Joyfully Sharing Life

I recently had the honor of being commissioned to create a piece of art for a local church. This piece was very late in being delivered due to illness and other life hiccups. However, I finally got it delivered last week and was extremely pleased with the final project. My challenge was to create an image representing a portion of their mission statement: "...a grace motivated community of believers, joyfully sharing life under the Lordship of Jesus Christ..."

I began by creating texture with gesso and painting it in the warm colors requested.


What followed was photographing and sorting through hundreds of images of figures. Once a figure was actually chosen for the painting, it was then traced onto paper previously painted in a collection of colors analogous to those on the background. These tracings were cut out with a knife and placed on the background for the "audition" process. What I discovered after days of cutting figures, was only the figures in the red family actually worked. I then went over the "rejects" with various shades of red acrylic paint blends. Once dried, the figures again were placed onto the canvas in various combinations. This was their final placement.





At this point, the Professor declared the painting finished. The individual figures were placed in such a way as to suggest community is created from individuals facing in the same direction and painted in a similar hue. The similar faith in Jesus of the individuals was shown by the similar but unique shades of red. The community of believers was set on a background of golden light to represent the Light of the world. Unfortunately, my gut was not as certain as the Professor in its completion. I decided to let it sit and "cook"for one last night.

The final part of the piece came that night, as it often happens. I woke in the morning to the idea of placing a cross with some red foil onto the canvas. While waiting for the coffee to brew, I scrabbled around a darkened studio and found a scrap of painted paper from which I tore the shape of a cross. Laying the torn paper onto the canvas, I grabbed my coffee and left for the morning. Later, upon my return home, I added the foil to the center of the cross. Just like that the painting was finished.



I rarely plan the final outcome of a piece. I often do not understand the choices I make during the process until the piece is completed. I seem to follow an inner "knowing in my knower," as my friend, Dave, called it. Each piece is for me an act of faith requiring a trust in an un-bodied Voice that is full of surprises. Now, the fact that the figures all had to face the same direction, that of the Cross, makes sense. That each figure had to be painted a shade of the red echoing the red foil on the Cross, points to the the way followers of Christ are changed and colored by the sacrifice made there.





This was my belated Thursday project for Sara over at Gitzen Girl. What are YOU creating this week?