Live Painting
FBC Advent Overflow 2011
After completing a live painting at the 2011 Trash Mountain Project Benefit (see more on the Special Projects page), I was approached by Bill Horn, the worship pastor at FBC, about the possibility of doing a painting at the Overflow event they were planning for December. Overflow is an extended period of worship outside of normal services that is produced through a joint effort of Fellowship Bible Church and Topeka Bible Church. It is an amazing production of music and video and is a powerful medium for corporate worship. I was very excited to get to be a part of the event and lend my gifts as another form of worship and praise to our Heavenly Father. The theme of the event centered around the idea that Jesus was born to die. That from the moment he arrived his entire life was a series of events that fulfilled prophesy and ultimately led to his atoning death on the cross and subsequent resurrection. All these events were part of God's plan for the redemption of the world. So I envisioned these three incidents taking place within a single landscape, which makes sense given that they all occurred within about 6.5 miles of each other. On the left of the canvas, nestled in a cave on the outskirts of Bethlehem, is a small nativity scene. The crosses on Calvary are placed in the middle, reinforcing the idea that Jesus' death is the central theme of the story. An on the right is the empty tomb beneath a sky with a rising sun. There is an old broken stone wall between the nativity scene and the cross. As I was painting it, this wall began to remind me of the wall we can build around our hearts, hoping to protect ourselves from pain and heartache. The problem with these walls is that they trap us within ourselves and prevent us from allowing anyone, including Jesus, into our hearts. It's not until these walls are broken that we can finally find our way to Jesus and truly become free.
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