Wheaton College Alumni Magazine Winter 2013 | Page 42
alumni news
profile
parable,” Quarles wrote. And later:
“Before knowledge of letters, God was
known by hieroglyphics; and, indeed,
what are the heavens, the earth, nay
every creature, hieroglyphics and
emblems of his glory.” As he leafed
through, Brian noted the intricate pictures with minimal commentary.
emblem art for every day
by Alanna Foxwell-Barajas ’06
Inspired by a
17th-century poet,
one alumnus seeks
to use art to
transcend culture
and language,
communicating
the gospel, as well
as ethics and
leadership principles.
Several years ago in the
“I thought, We have to go back to the
way things used to be,” Brian says.
“Hieroglyphics made me think also of
kanji [Chinese characters used in modern Japanese writing] and how the written language came first from pictures.”
Brian used the inspiration from emblem
books that he has since been collecting from all over the world and produced
42
his own first piece, Emblems of Leadership Imagined. He conceives the images
and his full-time illustrator, Tim Ladwig,
illustrates them. He has used this collection of leadership training emblems
to generate discussions during training
sessions in Asia and the United States.
heart of London’s Mayfair neighborhood,
businessman Brian Oxley ’73, M.A. ’75
had an epiphany. While leafing through
17th- and 18th-century texts, he found
an emblem book by the 17th-century
“We are still facilitating training, but
English poet Francis Quarles, first pubwhen we used to ask, ‘What do you
lished in 1635.
think?’ all we’d see were heads down
After a career as president of Service- and averted eyes. Now when we ask,
Master’s international side and heading ‘What do you see?’ people start talking.
management services for ServiceMas- I see this as a genesis for business.”
ter in the U.S., Brian had trained leadBut what started as a way to be beters using just about every tool available.
ter in business communication quickly
Even after leaving ServiceMaster corturned into an avid hobby, and even a
porate in 1998, and working since as
tool for evangelism, as with his most
the company’s distributor for Japan, he
recent piece, The Last Tower. “It’s a way
realized that the crux of his role in every
to generate thought while not preaching
position was training individuals—and
at people,” Brian says. “The commenthe traditional training model just wasn’t
tary is not meant to be the definition or
working in other countries.
final word, but rather to trigger discus“So much of who we are and what we do sion and thought.”
comes from how we were raised,” Brian
Brian now sees emblems all through
says. “You can’t only just translate words
daily life. Every story, conversation,
across cultures.”
situation, and observation becomes an
Surrounded by the dusty wisdom of phi- emblem in his mind. “I love the idea of
losophers and poets in Mayfair that day, presenting God to the eyes as well as
he opened Quarles’ Emblems and began the ears,” he says, “just by watching
to read. “An emblem is but a silent and listening.”