St. Luke's Attic

Continuing my megalomaniacal obsession with my old drawing books, I will now talk about Concerning Religious Affections. I was fresh off my book Natural History and I had something to prove… to myself anyway. Because, as I have said, college is a time of intense self-interest and I’m not sure anyone else noticed what I was up to!

I dug out a couple of old woodcuts and etchings that I had done years before that were almost successful. That’s the thing with me; I don’t throw anything out. Well, anywho, I took those etchings, folded them down into signatures and then I made covers out of the very colorful woodcuts. To say I was excited about starting this book is an understatement. I started it off with a red velvet inside cover for Pete’s sake! I glued in a couple of real fish! Heavens to Betsy! Heavens to Murgatroid, I even gave it a title page. Sheesh.

This is drawn on top of an old etching.

Drawing on etching. And as a matter of curiosity, the splatter is from a very minor cut that I got on my finger. I can’t say why I thought it was a good idea to put it in the picture. So… 15 year old blood stains, I guess!

It was my plan to make this book a through and through work of art. It would be like no book before. That was the plan anyway. And after a lot of work, it turned out good and I really like it. But. BUT. I was spending way, way, way too much time working on this book! It has drawings, watercolors, collages, you like pop-up? it has pop-up! And more. It has real fish and even a real honey bee in there somewhere. There’s even a 1,000 Yen note that I collaged on in this book. Nothing was safe from the insatiable maw of this book.

There’s a painting on the left and a collage with woodcut on the right.

I said that I really like this book. But. By the time I was finished with this book (which was sooner than I expected, because if I recall correctly – and who are you to say that I don’t, huh? – it was originally four times longer, but I rebound it as a much shorter book)… As I was saying, by the time I was finished with this book, I was sick to death of looking at it. I wanted it gone.

I had begun work on my thesis project and had less and less time to work on an all-consuming drawing book habit. In fact, my next drawing book will reflect my new priorities (stay tuned). I soon found out I was selected for the UF gallery award and was asked to submit three pieces for the director to chose from to add to the permanent collection of UF’s gallery. I submitted a suite of prints, a large drawing, and my book! The award was $500. Of course, that seemed like a lot to me (although it didn’t even begin to come close to touching the time I had spent on that book). He chose the drawing and I kept the prints and my book. WHEW! I realized pretty soon what a bullet I dodged there.

Whew! Bullet Dodged! And yes, this is where my profile picture comes from.

So far as the contents of the book go, I think the title says a lot. Concerning Religious Affections is taken from Jonathan Edwards’ book, A Treatise Concerning Religious Affections where he deals with all kinds of stuff you don’t want to read about here! But my own religious affections are on full display here. Allegories abound! Cryptic Scriptural allusions and metaphysical metaphors are to be had in heaping handfuls! So take a look at a few of the pages and see what you think.

A strange metaphor known only to me. Probably.