If you’ve been to my pop art gallery online, you might have some questions. Some of those pieces, maybe even a lot of them look a little odd. You might wonder why I do work like that. Well today I thought I would explain it. As you may know if you’ve been reading this blog for a while, some of my earliest influences were the Kustom Kulture, “low brow” artists like Ed Big Daddy Roth. It all started when my grandmother used to take me to this massive flea market. My Nana always encouraged me to make art. She would take me to get model cars, art supplies, etc. There was this one stand that had all the old T-shirts with the cars in wheelies with massive blowers sticking through the hoods often with monstrous drivers reaching through the roof to grab the next gear. I was hooked.
Years and years later, I became a Christian. By this time, I was working to become a famous artist. Eventually I got a freelance job for a licensee of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and once again I was drawing creatures, but God was at work. My life became somewhat out of balance. The lure of fame that came with the turtle work was tempting me to compartmentalize my life. Now I had an art life and a God life. That can be a deadly combination and for me it nearly was. When I repented of this, I got my call to ministry, I figured my art life was over. God had other plans. I was working with the youth at my church and slowly I felt the Lord leading me to use art in my teaching. At first the work was all very Christian, and much of my work still leans that way, but slowly something started to happen. I started getting opportunities to create art outside the walls of the church. I remember one time in particular being invited to participate in an Italian street painting festival. This would be very evangelistic, but I also knew I couldn’t really do a picture of Jesus if I wanted people to talk to me. I prayed for an image to do and ended up getting this picture I call Dichotomy. Half a lion, half a lamb and it worked. People were asking me what it meant and I got to talk about Jesus.
Then something else happened. I got a call from a friend to preach at his King James only church. I felt led to preach on 2 Corinthians 5:17 which in the NIV says “Therefore if anyone in Christ, he is a new creation, The old has gone and the new has come.” It speaks to the transformational power of Christ in our lives. Well when I went to the King James, it says “Therefore if any man be in Christ, He is a new creature. I thought about it. I’ve been creating creatures for basically my whole life. Could I create creatures for Christ as a way to open doors to minister to artists? I decided to try. My characters are heroes and villains, happy and angry but they are not meant to reflect kindly on evil. They are meant to open doors for me to meet people with no agenda except to let the Lord do His work, however He chooses.
How can you use what you do to glorify God? The possibilities are endless.
AMOKArts 