696 Originals.
One at a time.
Never repeated.
Since 2009, I have been painting what the Word feels like.
I do not just make pictures. I sit with a verse until it gets inside me, then I let the colors of the promise come out. I leave the words off the canvas on purpose. I want the painting to carry the feeling of the scripture, so there is still room for you to meet God in it.
These are not studies or prints. They are the originals. Numbered in order. Painted once. Never done again.
Each one is a Clear Impasto original. I begin the composition in the studio, then paint the whole surface by hand. See how a Clear Impasto piece is made.
No. 0006
No. 0025
No. 0009
No. 0015
No. 0037
No. 0012
I drove out to Howard Finster's Paradise Garden, where a preacher spent his life turning the gospel into thousands of numbered works. Standing there, I knew I was on the right road.
I was not supposed to be doing this.
I was a terrible student. I sat in the back of class watching the clock, praying the teacher would not call on me. Nobody who knew me back then would have guessed I would spend my life painting the Word of God.
But I read Scripture every day. The Spirit would fill me up, and after a while I understood what I was supposed to do with it. God gave me art so I could give it back, so I could let that light out into the world.
I do not paint these pictures just to make shapes. I paint what the Word feels like when it gets inside you. Every painting starts with a verse. I sit with it. I let it work on me. Then I let the colors come out, the gold of glory, the red of redemption, the blue of peace. I do not put the words on the painting. I want folks to feel the scripture, not just read it. I want there to be room for God to speak to them through it.
When I first started putting these out, people began writing me. They said a painting met them right where they were. Churches started calling. So I built a place to keep putting them out. I did not do it to make a name. I did it because the calling was on me and I had to answer it.
This is not something I chose. It is something I was given. I am just a vessel. I paint because He put it in me, and I am not finished yet.
Every painting I make is made once.
I number them as I go, 1, 2, 3, all the way up. Right now I am at 696. When someone collects a painting, that number is finished. It will not be painted again. It will not be repeated. It goes to one home and stays there.
This is not about making more. It is about making each one count. Each piece is its own testimony. When it finds its home, that chapter closes.
I am still painting.
The next number is waiting. I do not know what verse it will carry yet, but I know it is coming. I keep going because this calling did not come from me, and it has not lifted yet.
I am just a vessel. I paint because He put it in me.
I am not finished.