What interests me is how the story of the Passion is as relevant today as it was 2000 years ago. The struggle that is occurring in Syria exemplifies some of the themes in the life of Jesus, namely sacrifice, sorrow and redemption. There is a corrupt brutal dictator that many people are fighting knowing that it will cost them their own lives. Soldiers of the Government are being ordered to kill their own people, sometimes even from their own village, and are refusing to do so and joining the resistance. From the pictures i have seen on the news children are a prevalent force in the resistance many of them protesting with their faces painted with the national flag and symbols of freedom. I chose to depict the classic mother and child with the mother crying at the fate of her son but knowing that in his death other children can live.

"The Suffering of the Lamb"
After listening to St. Matthew Passion by J.S. Bach, I was inspired by the swelling of powerful music and the imagery conveyed. I decided to depict Christ as a lamb and he is in a field of vegetation, but chooses to suffer by eating the sharp thorns. The scene is mostly desaturated blues and purples, with the exception of the warmth of the blood the lamb is standing by.

I am very familiar with the story behind the passion, so I wanted to abstract it in my own way based off my reaction to the music. Lilies represent the symbol of virtue and the Virgin Mary. I enjoyed abstracting the imagery of the thorn crown with musical wavelengths to create the border.

After listening to the St. Matthew Passion, my initial reaction was how a text that is Biblical canon for one person could sound so over-the-top for another. My piece is an excessively pious spoof of Bach's persona showing him as a Baroque-stye cherub.