THE PAINTING IN DETAIL

“Epiphany” is a 42”x54” oil painting on canvas, by Janet McKenzie, copyright, ©2003, and is part of the collection of Barbara Marian of Harvard, IL.

The image portrays women from around the world and a child of mixed-race who is about two years of age. The models for the mother and the child are, in fact, mother and son.

True to her style, the artist grounds and supports the women and the child against vertical and horizontal lines suggesting those used in stained glass. The star shining forth from the deep blue of the background suggests a celestial body that can be seen during the day as well as at night.

Three of the women are depicted with their eyes closed, symbolizing contemplative prayer and the visions of the mystic. The fourth woman’s eyes are open. Her gaze, direct and discerning, seeks and holds the eyes of the beholder, summoning--almost compelling--an internal dialogue about inclusion, justice, compassion, and empowerment.

The artist’s depiction of Mary as the archetypal Black Madonna* is a powerful and multivalent statement about Mary, as The Great Mother--about her wisdom, creativity, compassion and care of the three women--who represent all women, especially those who are poor and oppressed--the arts and sciences, the earth and the cosmos itself. Wearing the black robe the artist uses to symbolize protection, here is the God-mother holding all of us on her lap in her embrace of the divine Child. With eyes closed she goes before us into the deep--into the darkness, the essence and the truth of the very mystery of God residing in all.

The painting will be exhibited in various venues, both sacred and secular,
to stimulate renewed interest, reflection and discussion about the meaning of the Christian proclamation found in Matthew’s gospel story of the Epiphany.

*To fully appreciate the history, power and universal reverence for The Black Madonna, read THE MOONLIT PATH: Reflections on the Dark Feminine, Fred Gustafson, Editor, published by Nicolas-Hays, Inc. especially “The Return of the Black Madonna: A Sign of Our Times or How the Black Madonna Is Shaking Us Up for the 21st Century,” by Matthew Fox, pages 81-96.

Also, Plate 2 in THE MOONLIT PATH is Janet McKenzie’s JESUS OF THE PEOPLE , a controversial work explored in Cedrus Monte’s reflection “At the Threshold of Psycho-Genesis/The Mournful Face of God", pages 33-35.

BACKGROUND

In the summer of 2002, Barbara Marian, of Harvard, Illinois commissioned Janet McKenzie, an American artist known worldwide for her striking interpretation of Jesus, “Jesus of the People,” to revisit Matthew’s story of the magi and to bring to it a more inclusive image of those who seek and find the Divine. While conver-sations between the two women about the story were the starting point of the piece, the finished work is Janet’s vision, clear and true. Her portrayal of the magi in “Epiphany” are three women from very different regions of the world encircling the mother and child, giving and receiving the gifts of presence, love and daily bread.

The story behind the message that Janet reveals in her painting is an engaging one. Its beginnings and its flowering are told in the enclosed article, "Recasting the Magi" written for the Christmas, 2001 issue of “The Liturgical Singer.”

Then Barbara Marian met Janet McKenzie--and the rest, as they say, is midrash.

COMMENTARY

Matthew is the only one of the four evangelists of the New Testament to tell us the story of the Epiphany. It is the story of night visitors, the magoi (Greek for magicians, seers, astrologers) who--leaving their homes and everything that is familiar--follow a beckoning star in hopes of finding the Divine, The One Who Reigns over all, The One Who Saves. At the end of their journey, they find a mother and child. In them, the magi behold the wondrous mystery of the Incarnation and offer gifts to the child in recognition of the Epiphany that God dwells among us.

Matthew does not tell us how many seers came from the East. He does not tell us whether they were men or women. It could have been any number of night visitors--of either gender or both. The male-dominated culture that told, wrote, interpreted and passed on the story gradually came to translate magoi as male, as three, and as kings presenting the three gifts that Matthew lists. Centuries later, re-tellings of the story gave names to the kings.

It is interesting to note that in February of 2004, the Revision Committee of the General Synod of the Church of England voted to retain “magi” in church prayer rather than “wise men.” The committee’s report states, “The committee has retained ‘Magi’ on the grounds that the visitors were not necessarily wise and not necessarily men.” A spokesperson was quoted in an Associated Press article about the decision saying the scriptures are “completely silent about whether they [the Magi] are men or women....”(Chicago Tribune, February 11, 2004, page 6.)

The process of telling another story to explain, expand and give new emphasis to an original story is called midrash. Janet McKenzie’s “Epiphany” offers us an image we might consider visual midrash to help us glimpse a wondrous and ancient-now-new reality through the eyes of faith: the Divine embedded in an ordinary every-day occurrence--a child serenely nestled in mother’s lap.

What we believe is what we see. What we see--over time--becomes what we believe and who we become. The image of “Epiphany” reveals women of the 21st Century from around the world as seekers and witnesses to the Word-Made-Flesh. Here is Emmanuel--God-With-Us--in the Child, in the Child’s mother, and in the women drawn to them--as surely and as fully as in men.

BARBARA MARIAN REFLECTS ON “EPIPHANY”

At a time when divergent religious and cultural ideologies are causing great political upheaval and war, Janet McKenzie’s painting “Epiphany” is the prophetic witness we need to remind us that no one has God “in a box” and that God’s grace extends to all.

Religious art can buttress the androcentric bias of scripture and patriarchal attitudes and structures in the church and the world, or it can move us beyond the status quo toward inclusion and equality.

Janet McKenzie illuminates that journey for us in "Epiphany" by recasting the magi in the Christian story of the birth of Christ as three wise women coming together across boundaries of time, culture, group identity and religious experience in a *hierophantic encounter with the Mother and Child.

I love this image of Jesus, for in it I see that every child--anywhere in the world and in every age to come--is blessed, held and cherished as a child of God. I treasure "Epiphany" not only  for its global inclusiveness and deep reverence for life but also for its vision of mutuality and interdependence--the giving and receiving of the three gifts that are essential to life itself: presence, love and daily bread. The gifts flow from the communal presence of the women to the mother and child, and, from the child at the center, flow outward to the women and to all who stand before them. Here we see the Divine imbedded in the human in its most powerful, protective and tender manifestation--that of a mother and her child embraced and nurtured by a loving community.

Janet's depiction names, validates, and celebrates women as seekers of the divine and manifests anew the radical message of the Epiphany: God's grace extends to all and is active in all--beyond boundaries of gender, race, ethnicity, culture and religion.

Barbara Marian, © 2003
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