ASK publishing came into existence on 17 September 1973. The company was formed as a sole proprietorship for the principle owner, Allen S. Kerr, to publish a golf directory for the Chicago area. As Allen was searching for the perfect name for his new company, he realized that his three initials spelled the word ASK, and ASK Publishing Company was born. His first publication, The Selected Edition Chicago and Golf Course Guide was offered for sale in late 1973.
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Richard Serrin and Allen Kerr, along with Allen's wife, Charfyn,
were high school classmates in -Evanston, Illinois. After graduating, they pursued their own careers~ Their paths crossed again in 1975 at a retrospective of Serrin's work at the University of Minnesota. Subsequently, ASK Publishing became his sole agent. Thus, the
two families have found many pleasurable occasions to be together in the United States and Italy, where the artist has resided since 1964.
In 1985,
Kerr published a limited edition of signed and numbered reproductions of Richard Serrin's oil painting of The Prodigal Son that were offered for sale at a retrospective of Serrin's work at the Billy Graham Center at Wheaton College in Illinois. These prints represented the first reproductions of Serrin's paintings made available for purchase. Over the years these prints have been sold entirely by word of mouth. Now, however,
The Prodigal Son and other reproductions of Serrin's art are offered directly from ASK Publishing Company that functions in the United States as Serrin's exclusive agent. Serrin's own website can be viewed at (http://www.richardserrinart.com).
Now for the very first time in fifty years of producing fine art
a limited number of reproductions of Richard Serrin's original art work are available for collectors and churches. these include the following limited editions shown below. All these prints are reproduced on Natural White Entrada 300 gsm Archival Acid Free Paper with archival inks. These reproductions are available in two paper sizes: 1 7" x. 22" and 8-1/2" x 11" (The image sizes
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are respectively 16" and 7-3/4"). If you are interested in exploring
this opportunity to own a Serrin original limited edition print; the details of the cost involved follows the.ir respective descriptions in this web site.
Reflections of Richard Serrin on painting the
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Two Israelites have already passed the inert body. . Why? Two questions might have occurred to them: was he dead? was he a leper?
Were he dead they could do nothing for him, yet were they to touch the body they would have been unclean for seven days and unable to worship in the Temple. On third and seventh day they would have had to ritually wash themselves, and on the latter, their clothes as well. It is the law, also, that he who fails to cleanse himself defiles the Temple
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and the whole community, and would himself be I. cut off ITom all intercourse with either.
Were by chance the man to be a leper, and they touched him, his condition would be theirs as well, a serious social impediment in ancient Israel. And, of course, alive or dead or leprous, he may have been a despised Samaritan for whom they would be reluctant to risk so much annoyance to their lives.
_And ~hat of the Samaritan? Though held in contempt by the Jews, he could very well'have been bound by the same Levitical laws; the-- man on the road may even have been a Jew. Thus was he good, our Samaritan, when he dismounted to aid a fellow creature -and compassion compelled him to take him in his arms whatever the consequences.
Richard Serrin
Reflections of Richard Serrin on painting the
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We cannot be angry were we the elder son but rather rejoice at the return of the errant son.The father's love nor his inheritance is diminished one jot by the son's homecoming. Given the latter's sincere repentance, the family is reunited and the work lightened, and concord displaces discord. "Given sincere repentance", there's the rub. Truly a single sinner can repent, but the repentance of the human race is a different matter Evolution has drawn us away from God; we were
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cast from Eden when we were separated from his
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ours to determine. Therefore, do we have the
teaching of the Bible and moral philosophy? We are aware of God's will but in the aggregate incapable of submitting ourselves to it. The son has returned, but he will be off again. He is, indeed, away now (for who has fled the father
but we ourselves!), and it becomes more and more difficult to imagine his return. This time he does not eat with the hogs but, rather, dines off of them. The chances are greater than ever that the son will now perish in that far off country instead of returning to the father once more. And I suspect the father has few illusions.
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Reflections of Richard Serrin on painting the Parable of the Rich Fool, Luke 12: 13-21
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"Take heed and beware of covetousness; for
a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions." The earth and all therein is in our custody and we of all creatures are the ones who can abuse or use it wisely. Great wealth can only be accrued by the misuse of earth's gifts which give us life, health, and be;tuty. To sacrifice all these for the wealth we mug leave to others (for good or ill we cannot know) is a harsh cost. But a heavier cost still is the ravaged earth we shall also leave to others
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for generation upon generation.
In the old tale, God sent us :trom Eden to work the land in sweat and travail, because we usurped :trom his dominion the knowledge of good and evil. We decide our own destiny now, and appear to have borne the serpent out - we have prospered, creating an Eden beyond Eden. Or have we? Is
God so easily denied? Listen to Jeremiah: "
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for the wickedness of those who dwell in the land, the birds and the beasts are swept away, because man said, 'God shall not see our latter end.'
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Or, as a mend was quick to point out, the life of the rich fool was not bad at all by our standards.
For a wealthy man to be stricken in the prime of life after years of hard work would be sad; we might even feel he had been unfairly treated by God. Why was he the fool, then, in the eyes of
Jesus?
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Two brothers are contending over an inheritance, each concerned to receive what he felt was his share. They seek Jesus as an arbiter. "Man, who made me judge or divider over you?" Possessions are no concern of his, and, furthermore, to covet them in abundance is dangerous. After recounting the parable, he closes with the caution that he who lays up treasures and is not rich toward God is a fool. To Jesus, of course it is impossible to lay up treasures and be rich toward God - "you cannot serve God and mammon." For the disciples of Jesus, as for the more ascetic Jewish sects of that intertestamental period, wealth seemed inimical to righteousness. James (5: 1-6) could say, "Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you. . . You have laid up treasures for the last days. . . the wages of the laborers which you kept back by fraud, cry out. . . you have lived on the earth in luxury and in pleasure; you have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter. You have condemned, you have killed the righteous man."
What, according to Jesus, should be our proper attitude towards wealth: "Do not be anxious about your life, what you shall eat, nor about your body, what you shall put on
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Instead, seek the kingdom and these things will be yours as well. . . Sell your possessions and give alms. . . for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." There is more, of course in Luke 12: 22-34'
We must presume our rich fool has, moreover, "gathered as the partridge a brood she did not hatch, getting riches but not by right." (Jeremiah 17:11) Then, too, is not man's ambition all vanity: "Surely man goes about as a shadow, surely for naught are they in turmoil; man heaps up and knows not who will gather." (psalm 39:6). This all doubtlessly seems strange and antithetical today; certainly it is seldom preached. But Jesus, the son of God preached it.
Richard Serrin
Reflections of Richard Serrin on painting, Christ Encountering the Rich Young Ruler, Mark 10: 17-22
"It is easier," said Jesus, "for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven." "Who then can be saved?", cried the disciples. And Jesus answered, "What is impossible with man is possible with God." Should this give comfort to the very rich? Who can know the meaning
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of such an enigmatic claim; but there are millions in the Western world as wealthy as the rich
young ruler; those of them that are Christians should give pause, however.
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The rich young ruler proudly proclaims for himself all the qualities of righteousness
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save one; the Lord our God, the Lord yis one; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength. He is undone by the wealth he cannot abandon to follow the First Commandment
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and Jesus.
Great wealth cannot be accrued but by mocking God and imposing our world upon His
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one of ugliness, disease, and violence, of spiritual emptiness and moral confusion. Such a world has grown possessions, blotting out beauty from the landscape and truth from the soul.
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Refl~ctions of Richard Serrin on painting,
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"Do you love me more than these?" Jesus asks Peter. Surely he does not mean the men with whom Peter fishes, for Peter should love all unqualifiedly. Nor would Jesus ask a question that seems to have no rational reply.
Jesus has by a miracle just filled the empty net of the futile fishing expedition to overabundance. On the shore he cooks the dawn breakfast using the fish. It can be but to the fish that he refers. The miracle catch is a snare, an enticement the implications of which Peter must resist ifhe is to be worthy of teaching the disciples when Jesus has departed. It is not with a miraculous catch that Peter is to feed his sheep, but with the miraculous words of God, that we may live in peace with man and nature.
How many Christians, how many churches, have been caught in this snare for the covetous heart by which Christ will test us all?
Richard Serrin
Reflections of Richard Serrin on painting, Christ Encountering the Woman at the Well, John 4: 7-26
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Who were the Samaritans? When the Jews sinned against the Lord in the sixth century, they were caused to be cast out of Israel by the Assyrians. The Samaritan cities were then repopulated by people from Babylon, Cuthan, A vva, Hamatha, and Sepnarviam, each city bringing with it their own god (the five husbands of the Samaritan woman).
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But they failed to worship the God of the
land of Israel and the Lord sent lions among them. When advised of this, the king of Assyria bid one of the exiled priests of Yahweh to return to Bethel to teach the new population of Samaria the law of the God of the land. Yahweh was, thus, was the sixth companion of the woman at the well, who was not her husband; the Samaritans had not forsaken their other gods to swear fidelity to Yahweh alone.
The woman acknowledged Jesus as a prophet for knowing all her past. Jesus
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went on to warn her that because of that
past "the well of Jacob" could not provide the living water that would quench forever the thirst for eternal life. This water could only come from the Jews who had remained faithful to Yahweh alone, who had returned from exile.
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The woman remains doubtful on this point and says, "I know the Messiah is coming; he will show us all things". To reassure Jesus replies,"I who speak to you am he." Are we as Christians in the modem world married to five husbands with only an adulterous relationship with the Lord?
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Reflections on 60 + Years of Friendship
I didn't find my friends; the good God gave them to me.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
I met most of my closest friends early in school before I went to college in 1950. Richard Serrin would certainly be one of them. We were both born in Evanston, Illinois. Our paths first crossed in the early 1940s when America was totally involved in W orId War ll. We attended Evanston Township High School (ETHS) together. We were both in Hi- Y club around which our social, aspiring athletic and early academic lives revolved.
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Old friends Allen and Richard
in Columbus, Georgia in 1991
This year we celebrate our 60th year since we both graduated ftom ETHS in 1946. Sixty years ago we were just two male acquaintances and over the intervening years our friendship has grown and become a mutually enriching. Early Richard's life had a great deal more direction than my own. He was well on his way to becoming an established artist. When we graduated in 1946 he was the art editor of our high school year book. I married a classmate, my best friend, and life time companion, Charlyn Floyd, in 1952.
Our paths did not cross again once we all graduated until 1958. I was out of the navy and just starting my business career in the printing industry in Chicago. We discovered Richard was in town and we invited him for dinner to our first
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home in Park Ridge, Illinois. We had our first two children, Betsy and Chet, and Richard was still a bachelor. At the end of the evening we promised to stay in touch for the rest of our lives. Then mysteriously three weeks later he completely vanished from the Chicago landscape and I did not hear about him again until 1975. This was in the form of an indirect communication from another classmate, Chuck Roberts, and also a member of the Hi
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Y club. It turned out that Richard had come to the United States from Florence, Italy where he had enlisted the aid of the pastor of St. John's Lutheran Church to find a setting where he could paint four 9' x 9' Passion paintings of Christ's Passion. The pastor was intrigued because Dorothy, Richard's wife was from Minneapolis had been with her mother a former church member of St. John's in Minneapolis. So Richard and his wife and two daughters, Saskia and Aletta moved from Florence back to Minneapolis while Richard worked to complete these paintings. Richard estimated it would take him two years to complete these fqur Passion paintings. It was a wild idea to undertake such a project that was totally uncommissioned.
When Chuck Roberts contacted Allen it was to notify him that Richard was going to have a retrospective of his painting at the University of Minnesota in January, 1975. The pastor that Richard had met in Italy offered Richard the use of the church's manse where Richard could stay with his family while he was completing the four Passion paintings. The pastor also agreed to pay Richard $3,500 a year to do the necessary janitorial work of the church.
What Chuck suggested to Allen was that Allen collect $10 each from their friends and send Richard a plant for the opening of his art show at the University of Minnesota. But better yet Chuck suggested as he thought Richard would need some encouragement given the nature of his art that it would be great if Allen could attend the opening of his art show in Minneapolis.
This later thought had immediate appeal to Allen as his oldest daughter, Betsy was in her senior year of college at S1. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota and we had never visited Betsy during the four years she was in college. So whimsically on a ruse, Allen got Char out to O'Hare Allport and he stepped from behind a pillar with a packed suitcase and spirited Char off to Minneapolis for a tQtal surprise visit fIrst with Richard and his family on Friday evening and then on Saturday and Sunday with their oldest daughter, Betsy. .
Richard had been painting in Italy for eleven years. He and Dorothy had moved to Florence in 1964. The four Passion paintings were not even included in the work that was exhibited.
What the two friends quickly discovered was there were parallel themes about God and his call on both their lives that gave them a great deal of common ground on which to build a lifetime friendship. Allen had been a board member of Christian Laity of Chicago that helped couples explore the dimensions of their faith in small groups, and Richard was psychologically stirred to the depths of his soul by this uncommissioned task he had set before himself. What he had originally estimated would take him two years to complete was now running into his fourth year. Once they were reacquainted Richard made visits to the Chicago area on a number of occasions. Ouite a following: for Richard's work developed as a result and Allen started securing commissions for Richard to paint Biblical paintings for committed Christians.
Allen then got the news from Richard's wife that Richard disheartened by his lack of progress on the Passion paintings had made the decision to abandon this project, leave the work unfinished in the basement of St. John's church and return to Italy to a much more receptive climate for the type of art that he was painting. Allen felt. this would be a great personal tragedy and through an earlier contact he had made originally in Chicago; he was able to set up an artist in residence program at Fuller Theological Seminary. ~
The completed Passion paintings and then later two further transitional paintings, each 7' x 8', were sold to a contact that Allen had in Chicago. Ten years later these six paintings were appraised in Atlanta and New York for 9-1/2 times their original purchase price.
Other milestones in this long mendship was that Allen made the decision to leave the printing business in 1983 and he register as a fulltime student at the age of 55 to enter a Doctoral Program in Chicago to become a clinical psychologist. This was a five year commitment on Allen's part and during this period of time he retained five printing accounts that he serviced while he was in graduate school and he continued to secure more commissions for Biblical painting for Richard Serrin. This ultimately led in 1986 to Allen and his wife Char to moving down
to Columbus, Georgia when Allen accepted a pre-doctoral internship at the Bradley Center, a private mental hospital in Columbus, Georgia. It has now been twenty years since Allen made this original move from Chicago to Columbus.
Richard also had two extended artist in residence opportunities in the United States. One was an artist in residency program at Oglethorpe University in Atlanta, Georgia from 1989 - 1991 and then an artist in residency program at Hillsdale College in Hillsdale, Michigan from 1992 - 1995. Over the intervening years Allen and Richard have made two summer trips with Richard's year's production of art strapped to the roof of Allen's car. These trips followed an itinerary to Virginia Beach, Virginia, Washington D.C., Philadelphia, New York and Chicago. Both families have increasingly reflected their growing mendship as they have participated mutually in family.weddings and continued visit each other in Italy and the United States. Now this mendship has led to the establishing of two web sites to make artist proofs of selected paintings of Richard Serrin available to a broader range of committed Christians and churches. F or fifty years the only opportunity for committed Christians and churches to own original art done by Richard Serrin was to purchase some of his original paintings. The tWo web sites http://richardserrinart.com and http://askpublishingcompany.com both deta~l the oppo~ties for a ?road~r :ange of the ~ation to purchase high qUalIty reproductIOns of Semn's ongmal art. l '\ ~
P~ices and Shipping
Available now: Jsee picture above)
200 signed and numbered prints of the "Prodigal Son", paper size 25" x 29" (Image size 19-3/4" x 22-1/4"). These prints are reproduced on heavy
duty acid free archival paper with archival inks.
An explanation of the artist's thoughts on painting this magnificent
work is included.
Cost - $250 each
200 unsigned and unnumbered prints of the "Prodigal Son", paper size 25" x 29" (Image size 19-3/4" x 22-1/4"). These prints are reproduced on
heavy duty acid free archival paper with archival inks.
An explanation of the artist's thoughts on painting this magnificent
work is included.
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Cost
- $150 each
Shipping Costs: Each print will be packed flat protected by oversize heavy duty card board. The condition of prints is guaranteed.
Cost for shipping each within continental U.S. - $25
Cost for shipping prints internationally will be
determined based on destination.
Also available after October 16~ 2006 prints of six paintinf!s: (see pictures adiacent to the respective pain~
17' x 22" paper size (Image size 16" diameter of circular paintings) These prints are reproduced on Natural White Entrada 300 gsm Archival Acid Free Paper with archival inks. Each print includes a certificate of authenticity signed by the artist in Italy as well as his reflections on painting these parables.
Cost - $175 each
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Shipping Costs: Each print will be packed flat protected by oversize heavy duty card board. The condition of prints is guaranteed.
Cost for shipping each within continental U.S. - $25
Cost for shipping prints internationally will be
determined based on destination.
If you purchase more than one print to the same destination We pick up the cost of shipping
Also :
8-1/2" x 11 paper size (Image size 7-3/4" diameter of circular paintings) These prints are reproduced on Natural White Entrada 300 gsm Archival Acid Free Paper with archival inks. Each print includes a certificate of authenticity signed by the
artist in Italy and his reflections on painting these parables.
Cost - $75 each (price includes cost of shipping within the continental U.S.)
This seller, ASK Publishing Company Prefers paypal
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Personal Check
Money Order
Cashiers Check
Other
- see Payment
instructions for payment methods accepted
Learn aboutJ~~ment methods.
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Terms of Sale
If you pay by personnel chec~ money order or cashiers chec~ shipping will be delayed until the funds are deposited in the account of ASK Publishing Company.
Art reproductions are sold on the basis of your complete satisfaction. Reproductions may be returned to the seller within 7 days of your receiving them and your money will be refunded upon their return to the seller, ASK Publishing Company. The buyer assumes the shipping cost involved in returning reproductions for refund.