Forgiveness = Freedom

I did the whole painting during the service thing. It was interesting. The church and the pastor were a bit new with it, and it felt a bit awkward for me - but I want to do more of it and get other people involved doing the same because I usually am running like a headless chicken on Sundays which doesn't really make it prime time to reach inside my soul and paint. I was going to do it this Sunday, but I had to teach Sunday School instead.

Anyhow - here's my blurb about the painting

Visual inspirations - graffiti, tattoos, Andy Warhol, and Latin American folk iconography. I love all of that stuff because it's rough, obvious, and not considered by all to be art.

And by obvious I mean its purpose is obvious and what it communicates is usually obvious. It's like branding something - wether it be skin or a wall/train or a church.

So I feel like the message and the symbolism I used were pretty cliche. Not only that, but I did the sin of all art sins by actually using words in my painting. So I pretty much told everyone how to read my painting. But I did do it in Spanish - so there's me trying to be mysterious - ha ha.

So yeah - shackles represent repression or bondage. The hands on either side of the middle shackles have no shackles on so obviously they are freed. The shackles are flying away like an iconic catholic angel - complete with a halo. And the hands have blood spray painted on the wrists - representing an ultimate sacrifice given to us by Jesus on the cross when he forgave us and freed us if we chose to accept this freedom.

This then gives us the power to forgive others and free them and ourselves throughout the many times we will be hurt in our life.

The inspiration for this painting is the sermon series Pastor Bruce and Karen were preaching - it's called Vertical Habits. It was looking at different Christians and how God shone through their lives. So we looked at Desmond Tutu and Corrie Ten Boom - both exceptional people who were peace makers and freedom givers because they chose to forgive.