Interpret? As in, artistically!? Oh, fail me now. Just slap the big ol' "F" on there and call it a day. I'll start writing the extra credit papers right now and maybe I won't --
What's that, you say? I can sure be a melodramatic punk? You don't think I know this? I live with me. Which is why I was freaking out!
What to do, what to do. I can't paint and I can't draw and I can't write poetry and I can't sing and I can't dance and how on earth else is one supposed to artistically interpret a psalm?
{Insert several weeks of perfectionism-induced panic here.}
Alas, behold! I got an "A!" But it really is all thanks to the creative efforts of... not me. Allow me to explain. And by explain, I mean here I shall post the summary that I wrote to go along with the project:
You see, this "A" would not have been possible without the photographic magic of my marvelous sister... or the stellar music composed by Eric Clayton/Saviour Machine.It didn’t take me long to know which Psalm I wanted to work with for this project. Psalm 73 has long been a favorite of mine. It is one that has resonated with me, particularly over the last decade of my life. The psalmist writes of disillusionment and discouragement, two sentiments that I have become quite familiar with, especially during my ongoing struggle with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.What grips me about this Psalm, however, is not the lament, but the resounding way with which the psalmist resolves his struggle. These are no mere words of praise, they are what I consider to be the most conclusive declaration that anyone could put forth: “I desire you more than anything on earth” (v. 25, NLT)I am not artistic in the sense that I cannot draw, paint, write music, or sing. As I contemplated how to interpret this psalm, I decided that I wanted to work with a visual medium. Being a writer, I am always limited to the black and white of the page; I wanted this project to have more color to it. The weekend of Thanksgiving 2011 marked my third week of bed rest following a fairly serious bout with a virus and subsequent flare-up of my CFS. My sister is a professional photographer and was home for the holiday. On a whim, we ended up venturing out of the house and she did a photoshoot of me. We like to do that once or twice a year, believing that pictures can document and commemorate the seasons of one’s life, in some ways far more effectively than a book full of journal entries.I have combined some of those photographs with selected verses from Psalm 73, interspersed with words from a piece that I wrote called “Broke,” which I would say is my own personal “Psalm 73.” As the psalmist conveyed his disillusionment and discouragement through the words of this psalm, but ended on a note of trust and hope, so my piece does the same.
Curious to see what I came up with? The curiosity ends...now:
