Matt Kish created Moby Dick in Pictures, a huge project that is now a book. He dedicated himself to one piece of art every day. One piece of art (crayon, paint, pencil, etc.) One piece of art every day
for every page of Melville’s classic, Moby Dick. It’s not a short book, but a huge complicated tome
still perused in high school and college classes today for its themes of hate and revenge gone awry. It’s about obsession.

Five hundred and forty three pages. Five hundred and forty three days. For a year and a half of his life, Mr. Kish created art every single day. Every single day, he created. Christmas, New Year’s, not feeling well, power outage, moving, didn’t matter. Obsessed by the characters’ journeys, by their stories, by Ahab’s obsession, he created.

Moby Dick in Pictures. Wow, amazing. It’s not so much the actual pictures, which are fascinating to look at, simple and multi-faceted at the same time, it’s the colossal commitment that draws us in to Kish’s world. We, human failings, with half-yearly not so resolute resolutions. We admire a man’s obsession to this book.

If only I was so inspired….not with Melville, but with God himself. With the very word of God—that I could not escape it’s daily call….not that I am creating art every day, but I am created in His image, saved by His grace to reflect His glory to mankind. I am showing Christ every day and I must be in God’s word every day. I am, in a sense, painting pictures and creating art.

As I thumb through the pages of the book, I wonder where the original art resides..543 pieces would take up quite the space…are they in galleries or does Mr. Kish have them stored away somewhere? Where are they really? Other than in the artist’s heart and here on these pages?
Where are my daily art works? Those ones inspired by my time in God’s word? What would they look like? Would they collect dust or change lives? What would Tracey Westphal in Pictures look like? Let me create this one instead, Jesus Christ in Pictures.