The Tower of Babel

The Tower or Babel - Genesis

So I went to Amsterdam and of all things I could of taken from my trip it was the Bible story of the tower of babel.

I enjoy reading of the stories/histories of art. Dante inferno was another inspiring story that intrigued and captured my imagination (see blog Internal Damnation - Dante and me!)

While wandering around the Rijksmuseum I came across the work of an unknown artist maybe Bruges?..1490.

While reading of the work it made me really consider the concept that as a nation of people we take our life/world for granted and forget the hidden concepts behind being a great person/people. I've been searching for many years as to how or why I think, find and worry like I do. I find these moments of wonder do honestly make me want to understand just how much more of the world I want to know, understand or consider into the making of myself.

For years I've followed (lets say my people/family views) but now I feel I've outgrowth this and I find myself lost and worried about the fact I may not fit in the group of people I surround myself with. For years I've suffered panic attacks and fear of change. The truth is I don't feel good enough or confident enough to pursue my artistic findings because in truth I'm alone. But I maybe know it is the only step I have left. The leap of faith.... Faith - what is that?

ALONE, yet I've a mother, a brother, 3 children, a dog and people that I call close friends. Not many but enough to be happy and comfy in my surroundings.  For me I feel like a tree stuck in the forest with no room for growth...... Nobody can relate to my studies or are even interested. Because I had panic attacks many say things like "well if it helps you". Really helps me? shut up I think to myself, what? I'm not ill or dying I'm growing, learning and loving the stuff I learn...... It does pain me to say or think, I've been held back because of others believes or findings. While I don't blame any of it, it hurts to think I've wasted so much time settling for what others expected of me. Like a hand puppet I do what is expected and when. My kids dont respect I'm trying to better myself/their world.  I don't want money, or shiny things, In truth I want to be happy in myself and my mind, for them to learn, push and fight for what they want without obstacles. To have an advantage instead of a disadvantage like I had. I'm sick of fighting a war that doesn't exist..... Alselm Keifer (below) did works of war of the military- german propaganda effect of war. He grew up with the after effects that now influence his work. I can relate in a way to the realization of it happened and its hisory. Like my childhood, or studies of being a painter and decorator, knowing its not enough, asking questions and still challenging ones self worth. I dont feel good enough but pushing on against it anyway. I have to believe in an almighty or bigger cause/picture because if not, what next?

For me I think I felt the frustration of the people of Babel ,confused by God after given them a native tongue, send out to the world alone and knowing very little of how to push forward and survive. Panic, breath and relax........  Your fine! It gonna be fine! Trust in me for I am the way!!!!!

Well can u imagine trusting in the bigger picture or the unknown. Fact is it frightens the living shit outta me. Excuse the language....

tower of babel

Other works I since found




Bible Genesis bit thats tells when god realised the people wanted to be great and equal to him.

Genesis 11:1-9

1 Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. 2 As people moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there. 3They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. 4 Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.” 5 But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower the people were building. 6 The LORD said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. 7 Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.” 8 So the LORD scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. 9 That is why it was called Babel —because there the LORD confused the language of the whole world. From there the LORD scattered them over the face of the whole earth.

So with the foul language I refer back to Dante Inferno - Divine Comedy with a mix of the tower of babel.  Of what are my many sins and Oh where is my Virgil?

Back to art work!

I had thought about doing a work with soil in the shape of the tower, But when turned upside down it turned in the circles of hell.... The sunrise could be the flames and the landscape the a dark and stormy sky. Images scratched into the tower/hell of people or myself in pain or suffering, alone and tortured. God it sounds somewhat depressing and yet it fires up so much fun. I'd like to have handful of mud and throw, rub and build up layers or earth to create depth and texture. On a scale bigger than myself. To add myself and give myself to something that deserves my emotion when it comes to my finding. To express and be expressive!




Anselm Kiefer

For me Kiefer works in a way I enjoy. it looks natural and earthy. The way in which the textures jump out at you are in itself  beautiful. When once you stand back and see the work as a landscape, for me creates a total different spin on the work. It's solid but with a paradoxical twist of history, growth and meaning.  (another holy f~~k I'm now using words like paradoxical... erm when did this happen? See its all there, learning growth and energy I've never even realised I have learned) Is this what its like to be a knowledgeable grown up? Or a creative mind at least? I feel like I'm losing my mind sometimes thinking like the world is a stranger place I have just woken up in. Like the people of babel I'm alone in my studies, questioning myself and my findings to such level it is torturing my already tired mind.







I'm for now going to just create and make, build and fight, work  my self into a place I enjoy or hate or create. In truth, noboby really gives a shit but me.... So as long as I'm finding happiness in the works I create I dont really care to much. Dot the I's and cross the t's to fit in with curriculum but in a way that suits me.

Surely it is the only way I can move forward within myself and my studies, At the end if nothing materialists I have begun to move forward in my thinking and realisation.