Ni Ketut Ayu Sri Wardani's "Hatiku Sangat Sedih" 2002

THE JESUS QUESTION

"Hatiku Sangat Sedih" (2002) by Ni Ketut Ayu Sri Wardani 

INDONESIA---Another painting that compellingly conveys the crushing weight of Jesus’ final temptation is Ni Ketut Ayu Sri Wardani’s "Hatiku Sangat Sedih" (Indonesian for “My heart is sad,” a reference to Mark 14:34). All of Wardani’s artwork is beautiful in its expressiveness, especially of Christ’s sorrow, and I look forward to sharing more of it with you guys in the future. In this painting, the brushstrokes are frantic, chaotic. They pound and pulverize Jesus, making him bend down under their force. Wardani takes the opposite approach of Ssali in terms of color scheme, using cool colors instead of warm. So instead of piping hot furnace, we get cold, dark abyss. But the yellow (the only warm color on the canvas) might be said to represent a light of hope in this dark moment, a Father’s loving arms outstretched to his Son, trying to warm him in this time of trial. [link]