The actions of confronting and being confronted are very important factors throughout my work. According to Merriam-Webster Dictionary “confrontation is the act of confronting: the state of being confronted: a face-to-face meeting.”38 In her article “When God Confronts Your Heart with Holy Ghost Conviction” Senior Pastor Reina Olmeda states, “Confrontation makes us uneasy. It stirs and brings to surface the areas of our lives we would rather ignore—areas that, if we had our way we would live just fine without ever having to deal with face-to-face.”39
My painting Confrontation showcases the uncomfortable feeling of being confronted by the Holy Spirit. The figure in the painting stands while facing a white peacock perched on a banister. There is another peacock walking towards the figure in a kneeling position, as if it is bowing. Much like in Contemplation with Expectations, the scale of the peacocks in comparison to the figure has been altered. The peacocks are much larger than life-size to emphasis their symbolic hierarchy as God-like figures. In total, there are four peacocks present. There are also four doors.
The number four reflects stability. In his article “Number 4 Numerology: The Salt of the earth,” Master Neurologist Hans Decoz lists four of its main characteristics: “dependability, productivity, punctuality and obedience.”18 Gyurme refers to the number four as “the heavenly number, representing body”19 while Georgy notes it as being “the creation number.”20 Georgy is the writer of “Biblical Numbers: 1-10,” an article giving in depth biblical descriptions of the numbers 1-10. In the text he makes a claim that four “has special significance to the earth and that it is symbolic of earthly completeness.”21
Lastly, “The number Four is the value of the Hebrew letter dalet:ך, meaning door; the door through which the humble enter into the realization of God’s dwelling place below,”24 as reported by Greg Killian in his essay “The Significance of the Number Four.” Near the middle of his essay Killian points out that four “is also the final stage of development: sanctification, deliverance, redemption, completion.”25
(The jumbo Braille dots, incorporated in this painting, are a poem that I wrote and transcribed into Braille with clay dots.)
