The Saints

In this case, let me first share the text, and then explain how I chose to depict it:

The saints sat
quarrying rock

Glorious are you, our God in Trinity, in the heavens!
[This refrain repeats after each verse.]

They quarried rock;
they built a church

With three domes,
and with three doors

An angel flew in
And alighted upon the altar

Alighted upon the altar,
And celebrated a service.

Glorious are you, our God in Trinity, in the heavens!

___

The key to everything is the second verse: “Каміння били, церкву робили.” Because Slavic languages have no articles, word-for-word this text translates, “They quarried rock; they built church.” The literal meaning implies that they quarried rock and built a church: an image of physical labor, of “saints with sledgehammers,” as it were. But the mystical tone of this carol hints at more. What if it means they were building the Church... which of course they were, metaphorically? What if this text conjures the thought that the entire church, the universal church, is built upon centuries of works and efforts — of those known to history as saints, and of all those forgotten to us?

The image I therefore tried to capture was that of infinite energies and connections: of the many works of those countless laborers, over the centuries, all intersecting to form The Church, writ large… which is in turn an intersection between the human and the divine. My painting is a celebration of our connections: with others; with history; with the divine. The refrain of this carol, with its reference to the cosmos, reinforces that these perspectives extend across space and time.

This recording by the chamber choir "Kyiv" is an orchestral arrangement, but retains the mysterious mood of the carol.