inman of Jerusalem)

Truth, morality, coexistance......those words can be the ground we stand on as we all work towards something better than we have now. Those lessons can unite not only the Abrahamic faiths, but every person of every faith and nationality on the planet. I dont care if you're Buddhist, Atheist, Catholic, Islamic, Jewish, Scientologist, whatever, we should all be able to find unity in those words. For those of the Abrahmic faith, Abraham can be a beacon to that common ground. Others will have to find thier own beacons. But what beacons we follow isn't what's really important, its where those beacons lead us that will truly matter in the end.

Abraham is a beacon of Hope for me.


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okay, enough ranting.

This is a mixed media digital image. Abraham was hand drawn and inked, then taken into photoshop. (I still need to work on getting clean scans of my inkwork. I lost some nice flourishes in the line work when I imported it.) The enviroment was done in Maya, with alot of lighting and paint effects. From there everything was composited together in Photoshop.

Hope you like it. Comments as always are appreciated. And apologies for the long write-up. I pray everything in here reads ok, it's 2:45 in the morning and I've been sitting in front of a computer all day sweating finals.

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