JOB DREAMS OF HEAVEN

JOB DREAMS OF HEAVEN

Oil on cradled canvas

4’ x 3’

August 23 - 25, 2023 and January 25 - February 3 , 2024

Devoid of home, family, and possessions, Job sleeps on the ground and dreams of heaven. In this midrash, Satan (the shaitan, the tester) is a member of the heavenly council, hence four lighted windows in the tall buildings in the background.

The allusion to the Philippine flag is an indirect commentary on poverty.

In my 72 years I have never met a Jew or a Christian who would surrender everything that Job did, especially in this modern, materialist age, though the counterpart concept in the New Testament is restated in Jesus' own words when he tells the young man that it would be easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter heaven. In the present day, most people would view this as a form of masochism. Thus there is the tendency to perceive Job as a dance monkey performing to the command of the Shadow, the shaitan.

This painting was begun and completed during the post-pandemic period, but it was extremely difficult to find an old man to sit for Job, even more so an old man willing to take off his clothes. 

The auditory stimuli I used while working on this painting is on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0hyYWKXF0Q. Do view the painting while listening to it.

"Just like a monkey, I've been dancing my whole life/

But you just beg to see me dance just one more time/"

Remembering how teachers made us dance like monkeys to their religion in school, and how we secretly resented it.