the New Pantagruel

Altars

by Tyrus Clutter

e live in a society which increasingly places more and more stock in Image as a form of communication. The use of film, television, print media, and now the internet has forced us into a fast-paced state of communication in which we seem to have less time to digest just what the meaning is within the images we see. However, the root of thought and communication in Western civilization has tended to be in the Word.

This work combines both Word and Image, though not always obviously. The imagery may incorporate text or be based in text, but it does not exist without text. Both Word and Image are symbolic, creating subtle shades of meaning which are not always obvious upon first examination. Though we may think that we live in a culture of Images, we need to understand that it has its foundation in Word as well.

When you use an internet search engine to find a picture online you use a word to initialize that search. Words bring to mind images, too. They are both symbols. I find that this is seen most readily in the person of Christ. Jesus was called the Word of God, but He was also the incarnate Image of the unseen God. These images offer interpretations of words—they are as symbolic as the words from which they arose and can, in turn, evoke further images and words for the viewer.

These paintings are a personal investigation of these ideas for the artist. The altarpieces are based on the “personal saints” of the artist—those persons who have had some profound and shaping influence on his thoughts and artwork.