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In his book Beauty: the invisible embrace, John O'Donohue said, "It is the deepest dream of the human soul to be in the intimacy of Divine Beauty."
Several years ago, when we were planning to build our passive-solar retreat house based on biophilic design principles, I visioned a collection of artwork in the finished space. While we had chosen a physical spot of natural beauty with panoramic views over water towards the mountains of the High Country, I also wanted to imbue the property with an inner beauty.
Knowing that every cent we owned, and then some, would be used up to connect the property to utilities, and build from the ground up, I made a special gift request. Whenever family asked what I would like as a gift for birthday or Christmas, I would say, "a deposit to the art fund".
One side of our family doesn't really get art, or appreciate its value (hence its cost). So any contribution from them was negligible. The other side of our family gets art, and more importantly, gets that I am into art. So there were a few nice contributions waiting for the day when we had walls and spaces to display art.
Then it was simply allowing time to find special pieces that spoke to me of deeper things.
This piece is very special to me for a few reasons. The artist and his wife took part in one of the first creativity workshops I ran after making our seachange to this part of the country. A painter for many years, I think he found my freewheeling creativity prompts a bit foreign; but after initial hesitation, he joined into the spirit of things and created some amazing pieces during the workshops. He then went on to complete a Diploma of Visual Art. This work was part of his graduation exhibition.
When the gallery where I work goes through 'changeover' there are two very chaotic days when artworks are all over the place, people coming and going, collecting work and delivering work. Dismantling one exhibition and putting the other one up. Amid the chaos, and while registering another artist's incoming work, I looked across the gallery and saw this work leaning against the wall. At the time, I didn't know who created it, just one of the artists in the group exhibition. I was drawn to it like a magnet. And a month or so later, it took pride of place above our dining table.
I invited the artist and his wife for morning tea, so they could see the work in it's new home.
In the meantime, we'd had a few visitors, who were all keen to put their interpretation on the piece. The general consensus was a scene of desertion. But opinions differed as to which fish were leaving the battlefront.
Was it a mass exodus down the bottom, or a lone deserter at the top?
Over morning tea, the artist explained his intent with the work, Onward Christian Soldiers.
"Religion has spawned many wars throughout history," he said. "The fish on the bottom symbolise Christians swarming into battle. But overhead, the single Fish they are supposedly 'following' is actually leading in the opposite direction."
Oh, there is so much here. Swimming upstream, going against the flow, living counter-culturally.
Whenever I use the term counter-cultural living, many in the Christian bubble mistakenly think I mean living counter to the mores of secular society. What I actually mean is living counter to the mores of organised religion.
From where I sit, that's a much bigger challenge!
For those of you who followed our owner-building adventures in the early days of this blog, you know how inventive Mr X is. There were so many clever ideas he designed and created for our home. 
This piece is very special to me for a few reasons. The artist and his wife took part in one of the first creativity workshops I ran after making our seachange to this part of the country. A painter for many years, I think he found my freewheeling creativity prompts a bit foreign; but after initial hesitation, he joined into the spirit of things and created some amazing pieces during the workshops. He then went on to complete a Diploma of Visual Art. This work was part of his graduation exhibition.
