I can’t think of a single thing that I encounter that isn’t an iceberg.
What my mind already knows about everything in my world is like the iceberg’s visible tip. Let’s say, my bathroom rug, for instance. I see it every day. I know it well. It is green, a rectangle, feels like carpet, and although thin, is able to hold a massive amount of water for weeks on end, so it is always annoyingly sodden. But what I know about this object is limited to my experience with it. I know nothing of its background; like, what materials was it manufactured out of that make it retain water for so long? Where was it even manufactured? How did they make it green? Who came up with this inefficient design for a bath rug? Who even came up with the idea of bath rugs in the first place?
Okay, so maybe this is a silly example. But almost everything in existence has a part to it that we just don’t know about - the gargantuan base of the iceberg that is submerged underwater, invisible to our above-the-surface view. Most of the time, what we see of the iceberg doesn’t even give us an idea of what the thing looks like in its entirety. We often have no idea how much there really is to it.
Think of how this applies to a person. What we know about most people we encounter in life is only the tip of an massive iceberg. We can’t even begin to see the parts that make up who they are unless we dive beneath the surface.
Think of how this applies to everything we know about God. I’m convinced that what i’ve seen of Him is proportionate to about a millimeter of ice sticking out above the water. Underneath is a mass that plunges hundreds of miles down into the depths of the ocean, so deep that we aren’t even humanly capable of reaching the whole thing.
When it comes to making art, I’ve heard it said that illustrators and graphic designers give answers, but painters ask questions. I never thought that this applied to me - I felt like my images presented resolved thoughts. But as I look around the room, thinking of how everything I see is like an iceberg, I realize that I actually do have an inquisitive nature. I question. I will not settle for seeing only the tip of the iceberg. I want to spring from my dry, complacent diving board, and with a flip and a spin, plunge into the depths of the midnight ocean. I want to perceive deeply.
Maybe I am a painter after all.
