A purely conceptual piece, this painting is full of symbolism.  At a glance, the imagery shows a woman with a sword in her hand walking through a field with arrows stuck in the ground around her – in the distance is a large fire.  I’ll break down a few bits of the symbolism intended here.

Think of a woman in your life who presses toward the Kingdom of God.  That woman that you are thinking of is who the painting is meant to portray.  If that woman is you, your friend, wife, fiancé, mother, sister, cousin, aunt, daughter – yes that is you, that is her.  She leans her body slightly forward as she drags a heavy sword in her right hand.

The sword seems too large, too heavy, and many think the woman cannot wield it, but she can.  Even if she doesn’t wield it in this painting, even if her arm is tired from swinging it in a battle she is just stepping out of, even if she’s never wielded it before, she can lift it.  The sword represents the Holy Bible – God’s word, instruction manual, and love letter.  Dragging the sword here through the field leaves a mark – a straight line forward.

The field represents the woman’s life, behind her is her past and before her, the future.  Twenty one arrows are stuck in the ground – fired at the woman in different directions as the enemy attacks from all angles.  There are arrows shot from behind her and arrows shot from in front of her.  Ten of the arrows even form a crown to represent God’s victory over the weapons of the enemy.  The woman perseveres straight forward as she is not struck by a single arrow – they are at her feet.

The fire in the background rages.  There is no ominous glow from a fire in the distance.  The flames are visible as if they are close, but the perspective of the field in the painting suggests that the fire is far away.  Somehow the fire is far away and, at the same time, close enough to clearly make out the flames.

The fire doesn’t cast a shadow.  As big as it is, none of the shadows cast in the painting are from the flames.  Shadows are cast from a brighter light.  The shadows make no sense here – they seem scattered.  The woman’s shadow is cast to her left and that would mean that the light is coming from … the sword itself.  How is this possible?  The shadows from the 21 arrows who failed to strike the woman but remain at her feet seem to come from the woma- no, right in front of the woman.  There is no light source painted here, but the evidence of an unseen light source is everywhere.  The light walks just in front of her and she walks behind it through the field, past the arrows, and toward a fire that is both close and far.

It’s as if she is following the light’s … lead!