Mr. Shipman’s exhibit Visions and Voices left him feeling that there was more to be said, something outside of the common experience of art that he wanted to bring to his paintings. He needed to go beyond the portrayal of human glory and the suffering of people.    This led him to his studies of the book The Bondage of the Will, written by Martin Luther, and thus to his pictorial opera, The Gold in the Modern-Day Spirit of Old, which took several years to develop. While  Visions and Voices  depicts the achievements and suffering of people, The Gold denies the concept of man’s self-confidence and glory.

From The Gold in the Modern-Day Spirit of Old