I recently completed a small oil painting of a portion of the front of the Hall of State building in Dallas’s Fair Park. Considered one of the best examples of Art Deco architecture in the state, the Hall of State building is at the head of the parks Esplanade, which includes the Centennial Building, the Automobile Building, the Women’s Museum and the Tower Building. The Hall of State building list the last names of 59 Texas heroes on its exterior, and at it’s entrance is an incredible gold sculpture of a Tejas Warrior by Allie Victoria Tennant, a Dallas sculptor.
Oil on canvas, 8 x 24 – Tejas Warrior
The canvas I used was tall and narrow, 8 inches by 24 inches. As per the canvas shape, the painting is composed of a thin detail of the front of the Hall of State building, highlighting the gold leafed Tejas Warrior.
I have always been intrigued by warriors, as I suppose a lot of men are. The tools of the “warrior” trade have always fascinated me. Be it knives, guns, spears, bows, arrows or whatever a warrior might use, they tend to cast a spell over me like the call of the Sirens did to Ulysses and his men in Homer’s Odyssey. Weapons and warriors….now that is what I’m talking about.
Illustration by F.O. Darley for the 1859-1861 edition of Fenimore Cooper’s novel “Last of the Mohicans”
When I contemplate the basic idea of “warrior”, it points to something deep within this universe. It points to things broken, or things that have been stolen, or taken captive. In a perfect world, the whole concept of warrior would not even be needed. But we are not in a perfect world and there is an evil that is present, and active.
The word warrior brings me to think of Fenimore Cooper’s book “The Last of the Mohicans”, set in the period around 1757. Two Mohican warriors, along with Nathaniel Hawkeye, their adopted son, fight numerous battles to rescue two kidnapped daughters of a British officer. Warriors fighting because something had been lost or taken; taken unjustly.
I also think of the men of the 101st Airborne who dropped into France and fought their way across the enemy held ground all the way to Germany. Warriors who fought for a thing taken unjustly.
This present world we live in is in need of warriors who fight for the thing that has been unjustly taken or to protect what is at risk.
To recognize that a thing is unjust, is to also recognize that there must be justice somewhere in this universe. Somewhere out there in the vast unknown, there must be “Justice”. A justice with a capital “J”. The Just One is the God described in the Bible. He describes Himself as a “Warrior” in several places in scripture. One example is in Isaiah 42:13 – “The LORD will go forth like a warrior, He will arouse His zeal like a man of war. He will utter a shout, yes, He will raise a war cry. He will prevail against His enemies.”
One of my favorite passages that mention God as a warrior is found in Zephaniah, chapter 3, verse 17:
“The LORD your God is in your midst, A victorious warrior. He will exult over you with joy, He will be quiet in His love, He will rejoice over you with shouts of joy.
This verse tells a lot about the heart of God. The first “picture” this verse paints is that God is a warrior. It goes a step further and describes Him as a victorious warrior. He never looses a battle. Never. The second image you get from this verse is that the warrior God expresses joy over His people, over those who know Him. And then it says that this warrior God loves His people and then mentions that He rejoices over us with shouts of joy. Amazing image painted by this verse about God the Warrior.
