Genesis 18:8

Etching with chine colle

This is a study for a larger series of work in oil and in etchings of the story of Abraham. I have included both Sarah and Hagar in my picture as well as Ishmael with his bow and arrow (after Rembrandt).

Abraham's story is one that interests me on several levels—its importance to Islam as well as Judaism and Christianity; the complex interpersonal relationships, not the least of which is that with God; the way these stories are told in Sunday School, in sermons, and in the popular culture; the way these stories are depicted in art through the ages; and the way the women have been considered in both art and history. 

For all that has been done, written, and spoken, I believe there is much, much more.  For me, a church organist by avocation for a number of years, the prelude was the Bill Moyers series on Genesis that garnered so much attention a number of years back and the opening hymn was when Sunday after Sunday I would look out from the bench and see our dear assistant priest, Hugh Hardin, and his wife, Betty, who looked all the world to me like Abraham and Sarah sitting in the congregation.  When they consented to pose for me I was off and running.  Soon after that, other members of our congregation and friends became my Isaac, my Rebecca, my Esau and his Hittite wives, Jacob, Leah, Rachel, Dinah, and the others.  I hope to have the Abraham portion of the story ready by 2013 for a show a Grace Cathedral, San Francisco.