PROPHETIC ART

I love hearing God. His voice is so soft, yet I clearly know when He is guiding my creative process. Sometimes I get a vision, other times just a knowing. He instructs during the artistic process and I feel His love.

 

SEEKING THE SAVIOR EXHIBIT

Below are a selection from my exhibit ‘SEEKING THE SAVIOR.” This show has toured different churches, usually around Lent. I was fascinated by the Shroud of Turin and how the image affected the art world and how artists depicted Christ. From this starting point, I looked up verses about the shroud, this covering of death, this separation between us and the Savior. “Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror, then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.” 1 Cor. 13:12. There is a thin veil that separates us from Him.  This shroud was also depicted in Isaiah 25, “On this mountain He will destroy the shroud that enfolds all peoples, the sheet that covers all nations: He will swallow up death forever.” Jesus was covered in the shroud, but really we are the ones that were entombed in it, in the curse of death. He came to remove this death veil from us.

I went on to create other images related to the last hours of Jesus’ life.

Passover “A lasting ordinance” Ex. 12:14. Christ became the Passover Lamb, whose innocent blood was shed that we would be delivered from sin. He became the cup of redemption. He took the bitterness of the bitter herbs. He became the bread without leaven, broken, hidden, and reappeared after death. The bread in Passover is called “afikomen”, the greek version means “He came.”

 

BETRAYAL “Even my close friend, whom I trusted, he who shared my bread, has lifted up his heel against me.” Psalm 41:9.

 

ACCUSED “As a sheep before her sheers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.” Isaiah 53:7b.

 

SILENT “Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” Genesis 22:8. “He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; He was led like a lamb to the slaughter…” Isaiah 53:7.  Barely visible on the right, Pilate stands, wondering why Jesus gives no defence.

SINLESS WHITE  The face of Christ, pure white. He became the sacrificial, pure lamb of Passover. he is innocent and holy. “For Christ our Passover lamb has been sacrificed.” 1 Cor. 5:7

 

LAMB OF GOD  The more we seek Him, the more real he becomes. From abstraction to realism we seek His face. “Look the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” John 1:29.

 

STRIPES “By His stripes, we are healed.” Isaiah 53:5b.

 

WHIP “Yet it was God’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer.” Isaiah 53:10.

FLOGGED “I offered my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard. I did not hide my face from mocking and spitting.” Isaiah 50:6.

SEEK HIS FACE  “He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces He was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by Him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each one has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” Isaiah 53:3-6.

TAKE UP YOUR CROSS “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” Luke 9:23.

ISAIAH 53 Hundreds of years before Jesus was born, the prophet Isaiah wrote about the Messiah who would come, suffer and die for our sins. “The Lord laid on Him the iniquity of us all.”  Isaiah 53:6b.

SPIKE   “The Lord will lay bare His holy arm, in the sight of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth will see the salvation of our God.” Isaiah 53:10.

 

REMEMBER AND BELIEVE   A simple figure on the cross, yet it change the world. “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16.  “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.” Matt. 26:28.

ONCE AND FOR ALL  “For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.” 1 Cor. 15:22.

 

VEILED FACE  A Veil, death, separates us from actually seeing Christ. His face is barely visible to us, yet we know He is there. “Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror, then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.” 1 Cor. 13:12.

 

DAY OF DARKNESS  All hope seemed gone. The weight of sadness, sin and death enveloped the tomb. The face of death is bare visible, looming bleakly. “The women who had come with Jesus from Galilee followed Joseph and saw the tomb and how His body was laid in it. Then they went home and prepared spices and perfumes. But they rested on the Sabbath in obedience to the commandment.” Luke 23:55, 56.

RESURRECTION TOMB  “On this mountain He will destroy the shroud that enfolds all peoples, the sheet that covers all nations; He will swallow up death forever.” Isaiah 25:7,8. The left of the painting symbolizes death, demonstrated with the face of death, the shroud and crosses. On the right we see resurrection and victory, with palm branches waiving.

 

FIRSTFRUITS  Jesus emerged from the tomb, releasing joy, hope and salvation. “Praise be to God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In His great mercy He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade- kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.” 1 Peter 1:3-5.

 

HIS FEET  Beautiful songs have ben written about placing our pains, sorrows, and sins at the feet of Christ. “The last enemy to be destroyed is death. For He ‘has put everything under His feet.” For 15:26.