Resurrection

We see an almost flat farmland under a heavily threatening, cloudy sky. It is drawn with deep black crayon. The vast field is full of plants with flower-shaped heads; a little crocus, a little tulip. They are positioned in rows, leaning against each other and bound together with deep furrows in between. Only when you look again do you recognise human heads among them, with deep eye sockets, rows of torsos with powerless arms. This is where people are harvested. Then it suddenly becomes apparent that there are not only clouds racing past in the sky, but also angel-like creatures in white pleated robes whizzing over the land at fighter-jet speed.

Pass, Donald; Resurrection, detail

Donald Pass produced a series of works based on the Resurrection. The earlier works are large black and white drawings; he later utilized watercolours, and now uses a mix media of watercolour, gouache, coloured inks, and conté crayons. He hoped that “my work is a mirror of the Resurrection that I saw. One becomes very conscious of greater powers beyond us; I was very conscious of them in the Vision. All I saw was a heavenly garment really, and the greater things beyond us we probably never will see.” He intended his work on the Resurrection to be an expression of life and hope, not death, as he believed that the Resurrection shows that life will continue, that death is a transformation within life. He believed that “we are all one of the great many beings who will eventually rise from the dead and be a part of this great scene. We are important and small in relation to this. I believe that every one being, that every creature on Earth, is held in compassion by God, and I believe God is the centre of compassion. This is the one thing that came through all this: the one thing I felt all the way through this is this overwhelming sense of compassion.”