New Direction: Redeeming Idea

As a follower of Christ, I fully believe in his power to redeem. I've also become very aware that my perception of what's going on in the world is often wrong. There is a lot to be fearful of, a lot of sadness, a lot of injustice. Despite all that, I have hope that God is working good. These paintings address this idea.

The first two are 2 of 3 paintings that were a final project for an advanced painting class I took at Texas Tech University. They have been sitting in a box for about 5 years now. I decided it was time to drag them out and rethink the concept. I liked the concept and for me it is so relevant to the way I experience life. During the critique for these paintings my professor asked if I had thought about doing similar paintings on a larger scale... which I thought was a great idea. So, here I am.

I am currently working on the 3 painting pictured here. What you see is the back ground. In the original series the background was completely chaotic symbolizing evil in the world. This time around I'm going to paint cityscapes in the background. Love/hate is how I would describe my feelings for 'the city'. To me the city is often chaotic, and in many ways can represent the destruction that man creates. BUT, even in that chaos many many good things happen. Now that the back ground is complete I will create another painting on loose canvas inspired by something that I perceive to be a problem in my life or in the world. When the painting dries I will cut it up and make flowers out of it to attach to the background painting. The flowers represent God's power to do good in all situations. We exist in the mess, and yet we grow and flourish out of it. That is the beauty of being saved...