If you look at most Christian art, I’m talking about from the sixteenth century onward to our Precious Moments figurine collections, Jesus, the prophets, the apostles, and the great warriors, wildmen, and kings of the scripture look like either bearded women in aggravated states of angst or glazed eyed pacifists that have a good buzz going from smoking too much of the devil’s lettuce.
I think, generally speaking, they’ve been depicted as effeminate.
The problem with the aforementioned, at least to me, is, I believe, life imitates art.
Ergo, when Jesus and his boys get portrayed through art as forlorn nice guys versus earthshaking trouble-makers who rocked this planet on behalf of a Holy God, the church morphs into timid and tepid salvation egoists who’re a neutered fraction of what Christ intended them to be.
Yep, postmodern saints punch-drunk on an emasculated version of Christ and Christianity, move from being barrel chested freedom fighters for Jesus and his kingdom, to being long-faced and feckless followers of a bespoke, little “g” god of Satan’s machinations. For those that know me, you know that for the last quarter of a century I’ve devoted my paintbrush, pen, and big mouth to blowing that nonsense up.
Art is important, folks. Again, as the old maxim goes, and pardon my redundancy, life imitates art. Monkey see. Monkey do.
If we see paintings depicting Jesus, the prophets, and the apostles as lame, sad, and scared, then we become lame, sad, and cowardly Christians that can’t pray the fuzz off a peach.
My motivation in painting the biblical characters the way that I paint them is threefold.
I wanted to worship God with my paint brush. I wanted to go on record, in my small little way, painting the epic male heroes of the scripture as men instead of rouged and giddy heavenly hopefuls walking around in white peignoirs spewing out positive niceties to irresponsible slackers.
I don’t know how anyone, with a lick of imagination, can walk away from the extraordinary Old Testament characters and the New Testament biblical acts of Jesus and the apostles and not be duly impressed with their outrageous boldness and devil defying courage that they all sported in spades.
I don’t see scared, chestless males in the Bible. I see a lot of scary dudes who carried out the classic masculine role of provider, protector, hunter, and hero under God’s governance. They were not wilting daisies. They were Warriors and Wildmen.
My second motivation for painting biblical heroes and heroines is to fire up the believing base. Art’s powerful. It jacks with you. As lame art begets lame Christians, warrior art begets spiritual warriors. You become what you behold.
For instance, say one morning you wake up in a cloud of self-pity, sucking your thumb, guzzling Pepto Bismol, curled up in the fetal position, ready to quit because life threw you a curveball yesterday. To me, when I feel that hamster spirit try to creep over me in my studio I just look around on my walls and I’m surrounded by biblical protagonists and grand animal artwork, that makes me, consciously or unconsciously, quit being a poor baby and pony-up like these heroes did in far worse circumstances than mine.
Churchill understood the power of art and architecture. He said, effectively, that we shape our buildings then our buildings shape us. Through my art, whether it be the Biblical Warriors Series or my renditions of apex predators and regal deer and antelope, I want my clients not to just get a nice painting but also get infused with courage, to rise up and play the man.
Lastly, the reason I push paint in the biblical direction is I want my grandkids to know that being a Christian isn’t about skinny jeans, big screens, and smoke machines. It’s not about being nicer than Christ. True Christianity is rough and it’s sacrificial. God’ll challenge you to your core and call you to slay dragons. Christianity is great and grand. And you know what? Fat baby angel paintings don’t convey that message. True biblical art should.
C.S. Lewis said, “Since it is so likely that children will meet cruel enemies, let them at least have heard of brave knights and heroic courage.”
As I was queuing up to paint one of my versions of John the Baptist for my collection, I googled “John the Baptist Art” and OMG is there a boatload of lame paintings out there that makes JB look like Jared Leto with Courtney Cox’s hairdo. It’s pathetic. Leonardo da Vinci made John the Baptist look like Kate Hudson’s character from Almost Famous. Google it. I dare you.
One of my depictions of John focused on his eyes because I guarantee that brother could see right through you. The man was intense. Jesus said John was “more than a prophet” and he was not “a reed shaken by the wind.” I bet John the Baptist made Dirty Harry look like Deborah Harry. But you wouldn’t know that if you took your cue from most Christian art.
And finally, I’d like to say to the naysayers, if you don’t get these biblical men were Holy, unapologetic men in the grandest sense of the word, then I don’t have the time, patience, or crayons to further explain it to you.
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