THE BOOK OF MISERY
– Seven Acts from the Book of Job

I often react spontaneously to colors, and one day when I spotted an accidental combination of greyish red, blue, and yellow amongst my 100+ spools, I immediately thought of the Book of Job!

Even as a child, I never liked to use the three “appealing-to-children” primary colors together as I find that the combination leaves little to the imagination and lacks an inquisitive dimension. But the infusion of a bit of brown, black, or a contrasting color into the yarn dye makes the threesome more interesting and a better fit for God’s complex playground. I don’t find it beautiful, but beauty is not a word we immediately associate with the story of this most suffering of men after whom no child is named.

The seven-act-tapestries (2–8) follow the story without strictly referring to the book’s narrative or chapters and verses. After completing them I added a first tapestry, a drape-like image. I felt that the series with its theater references needed the magical anticipation experienced in a theater setting when we stare at the separating curtain while waiting for the stage and scenography to be revealed and for the first act to begin. It also establishes the three primary colors in which the drama unfolds.

In the ninth and last tapestry, we are again outside of the story – but now in nature, and in the cleaner variations of yellow and blue we enjoy the sun and sense God’s universal grace.


- (9/9 tapestries, series complete)
- Click on images for more information.