Michelangelo’s fresco painting, “Creation of Adam”, beautifully captures a divine moment between what is supposed to be the representation of God and the biblical character, Adam. The two dominating figures are both extending their forefinger in an attempt to reach each other. The representation of God is surrounded by baby-like creatures floating around him, that are meant to illustrate angels.
The artist made some deliberate decisions about different techniques used to bring to life his work like the contrast between colors, thick contours or the choice of shapes. Those choices will strongly impact the meaning of the work and reveal his intentions. However, I believe that what makes a piece of art beautiful to everyone is the capacity that we have to give our own interpretations to it. In fact, many hypotheses have been given to this painting such as the angels holding a red cloth surrounding God are meant to represent the human brain or even the uterus. With an artwork, you don’t have to stick with what others think or even what the artist has designated it to be. There are an endless possibilities of stories to tell by contemplating an art piece. You have the freedom to choose the one that resonates with you the most.
While starring at this masterpiece, I was struck by the nonchalant attitude of Adam, lazily extending his finger while on the other hand you could see how the figure of God was desperately stretching his hand, straining his muscles to reach Adam. This is similar to a verse in the Bible where God mentions that he is constantly knocking on the door of our hearts, waiting for us to open it. As I was gazing at the picture, I had vivid flashbacks of my own spiritual quest.
To give you a glimpse of my background story, I was raised in a Christian-centered family. However, I was never really what Christians would call a “godly child”. During Sunday services, I used to sit in the back row, behind someone that was tall enough, and sleep when the pastor was preaching. My mom would give me a disapprove side-eye. If looks could kill, I would have probably been six feet under by now. In my defense, we used to go to Church at nine o’clock. That meant I had to be up by eight on a weekend, the only days I had to sleep. I was pretty much acting like Adam, lazing around, going to Eve to devour the forbidden fruit while putting this fake effort of being a Christian. Just doing the bare minimum. I never felt like I had my place there, sitting in Church while the sermon gradually became a faint noise in the background as I was lost in my own little bubble.
Looking back at it, I’m thankful that I stopped trying to please my parents and dropped the meaningless act and found my own path after years of struggles and using faith as a compass to guide me through life.
3 comments
Hi Michaella, I loved your post on religion and finding your own spiritual path. I feel that parents can put a lot of burden on their kids when they don’t allow freedom for their own interpretations. I respect the journey you took to know yourself and know that this is not the way you want to pursue faith. In my personal experience, I didn’t like the pressure and fear my parents put on me regarding religion, but over time I learned to love faith and spirituality while learning on my own.
First let me congratulate for having the audacity to make that decision although it might not be welcomed by others it is certainly important for one to find his way of satisfying himself spiritually after all we humans are very diverse in choosing to live our own life thanks for sharing
Hi Michaella, your choice of “The Creation of Adam” is an intriguing one. Your mention of the interpretation of the red cloth around the representation of god in the painting as the “womb” is also particularly interesting, because in arabic the word Rahma or Rahm is used for both the Mercy of God and for the womb itself (this made me go o_o). On another note, the road to faith can’t be taken for you by parents, or anyone else for that matter, so I had to drop the act too. It’s a struggle to find the road on your own, but the struggle is what turns the act into a meaningful reality. I respect your journey. May God continue to guide us both, Ameen.