Artist Cornelis Monsma - Description of the artist and his work.












			*Image Summary*
			*Gallery 09/2*
			*Gallery 09/1*
			*Gallery 08/4*
			*Gallery 08/3*
			*Gallery 08/2*
			*Gallery 08/1*
			*Gallery 07/3*
			*Gallery 07/2*
			*Gallery 07/1*
			*Prodigals 1*
			*Prodigals 2*
			*The Beatitudes*
			*Song of Songs*
			*The Covenants*
			*Lord's Prayer*
			*Revelation 1*
			*Revelation 2*
			*Revelation 3*
			*Prayer 1*
			*Prayer 2*
			*Psalms 1*
			*Psalms 2*
			*Redemption*
			*Relationship*
			*The Journey*
			*Early Church*
			*Decorative*
			*Miniatures*
			*Close-Up*
			*Christ*
			*Faith*
			*Joel*
			*Job*




		" The Christian art presented in this website does not attempt to picture external religious divinity but rather aims to be an expression of the Christ presence from within. A living account of a new found freedom encased in dependency, liberty rooted in obedience." Cornelis Monsma After a ten years presence on the web, I realized I had never updated this "Artist" page during that time, so this is it! Art has always been a major attraction in my life, and although I never enjoyed any formal art-education, I never felt restricted by the absence of it. Already as a youngster of about nine years of age I remember painting landscapes with trees and wild skies with golden sun-light. Being a "dreamer", I frequently ran into trouble at school level, as teachers tried desperately to get me out of my "dream-bubble", in which I still dwell up till today. Needless to say, they did not succeed. Portraits was another area I discovered and I found it fascinating to create moods in faces by changing the facial expressions. After the "very young" period, a time of limited output followed after marriage and the young family stage. During this time I went through a time of spiritual and artistic searching, realizing that painting realism was limiting my expressive potential. I reached for more freedom in expression, which resulted in a move towards a more dreamy abstract-type of painting with bright colors, inspired by the works of Marc Chagall. At this stage we also decided to move to New Zealand with our family. It has been an educating and trying period since we arrived in 1981 from the Netherlands here in New Zealand. Most changes took place within and along the framework of a maturing family-setting and an aging-maturing, perhaps wiser self I suppose. Our outlook on this world and the world to come has changed dramatically over that time, and looking at the art-aspect, things have also developed correspondingly. Like many other fellow christians, I started out with a well meaning attitude of "wanting to do my part" for the Christ who gave so much for me. I ended up however, finding "me" wanting, and after nearly a lifetime through trial and error, I found that Christ doing His part Himself through me, was the only fruitful situation to be in. The difference between the two approaches, as I have learned, is as far the west is from the east, resulting in the decrease of the ever domineering "self" in the first instance, to the overwhelming preeminence and presence that Christ has become in my life under the second. He is allowing and enabling me now to express the very nature of Him and His freeing redemptive work, thereby reducing "me" to the back seat. It is His presence which enables me to do, and produce the work at the intensity of the moment. Often people ask me if I pray before making a work. My experience is, that prayer is more like breathing, it's an integral part of my life, coloring the way I live, walk, think, see, reach, trust, touch and believe. Prayer and worship is an active continues lifestyle, just as Christianity is a living relationship, although sadly, many believe it to be a faith or a religion. Life in Christ has become for me a real-life-walk experience of walking by revelation, elevating and magnifying the preeminence of Him in everything I am and do. Working by intuition rather then planning, means I allow things to "happen" in the process of painting, and do not worry much about the outcome. That usually takes care of itself, and the wider ministry of a particular work often shows up much later and in a different way then initially anticipated. Age-wise well into the sixties and just moving now into the "golden autumn" years of my life, everything I do seems to get more urgency and meaning as I want to use every day and opportunity to the full. I find myself in a constant battle to keep alive "the child within", which enables me to look outside the square, teaches me to stoop down to simplicity and always provides me with a sense of wonder. Losing these capabilities would be the death knell of the creativity within me. There is still a lot of development and discovery ahead in the Lord's arts-walk with me. Just out of the diapers and walking, but knowing that He who leads encourages me to reach for more. In that knowledge I carry on and enjoy everything I undertake. What others write about Monsma's art. "Frequently regarded as blissfully unaware and displaced from reality, some spiritually inspiring art is seen as tasteless or fully dismissed as ordinary and ignorant. If religious in nature, preconceptions often hinder the audience from fully realizing the potential effect of the art. Although directly using terminology associated with Christianity, perhaps limiting those willing to remain open to his intentions, Cornelis Monsma states that, True (contemporary) Christian art is not a picture of religious divinity but rather an expression of the Christ presence from within. One can see that, in word, Monsma ties his work directly to his spiritual belief system; however, in essence, the work, which he intends to be spiritually inspirational to all his potential audience, is not tied to any one religion, but is an expression of the artist's own spirituality through his belief system." Studio The parable of my life I was planted as a small seedling in a beautiful and peaceful part of my Masters garden. I was surrounded by my family and other plants of which many became my friends. My Master looked after me right from the beginning and every time He walked through the garden, he took time to look at me, talked to me and even touched me occasionally. He sheltered me against the cold biting wind. He covered me when the deadly frosts tried to kill me. He watered me during the dry spells and even talked to me when I felt lonely and down. I became stronger and taller then even some of my own family. More and more I came to realise that I had an important part to play in my Masters garden. I gave shelter to the birds against the heat of the midday sun and kept them warm with my leaves against the cold at night. The spiders, ants and all the little insects in the soil looked up to me and they all became my friends. I was happy and felt I was somebody, I felt I was an IMPORTANT part of my Masters garden. My Master should be pleased with such a beautiful big strong bamboo like me! This was my life, this was where I belonged! Then one morning my Master was going past on one of His early walks. My heart jumped when He stopped right in front of me, stretched out His hand and touched me. Oh, what a moment! Nothing was more exciting then the touch of His hand. But then He spoke! "Bamboo" He said, "I am going to cut you down". He then left and disappeared into an other part of the garden. At first I wasn't sure whether I had heard my Masters words correctly. I asked my friends the sparrows whether they had heard what the Master had said. I asked my close friend the old spider if maybe he had heard what the Master had said. They all, including the ants confirmed to me the words my Master had spoken! I felt numb, shocked, disappointed, angry! Why would my Master do that to me! Me, the biggest, strongest and most important bamboo in the garden. Days went by and nothing happened. I started to doubt whether I had heard my Masters words correctly. Hope was rising, even my friends tried to encourage me by saying: "Maybe the Master has changed His mind about it and will not do it after all". That settled me down a little and so I carried on with my life as I used to do and started to forget all about the incident. Life went on at its normal pace. On a beautiful sunny summer day my Master came past again. He stopped right in front of me and looked carefully at me. My heart pounded. I was afraid, because He was carrying an axe in His hand and I knew He was going to use it! He spoke again: " Bamboo", I have come to cut you down!" Everyone in the garden was looking on. Then my Master swayed the axe and soon the sound of destruction filled the garden. The birds stopped whistling, all my friends were holding their breath in disbelief and horror. Even the sky did not seem to be as blue as before and the sun was hiding behind a cloud, not wanting to watch this tragedy. Then it was all over. I crashed to the ground and my Master started to strip me from all my beautiful leaves. Leaves, that had sheltered so many, were suddenly stripped off and became worthless, I cried, I was hurting! "My Master " I cried, "Why, Why, Why, Why?" But He did not answer. After I was stripped of everything, He lifted me up and carried me to another part of the garden, which was unknown to me. Carefully my Master put me down and looked whether everything was all right. He then walked away and left me in this unknown and to me, almost hostile part of the garden. I cried! I don't know how long I have been there, time did not seem to matter. My Master checked up on me at regular times, but never talked to me. I spend a lot of time thinking, although I was stripped of all my leaves, I was still there and alive. Inside, I had not changed and who knows, my master might still have an important job for me to do. But every day my Master left me longer, hope faded and I resigned myself to the idea, that my Master had turned His back on me and that I was slowly going to dry out and die. All the tears I had spilled proved to be fruitless and all the cries and prayers I had sent up to my Master seemed to be unanswered! If this was to be my end, well let it be! I gave up! I was in a very weak condition when my Master approached me again. I had given up all hope and was not really interested in the purpose of His visits anymore, but this time my Master seemed to be different in His approach from all the previous times. He carefully touched me and examined me. He took His time and then He spoke again. A ray of hope fell into my clouded heart, but was blocked out at the same moment, because of what He said. He said:" I am going to cut your heart out Bamboo". These words did not shock me anymore. I cried dry tears during the surgical process of cutting out the last remaining vital part of myself. "Master" I mumbled, "Only you know what is good for me" Strangely enough it did not hurt, rather the opposite. It almost felt that His hands did this destructive job in a loving way. After my Master had finished taking out everything what I was, he looked at me and smiled. "Bamboo" He said, "I am going to carry you to your final destination". He lifted me up and put me on His shoulder. Oh what a joy! Strangely enough I felt alive again and enjoyed being carried and touched by my Master. He carried me OUTSIDE the garden and started to explain everything that had happened to me. "Bamboo: He said, " I am going to lay you down in a trench connecting a lake with living life-giving water, to a dry valley close to dying. Living water will flow through you and because of the water, the valley will come alive again and will flower and bear fruit, to My glory! This is why I planted you Bamboo and that is why I looked after you". "I wanted you to be big, tall and strong. I had to cut you down bamboo and strip away all your pride. I left you to dry out, so that I could cut out your heart and remove every obstacle that would be in the way of the life-giving power that will flow through you, to enable the function I had in mind for you". "I never left you Bamboo, I always loved you and now I am going to lay you down in the trench I already dug some time ago. I will cover you and hardly no one will know that you are there. My glory will flow through you Bamboo and at the same time you will be filled constantly and your life will be a total fulfillment" This story line is modelled on an excisting Chinese story, using my own life experiences. Cornelis Monsma Email: Contact the artist Monsma's expressionist Christian art...... amazingly fresh, surprisingly contemporary!

The parable of my life