I Am and I Am begins with a face that appears familiar. A bearded figure beneath a crown of thorns immediately evokes Christ. But the longer the viewer looks, the less stable that first impression becomes.
Within the apparent single face, another face emerges. One seems to look upward while the other confronts the viewer from another orientation. They are separate, yet inseparable. Neither can be completely removed without changing the other.
The title draws upon the ancient declaration of divine existence: “I Am.” Here, however, the phrase is doubled.
I Am and I Am.
The repetition suggests not two gods, but two expressions contained within one whole: light and darkness, mercy and judgment, creation and destruction, suffering and salvation, mortality and divinity.
Much like the complementary forces represented by yin and yang, the painting asks whether apparent opposites must truly be contradictions. Perhaps what humanity separates into competing ideas can coexist within something larger than either one alone.
The crown of thorns places that question within the figure of Christ, simultaneously man and divine, condemned and exalted, wounded and eternal.
Look once and there is one face.
Look again and there are two.
Perhaps both were there all along.
Original artwork by Michael J. Thomas for Khaos Art Studios.
