EVE OF THE FAMED ADAM AND EVE BY Rob Oppenauer

EVE OF THE FAMED COUPLE ADAM AND EVE.
Do you fondly think of Eve as a Great Grandmother figure, or resent her for making that big mistake of not doing what she was told that one time? I don’t think many think of this at all yet millions of people readily except the premise that she is the mother of all mothers.
God didn’t want man to be alone so he said: "I will make an help meet for him".I’m not sure what a meet is really, in that context. The word help in "help meet" sounds a bit condescending. What am I saying "condescending" It’s God. Well in the natural order of things God can condescend to anything and anyone, man can condescend to woman (I don’t like it but the bible is clear on this one), man and woman can condescend to children then that trio can condescend to animals. Does this not resemble the simple law of nature where physical strength simply rules because it can. Is it not possible that when Mosses wrote this he was proclaiming that he "man" was on the top with approval from the unsurpassable top. I’m not suggesting that he was wrong at the time to make his observations in the world and write them down as a fable. In the Bible women are often considered as subservient child bearing vessels. Now that we know women can fly the Space Shuttle, it becomes more difficult to ally the original premise with the fact that the mother of all sin has come a long way after thousands of years or as I would say millions of years. To make the argument that women are equal to men only a hundred years ago would be difficult almost everywhere. In this tiny slice of a long history woman finally have equal rights. How do you reconcile this with (Gen. 3:16 Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.) This sounds like a rather harsh way to treat her for wanting equality with her master. I can’t help thinking fable when I read this stuff.
In the sculpture Karen and I portray Eve as a sexy, child bearing hips type. After all that was her true purpose and vocation. Karen’s idea of Eve looking at the two fig leaf’s asking herself as to what fig leaf should she wear today is light and humorous. Juxtapose this with Eve saying something much more sombre like how ashamed she should feel today? It appears to me that this Fable is a good coming of age story for it’s time. The Garden of Eden story of how woman or man go from the comfort of innocents to the realization and understanding that the world is not all a peace full garden but that there are consequences with taking over your own life. Well done to Mosses. A lot more people took this as real as did the people in when Orson Wells read War of the Worlds on the radio. Remarkably no one got hurt in that one.

Noahs Ark by Rob Oppenauer

I was ask by a client to build a Noahs Ark. The Ark is a popular Folk Ark theme. I never did like the picture this story put in my mind so Karen and I decided to double check the original story to see if there was a silver lining. We used the Authorized or King James version.
The whole story is genesis chapter 6 to the end of 9 or about 3.5 pages. God decide that all of creation was bad and must be destroyed except Noah and his family. Since being fruitful and multiplying was all the rage, there must have been a substantial population to drown so it was a good thing that Noah’s immediate family was also worthy of saving, but how plausible is that?
Genesis 6:10: "Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations" Didn’t seem that "just" the way he later cursed his grandson Cannaan for something his son Ham did or didn’t do: Gen. 9:25.
The perception I’ve always had of the ark was a boat like structure but of course that wasn’t necessary since it wasn’t under power of sail. A box would do and although we don’t know exactly what a cubit is (approx. 18 to 21 inches) we can easily represent it’s overall shape 300 long X 50 wide X 30 high. I don’t think this is a discovery but just interesting that when floating if 2/3 under water it must of looked like a giant long narrow wafer. Not that there’s anything wrong with that aside from adding to the euphemistic image the ark seems to imprint on the minds of those who see the story as fact and those that don’t care alike. How many doctors offices have a calendar with a cute Ark depiction, complete with the ubiquitous giraffe heads taking their place between the ark and the rainbow (the rainbow was Gods promise never to kill everyone with a flood again). Then all the other cute animals two by two this is the picture we all grew up with. In my work I like to pay homage to the unseen, the dogs and dolphins (don’t tell me dolphins didn’t get hurt). I can under stand that it isn’t completely impossible that all the people were bad every man, woman, child, toddler, baby, but Koala Bears? Speaking of which how did Noah get them in the first place? After landing on the mountain did the Koala Bears pack fresh eucalyptus leaves, travel together till they reach Australia, survive all that then start procreating on a dead flooded out earth? An explanation could be that sort of thing was a miracle. Why use miracles and floods why not just miracles and where does the miracle end and where does it begin?