jessicashirley.com

Paintings

He Drew Me out of Many Waters
2004
pastel and watercolor on paper
19.5″ x 27.5″
SOLD

This piece’s title comes out of Psalm 18:16, “He sent from on high, He took me; He drew me out of many waters.”

Sanctuary
2004
acrylic, masking fluid, pencil, and watercolor on newsprint
6′ x 6′

I was wanting to paint a sort of abstract space of safety/ a spiritual haven.  A cave looks out onto water, with a light in the sky. The process of creating it was meditative, and I scrawled poetry in Spanish, English, and Hebrew from Pablo Neruda, the Bible,  St. John of the Cross, and whatever else was at hand. The main inspiration for the piece is in the book of Isaiah, chapter 45:

“I will give you the treasures of darkness
And hidden wealth of secret places,”

and also from a translation of Pablo Neruda’s Love Sonnet XVII ,

“I love you as certain dark things are to be loved,
in secret, between the shadow and the soul.”

Mount Injury
2001
oil on canvas
18″ x 24″

A personal struggle led to this image jumping from my brush onto canvas, without much help from me.  At the time I was reading a book called Hinds‘ Feet on High Places, by Hannah Hurnard.  She relates the story of a “Little Miss Much Afraid” who, at one point in the allegory, cowers at the sight of a Precipice before her, called Injury. Seen from behind, her darkly clad companions stand at either side, as she falls to her knees at the seemingly impassable rock. The face of the Shepherd, another character in this tale, is superimposed over the scene, watching with care as the incident unfolds.