Ever since Jan Parker encountered the presence of God, he has proceeded along one, consistent path. Namely, he has poured all his heart and soul into depicting the image of God. To be sure, that might have reflected what appeared from the outside to be a series of hardships, such as the agony of his days as a struggling artist and his struggles with illness. Yet he did not perceive those times as hardships. Instead, he perceived them as blessings, and with each hardship, he underwent yet another profound spiritual experience. His was a course that involved standing firmly on the ground that he had built up through a perfectly natural dialogue with his own conscience.

Jan Parker considers the source of the universe to be God, and he has been attempting to depict the image of God based on his own very clear experiences. Since the beginning of time, the aspiration to happiness has served as the point of origin for creative works, as well as a point of contact with a transcendental presence. What is impressive about Altamira Cave (site of the first discovery of Paleolithic cave art in Spain) is the accumulation of pure-hearted prayers, just as artist Taro Okamoto asserted about the impact of Japan’s Jyomon era. The wish to depict God is a yearning that is universal to all humanity. However, since the European Renaissance and the enormous progress of science, the profound spirituality in art has to a large extent succumbed to a materialistic expression of spiritual darkness. Be that as it may, artists themselves have always sensed the cry of their own conscience and sought after the light inside their own hearts, which they consider to be God.
Contrary to that sort of desire on the part of artists, the tone of critics has been such that they fear getting stuck in the quagmire of religious conflict, with the result that they are dreadfully afraid of even mentioning God. It even seems as if they think that referring to things of a spiritual nature is unbecoming of a liberal intellectual. Even now, some artists who spend their lives trying to create sublime art, despite which, in reality, they are underappreciated and lead lives of loneliness.
However, the sensitivities of modern man are much shrewder, and it is becoming possible even for younger artists to attain spiritual understanding. Thus art theories that are out of date must be discarded. That is because if we fail to incline our hearts more intently to the desires that arise from men’s better nature, the art world will become an orphan of the times. From now on, there is a need to move closer to the heart of the creative motivation that artists have sought out deep inside. That doesn’t mean not recognizing as good artwork those pieces that have a rarity value from a physical standpoint or that represent a turning point for an artist. Instead, it is essential that we touch more upon the universality that artists have attained.
When we observe the lonely course that modern art is taking as it careens forward, we sense that we are standing at a turning point in history. Meant to be the essence of culture, art has, through repeated disavowal, turned into a “Dadaism” that disavows everything, and now the quality of art has been lowered to a superficial kind of commercialism. Moreover, it has already lost sight of the direction in which I think it should go. In times like these, I am inspired to give heartfelt praise for the genuine art of artists like Jan Parker, who come face to face in a serious manner with their true feelings.

And now, Jan Parker’s “God” series, which began with 2005 “Portrait of God”, marks its conclusion with this exhibit, entitled “Heart of God.” While illness had prevented him from even thinking of creating art, through his tears he encountered God in the image of his own parent, and he received from Him a great deal of healing and hope. He firmly pledged that if he were able to recover someday, he would strive without fail to directly try to portray God Himself. Once he finally recovered, the collection of works that he created under the compulsion of thoughts too powerful to ignore was overflowing with fresh emotion and filled whoever looked at his paintings with spirituality. The late contemporary artist Josaku Maeda once said about Jan’s painting, his voice trembling with emotion, “Ah, this is wonderful. It would feel great to be surrounded by these paintings. The candid emotions of the artist spill forth from the work. Just being inside this work makes one feel happy. Now this is art.” His words echoed all around as if they welled up from the depths of his being.
The second installment in the series was “Color of God.” I wrote my impressions at that time in a text entitled “Vibrations of God.” Its colors, which reach deep inside the human soul, remain seared on my memory. And now the present installment brings us to the final chapter.

Compared to the last two installments, these works appear to have markedly increased in strength. The strong, seemingly springy knife strokes were not present before. There was another collection of works presented in his 1993 solo exhibition labeled “Springtime of the World,” as if they heralded a new era, but the level of that strength in this set of works appears to transcend that dimension. Over time, even the hue has grown stronger. Through the use of black, the painting has become tighter and more solid. Parker’s works are not a self-driven account arising from simple spiritual communication, such as is commonplace in the art world. They are rather a dialogue with God. Therefore, this is certain to indicate that a clear-cut, change has come to him internally. What sort of change could that be?

Looking at Jan Parker’s remarks about this exhibit, we find the comment, “To me, God is like a father and mother. He is my spiritual parent.” he says, “God speaks to me through my emotions and through my art. God is like a complete person. He has profound emotions and yearning.” Accordingly, when we look at the titles of these latest works, we undoubtedly realize that most of them are things that God has spoken to him. Astoundingly, he truly perceives God as an individual being and, what is more, is clearly conversing with him as his very own parent. In the last three works as well, he touched on God’s profound deity and drew an image of God as a parent. But this time one gets the feeling that things have moved into a somewhat different dimension. Apparently, as he went about creating his art, having already transcended such encounters with God that consisted of being consoled and loved, he clearly moved closer to the actual circumstances of God and had a profound encounter with His true image as the parent of the universe. If we assume that God has a personality and that he perceives the human race as His children, then it follows that His feelings towards His children may vary according to His children’s ability to sense God’s heart and situation. Without a doubt, Parker has now not only gained access to the image of the God that he was seeking diligently to grow closer to, but also become the artist that God is calling him to be. Otherwise, a collection of works this powerful could never have come about. Now, at last, Jan Parker has touched God’s emotions and circumstances. And, while it is still incomplete, he has succeeded in communicating a tiny part of that. Accordingly, when we come into contact with that work, we too can be filled with the spirit just as he was, making it possible for us to obtain a signpost that will open our mind’s eye.

Parker says, “I think that there is a part of God’s emotions in which he is suffering even now. That is because of the many types of suffering that still exist in the world today.” He is grieving over the misfortune of the earth in the same dimension as does the God who created the universe. He is crying in the same dimension as God over the present reality, in which much of our time is spent fighting wars and where domestic violence is rampant.
Even so, Jan Parker’s works this time around are exceedingly dynamic, free, and brimming with hope. He sums things up this way, “Even so, in another dimension of God, there is a world that is filled with hope and joy. That is because the day that His true love for mankind enters a new era is extremely near. So my work is more like a celebration.”
It is quite possible that Parker can sense the future. As long as God still has hope for humanity, there should most certainly be hope for the human race. As long as we still have a conscience, there is a way. Jan Parker’s works harbor the power to question once again the relationship between God and humanity. That is in fact the relationship of absolute trust as parent and child.