Pastel on paper, 32 x 40 inches
By Mark Graham
About Garden of Eden, Graham wrote, “This piece is part of a series of pastel works I created as a response to the stories of Adam and Eve and the Garden of Eden. The Garden and the experience of Adam and Eve are themes that have deep significance within Christianity and within the art of the Western tradition. My own work echoes these artistic traditions and includes a visual reference to Masaccio’s fresco painting of Adam and Eve being driven from the Garden of Eden. The piece also contains other symbols, such as a ladder, a drive-in movie theatre, and a lounge chair, that are open to the viewer’s interpretation. The story remains a mystery or a puzzle that allows room for personal construction of meaning. Likewise, this drawing is impressionistic and abstract and continues to surprise me with unexpected insights.”
Mark Graham is a professor in the Art Department at Brigham Young University. Graham is an internationally known illustrator and has illustrated thirty children’s picture books. His research interests include teacher education, place-based education, graphic novels, ecological/holistic education, secondary art education, design thinking, and Himalayan art and culture.
