SOJOURNERS

1 CHRONICLES 29:15 - “For we are strangers before you and sojourners, as all our fathers were. Our days on the earth are like a shadow, and there is no abiding.”

In the Garden - 72” x 36” · Gold leaf, mineral pigments, acrylic, oil, cold wax and oil pastel on wood panel.
“And the LORD God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground the LORD God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided and became four rivers. The name of the first is the Pishon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. And the gold of that land is good.” - Genesis 2:8-12

The Tree of Life 16” x 16” · Gold leaf, oil, cold wax and oil pastel on canvas.

The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil 16” x 16” · Gold leaf, oil, cold wax and oil pastel on canvas.

This new series is a collection of landscapes based on the story-arc of the Bible. Each piece is a meditation on a chapter in God’s great story of redemption as well as a reflection on the stages of our own spiritual journey with God, represented by color, form, and movement. You are invited to join in the adventure from the garden to the flood, from the wilderness through the waters of redemption and onward to the culmination of God’s great story in God’s eternal city—a Kingdom of light.

The Deluge 60” x 36” · Gold leaf, mineral pigments, acrylic, oil, cold wax and oil pastel on wood panel.
“In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, on the seventeenth day of the second month—on that day all the springs of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened. And rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights. On that very day Noah and his sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth, together with his wife and the wives of his three sons, entered the ark. They had with them every wild animal according to its kind, all livestock according to their kinds, every creature that moves along the ground according to its kind and every bird according to its kind, everything with wings. Pairs of all creatures that have the breath of life in them came to Noah and entered the ark. The animals going in were male and female of every living thing, as God had commanded Noah. And the Lord shut him in.” - Genesis 7:11-16

One theme repeated throughout the Bible is that ‘God loves the sojourner,’ and we, the people of God, are on a journey both historically and personally. As we pass through our temporary home here, we experience the garden in times of fullness and peace, or the flood when we are overwhelmed with the weight of our sin, or the wilderness during times of testing and sanctification, or the baptismal waters when we die to ourselves and allow God’s Word to wash and cleanse us. And all the while, our deepest desire is for that ‘better country.’ The journey is hard, and we are required to wait, but God loves the sojourner and has compassion on us.

In the Wilderness - Diptych - 36” x 48” each · Gold leaf, mineral pigments, acrylic, oil, cold wax and oil pastel on wood panel.
“And the LORD went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them along the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, that they might travel by day and by night. The pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night did not depart from before the people.”
- Exodus 13:21-22

In the Wilderness - Diptych - 36” x 48” each · Gold leaf, mineral pigments, acrylic, oil, cold wax and oil pastel on wood panel.
“Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the desert these forty years, to humble you and to test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.” - Deuteronomy 8:2-3

Another theme depicted in this series is the continuous use of gold found throughout Scripture, from the gold of Eden’s land, to the gold used in the Israelite temple, to the gold of the New Jerusalem. Each panel is overlaid with gold which invites us to ponder a question: what was all that gold for? Perhaps it represents God’s ongoing presence with us, or the richness of our inheritance, or that He himself is the source of all abundance.

The Immersion 60” x 36” · Gold leaf, mineral pigments, acrylic, oil, cold wax and oil pastel on wood panel.
“Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the LORD drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided. And the people of Israel went into the midst of the sea on dry ground, the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left.” - Exodus 14:21-22
“For I will take you out of the nations; I will gather you from all the countries and bring you back into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.” - Ezekiel 36:24-26

By faith we journey with our great God, and we join those who have sojourned before us. “These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a City.” - Hebrews 11:13-16

The New Jerusalem 36” x 36” · Gold leaf, mineral pigments, acrylic, oil, cold wax and oil pastel on wood panel.
“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.’ He who was seated on the throne said, ‘Behold, I am making everything new!’” - Revelation 21:1-5

Click here to read more about how this series came about at The Story Behind the Story