If There is No Flour There is no Torah 8 is a painting by David Baruch Wolk which was uploaded on August 15th, 2013.
If There is No Flour There is no Torah 8
The modern artists already reached into the concept of the accident; that they accident was not to be pushed out of the frame of the artwork, as had... more
Title
If There is No Flour There is no Torah 8
Artist
David Baruch Wolk
Medium
Painting - Digitally Adjusted Oil Painting
Description
The modern artists already reached into the concept of the accident; that they accident was not to be pushed out of the frame of the artwork, as had been done previously; the idea being that only what is intentional is worth presenting; rather the moderns allowed the accident a place in the work, in keeping with the notion that art should draw closer to the realm of life itself, which is full of accident, so to speak; as part of a general trend, as I have stated elsewhere, of a search for truth.
For our purposes, that is; from the aspect of the understanding of the Torah, where we understand that there is no accident; rather all that happens is via Divine Providence; in any case there is distinction between intended and unintended acts...there is, of course, very much to speak about in this realm, but my intention here is to focus on one aspect of my artworks which my intention in them is solely to serve Hashem Yisborach; that is to create vessels by which one is drawn closer to the service of Hashem, Yisborach. That artworks can and should be works of Torah, and as such they must escape from the realm of illusion and fantasy and falsehood altogether, for certainly anything that has even a small part of falsehood in it is, by definition, not Torah.
[ And even though there are many levels of truth, without end, one below the other, starting from the emanation from the Ein Sof, Baruch Hu, and descending through all the worlds until its taking physical form in this the lowest world; and here in this world the truth; that is, the absolute oneness of the Blessed One is so to speak retracted through a vast multitude of retractions ( ) in order for it to be manifest in this world, or in another language, the light of Hashem is clothed and wrapped in various clothings, in order for us to have a grasp of it here. Nevertheless, as has been noted by one tzaddik, if one grasps the king through a hundred garments, still he grasps the King. Therefore it is seen, that even though the truth is wrapped in endless wrappings, all these wrappings are adjunctions of the truth itself and therefore part of it; which is not the case of falsehood, which is from the other side; from the klippah, which is the opposite of truth and of holiness. Therefore artwork, even though it be the most external garments of holiness, nevertheless it must escape entirely from the realm of falsehood]
Any search for truth; that is, all efforts to serve Hashem, Yisborach is a matter of endless toil for the nature of a person pulls him towards the physical and away from Hashem, therefore; at least the beginnings of all Divine service is against one's nature, and therefore a great effort. Thus so, in this particular form of Divine service; that which I am trying to elevate to the realm of Divine Service, the making of artworks, it is great effort to pull it from the realm of falsehood into the realm of truth. Therefore I implement any strategy that I can for easing this task, and one of the strategies is to admit the accident into the world of the picture. A small bit of water spills onto the pen drawing I have been laboring upon. Has it been 'ruined'? I can look at it this way; My will in my work sometimes approaches Hashem's will; that is, what he desires for me to do, and other times it is simply my will and not His will, Heaven forbid. But the spilling of water is certainly entirely His will! That is, because it comes into my world, even against my will it is certainly not caught up with the imperfections of my pure will to serve Hashem, and can rather be seen as purely His will. The wise already understand this, and for the not yet wise it would take much explanation.
In addition to admitting the accident into the picture, I often seek to circumvent the dominance my personal will, as a strategy to submit my more freely to Hashem's will. Thus often I will choose a color to start or continue my artwork randomly, blindly, so to speak, without preference in one way or another. By this is seek to bring the work in consort with life itself, which 'happens' to us despite our will. Hashem Yisborach presents before us, each and every moment, a new reality with which we must grasp and seek to perform His will with. We do not choose what will happen to us. Therefore by accepting “whatever color Hashem decides should come into my hand at this time, from that I will try to perform His will, from that I will try to improve my picture. I hope this idea has been clearly expressed.
Uploaded
August 15th, 2013
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