Karen Woods: Serenade

Seeing through a glass, dimly, beautifully

In 2015 Karen Woods and her husband drove to a neighboring city through a heavy downpour. While the rest of us would have only seen the need to turn on the wipers, Karen saw possibilities. Possibilities for art, beauty, and mystery.

“I took pictures from the passenger seat,” Karen remembers. “These photographs had the makings of a body of work.” Thus began a series of paintings that draw us into considering the deeper issues of life and reality that matter most. Each depicts a rain-covered windshield and tantalizing glimmers of shapes and colors of what lies beyond. It is this juxtaposition that introduces a sense of mystery and the possibility of seeing more. And that more actually exists. It isn’t a fantasy or illusion or delusion. even though it is out of reach for now. We know there is substance beyond the windshield, even though we can’t quite bring it into full focus.

“For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face” (1 Cor 13:12). St. Paul’s famous assertion means several things. First, we see dimly now. Still, dim is better than seeing nothing. Hints of transcendence sparkle all around. Second, what we see dimly now is dim to our sight, but still real. It has substance that will someday be clear.

In the rain-dappled windshields we see only shadows. And in the shadows, we have reason to hope. “The story that lies in our hearts is not ours alone; it is one and the same story, given to humanity until such a time as faith becomes sight. Until that time, what we have are shadows of the story. And this is a comfort: for though shadows cannot be held, they can at least show us the form of the reality.” ²

Here the ordinary suggests hints of more. Each drop and rivulet of rain reflects color, light, and shapes from the other side. In this, Woods’ work reminds us of how we live moment by moment at the intersection, the line separating the visible and invisible parts of created reality. All around us are hints of transcendence, unless we are so busy, distracted, or perhaps blinded by the thin appeal of Naturalism which insists there is nothing more.

We see these brief hints in many things, but easily in art and nature, which Woods’ work brings together brilliantly. Both good art and nature contain echoes of more. Of transcendence, meaning, glory, divinity. Only tiny hints, only echoes now, dimly. But they are glorious and life-affirming in our badly broken, and blind world.

Serenade was painted at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic. It was a time of sudden disruption, and people wondered what the future held. Karen relates: “My studio mates and I agreed we could still work if we stayed in our separate rooms and didn’t use the common area. It felt post-apocalyptic kind of.” The painting captures the feeling, emotionally and spiritually, of that world. It could be a stretch of pavement, the sides blasted and lifeless, out of Cormac McCarthy’s 2006 novel, The Road. But the triptych form of the artwork reminds us of God’s presence. As the Hebrew psalmist celebrates, “you set the beams of your chambers on the waters, / you make the clouds your chariot, / you ride on the wings of the wind” (Ps 104:3). This is a not a blasted world but a waiting, groaning one. And riding on the storm, in glory and redemption is the Lord Almighty, ready to save. The title, Woods says, “refers obliquely to needing to be serenaded away from my own fears.”

Without ever including a cross or empty tomb or scrawled Scripture, Woods’ paintings witness to the Kingdom of God. For it is the fullness of that Kingdom that is hidden for now. The hints and echoes of it are all around. They are worth pausing, as all good art makes us do, and looking more closely. Soon we will see clearly. And until then, we can glory in the hints and echoes and shadows. This hope will not disappoint. The real substance is yet to come.

1. The Father of Lights: A Theology of Beauty by Junius Johnson (2020, Baker; p. xiv)

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Karen Woods: Serenade,  Oil on 3 canvases, 64” x 96” (total)

Karen Woods (born 1963, Seattle, WA) is a full-time painter based in Idaho. She studied architecture at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, then pivoted to fine art, receiving her BFA from California College of the Arts. After moving to Idaho, she was invited to join Stewart Gallery in Boise, shortly followed by George Billis Gallery (NY, NY), Billis/Williams (Los Angeles, CA), and Quidley & Company Fine Art (Nantucket, MA and Naples, FL). Her work is in both public and private collections and can be found at www.karenwoods.com

Denis Haack studied at L’Abri Fellowship, the University of New Mexico, and graduated summa cum laude from Covenant Theological Seminary, MA (Theological Studies). After a few years on staff with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, Denis and his wife Margie began Ransom Fellowship, which became their life’s work. The purpose of Ransom was to help Christians learn to be discerning, living out the gospel in our world of advanced modernity. For a number of years, he taught a J-term elective at Covenant on “Film and Theology.” They were frequent speakers at L’Abri Conferences and branches. The archive of their work with Ransom is available online (ransomfellowship.org). Having move away from the nonprofit, Denis writing can be found online (critique-letters.com).