“Aye Yo, Is That a Ghost Out There? Yo, What is That?” “Be Cool Man, It’s Just Jesus”

By Justin Hayes


First, let it be stated: I did not pick this image because it has religious undertones. Now that that’s out of the way, let me explain to you why I DID choose this image: I love the color blue. It’s easily, without a doubt, my absolute favorite color. That, however, is not what I’m going to talk about with regard to this painting. Upon further review, what really struck me about this image is just how ghastly of an image it is. One could argue that the loneliness portrayed in the image is a commentary on religion (and how ‘alone’ one is without it), or possibly some kind of statement about mankind and its pursuit of meaning within life (and how, without organized religion, the meaning of life is bleak and dreary). Again, just thoughts that I’m kicking around, but I would bet I’m not *that* far off of the mark.


When I first noticed this image, it struck me. The variety of shades of blue immediately caught my eye, and that was before I even had an inkling of an idea of what the image was trying to say. My personal religious beliefs notwithstanding (because this isn’t really the forum to talk about that kind of thing), this image simply cannot be discussed without some kind of talk of the religious element displayed here. The image of Christ (which will be discussed further later) walking on the water, appearing before the sailors (who appear to be lost far away from land and dead in the middle of a thick haze of fog), make it seem as if Christ is possibly guiding these poor, lost souls to land.

The specter on the water is portrayed as “Christ” in the title of the painting, but the figure we see walking on the water is not an image of Christ as we are used to seeing him in other works of art. A closer look shows that the figure on the water is just as hazy as the fog, leading us to wonder if that really is “Christ” guiding the sailors to land or possibly even some kind of malevolent spirit guiding the sailors to their doom. This can also be interpreted as a commentary on religion as a whole, in that no one truly knows which the “right” religion is, or which religion is the “best”. All different forms of religion ask for a blind trust, in the hope that it will guide you through the fog and onto the Promised Land you so dearly desire.


A still painting can say as much or as little as the painter intends or as the viewer interprets. As Susan Sontag states with relation to photographs, “Whatever the limitations (through amateurism) or pretensions (through artistry) of the individual photographer, a photograph seems to have a more innocent, and therefore more accurate, relation to visible reality than do other mimetic objects,” (Sontag, 2). This holds true for the painter, who as an amateur may try to master the perfect lighting on a bowl of fruit, and as a master may struggle with the perfect texture of the orange in the same bowl. A painting is simply the artist’s interpretation of the scene as their mind’s eye sees it, leaving it up for the viewer to come to their own conclusions as to what the artist is truly trying to say.