By Rev. Robert McCluskey
In the fall of 1978, I was introduced to John Barents, a neighbor and soon-to-be best friend. He was a very talented and prolific abstract painter, and very well read in philosophy. Our interests were many, but standouts would be Plato, Spinoza, Wittgenstein, Gurdjieff, and Nicoll—and our love of Wassily Kandinsky, the father of abstract painting. It was during this time that I painted this picture.
The primary influence was these words from Kandinsky from Concerning the Spiritual in Art, Part 1, Chapter 2, “The Movement of the Triangle.”:
The life of the spirit may be fairly represented in diagram as a large acute-angled triangle divided horizontally into unequal parts with the narrowest segment uppermost. The lower the segment, the greater it is in breadth, depth and area.
The whole triangle is moving slowly, almost invisibly forwards and upwards. Where the apex is today, the second segment is tomorrow; what can be understood only by the apex and to the rest of the triangle as an incomprehensible gibberish, forms tomorrow the true thought and feeling of the second segment.
These words, and my painting, point to one of my strongest convictions: the rejection of utopian thinking. Things are getting better, and things are staying the same. This world, a world in which souls are formed, will always be a place of order and chaos, change and stasis, growth and decline.
“The poor will always be with you.” (Mark 14:7) With so many propriums running around loose, and more born every minute, there will always be differences and conflicts—the ideal context in which to grow spiritually.
Heaven on earth is not the same heaven in heaven. Heaven on earth is the presence of the Divine Love and Wisdom in the midst of ongoing suffering and injustice. The church, you and I, are that presence. In this painting, I hope to impart neither optimism nor pessimism, but realism and hope. Things are getting better, and things are staying the same. “The whole triangle is moving slowly, almost invisibly forwards and upwards.”
Read the full October 2026 issue.
Meet Robert McCluskey
Rev. Robert McCluskey holds a BA and MA in philosophy, with a focus on Greek philosophy, modern idealism, existentialism, and hermeneutics. He has pastored churches in Portland, Maine, and New York City, and served on the Social Justice Committee. He also served for eighteen years as representative to the National Council of Churches, with specific attention to the work of social justice and religious freedom.
