commit your works...

This is an assemblage artwork by Terry Flowers titled, "Commit Your Works to the Lord" (I'm pretty sure.) I'm going to ask Terry to comment on this post and tell us more about it.

commissioned visions

Recently I was asked to do some artwork inspired by the cemetery in Davis, a smaller town west of Sacramento. There was just no way that I could create work that addressed our mortality without addressing what the Bible says about it...


"Renewal"
acrylic image transfer from digital capture in mixed media collage on 16x20" canvas

"Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day." 2 Corinthians 4:16-18


"Breath"
acrylic image transfers from digital capture in mixed media collage on 24x30" canvas

"No wonder my heart is glad, and I rejoice. My body rests in safety. For you will not leave my soul among the dead or allow your holy one to rot in the grave. You will show me the way of life, granting me the joy of your presence and the pleasures of living with you forever." Psalm 16: 9-11

"Each of us is but a breath" Psalm 39:5

new visions

New versions of some of my original Visions of Heaven work, all three here are black & white photos collaged onto 8x8" canvas with mixed media.



"River of Life"



"My Father's House"



"City of God"

art testimony

I was asked to share my "art testimony" at an upcoming mini conference on art & faith. To keep myself on track when I speak, I've written up my story, so I figured I'd share it here, too:


made to be an artist

I never really thought of myself as an artist until I was in my thirties. I had been creative, had always enjoyed writing (even got a Journalism degree) had worked in photography & graphic arts, but never had called myself an “Artist.”

I was too busy taking care of two toddlers, dogs, a house and being a wife to really take any time out for creative endeavors. I didn’t even really have the time to think about it until one day my husband came to me and said basically, “What’s the matter with you and why are you being so nasty to live with?” You see, we had been married for nine years before we had any kids, so he knew that something had happened to change my normal disposition. I really didn’t know -

So we sat down and had a long talk and together we figured out that I had no creative outlet, which made me unhappy deep inside and we both agreed right then that I would make an effort to let my creativity out so that I would be a nicer person to live with. I am so thankful God gave me such an insightful husband!


roaring lambs

After couple of years of working as an artist, after I had begun to show in galleries and teach in art education programs I read a book called “Roaring Lambs” by Rob Briner. The subtitle to that book is “A Gentle Plan to Radically Change Your World” and in that book he talked about how there are certain “culture shaping” venues that provide a unique opportunity to spread the gospel and reach out for God. This really hit me in a way that nothing else had and confirmed that God had given me a specific job to do with my artwork, and that I wasn’t just doing creating art to stroke my own ego.

I actually have spent a lot of time going back and forth with God over this whole pride issue. I’m a person who likes attention and I like to be told my work is beautiful and it certainly feeds my ego. But I didn’t want to just be an artist to fulfill my own ego and I wanted to make sure that I was doing what God wanted me to do with my life, not just what I wanted.


40 days of purpose

I had pretty much come to the conclusion that God really did want me to be an artist, to pursue a showing and selling career for his glory, when our church started a program called “The Forty Days of Purpose.” It was amazing, all that I had just wrestled with on my own spiritual path with God, was completely confirmed by studying the Bible and Rick Warren’s “Purpose Driven Life” book. It was like God was giving me a full speed ahead sign and I have never doubted my purpose in life since that point.


café artists

For quite a while during this whole period of time, I began to crave being able to connect with other Christian artists. I always seemed to be the odd duck in my social circles: the only artist with all my Christian friends and the only Christian with all my artist friends. Intellectually I knew there must be other Christian artists, but I felt very alone. Sometimes I would think that “someone” in my church should pull together a group of artists, as it’s so big, I knew there had to be more people even in my own congregation who were artists. Often when I was thinking like this, that still small voice said, “You know who should do that...” but I just wasn’t ready for that yet.

It’s funny, but one day someone in leadership at our church came to me with a request. They had decided that they were going to convert a couple rooms into a café and that they’d like to have rotating artwork from artists in the congregation and would I consider coordinating that? She offered me time to pray about it but I already knew that this was God kicking me in the butt and telling me the time had come to pull together that group of artists. So that’s how Covenant Artists began.


visions of heaven

Covenant Artists just started as a time once a month for artists at our church to get together and share our work and enjoy rubbing shoulders with other odd duck-types. After not too long, though, we decided to do some Bible study together and we had one themed show that we really enjoyed and one thing led to another and God gave me the inspiration for Visions of Heaven. Visions of Heaven was our first community outreach, with a group show at the Artisan Gallery on Del Paso Boulevard which was also the first real gallery show for many of our artists as well. It was a high point for Covenant Artists and I’d like to see our group do something like that again sometime in the not-too-distant future.


a whole city of Christian artists

More recently, God challenged me again, presenting me with the opportunity to have my own commercial studio space in midtown Sacramento. I kept coming up with reasons why I couldn’t do it and He kept opening doors and windows and I finally realized that if I didn’t at least give it a try I would be just an idiot. Before I moved into the space, I really felt the need to do some creative prayer and I ended up driving around and around the block praying that God would use this whole thing the way He wanted to. I knew He had a plan, but I had no idea what it was.

After I moved into that studio, I began to meet more artists that were Christians
who went to other churches in the area and each time it was so cool - I’m losing track of how many Christian artists God has put in my path, including some of my private students - and now I’m just excited to see where He’ll lead me next.

box art gospel

Covenant Artists have been growing to encompass more of our community and I've been very lax about posting to our blog - we've been meeting in different locations around the Sacramento area, making new friends and seeing more great art inspired by the Spirit.



One of our newly added artist is Terry Ray Flowers, who I met as curator to the Artisan gallery, but who is a gifted self-taught artist in his own right. Terry is driven to share the good news through every piece of art he creates and he has just launched his website to share his work and his passion. Check it out at www.boxartgospel.com.

love wins

Collage artist Eileen Downes recently posted this piece for Easter with the simple message, "Jesus died and rose again for us." A perfect reflection on how Easter ties in to our hope of heaven - we already know how the story ends.

springs of living water

I'm trying to find the things in my personal archives that I haven't managed to get to the blog before - like this watercolor by Becky Baker that depicts the river of life. Notice that the living water flows from the heart of God.

In Becky's own words: "Part of growing up I remember the harmonious songs we sang while attending Catholic school in the Long Beach area. One of the songs that stick in my mind is 'Come to the Springs of Living Waters.' It is a beautiful song with harmony that touched my soul to the core. Since then I have searched for this song in the Catholic Hymnals but cannot find it. What a treasure if I can ever find the words to this beautiful song."

planted by the river

This is my newest mixed media collage (you can click on the image to see it larger) I call it "Trees Along the River" from the text that I added to it from Jeremiah.

"Blessed are those who trust in the Lord and have made the Lord their hope and confidence. They are like tree planted along the riverbank, with roots that reach deep into the water. Such trees are not bothered by the heat or worried by long months of drought. Their leaves sty green, and they never stop producing fruit."

You might also notice the sparrow - that little reminder of God's concern.

eye on sparrows

I've been sketching birds from photos lately; I want to start including some sparrows in my work, in reference to Matthew 10:28-31, where Jesus talks about God taking notice of even little birds, so how much more he has his eye on each of us... It's as much a reminder to myself as anything, to remember that God is in control and he's got a plan for me & my work.

sharing visions

Today I helped hang some of my original "Visions" with some newer visions at Oak Hills Church in Folsom. I've been planning to write a new artist's statement and this was finally the impetus to do so:

When I first started working as a visual artist, I didn’t sit down and say, “I’m going to try to put the spiritual world into my artwork” or “I think I’ll make the invisible visible” but that is exactly where I have found myself. As I created my art, I was just reacting to what I saw and felt at a particular time and place and it wasn’t until much later and after much reflection that I even had an idea of what it was that I was doing.

For a long time, I thought I was just reacting to nature and my love plants and growing things, then I began to realize that those times outside and alone were the times I felt closest to God, without the distractions of other people, and I was wanting to recreate that feeling through my art. I found myself longing for Eden, for a time to walk in the garden with God, enjoying the earth as it once was and a relationship with each other as it was intended to be; I was saddened that Eden was lost but somehow felt like it wasn’t completely out of reach, that somehow God could make it happen again.

All of this thought process happened over the passage of years, and finally I found myself in a Bible study of heaven when the “aha!” moment happened. All of those years, I had been trying to catch a glimpse of heaven, just getting a tiny taste of the goodness to come, and preserving it in my artwork.

I decided to become more intentional in my work, and then encouraged a group of artists at my church to join me in my quest to share our visions of heaven with others. “Visions of Heaven” originally was a group art project by Covenant Artists based on a Biblical study of Heaven. We wanted it to be God working through us, so our whole process began and ended with prayer and was thoroughly rooted in Scripture. It was a year-long project that culminated in a group showing at our own church as well as at the Artisan Gallery, but it was just a beginning for me.



Now, every piece of artwork I create is an effort to experience and share a little bit of heaven. I believe that one day this poor old planet will be made new again, cleaned up and perfected, and that if we look hard enough, we can see how wonderful it will be. My process for creating art often reflects the dichotomy of the old becoming new again; my black and white negatives are often less than perfect, like this earth right now, then I add to them, using them to make something wonderful and new, rich with color and texture in a way photographs just can’t be when untouched. It’s a little like the way God will take the old earth, and reunite it with paradise, restoring Eden on earth and fulfilling the longing that he’s put in my heart.