Blessed

36x36, oil on linen

“Blessed”, $5000, 36x36, oil on linen

A few summers ago I joined a group of religious artists, photographers, and actors who posed in a scenic location in Ogden Utah to obtain reference materials for religious artwork with the Inspirational Artist Association. I was looking for something beyond a highly posed gesture and seeking something authentic, thinking of Christ as a “man of sorrows” and hoping to avoid a smiling figure or unnatural composition.

After many hours of posing in the hot sun, the larger group of artists and actors left with only a few people remaining. One man who had been portraying Jesus sat with the others near a pond and he began sharing his personal feelings about being a follower of Jesus Christ. The feeling totally shifted and it became a sacred moment of sharing heartfelt experience, and I could see the actors responding as they soaked up what was being shared.

The images I gathered from this moment became the foundation of this painting, although it has been a long time in the making and I’ve done a lot to design and reimagine what was in those photos to create the composition that was most meaningful to me and continues even now to teach me.

I recently changed a few elements so the girl near Christ would be drawing in the ground in a contemplative fashion, resembling the moment when a woman was taken in adultery. This reminds me of Christ’s grounded, creative, thoughtful and humble responses, which I personally want so much to emulate. The figure is also inspired by one in Velazquez‘s “The Spinners” piece that deeply impacted me in the Prado this past spring and reminds me of the value of quiet listening over frantic action, a lesson also taught in the story of Mary and Martha.

I also added a blue Morpho butterfly just released, which seems to ask the question, “What does it mean to let go?”, resembling the transformative and blessed results of following the counterintuitive teachings of Jesus Christ’s Sermon on the Mount. This butterfly is to me a reminder that release is often the best path to what we most desire.