Thu, Mar 6, 2014

Fascinating DNA research strongly suggests that white skin is actually a mutation. The conclusion, of course, is that the first humans had black skin. Makes sense. The further north mankind migrated, white skin became an advantage, in that it is better able to make Vitamin D in response to sunlight. Natural selection tends to work over time.

So, if Adam and Eve were the first humans, they would have been black. Isn't interesting how we bring our cultural expectations into those ancient stories in the Bible? Jesus, of course, would have looked Mediterranean. Probably short, dark hair, dark eyes, skin that in America today we would immediately assume Hispanic. Not the blue-eyed, light brown to almost blond European Jesus.

But, I digress. All that to say, here is a Garden of Eden sketch that I did yesterday, using the Sketch Club app on my iPad. I give a shout out to another artist on the Sketch Club community who goes by the moniker iap123 and made available a forest background for SC'ers to use as a collaboration. As Han Solo said of the Millenium Falcon, "I've made a few special modifications myself," so not a lot of the original background is left. Instead, it provided a great jump-start.

So, here they are, Adam and Eve in the Garden. In deference to the one remaining Great Taboo in American culture -- the full frontal male nude -- I artfully placed falling leaves in about the right place. Which is silly, as according to the text they were "naked and unashamed." In our culture, gore and violence are much more acceptable that nudity. You will hear a mom say, "We let our kids see THAT movie because it was only rated R for violence." Craziness.