Tuesday, October 27, 2015

The Secret Place

For You created my inmost being; You knit me together in my mother's womb.  I praise You because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Your works are wonderful, I know that full well.  My frame was not hidden from You when I was made in the secret place.  When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, Your eyes saw my unformed body.  All the days ordained for me were written in Your book before one of them came to be.  ~Psalm 139: 13-16

The very moment God thought of me.  That's when life began.

The Secret Place
oil on canvas
24x20 inches
2015

Why do we burden the unborn with the battle between life and death?  Between good and evil?  How could we stifle God's purpose for these souls before they ever have a chance to even know it, let alone fulfill it?  Why do we believe that our hands and our wills mightier than those of the Almighty God?  How could we ever know anything about the quality of life more than the One who breathed life into existence?

Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.  See if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

Tuesday, October 20, 2015

Fleeting

This is the latest in my new series "God-Breathed."  It's called Fleeting, after Proverbs 31:30...

Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.


Fleeting
oil on canvas
30x20 inches
2015
I have been involved with youth ministry for 11 years, both professionally and on volunteer basis.  And in all that time, one thing has remained the same even in the evolution of social media that has taken place in the past decade.  I'm talking about vanity.  The preoccupation with physical looks, selfies, body image, and its association with self-worth is insane.  It's no news flash that this is particularly true for girls.  And not just adolescent girls.  So for this painting, I wanted to have a representation of a figure trapped in darkness - someone consumed by this preoccupation with physical beauty (My sincere thanks to nemosocke of DeviantArt and Nadja M. for the extraordinary photo reference).

There has recently been a movement of girls and women of all ages that goes back to this passage of Scripture in Proverbs 31.  It is the attitude that the worth of women are defined by so much more than their physical attributes, but by their hearts, their devotion to the Lord, and the fact that they are the Imago Dei.  No matter how physically attractive any of us thinks we are, and no matter how much time and effort we spend trying to maintain that... It is all vanity because it will fade away, but our faith sustains us no matter what our age or physical appearance.  That cannot be a back-burner priority for us.  True beauty begins within the depths of the heart.

Take as many selfies as you want.  But you can't take any of them with you in the afterlife.

Saturday, October 3, 2015

God-Breathed: A New Series

Greetings friends,

Today, I finished a new piece that is part of a new series I've decided to do.  I'm calling it "God-Breathed", and it includes two pieces that you've already seen - To Live is Christ, To Die is Gain and Wake the Dead.  This new one is called Heavy Laden.

Heavy Laden
oil on canvas
36x24 inches
2015
So, the idea behind this series is to show themes that are directly inspired by some of my favorite passages of Scripture.  I'm also trying some new, bolder techniques with paint texture and abstraction.  I've been inspired by some other painters and pieces recently, and I'm hoping these new works of mine will take the viewer to a different place and a different atmosphere than many of my previous works have before.

One thing you will notice with each of the paintings in this series is a literal, visual play between black and white - the Light and the Dark.  Good, and Evil.  The Holy Spirit, and Satan.  In the Gospel, there is always this spiritual battle.  And the good news of it all is that we are victorious over sin and death by the love, grace, and power of Jesus Christ who has defeated evil and given eternal life to those who confess Him as Lord and Savior.  Though we die, we live again.  We are burdened, but He gives us rest.

Some of the themes of this series involve a few in-your-face issues of our time - Christian persecution, sin and indifference, burdened lives, vanity, the value of human life, and others.  So with that, I'm trying to conceive some bold imagery in these pieces.  Not necessarily to just paint a pretty, comfortable picture.  My hope is to not hold back.  To present the truth of the Gospel in visual form (as I've always tried to) in a way that honors God through the gifts with which He has graced me.

Hope you will stay tuned for more to come in this series.  I'm excited for all that is to come!