I'M SUCH A GEEK

Here's another Jedi in the style of Caravaggio...

THE SOWER

I am working on a few religious-themed images for use in our early worship services at my church. They are meant to illustrate different themes from scripture. This image is supposed to illustrate the parable of the Sower from the Gospel of Matthew. Obviously I am very much influenced by Caravaggio in this piece. When I am doing these religious pieces, it's hard not to go back to the masters--of course they are the ones responsible for the White-Anglo-Saxon-Ted Nugent vision of Jesus that is so prevalent in our culture. I am very much trying to move away from that--although I don't know that I succeeded here. He is still looking a little Nordic to me.

Who knows what Jesus really looked like? I would hypothesize that he was probably similar in appearance to naitive arabs in and around the middle east as opposed to modern-day Israelis. Israel's population today has a large number of people of European descent--Russian, German, Hungarian, etc... as well as American. I don't know. It's sort of cool to think about. I am interested in these things from an anthropological point of view.

Of course modern western popular culture has "had its way" with Jesus. Check out Jesus of the Week for a laugh at the different images of Jesus.

SELF PROMOTION (AGAIN)

This is the latest self promo card that I will be sending out in the near future. I am hoping to get some book-clients as well as some editorial assignments. The audience for this particular piece is children's/fantasy publishing. I am a big fan of fantasy art--artists like Alan Lee, John Howe, Tony Diterlizzi, Wyeth (of course), Brom, etc... Since so much fantasy art leans to the dark side, I thought I would shoot for something a little more hopeful--a little more optimistic. I also like art that tells a story, that leads somewhere. Wyeth's illustrations for LAST OF THE MOHICHANS and TREASURE ISLAND are simply perfect--perfect in their imperfection. Dramatic. Dynamic. Full of character. I try to include a little homage to Wyeth in a lot of what I do because he really is a hero of mine.

Anyway, I welcome comments and criticisms so please let me know what you think.

BONO PAINTING

This is a caricature I did of Bono--sort of portraying him as Jesus walking on water. I have long been an admirer of Bono. When I was in high school I was in a garage band with some mates from school. We would set up borrowed sound equipment in my garage and bang out U2 songs (among others) for hours. The great thing about U2's music is that it's wicked easy to play--just two or three chords. Singing like Bono on the other hand is near impossible... That doesn't mean I didn't try.

As I got older I started to become an admirer of Bono for his political advocacy. I read the book UNFORGETTABLE FIRE in college and was interested to see that Bono really struggled in the early days with issues of faith. As a devout Catholic, he was troubled at how his dreams of being a rock star would compromise his beliefs--especially since the culture of rock and roll was polluted with substance abuse and money. As Bono and U2 matured they found ways to use their music and fame to draw attention to important causes.

As I grow more and more devout in my faith, Bono (in addition to Jesus) continues to be someone I look to. He works tirelessly on behalf of the less fortunate--the poor, the sick, the victimized. He hasn't let fame and money separate him from the pressing social/health issues of the world.

Still, in spite of all that, I couldn't help poking a little fun at him...