The divine Labyrinth

By Olivia  , aged 13 from Lancaster Girls' Grammar School

How do we envisage God 

The message I am trying to covey through my artwork is that God is ‘within.’ I have chosen an ambiguous title of ‘Divine Labyrinth’ because it can be interpreted in many ways depending on your viewpoint; an atheist may view a labyrinth as an impossible task with no hope to escape without a clear, defined path or structured methodical plan. Whereas a theist could view a Labyrinth as a trust exercise with God, and they would not be worried about being lost or being able to escape because they believe that God is leading you and is always by your side. 

I’ve depicted many of these ideas through different symbolic aspects in my artwork such as: 

The path leading through and across the mountain with winding turns expresses the difficult journey of reliance and faith in God’s plan but also the turns depict times when you may become unsure about your beliefs or doubt His way of life. 

exercise with God, and they would not be worried about being lost or being able to escape because they believe that God is leading you and is always by your side. 

I’ve depicted many of these ideas through different symbolic aspects in my artwork such as: 

The path leading through and across the mountain with winding turns expresses the difficult journey of reliance and faith in God’s plan but also the turns depict times when you may become unsure about your beliefs or doubt His way of life. 

The bridge over the tears linking the two sides of the path refers to the people on the fence with their beliefs, the agnostic people, who are also shown by the figure standing on the bridge. The figure looks towards the eye in the mountain for guidance as if asking what they should do; either towards God or towards science. This idea was based on a quote from the bible from Job 23:3 – ‘If only I knew where to find God! I would go to his place of dwelling.’ 

The bridge can also signify the crossing point from believing in science and transitioning to the other side of having a belief; like crossing a bridge of realisation, after the pain and struggles and uncertainty of not having a belief, shown by the tears. 

My message of God is ‘within’ is the idea of your belief being up to you, but it can be hard to find what you believe in; which is shown by the ‘mountain.’ The mountain is a person’s face, covered in nature and overgrowth to mask the face, symbolising that god is hidden within yourself – yourself being expressed through the idea of the face – and not in plain sight. I deliberately created the mountain as a person’s face connoting an atheist’s point of view which suggests that your belief can be in your mind and could just be an illusion or false hope. 

Linking back to the message of God is Within, the eye looking upwards towards the northern lights conveys that you have to be optimistic towards your own religious journey but at the same time could show an agnostic individual leaning towards believing in God and choosing their own path. 

For my piece I mostly used paints because it allowed me to have abstract aspects while also smooth and realistic aspects too. I did small touch-ups with felt tip, paint pens and coloured pencils to refine it. 

I really enjoyed creating this piece as it allowed me to express my thoughts as an agnostic and helped me understand the mindset of atheists and theists more effectively and show all I have learnt in one piece. 

Overall, my piece has many deep meanings and ideas expressed through many symbolic elements which all link back to the idea of God being ‘within’ yourself and the journey to finding him is up to you.