illusions of grandeur

The blog of artist, Jared Boggess.

[jaredboggess]

Early in his reign, the Israelite God, Yahweh, surprises Solomon in his sleep after a long day of mountainside ritual sacrifice. Like a genie, he tells Solomon to make a wish. Instead of praying for riches and power, Solomon asks for wisdom. Yahweh is so pleased by the request that he promised riches and power anyway.⠀ However Yahweh ends with the first of many warnings that these blessings are on the condition that Solomon follows and worships only Yahweh, setting the stage for Solomon's lifelong personal battles.

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Kickstarter for my illustrated "Solomon” book is LIVE. Get it on it!

http://kck.st/2Pe6mNs

#fishcoinpress #kickstartercampaign #crowdfunding #illustration #illustrator #graphicnovel #comics #cartoon #cartooning #drawing #christianart #churchart #sermonseries #bible #jesus #bibleart #bibleverse #biblestudy #visiodivina #verseoftheday #iconography #bibleillustration #bookillustration #bookillustrator #bookart

[fishcoinpress]

Solomon’s rise to the throne comes through a tangle of political intrigue. When his father David becomes weak and impotent, Solomon’s brother makes a claim to kingship, but Solomon’s mother Bethseba and the prophet Nathan sweep in and convince the ailing king David to go ahead and crown Solomon. It all stinks of political corruption, but the narrative suggests YHWH is working in spite of it. Solomon parades through the streets of Jerusalem setting a pattern echoed centuries later by Jesus, a wholly different kind of king.

See for it yourself: 📖 1st Kings, Chapter 1⠀

Art by @jared_boggess. KICKSTARTER for our new book is LIVE.⠀

[jaredboggess]

We’re doing this. Crowdfunding is LIVE for my new heavily-illustrated book covering the rise and fall of King Solomon. Come hang and see what its all about:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jaredboggess/solomon-with-the-wisdom-to-rule

[fishcoinpress]

[jaredboggess]

A couple weeks ago, my 5-year-old daughter asked me, “why did God kill Jesus?” I can still feel the nausea. Did God kill Jesus? Is that the right question?

Today it all comes to a close. We celebrate the poorly named “Good Friday”. We reflect on Jesus finishing his journey to the cross and his death. When I look at the cross thinking about all the bruises and gashes, the blood and the humiliation, I do have to answer the question “why?”

But is it, “Why did God..?”

Not for me. I can’t stomach that question. That would mean God is the Roman Empire. That would mean God is the priesthood. That would mean God is with the corrupt and oppressive powers of today.

Ask “why did the empire?” or “why did the religious elite?” all you want.

But “why did God?” just isn’t helpful to me and my kids.

I’d rather start with “why did Jesus?”

You should try it.

[fishcoinpress]

Station X. An End to Suffering

Hanging on the cross was excruciating specifically designed to avoid a quick death.

Like most victims, Jesus is weak and limp from the hours of torture leading up to this moment. His muscles are shredded. He has lost immense amounts of blood. And now he endures the pain of his body weight pulling on the nails that hold him to the cross. Jesus occasionally has to muster the strength in his legs to push up to open his throat gasping for air.

Victims of crucifixion suffer this pattern endlessly. Eventually the Roman soldiers would have to break their legs to end their ability to breathe. Jesus however dies before this is performed. Around three in the blackness of an eclipse, he shouts out for mercy “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” and breathes his last.

_ From “New Stations of the Cross”, our new ltd. ed. risograph book now on Etsy.

[fishcoinpress]

Station IX. Crucifixion

On the top of Golgotha, Jesus is striped naked once again. At nine in the morning, the soldiers drive thick crude nails into his wrists and ankles to hang his failing body to the cross. Above his head where Rome displays the crimes of those crucified, a sign mocks him once again, “The King of the Jews”. Below him, the priests revel in their victory taunting Jesus as he gasps for air for hours on end.

_ From “New Stations of the Cross”, our new ltd. ed. risograph book now on Etsy.

[fishcoinpress]

Station VIII. Death March

Broken and bleeding and in a state of shock, Jesus is made to carry the large wooden beam from which he will hang at the execution site. Two other men are sentenced to crucifixion that day so the three are driven like cattle stumbling through the busiest streets of Jerusalem and out onto the hillside. Jesus so weak from his especially brutal flogging struggles to stay on his feet. Eventually the impatient Roman soldiers force an unfortunate onlooker named Simon to carry the beam as they finish the hike to Golgotha, the Place of Skulls.

_

From “New Stations of the Cross”, our new ltd. ed. risograph book now on Etsy.

[fishcoinpress]

Station VII. Mocked by Rome

The entire purpose of the crucifixion is public humiliation. Rome used it to warn citizens by making a display of the torture. Even after the brutality of flogging, the soldiers take time to mock Jesus. He called himself “king”, so they dress him up like one. Naked and bleeding, he‘s wrapped in a purple robe. Thorned vines are twisted into a crown that scrape and pierce his brow. The soldiers salute and laugh at him, before they yank the robe off his raw and torn flesh. _

From “New Stations of the Cross”, our new ltd. ed. risograph book now on Etsy.

[fishcoinpress]

Station VI. Flogging

After receiving the sentence from Pilate, Jesus was taken to a courtyard in the governor’s palace. Roman soldiers tied him to a large thick post already scarred and stained from previous floggings. The whip was short made of several bands of leather with shards of embedded bone and lumps of iron on the ends. Jesus was stripped naked and struck over and over, until the muscle on his back and legs were flayed and bone exposed. At such a weakened state from blood loss, the soldiers had completed Jesus’ preparation for crucifixion.

—

From “New Stations of the Cross”, our new ltd. ed. risograph book now on Etsy.

[fishcoinpress]

Station V. Pilate

Having condemned Jesus to death, the priests take Jesus to the local governor. Under Roman military occupation, Jerusalem was overseen by a man named Pilate. Rome could care less about blasphemy, so the priests present Jesus’ crime of claiming to be Messiah, or king. Pilate isn’t convinced, so he makes a political move.

Every year at Passover, Pilate would release one prisoner as a peace offering. Thinking he can get around the priest’s suspicious motives, Pilate brings out Jesus and Barabbas, a man guilty of insurrection and murder. But the priests manage to stir the crowd into shouting for Barabbas’ freedom and Jesus’ execution demanding Rome’s worst punishment: crucifixion.

_

From “New Stations of the Cross”, our new ltd. ed. risograph book now on Etsy.

[fishcoinpress]

Station IV. The Cost of Blasphemy

It’s as if he hesitates.

Jesus knew as soon as he spoke and laid claim to his identity as Messiah and Son of Man, he sealed his fate. To the priests in that room Jesus was calling himself equal with God, an action punishable by death. In the presence of blasphemy, it was tradition to tear your clothes. It was law to blindfold and beat a man guilty of it. So at the mercy of Jewish scripture, Jesus takes a beating and sheds his first drops of blood.

_ From “New Stations of the Cross”, our new ltd. ed. risograph book now on Etsy.

[fishcoinpress]

Station III. On Trial

After Jesus is arrested in the dead of night, he‘s taken straight to the high priest’s home for a sham of a trial. Jesus watches in silence as they argue over how to incriminate him. Tired of witnesses stories not matching up, the high priest storms out in front of Jesus and ask him directly if he claims the loaded title of “Messiah”. Jesus at last speaks up admitting it. Then he goes further and claims to fulfill a prophecy about a perfect human, the Son of Man, who will be enthroned beside the God of Israel.

_

From “New Stations of the Cross”, our new ltd. ed. risograph book now on Etsy.

[fishcoinpress]

Station II. A Kiss of Betrayal

Before Jesus and his students can leave the garden, his persecution is set in motion. A dispatch of officers from the temple storms the hillside with swords and clubs expecting a fight. Jesus mocks them for it. What had he or his students done in the past few days to make them think they were some kind of bandits?

But the part that cuts deep is who turns him in: Jesus’ own student. One of his closest followers and friends walks up and transforms a kiss traditional for Jewish teachers into a mark for arrest and eventual execution.

From “New Stations of the Cross”, our new ltd. ed. risograph book now on Etsy.

[jaredboggess]

If you manage to track down a bootleg of the recent Mary Magdalene film by Garth Davis (one I highly reccomend), you’ll notice an atypical depiction of Judas. In Christian tradition, he’s usually painted as a villain driven by simple greed. But what if his motives were more complex? He experiences remorse immediately after turning in Jesus and most accounts say he ends his own life. What if he did love Jesus? I wanted to capture that love in my version of the scene. Jesus is hurt. Judas isn’t evil. And they both hate what is about to happen. The limited edition Risograph books “New Stations of the Cross” arrive on my doorstep today. I’m shipping all the preorders and Indiegogo backers out in the next 24 hours, but there is a stack still unclaimed if you want to grab one. They’re available through my imprint Fish Coin Press.

[fishcoinpress]

Station I. Agony in the Garden

Jesus has been in Jerusalem, the center of the Jewish world, for about a week. Late on Thursday night, he takes some time away to pray in a wooded garden on the hills outside the city. At this point, he knows the temple leaders are scheming. He knows his teaching threatens their power. He knows they will do their worst to stop him. He knows they will torture him and he will be killed. Jesus knows what is coming and could very well escape. But in his tormented prayer in the garden, Jesus commits to go through with it. Grieved and terrified, Jesus stays. He stays for the sake of ensuring the authenticity of his teaching.

From “New Stations of the Cross”, our new ltd. ed. risograph book now on Etsy. 

[jaredboggess]

We tend to obsess over our “beliefs” and our theology and our practices, but the Christian tradition started with an event. The goal of my forthcoming book "New Stations of the Cross" is to force us to reckon with the question: what if I carried with me the memory of Jesus' suffering like the grief of a lost loved one?

This is why I am making this book—because I want something that challenges me to remember Jesus‘ torture and humiliation. He deserves it.

PREORDER the book and back the project on Indiegogo: https://igg.me/at/NewStations

[jaredboggess]

Where do you find your identity? How do you label yourself?

.

.

Is it about what you achieve?

or the things that fill your home?

or how you dress?

Do you categorize yourself by your politics?

or religious doctrines?

or the scars of your past?

.

.

These are all masks we use to control how others perceive us, how we make sense of ourselves, and how we indirectly categorize and marginalize people around us.

.

.

But these masks aren’t WHO we are. They are false projections. They are often shields we use make us feel safe and in control. Until they are dismantled or called out.

.

.

My identity was wrapped up in my career goals for a long time. (And if I’m honest I still struggle with this.) But at the end of 2016, I was crushed by the sense that I wasn’t living up to who I thought I needed to be and what I needed to achieve. And it wrecked me. I wasn’t sure I wanted to draw ever again. I threw out my career goals. Then something I didn’t expect happened. My anxiety and depression started to fade away.

.

.

You see, what I had done was allowed myself to let go of the identity that I had attached to what had once been a source of pleasure and passion.

.

.

With that anxiety out of the way, I found that I became curious again. I found I could enjoy the people and things I loved once again.

.

.

Our true selves aren’t something we make. They are something we receive when we take off our self-prescribed masks.

.

.

Is there something in your life that once gave you joy, but has become a burden? Is it something you attached to your sense of self? What if you had the chance to take off that mask? Who would you find behind it?

[jaredboggess]

Where do you find your identity? How do you label yourself?

.

.

Is it about what you achieve?

or the things that fill your home?

or how you dress?

Do you categorize yourself by your politics?

or religious doctrines?

or the scars of your past?

.

.

These are all masks we use to control how others perceive us, how we make sense of ourselves, and how we indirectly categorize and marginalize people around us.

.

.

But these masks aren’t WHO we are. They are false projections. They are often shields we use make us feel safe and in control. Until they are dismantled or called out.

.

.

My identity was wrapped up in my career goals for a long time. (And if I’m honest I still struggle with this.) But at the end of 2016, I was crushed by the sense that I wasn’t living up to who I thought I needed to be and what I needed to achieve. And it wrecked me. I wasn’t sure I wanted to draw ever again. I threw out my career goals. Then something I didn’t expect happened. My anxiety and depression started to fade away.

.

.

You see, what I had done was allowed myself to let go of the identity that I had attached to what had once been a source of pleasure and passion.

.

.

With that anxiety out of the way, I found that I became curious again. I found I could enjoy the people and things I loved once again.

.

.

Our true selves aren’t something we make. They are something we receive when we take off our self-prescribed masks.

.

.

Is there something in your life that once gave you joy, but has become a burden? Is it something you attached to your sense of self? What if you had the chance to take off that mask? Who would you find behind it?