Girl in the Courtyard
KRS James Cline
Pencil on acid free Arches drawing paper
31”x 21”
Original Available
Offset Lithograph on velum paper
31”x 21” Price $175
S/N limited edition of 300
A young woman in a private courtyard has happened upon a painting of a wedding, her own, though she has not yet ever been married. Could you imagine? By evidence of the painting, the ceremony will be conducted “on the other side” of the courtyard doorway. An impossible candleholder hosts a flame over the portal, borrowed from Jan Van Eyck’s famous chandelier, signifying Christ as the Door.
On the medieval map under the porch a riddle is encrypted. We are presented with models of two solar systems.
One is the archaic version of the dark ages wherein the earth is solar centric and the sun orbits it. The other is the correct model by Copernicus with the sun and earth in proper place. An astrolabe hangs over the map completing this metaphoric assemblage.
This is a map of a man in one of two conditions; either he is the center of his own universe, even so generous as to let God orbit him, or he is properly aligned with God, the sun, whom he humbly orbits.
By definition, the astrolabe is an instrument by which a man can discern his geographical position upon the earth by his relationship to constant heavenly bodies. And is this not also the Holy Spirit’s role? It is the Holy Spirit which convicts a man revealing his relationship to God, or lack of one, discerning his position between the two maps and therefore his eternal destiny. Navigation is imminently important in deciding destination.
And in view of her response to navigational instructions and proper relationship between sun and earth, her anticipation of the ultimate wedding awaits.
