Since getting my mother safely and happily ensconced in an assisted care facility in her home town, near her friends and church family, I have been inspired to embark on a creative project of some magnitude. I am painting an overview of the Bible, starting with Genesis, the beginning, and going through Revelation, the final book. Since we are in the Easter season, I wanted to share some of the paintings that correspond with this season celebrated by Christian churches around the world. These will be familiar to the Catholic and other churchgoing readers, and may be enlightening to those not familiar with the Bible.
The style of all the paintings in this series is a modified medieval/iconic style, which at first seemed totally new for me, but I soon realized was a culmination of the varied bodies of work I have done over the past 25 years.
This painting is of the beheading of John the Baptist at the order of King Herod. In this painting, Salome, Herod’s stepdaughter, is handing the head of John over to her wicked, adulterous, bloodthirsty mother, Herodias. Herodias was married to King Herod, while at the same time being married to his brother, Philip, which John criticized, thereby making an enemy of Herodias. While Judas is the most despised character in the Bible, I put Herodias at a close second. Bad enough she is so wicked, but to enlist her young daughter’s help in such a gruesome plot is unimaginable.
Scriptural reference: Mark 6:17-29
For Herod himself had given orders to have John arrested, and he had him bound and put in prison. He did this because of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, whom he had married. For John had been saying to Herod, “It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.” So Herodias nursed a grudge against John and wanted to kill him. But she was not able to, because Herod feared John and protected him, knowing him to be a righteous and holy man. When Herod heard John, he was greatly puzzled; yet he liked to listen to him.
Finally the opportune time came. On his birthday Herod gave a banquet for his high officials and military commanders and the leading men of Galilee. When the daughter of Herodias (Salome) came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his dinner guests.
The king said to the girl, “Ask me for anything you want, and I’ll give it to you.” And he promised her with an oath, “Whatever you ask I will give you, up to half my kingdom.”
She went out and said to her mother, “What shall I ask for?”
“The head of John the Baptist,” she answered.
At once the girl hurried in to the king with the request: “I want you to give me right now the head of John the Baptist on a platter.”
The king was greatly distressed, but because of his oaths and his dinner guests, he did not want to refuse her. So he immediately sent an executioner with orders to bring John’s head. The man went, beheaded John in the prison, and brought back his head on a platter. He presented it to the girl, and she gave it to her mother. On hearing of this, John’s disciples came and took his body and laid it in a tomb.
E.J. Lefavour
http://www.hobbithousestudio.com
Good Morning Gloucester 
When I visit a museum I usually make it a contest with myself, See all the Dutch paintings, take a photo of every statue with bare breasts (Sue was rolling her eyes with that one.)
One time in the Louvre I tried to photograph every painting with John’s head on a silver platter. I also included anyone with an axe stuck in their head. (I forgot what saint got that treatment).
There must have been twenty heads on a silver platter. Yours is nicer.
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Thanks Paul. I almost had Salome bare breasted, as she may well have been back in those days in Rome. Then the painting would have had all your favorite elements.
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Ill be looking daily in anticipation for your continued sequel of work! Beautiful idea that teaches as well as enlightens each one of us.
I hope your mother is adjusting and you have peace with a very difficult decision.
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Thanks Lisa. They won’t be daily, but as the corresponding time of events that have been painted comes, I’ll put up another painting. Their purpose is to do exactly as you say – to teach and enlighten, and maybe just remind those who already know. Mom is doing very well. She is in her hometown, near the church she has attended and sung in the choir at for 50 plus years. Her church family come and take her to choir practice so she can sing on Sundays, which is her greatest joy. She may not really remember the people who come pick her up, but she remembers all the hymns and how much she loves to sing. I have great peace in the decision. It gave me the opportunity to do what I am now doing creatively, and it is giving her great joy at this point in her life. I visit her weekly and attend her church at least once a month to watch her sing, and she just beams.
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You will have a lot of work here what an adventure! I like these words quoted from another also: “Our hearts to ways of being respectful towards and in communication with deeper consciousness, broader wisdom, and more profound love.” Trudy B.
Dave 😉 & Kim 🙂
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This project could continue for the rest of my life, if I were to paint everything in the Bible that could be illustrated. It will more likely be an overview of the significant (not that everything isn’t significant) events, and then may become a book of the illustrations and the stories that go with each one, a visual summary of the Bible, if you will. The Bible is a fascinating and amazing book, but too overwhelming for many to read and understand. This could make it more accessible in a day when people use nothing more than text messages and images to communicate.
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🙂 Dave & Kim 🙂 Bless you and Mom! 🙂
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Thanks Dave. God Bless you and Kim.
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Next up, Adam and Eve and the talking snake. But keep it scientifically accurate and unlike Salome who you gave a very nice belly button, Adam and Eve don’t get one.
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Already done, no bellybuttons, but funny, it wasn’t intentional, and I never even thought about it that way. Great point!
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Keep up the good work EJ. Your mother seems to be doing what a lot of people do towards the end part of life, narrow their activities to the important.
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A lesson we would all do well to learn when we are younger.
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Nice job
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Thanks Debra, glad you appreciate. How is Barbara doing? Is she still happy in Maine. Mine is doing good back in her hometown again, being well cared for and seeing her old friends and church family again.
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