Descent

Finished this painting entitled "Descent" today. It started out to be a different painting than it turned out to be. I started experimenting with it after I got started. The Christ figure is an outline of Gruenwald's Crucifixion that was painted, rubbed off, and drastically altered. I added the flames of Hell below in that the cruciform Christ seemed to be falling through the middle of the cross. "Descent" is a double reference to Christ's "descent" from the cross and the Christian doctrine of Christ's "descent" to Hell. The photo is a bit darker than the painting itself.

No More Mourning: First Painting in Series Entitled "Revelation 21"

I have started a new series of paintings entitled Revelation 21. It is based upon the sayings in the book of Revelation that envisions a new heaven and a new earth, where there will be "no more mourning, no more hunger, no more death, no more tears, no more pain." The biblical text describes a new age in which all the brokenness of the present world is ended. The images I am creating will depict the struggles and pains of this world that will be transformed in the world to come.

The vision of Revelation 21 is not merely pie-in-the-sky-bye-and-bye. It is a lens through which we see the possibilities for shaping a new world here and now. The city of God provides a model for a liberated city of humanity. These icons of Revelation will serve as reminders to continue to resist the systems of death, destruction, despair and to replace them with life, healing. and hope.