"little doodle" from jared

Though Jared has been done with this for some time, I am just now getting this posted. Jared's personal vision of heaven no doubt varies from what many would consider traditional, but it is always thought provoking and interesting work. This particular colored pencil work requires more than a cursory glance to take it in, since our eye is not drawn to what is most important in the piece, but that is entirely appropriate in this particular case.

The scripture that inspired Jared to create this is 1 Corinthians 15:25-26. "For Christ must reign until he humbles all his enemies beneath his feet. And the last enemy to be destroyed is death." Jared simply says, "This little doodle illustrates Christ humbling an enemy beneath His feet." What draws the eye in this work is what draws our eyes in this world most naturally as well, the enemies of Christ. Whether it's tempting lusts or frightening problems, our eyes so often are drawn away from the One who will crush it all beneath his feet, by the power of his death on the cross, which Jared illustrates in this work. Only by conscious effort do we see the naked foot in the pool of his own blood, the only way we will be admitted to heaven where Christ will eternally reign.

process and the river of life

Today I'm going to take you through the process for one of my mixed media photographs, "River of Life." I'll actually show you the step by step process I've gone through in my artist's journal I've been keeping just for this project.

The first step was reading through the book "In Light of Eternity" by Randy Alcorn and looking up all the scriptural references that he cites in his book. This has been the basis for all of the artwork done by all of the artists over the course of this past year. There were actually a couple of pieces of scripture that inspired this particular piece. First, in Revelation 22:1, it says, "Then the angel showed me a river with the water of life, clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb."


One of the first things this scripture does is make me think of what river images I might already have, like this photo taken for no particular reason at the time but has been patiently waiting for me to print it. I made a digital copy to color and put in my journal, waiting for the next piece of the work to come together. You can see I also doodled some palm trees onto it, to see how I'd like to work in the palm tree element that I want to keep as a theme in this project.


Another verse helped influence this piece, Genesis 2:10-14, "A river watered the garden and then flowed out of Eden and divided into four branches. The first branch, called the Pishon, flowed around the entire land of Havilah, where gold is found... The second branch, called the Gihon, flowed around the entire land of Cush. The third branch, called the Tigris, flowed east of the land of Asshur. The fourth branch is called the Euphrates." I really like the link between maps of a place and the image of the place, and I've used maps for overlays before this project, so it wasn't a great stretch for me to think of a map of Eden's rivers to connect the River of Life in Heaven and the river that fed the whole earth from Eden, possibly even the same river? The thought intrigues me that there is a close link between Eden, referred to as Paradise in the Bible, and Heaven, also referred to as Paradise...


In my journal, I can overlap the photographic image and the map, to work out how the two will fit together in the darkroom, change it if I want to, mull it over, move it, or change it completely.


This is the black and white contact print, with the map and a single palm tree as an overlay. When you look at this image and the next one, you can see that the overlay can move around, making no two in the series exactly alike.


Finally, I use watercolors, then dry colored pencils to add the final dimension of color to the piece. In this case, I decided to make the sky yellow in a reference to God's light in Heaven, eliminating the need for the sun or moon, but not necessarily eliminating the sun & the moon themselves, as found in Revelation 22:5. "And there will be no night there - no need for lamps or sun - for the Lord God will shine on them."

So that takes you from beginning to end in the process. By the way, the first entry for this in my journal is dated February 2007, and I just finished it November 2007: about nine months, so I guess it's appropriate for me to think of the finished piece as one of my babies.

heaven opened

Today I have another image from Jared Konopitski, our colored pencil stylist, with an awe inspired piece from Revelation 19:11-16: "Then I saw heaven opened, and a white horse was standing there. And the one sitting on the horse was named Faithful and True. For he judges fairly and then goes to war. His eyes were bright flames of fire, and on his head were many crowns. A name was written on him, and only he knew what it meant. He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and his title was the Word of God. The armies of heaven followed him on white horses. From his mouth came a sharp sword, and with it he struck down the nations. He ruled them with an iron rod, and he trod the winepress of the fierce wrath of the almighty God. On his robe and thigh was written this title: King of kings and Lord of lords."

Jared has called this "My simplistic drawing of such a complicated image," but I would say he has distilled the image to something that we can grasp, and that he has done it very well. When I start to look at the image and read the passage, I see many things that I wouldn't grasp in the reading alone. I'm afraid that I'm such a visually oriented person, that it would take many careful readings for me to "see" the image in my head, yet Jared gives me the whole picture at once. It's not so simple that it doesn't takes time for me to grasp the whole picture, but it begins to help bring the scripture to life for me.

At first I felt that the relaxed pose of the rider and horse was incongrous to the sword and flame features of Christ, but it helped remind me this is the same Christ who humbly rode into Jerusalem on a donkey, then gave his life for us to share in his glory. And that is what heaven being opened to us is all about...

a warning & reminder

"You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone adorned you: ruby, topaz and emerald, chrysolite, onyx and jasper, sapphire, turquiose and beryl. Your setting and mounting were made of gold; on the day you were created they were prepared. You were annointed as a guardian cherub, for so I ordained you. You were on the holy mount of God; you walked among the fiery stones. You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created fill wickedness was found in you. Through your widespread trade you were filled with violence and you sinned. So I drove you in disgrace from the mount of God, I expelled you, O guardian cherub, from among the fiery stones. Your heart became proud on account of your beauty, and you corrupted your wisdom because of your splendor. So I threw you to the earth; I made you a spectacle of you before kings." Ezekiel 28: 14-16

This is the scene, set in Eden and heaven, that describes Satan being thrown out of heaven, giving us some background and understanding for Jared Konopitski's piece, "The Devil's Trickery", inspired by 2 Corinthians 11:14, which says, "Even Satan can disguise himself as an 'angel of light.'"

While this piece isn't strictly a vision of heaven, it certainly peeks into the workings of heaven and the invisible spiritual realm. Jared describes this colored pencil work as "more of warning and a reminder. Sometimes what seems like heaven may just be a devilish trick." Jared also reminds us to make sure things agree with scripture before taking it as heaven sent. While the message could be sent harshly, Jared's style softens the blow and makes this an approachable subject - even allowing us to laugh a little - yet maintains a somewhat sinister edge in his depiction of Satan.

Wait until you see what he has up his sleeve next - I mean Jared, not Satan -

contrasting heaven & earth

Today we've got another piece from Jared Konopitski, whose visions are unlike any others. This image is called "Out of Tears" and is in Jared's signature colored pencil style, digitally enlarged to poster size creations.

His inspiration for this image comes from Luke 6:21, where Jesus said those on earth will laugh in heaven, as well as from Mathew 18:3, where He said, "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven."

Jared describes the piece as illustrating "a child being birthed into heaven out of a world of tears." He made the contrast of laughing in heaven to crying (tears) on earth; much like some passages of scripture do (though I can't at the moment remember where.) We all can acknowledge that life on earth in the here and now can be a very painful experience and this work is a reminder that all of that pain will no longer exist when we live in the presence of God. Praise Him for that!

heaven in the studio

This is actually my entry for today on my personal art blog, which you can find at www.judithmonroe.com/journal.html, but it's about my work for this heaven project, so I figured I'd just post it here, too:

More studio work today - and last night -



Wet watercolors on the New Jerusalem Palms mini series (and here you thought that was only on tv.)



This morning, I was working on two things at once - actually alternately, but saying at once is more impressive - in the foreground you can see the new Polaroid transfer wall art plaques I'm working on for a couple venues and back on my drawing table I'm doing the pencil work on the New Jerusalem Palms quartet.

By noon I've already finished the New Jerualem Palms, so I'll share...

My Father's House 1/5

Heavenly Homeland 1/5

City of God 1/5

Times of Refreshment 1/5

jottings by jared

Jared Konopitski & I got to catch up on stuff on Sunday at which time I mentioned to him that I didn't have a lot of work from him for this blog, even though I KNEW he had been very creative. So also being a very responsible young man, Jared has sent me a couple more images to post. Both pieces are done in Jared's typical colored pencil cartoon-illustrative style which so many of us thoroughly enjoy.

This first image was inspired by Isaiah 9:5 "In that day of peace, battle gear will no longer be issued. Never again will uniforms be bloodstained by war. All such equipment will be burned."

In Jared's words, "The soldier is burning his uniform for he no longer has a need for it. In the same effect the tank in the back is burning to the ground and the sky is glowing from the fire as all the ingredients of war are burned in this time peace."

This second piece comes from Revelation 20:11. "And I saw a great white throne, and I saw the one who was sitting on it. The earth and sky fled from his presence, but they found no place to hide."

Jared says "In this image I placed a white throne right in the middle of a satellite-esque photo of the earth. The image of earth is swirling and twisting to hide from the throne but it has no where to go, limited to its own borders."

Jared is certainly not limiting himself as he continues with his artistic visions of heaven. I'm eager to see what else he has in store for us.

road to heaven?

Ross Conklin is consistently stretching himself for this project, and the results are always impressive. Today's work from Ross is a colored pencil drawing titled, "The Road of Life."

For this piece, Ross refers to Matthew 7:13-14, “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that lead to destruction and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow is the road that lead to life and only a few find it.” You can see all of these things in his modern illustrationof this scripture, including the road to hell that is paved with good intentions.

To underscore that it is each individual's choice, Ross points to Joshua 24:15: “But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourself this day whom you will serve. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” He reminds viewers that "we have only one life to live on earth, so be alert!" Finally, Ross underscores the concept of the road to hell that is paved with good intentions instead of accepting Christ with Proverbs 14:12: “There is a way that seems right to a man but in the end it leads to death.”

more from jared

Jared thought he was a major procrastinator, but little did he know it would then become contagious! After two long silent (and for me, very busy) weeks, an update on our Heaven art project!

From Jared's keyboard, "Here is my new image. But this time I have also included the beginning stages of the drawing.

Image one represents the initial pencil stage. A rough sketch that will later become the final image.


Image two represents the ink stage. I outline the sketch with ink and erase the pencil line.


Image three is the final stage. I add the color and a lot of black pencil to make the final work.


This particular image was inspired by Hebrews 12:1. "Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us." This image is an average man stripping off the sin that entagles him to begin that extraordinary race."

Thanks a bunch, Jared!

an amazing offer

Jared Konopitski sent me another one of his colored pencil works in his typical style. I think it's great that Jared has such an identifiable style, it shows remarkable maturity as an artist at an age I was still... well, never mind that. Jared does a great job of explaining the piece and how it came to be, so I'll just share what he wrote:

"The verse that inspired this image is Malachi 3:16 which says: 'Then those who feared the Lord spoke with each other, and the Lord listened to what they said. In his presence, a scroll of remembrance was written to record the names of those who feared him and loved to think about him.'

It continues on to say in verse 17 that God will spare them as a father spares an obedient and dutiful child, "them" being the ones whose name is on the scroll. The scroll then almost seemed like a peace treaty to me. I drew the scroll, and the doves around the scroll represent the peace that God promises to those whose names are on it. The scroll in my image advertises that it is still possible to get your name written on this amazing offer.

thats all for now,

mor later :)

Jared"

work from Jared

Responding to my request, our very own Jared Konopitski has sent in a couple images. You may notice Jared has his own style, like an illustrative cartoon, in these cases very light hearted. Very versatile, he can also depict darker scenes with this same style, which maybe I'll get to post some of later.

This one is "Isaiah 11:8," which says, " The baby will play safely near the hole of a cobra. Yes, a little child will put its hand in a nest of deadly snakes without harm."

This is part of the prophetic writings in Isaiah regarding the new earth, after Christ comes back to earth and restores it, a great source of heaven imagery!

More new earth imagery from Isaiah and Jared...

"Isaiah 55:12" reads, "You will live in joy and peace. The mountains and hills will burst into song, and the trees of the field will clap their hands!"


Now folks, it's time for some more work from some others - I'll work on getting some basic stuff posted soon, too.