I was created to create.

Way back in January I teamed up with a new ministry aimed at reshaping faith into something that was more liveable and approachable for the 20 and early 30 somethings crowd. It is called the Painted Door and it is headed up by Pastor Mark (my church's newest pastor).

Pastor Mark approached me with the idea of taking some spoken word he composed and pairing it with time lapsed illustrations that would help illuminate the identity of the Painted Door and also help to explain what it aims to do. I was very intrigued by the idea if only because it allowed me to do THE thing that I aim to do every day in my life: create for the glory of Christ.

Now, just to clarify something, I very much consider myself a Christian artist. This is despite the fact that my body of work is not strictly composed of subject matter like stereotypical Christian symbology like doves, Jesus sitting around with children on His lap, the crucifixion, Noah's ark, and/or anything involving angels. Don't get me wrong, I love a good illustration of anything in the Bible but I just don't believe that the only way an individual can be a Christian artist is to do strictly things of the Bible. *shrug* I don't know. I'm sure something could be said that disputes my claim but I still maintain it.

As far as I'm concerned, being a Christian artist (or a Christian anything for that matter) means doing whatever you believe you are called to do in the best way you know how and with the greatest level of excellence and achievement you can attain. I firmly believe that God created each and every one of us to do and be different things for the better of the world as a whole. After all, if we all were created exactly alike, how would this world function the way it does? And as for me? I believe that I was created to create in the best way I know how and with all of my might from a place where the inspiration is always of Christ. I'm ashamed to admit that I haven't done it like this all my life but I firmly believe that having the contrast of a creative life not so firmly planted within Christ has allowed me to see the amazing things that can and will occur when you do give everything you have over to Him. I hope I am a living testament of that kind of truth - with my body of work, with my identity of being visual artist, with the way I teach - ALL of it. Every last bit.

All that being said (and back to the video), it is an amazing blessing for me to be able to (literally) use my time and talents to evangelize the name of Christ and the message that He has delivered for all of us to receive.

The amazing thing with all of this is that when I agreed to do it, I had no clue what I was signing on for and when the day finally arrived for me to do all of the filming and drawing, I had no clue what I was going to do. Little known fact about me: right now I am being tested for some pretty serious learning disability issues that strongly impact my ability to have even decent reading comprehension and synthesizing of information.

When I arrived for the filming, I was told that I only had but a handful of hours to do the drawings and be filmed. Pair that time crunch with the fact that none of my cohorts had very many ideas for the drawing in mind and that left me holding a number of pages of very abstract ideas in a beautifully written spoken word poem that was lengthy for me to read and then understand. Amazingly enough (and after a good solid heartfelt prayer for some serious wisdom and guidance!), the Lord really provided me with some wonderful visually descriptive inspirations that totaled over 15 drawings!!! Here's the thing: drawing is NOT my strong suit and I am always better doing three dimensional and/or digital works of art. Still? I staked myself to the fortitude of the God who created me and I staked myself to the promise that I believe that is He created me to create. And in less than 7 hours of time, over 15 drawings were conceptualized, filmed, and finished and ready to be edited and pieced together into this amazing piece of video short...

I hope you enjoyed this and also were able to get the message that it attempted to present. The hands drawing were mine but the ideas and inspirations that originated everything you saw were strictly of my amazing Christ Jesus and what I believe is His Holy Spirit.

Thanks so much for being a part of this incredible life that I get to live for Him! Please contact me directly if you have any questions about this endeavor or if you ever want to talk more specifically about my walk of faith with Him.