Reading The Key Essay 3 of 17

Kingdom Mind (My Mind To Me a Kingdom Is)

MIXED MEDIA ON CANVAS, 36 X 12 INCHES
ACRYLIC, INK, PHOTOGRAPHS, 1929 POETRY COLLECTION, 1952 BEGINNING DICTIONARY, SKELETON KEY, NIV BIBLE, 1949 WORLD HISTORY TEXTBOOK

A reliquary is a container for sacred objects from an earlier time. “Kingdom Mind” brings to awareness a sense of relic as it explores the power of the human mind.

The focal point of the painting is home to a 1916 school portrait of a young woman. She peers through the picture plane to the top of the head of a young boy, as depicted in his 1934 school picture. He is younger than she, and when considering their age difference and the timing of the images, she could easily become his mother, or his teacher. Representing such, this piece depicts the value of her education not only for herself, but for him as well.

Positioned just below her is a page from a collection of poems published in 1929. “My Mind To Me A Kingdom Is” are the words of Sir Edward Dyer. In  these verses he states that while some may not have wealth or power, all have the potential of the mind. These verses are juxtaposed before pages from a history textbook exploring the rise and fall of kingships in England.

Pages from a dictionary that would have belonged to a young student in 1956 present an interesting array of words and definitions. Included here are “transformation” and “renewal.” Transformation speaks of “the transformation of a caterpillar into a butterfly,” while renewal tells students “next summer there will be a renewal of swimming.” These are positioned with a page from the Bible, specifically Romans 12, instructing one to “be transformed by the renewing of the mind.”

The painting, like all the others in the series to date, is a cruciform composition. It also contains the iconic key – signifying the access afforded by knowledge.

A sense of antiquity suggests the passage of time through all these elements, from the photographs to the English kings to the words of the Apostle Paul. The hues are burnt umber and violet, mixing relic and royalty. 

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©Ginger Meek Allen

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