Mourick, Kirsten Van - VM - Kirsten Van Mourick

Kirsten Van Mourick: The Space Between

A Sacred Moment

by Kirsten Van Mourick

Feeling safe enough to rest is an essential component of growing and moving confidently through the world. Our heart’s desire is to be known and loved and secure. It’s a meal shared with friends, or the warmth of a steaming coffee alone at dawn. It’s a painting that comes alive in front of me, unaccountably, after hours of frustration. This modern Madonna and Child is an invitation into the sweet hush of rest… to find comfort in the familiar space and objects. I don’t need to remind you that days are hard and there are stains on the sheets and laundry to fold and a diaper somewhere in the garage that smells and cancer and fear and… turbulence. But there is also this, dearest. There is the space between. There are moments that are worship, hope, and heaven now.

Yes, embedded in our swiftly marching hours, there are moments of worship, clarity, and beauty that refresh us. They are our rest: a secure foothold on a steep and lengthy scramble, a softly lit inn along a dark and dangerous road. These moments buoy us for the journey and remind us that even here, heaven gently hems us in. My canvases are meant to snatch up the lovely, sacred moments of lives lived faithfully. They are icons to inspire faith and celebrate the holiness in the mundane.

This piece is meant to provide refreshment on the dusty road. I want you to know that even in a world that is smoky with sorrow, God is good. Come and see, come and rest.

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Kirsten Van Mourick: The Space Between, 2019, oil on canvas, 180 x 120 cm. Location: San Clemente, California.

Kirsten Van Mourick is an American artist who received her undergraduate degree in Studio Art at Westmont College in Santa Barbara, and then her Post Baccalaureate Degree and Masters of Fine Art in painting at Laguna College of Art and Design in 2013. She currently works from her studio at her home in San Clemente, California, which she shares gladly with her husband and two much smaller versions of him. Kirsten Van Mourick is a representational painter, specializing in portraiture. She accepts commissions in a range of subject matter and offers individual as well as class tutorials.   www.vanmostudio.org

First published on the website of CIVA (Christians in the Visual Arts) on August 8, 2018. See http://civa.org/featured-artists/kirsten-van-mourick.

ArtWay Visual Meditation 6 October 2019