LIFE THROUGH ANOTHER PERSON'S LENS

WHAT DID HE SEE?

WHAT DO I SEE?

MARY · ARRON CRASCALL

This is one of those works that perhaps explains the entire philosophy behind my collection.

Because when I look at it, I don't necessarily see what the artist saw.

I see something else.

Mary forms one half of a pair, its companion piece depicting Christ. Maria and I discovered them together in Arron's studio, and almost immediately we knew exactly where they belonged.

Together. On our wall.

But the more I've lived with Mary, the more fascinating it has become.

At the centre is a young woman.

Mary.

A woman whom Scripture describes as “blessed among women.”

Yet look beyond the portrait and into the apparent chaos surrounding her.

Amongst Arron's layers of paint, graffiti, thoughts and fragments of language are words that, to me, seem almost uncannily connected to her story.

LOVE ME.

Think about what Mary was being asked to do.

Imagine returning to the man you are betrothed to and telling him something almost impossible to comprehend.

That an angel had appeared to you.

That you were going to have a child.

And that the child was from God.

Would he believe you?

Would anyone?

Suddenly, amongst all that colour and noise, those two simple words feel very different.

Love me.

Then there is another:

BE READY.

Few phrases could be more appropriate.

Mary's life was about to change beyond recognition. She couldn't possibly have understood everything that lay ahead of her — the birth, the flight into Egypt, the extraordinary life of her son and ultimately the pain she would witness.

And elsewhere amongst the layers:

WANTS ME DEAD.

Again, I have no reason to believe Arron placed those particular words there intending them as biblical references.

And that's precisely why I find the piece so extraordinary.

Because Christ's story contains that too.

Herod's fear. The threat to the infant Jesus. A family forced to flee.

The words were Arron's.

But the story I found amongst them was Mary's.

THE SPACE BETWEEN ARTIST AND VIEWER

And perhaps that's where art becomes truly interesting.

An artist can create something with one thought, one emotion or one moment in mind.

Then somebody else stands in front of it carrying an entirely different lifetime of experiences, beliefs and memories.

And they see something the artist never intended them to see.

Neither interpretation necessarily has to be wrong.

They simply belong to two different lenses.

For me, this isn't simply an image of Mary surrounded by graffiti.

I see innocence surrounded by uncertainty.

Faith surrounded by fear.

A young woman being asked to trust something she couldn't possibly understand, knowing that those closest to her might not understand it either.

And somehow, hidden amongst the apparent randomness of Arron's words, I find fragments of a story that is more than two thousand years old.

LOVE ME.

BE READY.

WANTS ME DEAD.

Did Arron see Mary's story when he wrote them?

Perhaps not.

But I do.

And that is exactly why I collect art.

TWO WORKS. ONE WALL. TWO STORIES.

When Maria and I saw Mary alongside its companion Christ piece in Arron's studio, there wasn't much discussion about where they would go.

We already knew.

They belonged together.

Today they hang together in our home and have become two of the most treasured works in our collection.

Not simply because of who painted them.

Not simply because of what they depict.

But because every time I look at them, I find something else.

And perhaps I'll see something completely different in another ten years.

The artist creates the image.

Life changes what we see in it.