"NATIVITATE AMBIGUAM (Questionable Birth)" by Rob Moler (Original Painting)

I am drawn to surrealism as it depicts a world where time is meaningless and gravity does not rule. In my surreal landscapes, objects are possessed by the spirits of positive and negative emotions or are carried by my little hummingbird messengers to add further depth to the story. Hopefully the work from my “LATIN SERIES” will connect emotionally with viewers, encouraging them to unmask these objects to discover their spiritual core and find personal meaning within.

Though I was raised in a fundamentalist Christian environment, I became an atheist later in life. I’m still fascinated with the “magical thinking” of religion and religious traditions which I like to explore in my work through symbolism. In this particular painting, I visually explore the strange concept of the Immaculate Conception, the Virgin Birth and the Nativity. I use the bird’s nest and the levitating egg as symbols of Mary’s womb while the Holy Spirit (sewing scissors in the shape of a crane) hovers overhead. I give the traditional symbol of the “Lamb of God” a twist by showing it as both a live animal and as a marionette. Both lambs are being manipulated; one is unaware of his eminent death while the other moves by an unseen hand from above. Prophesied in the Old Testament and realized in the New Testament, the double iris symbol was included to show the continuation of “love” from Genesis to Revelation. The Holy Trinity concept can be found in the black triangle (behind the living lamb) and the triangular framework of the composition.

In “NATIVITATE AMBIGUAM”, I wrestled with the notion that the authority of Scripture is completely hinged on the believer accepting the traditions involving the “nativitate” or birth of Christ; without this belief the entire message of the Bible is lost. Cognitive dissonance be damned.