Mitchell Chmielewski Art

Mitchell Chmielewski

Offering at the Mount, 2024

Acrylic and modeling paste on canvas board

9×12 in

This painting is a departure from my usual method of discovery. It emerged from a concept of spirituality and a desire to reflect my view of religion through color, texture, and abstract form. This piece was also a bit of an experiment in composition.

My intent was to utilize lines to draw the viewer towards “god.” I also intended to portray spiritual/religious ideas terms of crude, simple shapes. The piece is informed by a more negative perspective of spiritual/religious ideologies and institutions.

The lower left panel depicts a priest offering a flesh sacrifice at the mount, the conduit from man to god. The textured, muted orange, was meant to represent the groundedness or worldliness of their acts and position. To me, it communicates the priest’s role as a harbinger of deceit.

I separated the painting into quadrants to depict the physical world and the spiritual world. The priest is offset by god as the heavens are offset by earth.