Christmas Studio Sale

Hello friends and faithful patrons, I am announcing my annual studio sale of original works to make gifts available for the holidays and to make space for my next year’s projects. I have a series of paintings that have either recently come down from display (most were painted live at Threshold Church) or are coming out of storage.

Please reach out to me directly if you are interested in a work via my text at 203-240-8392 (and send your name in case you are not in my contacts so I know it’s not spam).

All of the works display their base prices. NC sales will have an added 7.25% sales tax. My preference is to arrange pick up at my studio for the works, but if you require shipping, we can arrange the process and cost when we connect.

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“Anointed for Burial”. 32x20”. Acrylic and 23kt. gold on artist-built custom birch panel. Painted live Nov. 26, 2023 at Threshold Church with Pastor Gabe Swing. $500

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“Walking Passed” 20x32. Acrylic on artist-built custom birch panel. Painted live at Threshold Nov. 11, 2023. $500.

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Custom artist-built framed series of the Lausanne Movements Four Pillars. The prints are each 20x13” signed, limited edition giclee images, with the mat and frame exterior totaling approximately 30x23”. Sold only together as a series of all four: $1000. If you are interested in an individual work- I will custom frame another at your request for $300.

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Easter Series: “Palm Sunday” / “Golgotha” / “Resurrection”. Each are 20x16” Acrylic on Canvas. Painted live at Threshold during Holy Week 2023. Each are $300 or the entire set for $800.

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TRISTAN & ADDISON SHEA'S LIVE WEDDING PAINTING

On Saturday Nov. 11, 2023, I captured the wedding of Tristan & Addison Shea in a live painting. In this video, I offer my blessing to them, explaining how I saw God’s presence in the way the cross that stood over and between them was illuminated by the light in the fall foliage.

Mark & Jill Boyce Commission

This work is based on the “Oaks of Righteousness” in Isaiah 61, and the two Trees of Life in Revelation 22. The trees of life, with leaves for the healing of the nations are on BOTH sides of the River of Life- proceeded from God’s throne. This commission by Mark and Jill Boyce was a visualized prayer over their family, representing the location of their mountain house at Lake James, NC, the eternal night sky as seen in the photography of the new James Webb Telescope, and the expansive root system of oak trees sharing life and support as a prophetic metaphor for their journey. The night sky view from their property is incredible and helped inspire the infinite perspective of the image. The actual Linville Gorge is featured in the background which can be seen from Lake James and my family hiked together while researching the project. The roots of an Oak tree (as I learned from Mark) don’t grow down deeply, but expand up to twice the distance of the trees’ canopy, and transfer nutrients and support to one another. The two trees, lit from within by the cool and warm acorn shaped lanterns (a reference to Tolkien’s Silmarillion) are tethered together under the river by their roots… weathering the storms of life together. May we all find ourselves planted like mighty oaks of righteousness, rebuilding the ancient ruins, under the infinite and expansive Kingdom story sweeping over us!

St. Isidore

Museum Quality Giclee Prints of this image in various sizes are available on the store pag.

On March 24, 2022 I had the privilege to paint live during the “Work and Worship” gathering at New City Church with Matt Kaemingk of Fuller Seminary who spoke of his book by the same title. My 2012 painting the “Plower” was displayed as an initial seed of visual inspiration, and while Matt and I sat to talk and pray before the event began, he asked me, “Have you heard of St. Isidore?” I hadn’t, and this led to a short conversation/ revelation of the classic saint fabled to plow his field 3x faster than anyone else due to angelic help. Matt and I laughed together as we looked up images of the saint that depicted him praying quietly beside his field while the angel did the work. Instead, we both imagined a reality where St. Isidore himself would be plowing while the angel amplified his offering of labor.

By the end of the first worship set, St. Isidore and the angel were already in my painting, with the angel at his back like wind in his sail. By the end of the evening’s live event, the table holding humanity’s various “offerings” of work as worship was included, along with the gears at the bottom of the painting where I intended to paint yellow flowers symbolizing the blending of the human and the divine.

I then took the work back to the studio to add the five specific various expressions of worship Matt Kaemingk described as central to our work as worship. I added each as a roundel over the altar and used details from classic paintings to express the theme:

1) Trumpets of Praise- with Johannes Vermeer’s The Art of Painting

2) The confessions of our failures- with Masaccio’s The Expulsion from the Garden of Eden

3) Tears of pain and lament- with Pablo Picasso’s The Old Guitarist

4) The first fruits of harvest from our labor - with Caravaggio’s Bacchus

5) The Petitions for our coworkers and community with Giovanni Salvi da Sassoferrato’s The Virgin Mary in Prayer

My original 2012 “Plower” painting in oil on canvas. It is now my daughter Kea’s, as it commemorates her Easter Morning Day of salvation.

As a remarkable “Holy Spirit Wink”: the night of the live event as I was pulling up to New City Church, my friend Corey Unger called to tell me he had felt prompted to call me and was seeing “gears and yellow Dahlia flowers”… and asked if that had any meaning to me. It did! My original Plower painting that was on display that night showed the Plower turning over the ground with yellow flowers growing illogically right in the wake of the plow… a symbol from my former church Walnut Hill Community Church in Bethel, CT where it was painted, and where yellow flowers symbolized a life surrendered to the Lord. The day I painted the original painting, my daughter Kea, not yet age 3, gave her life to Christ. Corey didn’t even know that painting was on display or that I was schedule to paint just minutes after his call… it was a true answer to a Spirit prompt. It was his statement of “Gears and Flowers” that led to me working in that fusion as a metaphor.

Back in my studio I was visited by a friend KC Clark who came to share about his difficult year vocationally. As I described the five roundels I was painting while he visited, I found the work ministering directly to KC and his story. As he left, he gave me a handkerchief from his wife’s recent album, and it featured a Dahlia flower, only the second time I can remember someone mentioning that flower by name… Corey Unger had said he specifically saw yellow Dahlia flowers. I took a picture of KC and his gift next to the painting in its last hours in my studio, just before I added the yellow Dahlias… it was such a clear “push” to finish strong and add the element of the flowers I had been inspired/ directed to include. I just love when God does something with such confirmation to show that He is with us pushing our work forward from behind with a supernatural power beyond anything “we could ask or imagine” [Eph. 3]. I felt like St. Isidore in the midst of my painting!

Let the Children Come To Me

In June of 2023 I collaborated with long time friend and faithful artistic champion / client Dr. Sarah Marsh. My wife and I have known and loved Sarah since our college years, and have watched in awe as she has worked tirelessly to earn her MD, marry and expand her delightful family, and get her certification as a pediatric doctor. I was humbled when she came to me to ask to create a work of art to hang in her pediatric practice as a blessing to her patients, families, and fellow staff. “Let the Children Come to Me” was born out of our discussions about her vision for the painting based on the passages in Matthew, Mark, and Luke where Jesus tells his distracted and self important disciples to allow the (seemingly insignificant) children to come to him. I intentionally included specific figures in reference of Sarah’s three daughters and diverse clientele, celebrating the diversity and beauty of God’s expansive love to humanity. In a day of heightened division and open hostility between warring nations, political ideologies, religions, and races, Jesus’ message of love is more relevant than ever.

As I worked on this painting, I realized that despite its much larger scale, it is the same physical proportion as my earlier Lausanne Movement Four Pillar Paintings and carries the same global DNA vision of God’s Kingdom as the other works, this time focusing specifically on children. As the Lausanne Movement prepares for the L4 global gathering in Seoul, Korea in Oct. 2024, I feel this work is a harbinger of the vision yet to come. Evangelical leaders from every region will be gathering to plan to accomplish the “Whole Church, bringing the Whole Gospel, to the Whole World” by 2050 (scripture translated into every language, a christian presence in every community on earth = the four pillars of Lausanne). In 2050, those who are only children now, or are not yet even born, will be our young and emerging leaders. As we plan to gather at L4 to hear God’s heart for the Great Commission in our day, may we not forget to “Let the Children Come” with us so that we can stay with them in the arms of Jesus.

Here are the four pillars of Lausanne with “Let The Children Come to Me” added beside them:

1) The gospel for every person on earth

2) A Christ centered church for every community

3) A Christ-like leader for every church

4) The Kingdom in every sphere of society

*) Every generation at work in the Great Commission.

"Morning Watch" YMCA Camp Harrison, Session 7, July 2023

Artist Bryn Gillette attended each of the "Morning Watch" devotionals during session 7 led by Liz.  After listening to the message, Bryn would take some time that day to draw an image in pen representing the central Bible lesson from the morning.  It was Liz's desire that campers would discover more about who Jesus is and what he is like through these lessons.

• Monday: Liz and Dom are represented pulling the plow with the yoke that they had imaginatively acted out in reference to Jesus' promise to come into every aspect of our lives and support us.  When Liz tried to pull it alone, she couldn't, but when Dom (playing Jesus) stepped in, he could shoulder the weight on the shared yoke and easily pull the load. "Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls."  Matt. 11:29

• Tuesday Liz shared about resting on the bottom of the ocean in California with her scuba gear when she was in her teens and was struggling with her faith, and that the Bible verses she had memorized as a child came back to her: [Psalm 139:7-8 NIV] "7 Where can I go from your Spirit?  Where can I flee from your presence? 8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there."

• Wednesday several staff members joined Liz to reenact Jesus sleeping in a boat in a storm and that Jesus woke up to calm the wind and waves with his voice "They recognized it was the same voice that had spoken them into existence in the very beginning of time" (Paraphrase of the Jesus Storybook Bible).  Bryn drew the five staff members from their performance into the boat in a storm.  

• Thursday was a picture of a house built high on a rock safely above the waves, compared to the house on the sand flattened as its foundations gave out in the storm.  This is from Jesus' parable in Matt. 7 reminding us that Jesus' words are trustworthy and strong and we need to put them into practice in our lives, and Liz had shared how an earthquake in New Zealand had revealed the houses built upon sandy foundations that were destroyed.

• Friday Liz shared about playing football with the band "Five Iron Frenzy" before attending their concert, and how she had tried to find her identity and worth in activities like scuba diving, rock climbing, and snowboarding rather than trust in the "Shield" of God's protection and covering.  Ps. 91:4 He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart."  The pictures shows a teenage Liz curled up in confusion between these competing sources of her identity.

• Saturday morning Liz, Dom, and Bryn all gathered to retell the messages from the first five days through these images, and then Liz compared Bryn's paintbrush in the hands of a master to how God takes an ordinary person like us and makes a masterpiece through our lives.  Bryn added the brush into the bottom left of the work during breakfast just before campers were picked up.  Ephesians 2:10 NLT "10 For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago."

May these images help remind us what the Lord taught us in week 7 through the faithful teaching of sister Liz, and may the Holy Spirit bring the songs and the Word of God back to our hearts and minds whenever we need direction and truth!  Amen.                                               - Brother Bryn

"Beloved"- Capstone Image of "The Truth Collective"

“أنَا لِحَبِيبِي، وَحَبِيبِي لِي.” Arabic = “I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine” Song of Songs 6:3 NIV

“Beloved”. Oil paint, pen, and sand on wood panel. 48x29.5”. June 2020.

Prints are available on the “store” page.

“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. It flowed down the center of the main street. On each side of the river grew a tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, with a fresh crop each month. The leaves were used for medicine to heal the nations.” Revelation 22:1-2 NLT

Last night, Oct. 9, 2020, was the official “unveiling” of the painting “Beloved” during the launch of the Truth Collective’s “Ungallery”.

TheTruthCollective.org

I have been working with founder Jami Staples and her team for the past several months to create a capstone piece to summarize the vision of our true beloved identity in the eyes of our Creator. The Truth Collective’s mission is to minister to women in the areas where untruth has robbed them of their joy, their freedom, and the confidence in their true identity. This painting is a vision of the Bride of Christ in a restored Eden, the new heaven and earth described in the book of Revelation.

This work is Lausanne Movement’s Pillar 2: “A Christ centered church for every community” (aka “The Bride”). What was originally going to be the capstone of the ungallery show was a large print of this work, which quickly was replaced with the idea of a full repainting, and then it became apparent that to capture this new vision a whole new work was needed. While Lausanne’s Pillar 2 shows the Bride of Christ made up from every tongue and tribe and nation, the Bride in “Beloved” is walking out from the desserts of the Middle East, bringing streams to the dessert places. The sand is actual embedded material from Dubai, Morocco, and Egypt, so she is metaphorically, literally, and prophetically bringing Eden into dessert places.

Isaiah 51 NLT

3 The Lord will comfort Israel again
    and have pity on her ruins.
Her desert will blossom like Eden,
    her barren wilderness like the garden of the Lord.
Joy and gladness will be found there.
    Songs of thanksgiving will fill the air.

4 “Listen to me, my people.
    Hear me, Israel,
for my law will be proclaimed,
    and my justice will become a light to the nations.
5 My mercy and justice are coming soon.
    My salvation is on the way.
    My strong arm will bring justice to the nations.
All distant lands will look to me
    and wait in hope for my powerful arm.

In strict Islamic traditions, artists are forbidden to represent figures, animals, or any divine representation in their work. Instead, artists have limited their expression to masterworks of calligraphy and tessellations, which are mathematical designs produced with a compass and ruler of infinite variety and complexity. As a teacher of Islamic Art in my global AP Art History class, I have come to love this work, though this is the first time I have ever adopted the vernacular and visual vocabulary of the muslim tradition to express the Kingdom truths of scripture to that subculture. I had the sense that I was taking on the culture, the language, and the posture of their tradition in order to make the gospel relevant and beautiful to their sensibilities. I absolutely loved the methodical, meditational, and time consuming process of recreating several iconic tessellations from the palace walls of Alhambra in Spain as the superstructure of the work. I do however clearly depart from the strict muslim tradition as the work is so figurative, the woman’s face is uncovered, and even her leg is exposed to the knee as she wades through the streams emerging from the dessert. Each of these themes is central to the dialog of female identity and restoration in the Truth Collective’s ministry.

Multiple squares are set up in the classic fibonacci sequence… each square a distinct Alhambra square Tessellation. This divine ration is witnessed naturally all through creation, and speaks to universal truths and harmonies that every culture can recognize and appreciate. It is seen in everything from the proportions of the human body (like the ratio of the various divisions of our fingers), to the height and width ratio of an egg, to the length of musical notes in a sequence, the twist of a conch shell… to the dimensions chosen for the Mona Lisa. It is one more nod to the heavenly reality I was striving to portray in the imagery itself.

Rather than impose the imagery onto the work, I “discovered” it from within the scaffolding of the tessellations. I took so much joy playfully finding how shoulders and arms emerge from the lines, how the star of David seems to sit upon the Bride’s forehead, how the upper corners become the two trees of life (rather than one tree of life and one tree of the knowledge of good and evil as in the garden of Eden). The entire effect is like a stained glass window, perhaps not entirely accidental in so many references to classical imagery of the divine.

Prints are available on the “store” page.

“أنَا لِحَبِيبِي، وَحَبِيبِي لِي.” Arabic = “I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine” Song of Songs 6:3 NIV

Pentecost In CLT- "It Ends Now".

I had the privilege to paint during the “It Ends Now” movement in uptown Charlotte at the request of my dear friend and long-time spiritual collaborator Casey Crimmins. While the nation is turning over with violent uprising in response to the death of George Floyd, I had mixed feelings about taking to the streets, not wanting to be aligned with riots. As I half heartedly packed my car Sunday morning, I reached for one of the only pre-built canvases in my studio, a picture I had previously painted at a worship service with a duel image of Jesus changing Simon’s name to Peter as well as Peter standing up at Pentecost and preaching under the newly poured out power of the Holy Spirit. As I went upstairs to kiss my wife goodbye for the day, I overheard the online church service she was watching and realized it IS Pentecost Sunday today! I had a chill all the way up my spine, and a sudden assurance that God was saying “Yes, take this canvas that already has the DNA of Pentecost underneath it, and go uptown knowing you have an assignment there.”

First Ward Park, Uptown Charlotte, NC May 30, 2020.

In the midst of a national crisis of racial division and hatred rivaling any in my lifetime, it was amazing to experience a peaceful and unified gathering of the corporate “Church” beyond any one denomination or creed. More than a thousand people came to express their solidarity and belief that love, justice, and repentance are the answer, and the march around the uptown was more than a mile long of peaceful demonstrators. The original birth of the Church, Pentecost nearly 2000 years ago, was preceded by an outpouring of God’s Spirit that unified a city full of diverse languages, tribes, and cultural backgrounds. Tongues of fire rested on believers, old and young, men and female, slave and free, and a new people identifying themselves by love in relation to Christ, the Church, was born. I tried to capture that fiery power, and those unified colors of community coming together in the painting. Each figure is further highlighted with a tongue of fire resting above their head.

It was amazing to be among 50+ church communities, neighbors, strangers, and friends gathering to acknowledge the brokenness of our nation, repenting for 400 years of broken, white privilege systems of injustice, and declaring of our complacent silence: “It Ends Now!” Several speakers of various communities and backgrounds spoke, but none moved me more powerfully than a white pastor who declared the need of my own demographic to repent and acknowledge our guilt, actively being about the work of healing and putting complacency aside. I thought back with shame to the morning’s hesitation; weighing inconvenience, danger, optics, and (to be fair) levels of indifference as I decided whether or not I would come. I AM part of the problem. Just as I AM part of the solution! This same pastor reminded the gathering that “justice” would have to include equitable redistribute of power, land, and money… the tangible assets so long withheld or bound by systemic racism. With the headquarter building of “Bank of America” overshadowing where we stood in First Ward Park, I painted it into the background along with the Hirsch Tower and Wells Fargo building. The classical facade of my original painting morphed into the symbol of so many oppressive financial/judicial systems, and I prayerfully added unified figures busily disassembling and redistributing green bricks.

I could not be more proud of the leadership and vision of these two men: Sanchez Fair and Casey Crimmins!

Here is the original image as it was in March 2020 when it was first painted as the changing of Simon’s name to Peter (The Rock) along with Peter at Pentecost. It was created for a sermon series on Peter from Threshold Church.

Open Heart

Third wave of painting: Nov. 24, 2019 with the figure embellishments in the lower right from our communion service.

Last week, Nov. 10, 2019, I enjoyed painting live beside my wife leading worship and in collaboration with pastor Jeff Gardner at Threshold Church. We studied several stories from Luke 14, all revealing the effects of a “sick heart”. Jeff chose the theme of congestive heart failure, or “weak heart”, as the lens with which to view each story in Luke 14 because the spiritual state of the participants in each case was akin to the slowly weakening, failing role of heart failure, and was fed by their selfishness, numbness to others, and general apathy to to the things of God:

The man Jesus heals of “Dropsy” to the offense of the dinner guests was likely suffering from heart failure…even though Jesus’ accusers truly had the sick hearts.

The guests scrambling for the best seats had hearts congealed with self interest.

The host inviting only those who could return the favor had a heart bend on advancement and prestige.

The parable of the guests unwilling to come to the banquet had hearts numb and distracted with the cares of this world.

The CURE: generosity, self sacrifice, and service to others. Exercise the heart!

First wave of painting: This was the first layer- a live painting from earlier in May 2019 at MorningStar church where I have enjoyed the company of kindred hearted Kingdom artists working live as a welcomed form of worship.

Second wave of painting: Open Heart. Acrylic on panel. 20x48”. Nov 10, 2019 live at Threshold Church.

The central crucifix figure of Christ became the center of “The Heart” with tendrils of blood vessels branching out across the surface of the painting.

In the last moments of the service I found myself frantically (inspired) and painting in Jesus as he pulls back a chair to welcome us to the feast. The formerly painted figures at the top on their heavenly thrones became other guests at the Luke 14 banquet… and Jesus is now welcoming us the Wedding Feast in heaven.

Pastor Jeff ended the gathering with a poetic benediction crafted for the morning:

Jesus says, “Come as you are, And only as you’re able,

You are welcome, without exception, At my dinner table.”

So shun the lie that says you first Must clean up your behavior,

And take a seat, pull up a chair, And hang out with your Savior.

We each come to the table with a Past that causes heartache;

But through Christ’s love our hearts are healed Because he died for our sakes.

Remember that you're his beloved, More than you’ll ever know.

Let the truth of his constant affection Set your heart aglow.

Then carry that heart flame to your world, And share it without cost

By what you say and how you live, Touch those who still are lost.

Tell them how they are so adored by the Lover of their Souls.

And Invite them to the table where their Hearts may be made whole.

On the third and final week of the series “Come To The Table” at Threshold Church Nov. 24, 2019, we gathered around a beautifully spread central table to receive the Lord’s supper. Pastor Jeff explained that the original context of coming to the table in a “worthy manner” was truly an issue of being One with your brothers and sisters around you as a loving family. It was a special time of fellowship and solidarity, while the worship team sang “Come To The Table” by Zac Williams over us. That evening I sat down with the photos I had taken of my “family” during communion and layered them in as the final embellishment to the work. May this stand as a monument to our love, centered in Jesus, gathered around the family table, where everyone has a seat of welcome.

The Woman At The Well - John 4

“Woman At The Well”. Acrylic and pen on Wooden Panel. 30x60”. Oct. 2019. For Dowd YMCA Prayer Chapel.

I had the honor to paint an image to hang in the prayer chapel at Charlotte, NC’s uptown Dowd YMCA. In honor of the donor who paid for the renovations, my commissioner asked that I craft an image based on the donor’s favorite passage of scripture: “The Samaritan Woman” or perhaps better known as “The Woman At The Well” from the gospel of John chapter 4. Even while we held our initial conversation in the newly designed space, I envisioned a tall vertical piece to mirror the stained glass on the opposing wall, juxtaposing fire and water. This painting is actually a slow meditation on each portion of John 4: wells of living water, the harvest, bread of obeying the Lord, the town’s conversion, 5 husbands and a lover, worshipping God in Spirit and truth, and a future hope.

Tacit Knowledge. My friend and mentor Leighton Ford published many books recently, and I have been fed deeply from “The Attentive Life”, a book much akin to the classic “Practicing the Presence of God” by Brother Lawrence many hundreds of years ago. In Leighton’s written meditations on being in tune with our Creator, I discovered his reference to late Hungarian physicist/philosopher Michael Polanyi. The following quote from The Attentive Life arrested me, and revealed another dimension of the Woman At The Well painting I had not considered - how Jesus transmits knowledge and reveals the Kingdom of God by imparting, not explicit knowledge, but “tacit” knowledge. In other words, while explicit knowledge deals with facts and concrete concepts one can clearly explain, tacit knowledge refers to complex, gut level “knowing’ of something that can only come through experience- drawing on every sense, memory, and understanding to “indwell” the thing known and so journey beyond what can be communicated simply by words.

“‘Polanyi envisioned science as an “indwelling” of what the scientist tacitly knows and discovers, as opposed to a purely rational objectivity.  “We always know more than we can tell” was one key idea at the heart of his philosophy. The other was “indwelling.” We know because we “indwell” the thing we know, and in a sense it indwells us.

Indwelling, observed Polanyi, takes place in the way we know other people- getting inside their skin by an act of empathy.  It happens in the way we take in a work of art. As we look at its surface, we somehow enter into the mind of its creator. Indwelling happens when we internalize moral values, not merely assenting unquestioningly to the teachings of our parents or society.’

Explicit Knowledge:

Left brain.  Linear. Verbal.  Rational.

Based on rational facts.

Can easily by codified and verbalized.

Can be transmitted and transferred.

Can be learned individually.

Example: George Washington was the first president of the United States.

Tacit Knowlege

Right brain.  Intuitive, emotive, holistic.

“We always know more than we can tell.” Polanyi

Intuitive and summative of many sources simultaneously.

Cannot be taught, but must be “caught”, experienced- often in and through community.

Learned by doing, not verbally or rationally.

Example: Riding a bike, playing piano.

In Polanyi’s writing, he compares how we learn through “explicit” knowledge with how we learn in “Tacit” knowledge. As an artist and art teacher, I have invested over ten years studying how to train students and convey information through experiential learning, letting them actually do art projects, make mistakes, learn the touch and feel of materials, and in essence, tacitly learn. In addition, as an ambassador of Christ, I have always cared deeply about how to communicate truths about the Kingdom of God which cannot be seen or felt or purely rationally understood, but once experienced is undeniably the very cornerstone of reality. This newly discovered definition of “Tacit” knowledge gave me one more resource to clearly articulate my mission raising up a generation of Kingdom-hearted artists.

When Jesus asks the samaritan woman for a drink from the well, she responds with explicit knowledge: “you’re not suppose to be talking to me”, and “this well is deep and you don’t have a bucket”. Yet Jesus is not trying to speak literally, he is using this metaphor poetically to reveal truth about the Kingdom: I am the source of life and refreshment- ask me and I will give you living water. By the time she tastes of His divine presence and wisdom, she is on the run to her village (as the first evangelist in scripture) to tell everyone the Messiah is here!

John 4 NLT

10 Jesus replied, “If you only knew the gift God has for you and who you are speaking to, you would ask me, and I would give you living water.”

11 “But sir, you don’t have a rope or a bucket,” she said, “and this well is very deep. Where would you get this living water? 12 And besides, do you think you’re greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us this well? How can you offer better water than he and his sons and his animals enjoyed?”

13 Jesus replied, “Anyone who drinks this water will soon become thirsty again. 14 But those who drink the water I give will never be thirsty again. It becomes a fresh, bubbling spring within them, giving them eternal life.”

Over the woman’s shoulder is a shadowy reference to the 5 husbands she has had before and the man she’s currently with that is not her husband (with a blue halo). Again, when the Lord asks that she go and bring her husband, her first response is that he is asking for explicit information (do I have a husband or not- or will I reveal my dark past secrets?), but in truth, Jesus is once again using this as an opportunity to reveal His role in the Kingdom, the one who knows all, who has not come to judge, but to restore, to heal, to fulfill. Her exclamation that he must be a prophet is her coming to understand, tacitly, that this man is more than ordinary. The hairs on the back of her neck must be standing up as she begins to reach into her spiritual questions.

John 4 NLT

16 “Go and get your husband,” Jesus told her.

17 “I don’t have a husband,” the woman replied.

Jesus said, “You’re right! You don’t have a husband— 18 for you have had five husbands, and you aren’t even married to the man you’re living with now. You certainly spoke the truth!”

19 “Sir,” the woman said, “you must be a prophet.

Mt. Gerizim would have physically overshadowed the interaction between Jesus and the samaritan woman, one of the two mountains that Moses read the blessings and the curses over the people of Israel during the desert wanderings. Samaritans had long before built a temple on Gerizim, the mountain of blessing, as a place of worship. The woman turns to explicit knowledge: facts and actual locations, as indicators of spiritual orthodoxy, and again, as Jesus transmits the higher ways of the Kingdom, He reveals that spirituality is not bound to explicit location but more tacitly to Spirit and Truth.

John 4 NLT

20 So tell me, why is it that you Jews insist that Jerusalem is the only place of worship, while we Samaritans claim it is here at Mount Gerizim,] where our ancestors worshiped?”

21 Jesus replied, “Believe me, dear woman, the time is coming when it will no longer matter whether you worship the Father on this mountain or in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans know very little about the one you worship, while we Jews know all about him, for salvation comes through the Jews. 23 But the time is coming—indeed it’s here now—when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. The Father is looking for those who will worship him that way. 24 For God is Spirit, so those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.”

The disciples are offended that Jesus has been talking with a woman, tripping over cultural norms and unable to embrace the Kingdom mission of bringing a gospel of forgiveness and restoration to a hated subculture. They offer food, and when Jesus responds he’s not hungry, they turn to explicit knowledge and think he’s eaten something else, while Jesus flips it on them again to impart a Kingdom principle of being nourished by obedience, not only physical sustenance.

John 4 NLT

27 Just then his disciples came back. They were shocked to find him talking to a woman, but none of them had the nerve to ask, “What do you want with her?” or “Why are you talking to her?” …

31 Meanwhile, the disciples were urging Jesus, “Rabbi, eat something.”

32 But Jesus replied, “I have a kind of food you know nothing about.”

33 “Did someone bring him food while we were gone?” the disciples asked each other.

34 Then Jesus explained: “My nourishment comes from doing the will of God, who sent me, and from finishing his work. 

The villagers over her shoulder are streaming down, becoming part of the “white fields” of the harvest. The disciples were so put off by talking to a woman (likely of disrepute that she was out at midday) and in an unclean samaritan town that they missed the entire purpose of Jesus’ ministry: to bring in the harvest of people to God’s Kingdom. Jesus welcomes them, stays several more days, and this woman becomes the first Christian evangelist recorded in scripture. The response of the townsfolk is brilliant too, they are basically the exclamation point at the end of my study of tacit knowledge: “we heard you tell us about Jesus (explicitly), but now that we have seen [heard, felt, received from Jesus] and we (tacitly) know that He is indeed the Messiah!”

John 4 NLT

28 “The woman left her water jar beside the well and ran back to the village, telling everyone, 29 “Come and see a man who told me everything I ever did! Could he possibly be the Messiah?” 30 So the people came streaming from the village to see him…39 Many Samaritans from the village believed in Jesus because the woman had said, “He told me everything I ever did!” 40 When they came out to see him, they begged him to stay in their village. So he stayed for two days, 41 long enough for many more to hear his message and believe. 42 Then they said to the woman, “Now we believe, not just because of what you told us, but because we have heard him ourselves. Now we know that he is indeed the Savior of the world.”

John 4 NLT

35 “You know the saying, ‘Four months between planting and harvest.’ But I say, wake up and look around. The fields are already ripe for harvest. 36 The harvesters are paid good wages, and the fruit they harvest is people brought to eternal life. What joy awaits both the planter and the harvester alike! 37 You know the saying, ‘One plants and another harvests.’ And it’s true. 38 I sent you to harvest where you didn’t plant; others had already done the work, and now you will get to gather the harvest.”

Another profound influence in my life and journey has been the gentle yet profound voice of Mako Fujimura. Mako consulted on the recent Martin Scorsese movie “Silence”, based on the seminal Japanese novel about Christian persecution and recanted faith by Shusaku Endo. From Mako’s shared Japanese and American heritage, he wrote an accompanying and magnificently layered work Silence and Beauty. In this collection of thoughts, Mako quotes Scorsese speaking about the nature of great artwork, and how a great artist invites their viewer into tacit knowledge of the subject beheld beyond what could be actually said, or shown, or known.

“Cinema is the telling of stories with images and sounds - or, in the case of avant-garde cinema, the embodiment and conveyance of emotion with images and sounds. But that’s just a job description. I think that every truly great work of art orients you towards what isn’t there, what can’t be seen or described or named [only tacitly known/discovered]. It happens differently in different forms of art. In music, in poetry, in painting, universes of emotion and mystery are circled over and felt, like feeling the contours of a passageway in the darkness. In the novel [Silence], what is said and described opens the way to what isn’t, that which can only be intimated, sensed… In the greatest movies, what we see points the way to what we don’t see, what we can’t see.”

Like Scorsese intimates, I was drawn to imagine what is NOT seen as I began to “indwell” this passage through the act of painting (thank you Polanyi and Leighton Ford)! I envisioned this woman at the well after Jesus and His disciples leave, and imagined the man she was with (blue halo) now joyfully married and committed to her- having himself encountered Jesus and been restored to right relationship with God and his community. They are surrounded by their children, moving forward in songs of praise to evangelize neighboring towns about the good news of the Messiah’s arrival.

Gathering Of Artisans 2019- Raising Up An Army of Global Kingdom Artisans

“Raising Up An Army Of Global Kingdom Artisans”. Bryn Gillette. Acrylic and 23ct gold on wood panel. 32x24”. Painted live during the Sat. Oct. 26 evening session at Gathering Of Artisans 2019.

I had the incredible privilege of being invited to teach a workshop this year, “Painting In The Spirit”, at the Gathering Of Artisans 2019. After a Saturday spent teaching 15 incredible “sibling” Kingdom Artists how to posture our lives to be in sensitive obedience and attentiveness to Holy Spirit’s leading, I set up to practice the craft in the form of live painting during the evening session. Taking up the role of the “visual scribe”, I was set and ready to document and visually celebrate whatever the Lord would reveal during our gathering… and oh, what a night! Before our worship even began, a spontaneous outpouring of prophetic words were released over global partners from Romania, Australia, and Holland, acknowledging them as “door openers” in their country of the movement of God in raising up an army of Kingdom-hearted artists around the world. The leadership team supporting Matt and Tanya Tommey came forward to support them as Holy Spirit showed up with incredible power and specific instructions, and then the words turned to Matt regarding an expansion of assignment and favor given to the movement to reach to new global levels.

Some of the components of the revelation captured in image form:

Digging New Wells: the central image is a pillar of blue and pure white exploded up from the bottom left. Several times throughout the evening there was a reference to re-digging wells and/or “new wells”. After worship, as Matt Tommey was brought up to stage to sit and share (because the weight of revelation was so strong he could no longer stand). The vision of wells progressed to “wells of fire” or lava, a sparks of flame around the globe were lit where Kingdom artists were raised up. I transcribed this as tongue of fire resting over the heads of each figure in the work in reference to Pentecost and the gift of Holy Spirit’s presence and power in our lives.

Door Openers: Matt referred to our global partners from Romania, Australia, Holland (and so many other countries) spoken by name tonight as open doors for the impact of God’s Kingdom and restoration in culture. These doors are depicted rising an swirling around the outpouring of the well as well as rising from a center of precious gold (23ct. gold leaf) flickering up towards heaven. Each door is held open by waiting figures/families.

Raising Up An Army: Along the bottom there is an army of people rising up from the watery surface, tongues of fire upon each of them. Matt spoke or had prophesied over him repeatedly tonight about the calling to train up and call forth an army of artisans to take up position and influence in culture for the glory of Jesus Christ. This came from Joel 3:09, a word given to Matt at 3:09am at the very onset of his ministry, the testimony of which he shared last night. This morning I had also been woken up at 3:09am, unaware of this parallel, and got a word to organize my class this morning as a military “squad” of 16, set up in “fireteams” with each person partnered. Jesus sent everyone in two’s to protect one another, and my friend Jessica has sent a text encouraging me and speaking about my students working in tandem with each other and Holy Spirit. It is amazing to see now this same military component overlapping my own spiritual assignment to “Raise up a generation of Kingdom-hearted artists”. My class opened with a prayerful meditation on Ephesians 6 armor of God, removing our own broken identity and putting on the armor/identity in Christ. What a joy to have my own steam of prophetic calling merge with Matt Tommey even as I painted the increase of his own!

The Plower: Since 1998 during a meeting with my mentor Bruce Herman at Gordon College, I have had a word on my life of the Plower, and a calling to not just haphazardly cast the seeds of my artistic talent, but to do the tedious and long work of plowing up the soil of my artistry thoroughly and systematically, planting ALL my seed, cultivating the soils of my life… and only then witnessing the full potential of God’s full harvest in my life. I had shared this metaphor in my workshop that day, and Matt spoke last night of spiritual “Mothers and Fathers” of a generation of artists - the same word I received during The Breath And The Clay to be a “father of artists”, and said that every new generation stands on the backs of those who have plowed, prayed, and pioneered in the previous generation. I added the plower in the lower left corner, under the well, with the rising army walking upon his back.

The Sled: Matt describe sitting with the Lord in what looked like a Santa sled and traveling all around the world, seeing the lava hot fires of revival in the arts all around the world, nation after nation. I added these two figures in a sled rising in the whirlwind of gold between the doors.

May this painting be a window for Matt and Tanya to look back upon this night and never forget, to never waiver from the promises and assignments released tonight. Thank you Matt for the privilege of being a brother, a co-father to artists, a fellow officer in this rising army of Kingdom-hearted artists! Lord Jesus - Commander and General of Heaven’s Armies- we are dressed in the (Eph 6) armor of our true identity in You, and our eyes are fixed upon You, ready to instantly obey Your commands. What would you have us do?

Lausanne Movement Video

I’m so honored to finally be able to share the video from the Lausanne Movement’s “Global Workplace Forum” during the summer of 2019 in Manila, Philippines. This was the first time that all four of my paintings of the Lausanne pillars had been brought together.

The Four Pillars of Lausanne are complete!

The Four Lausanne Movement Pillars by Bryn Gillette

The Lausanne Movement was founded in the 1970’s by Billy Graham and John Stott in an effort to unify and coordinate the entire (and at the time fractured) Evangelical church. Through a series of conferences around the globe that served as the largest gathering of Protestant leaders from the most countries ever assembled, a defined identity and points of unified heart and mission were ratified by unprecedented numbers of believers. This new movement represented the global Bride of Christ and brought hundreds of churches, institutions, colleges, ministries, NGO’s, businesses, etc. together, with more joining every year, for the unified purpose of “The whole church bringing the whole gospel to the whole world.” Four pillars were chosen of the Lausanne Movement’s mission that would unify all its participants and act as a Biblically based guiding stars for the decisions and priorities of the Movement.

1. The gospel for every person

2. An Evangelical church for every people

3. Christ-like leaders for every church

4. Kingdom impact in every sphere of society

I have had the incredible privilege of being the artist in residence for the Lausanne Movement these past several years, working as an artistic ambassador of the Kingdom of God and a visual scribe to this beloved movement and to visualize their four pillars.  I want to humbly acknowledge that despite whatever skill I have stewarded from God’s gifts to me, the best parts of this work have come through me as a collaborative part of the much larger Body, and not from me.  I offer the caution that I will simply provide some ingredients of the thoughts and prayers that went into the making of these works, as a starting place for dialog and discovery, since the best and deepest components of what these paintings truly mean may not even be known yet, and certainly may not come from me.        

I was so honored and equally challenged by this opportunity to paint such a monumental subject.  What images could possibly capture the magnitude of God's heart for the limitless diversity of humanity and culture?  The process of painting was the act of internalizing the Lausanne Movement’s four pillars, and as I have been stretched internally to try to embrace them, I pray these resulting painted prayer would inspire their viewers with an increased passion to mobilize the whole church to bring the whole gospel to the whole world.. Your servant and brother in Christ, Bryn Gillette

Lausanne Pillar 1: “The gospel for every person”.  

Acrylic on wooden panel.  20x32”. 2016.  

To highlight some ingredients that were placed in the painting: a central fisherman is casting his net over the entire world (each continent outline in gold), seen from an unexpected, sideways vantage, while a central cross comprised by the equator and international dateline anchor the work.  The net sparkles with the burst of blue and white light scattered across the globe as seen from satellite photography of current population densities and prophetically declares our prayer that God’s love would enfold every people group on earth and flood the remaining darkness with the light of the gospel.

Museum quality giclee’ prints are available of this image at the store link on this site.

Lausanne Movement Pillar 2: “An Evangelical church for every community”.  

Acrylic on wooden panel.  20x32”. 2017.

The New Testament envisions the fully realized global Church as a spotless Bride prepared for her returning Bridegroom, Christ.  Standing on the New Jerusalem, this Bride is subtly depicted with her planetary scale feet standing on the literal holy land, holding the flame of the gospel in her hand, while this orange fiery light is born by diverse believers into every corner of the world.  As God’s Word does not return void, the Bride’s gown subsumes untold sparkling blue and white figures of every tribe, tongue, and nation streaming in to consummate her fully realized expression. May our passion to see the “whole Church” fully healed, unified, purified, and restored to her identity as the spotless Bride of Christ compel us to carry the whole gospel to the whole world with humility tempered zeal.

Museum quality giclee’ prints are available of this image at the store link on this site.

Lausanne Movement Pillar 3: “Christ-like leaders for every church”. 

Acrylic on wooden panel.  20x32”. 2018.

The third pillar of the Lausanne Movement is embodied in the "Good Shepherd" sitting among his sheep.  Vignettes surround the central figure suggesting the varied roles these shepherds play throughout the globe, from an iconic image of founder Billy Graham preaching, to young biblical David with his sheep, to a female chaplain in the army and asian pastor serving communion.  While wolves hover in the background and allusions to darkness and danger surround the flock, the Good Shepherd sits at the center of his charges with calm strength as a spiritual refuge and friend. May our church leaders throughout the world derive their compassion, wisdom, leadership, and the sacrificial love to lay down their lives for their sheep and wash the feet of their disciples from the true source of these qualities, Jesus Christ.  

I wanted to embed the very DNA of what it means to shepherd, impart, and empower into the painting itself, so I invited one of my students, Andrew Knotts, to join me in the early stages of this painting.  He and I worked together to pray over the design and sketch the imagery, we built the canvas together, and painted the abstract foundational layers side by side. Andrew painted several of the wolves that can still be seen in the image, and am so grateful for Andrew's generous collaboration.  

 Museum quality giclee’ prints are available of this image at the store link on this site.

Lausanne Pillar 4: “Kingdom impact in every sphere of society”.  

Acrylic on wooden panel.  20x32”. 2019.

As the fourth and final painting in the Lausanne Movement Pillar series, this piece seeks to sum up the other three works as well as paint a global vision of God’s Kingdom permeating the seven cultural spheres.  Remixed again here are the fisherman from pillar 1: “The Gospel for every person”, the Bride from pillar 2: “An evangelical church for every community”, and the Good Shepherd from pillar 3: “Christ-like leaders for every church”.  Christ is now crowned as the glorious and triumphant King, but as his upside-down Kingdom subtly infuses each sphere, it is not done as the leaders of this world who lord it over their subjects, but in selfless servanthood. Each of the seven spheres is set on a different continent of the world and is shown crumbling in the futility of man’s institutions, while Christ-like servants carry the DNA of the Kingdom in the form of equilateral (trinity) triangles joining into a new infrastructure of honeycomb hexagons.  This stems from the crystal structure of Nitrogen, the atomic element with 7 electrons, 7 protons, and 7 neutrons (777) figured here as the very fabric of God’s Kingdom from a universal scale to the very smallest subatomic particle of God’s creation. The seven spheres are set in the same format as Nitrogen, with two levels of elections. In the inner ring closer to the nucleus are two electrons (and spheres- Family and Religion), and on the outer ring sit the other 5:

1. Family [Michelangelo’s painting, “The Creation of Adam” with the African pyramids] 

2. Religion [The remixed Bride set in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil]

3. Business [Dubai skyline, United Emirates]

4. Government [China’s Forbidden City & the Tower of Babel]

5. Education [Cambridge University, UK] - alma mater of John Stott featured just below.

6. Art [Sydney Opera House, Australia]

7. Media [Hollywood, CA, U.S.A.]

May the Center of it all, the Lord Jesus Christ, so restore the families on earth and his global Bride the Church that the “WHOLE Church”, all 100% of its members, bear his “whole gospel” into every sphere of society throughout the “whole world”.

Museum quality giclee’ prints are available of this image at the store link on this site.

All four sibling paintings meet for the first time June 25, 2019 in Manila, Philipinnes during the unveiling of Pillar 4 at the Lausanne Movement’s “Global Workplace Forum”.

Beyond The Ruins Display and Virtual Tour

To accompany this show, there is now a “virtual tour” of videos describing each work, shot and edited by my friends at Silent Images. I will be releasing one video per week each Sunday until all 12 (and the intro) are available. Today, the intro and the first painting description video for “Written In The Stars” have been published. This Sunday, “Green Doors” will be shared. Subscribe to my youtube channel to get each new video as they are released.

Please also note that giclee images (highest museum quality limited edition reproductions) are available in various sizes at my online store for each of the 12 Beyond The Ruins paintings. Half of the proceeds go to the ongoing restoration of Haiti. https://www.bryngillette.com/store

Easter 2019, "The Bridegroom Returns"

“The Bridegroom Returns”. Acrylic on panel. 12x48”. 4.21.2019. Live at Threshold Church. Approx. 60 min.

It was such a pleasure to collaborate with pastor Jeff Gardner this morning and paint as a member of the worship team at Threshold Church. Jeff’s message carried us through the story of an ancient Jewish betrothal: a noble Son of a loving Father chosen to marry a blemished and broken women under the dominion of a wicked father. In mockery of the Son’s request for his daughter’s hand, over the betrothal "cup of covenant”, the cruel father demands a dowry of the Son’s life- and to the surprise of all, the Son and his Father consent. On the appointed day, the Son lays down his life, yet beyond hope, he rises again from the dead. Following the custom, the Son leaves to prepare a place for His bride- now radiant in all of her beautiful new identity, free of her father’s wicked oppression, and preparing herself to be pure and spotless at her husband’s return.

Adding even more meaning to morning, my own Bride and I were able to serve side by side: her on keys leading worship beside me on stage.

Movement Day 2019

I had the amazing privilege of painting during the city-wide gathering of pastors, NGO’s, business, and political leaders at Movement Day 2019 on March 16. For eight hours I was set up in the wings of a room with 1000 leaders, over 150 churches represented, acting as a visual scribe to document what the Lord was speaking to us collectively as a united Body of believers around the cause of seeing God’s Kingdom realized here in our city.

The video below is a summary of the major imagery of the painting. Even this Sunday, I was startled as a brother in Christ, Sanchez, read meaning from the painting that was crystal clear to him and unknown to me even as I painted it, so I will tread lightly, knowing and inviting the Spirit of God to speak to you uniquely and freshly through the image. I am not the sole interpreter, or perhaps even the primary one, of my own work. I will however share some of the amazing stories that unfolded during the painting, and the prayers I was stewarding and visualizing as I painted. (By the way, Sanchez saw the “Red Line” going horizontally through the city and said that he had come from a “red-lined” community in the low income sections of Charlotte, written off by government and schools, and how God’s seeds of growth seem to be flourishing MORE outside the uptown distractions of wealth and prestige. Another brother Larry saw the red line as the ribbon of Christ’s presence through time and history, weaving through the loom of history and our city. Wow!)

As some highlights from the video description:

Dandelions: A metaphor revealed in prayer that God has created “spiritually radioactive soil”, and that seeds would grow supernaturally through entire life cycles in an instant to multiply and bear 100 fold fruit. In a moment, God can do what would take 1000 years of human effort.

The cloud of Starlings: Murmuration is the term given to the amazing dance of giant flocks of starlings as they seem to float like mercury fluidly together through the sky. Without a leader or program, they are able to stay coordinated be being attuned to the 7 or 8 immediately surrounding neighbors, shifting in milliseconds to the actions of others. The Lord is calling us in the city, not to a massive program, but to actually love and respond to our real neighbors, the people next door, those we live in and among, and will release major Kingdom movement through our faithful, simple obedience to love our neighbors as ourselves.

The Charlotte and Dubai Skylines: The first global movement day in Dubai finished hours before our second Charlotte gathering, tying us to brothers and sisters around the world… financial capitals of diverse regions. While this is our prayer for God’s movement over the city of Charlotte, we recognize that we are part of a much bigger tapestry of God’s global activity.

The rebuilt Jericho Road: The Good Samaritan cared for a man abused along the Jericho road, but in the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.: there comes a time when it’s not enough to continue to help the repeatedly abused victims of an intrinsically broken system, but to rebuild the road with justice and truth.

The Loom: a major metaphor “weaving” the imagery of murmuration, seeds, the Jericho road, and the people of society together was the loom. God is at work weaving a much bigger story together. I particularly love that the hands are from one figure, but clearly bi-racial.

The man in the three piece suit: This came from an intercessor at the conference collaborating with me, and came to represent the spiritual authority of “white privilege” that has darkened our city’s history. Here, in the movement of murmuration, this “monopoly man” of elitist privilege and systematic entitlement is disintegrating. Those building the new Jericho Road are dismantling his golden structure and remaking it into a pathway of justice and equality. Faintly, to the careful eye, a second figure formed largely in the starlings can be seen kneeling down through the standing man, representing that it is in laying down our privilege, our grip on power and wealth, a mindset of lack and competition for limited resources… a death to self, that will ultimately dismantle this stronghold and make way for God’s Kingdom to thrive.

As always, the real medium I paint with is relationship. I so enjoyed meeting and fellowshipping with so many incredible people throughout the day, as the painting was a catalyst for rich discussion.

Raise Your Sail

This morning, St. Patrick’s day, 3/17/2019… I was invited to do a live painting at Threshold Church. This was a surprise gift for a visitor and church planter Jon Gibson and family, friends of our pastor Jeff Gardner, as they found “The Branch” church in Ashland VA. I had planned to paint John 15 (the Vine and the branches), and the text of the day in our series was Matthew 13 (including the parable of the mustard seed). Pastor Jeff and I met that morning wrestling over which passage to use (he’s is so docile to the Lord’s leading that he was willing to switch sermon passages moments before the service began!) Then I shared, “strangely enough, as I was driving in this morning and praying for this painting, I had a vision of raising a sail up into the wind of an eternal night sky full of stars. I felt that it was about learning to pray in the Spirit… that God is already at work praying, groaning, in perfect harmony with his will for us (Romans 8), and our role in prayer is really to simply raise the sail and catch what he is doing. Perhaps that is for our church, or for today…. I’m up for whatever.” Then we looked again at the first verse of Matthew 13, where it tells that Jesus got into a boat to preach all these parables- I guess ALL of this morning is connected to the boat.

The work came together very quickly during worship, within about 40 minutes, and featured a windy sky over the waters with silver background, a hand holding a fleck of 23 ct. gold mustard seed/ yeast/ seed that fell on the fertile soil, and the boat with Jesus in the bow, Jon raising the sail, his wife at the helm, and their three children between them. The way the Holy Spirit wove together our worship, painting, sermon, Jon’s address, and the surprise presentation of the gift was nothing short of miraculous. Needless to say, everyone present was amazed to witness how lovingly coordinated the morning unfolded with the Spirit’s leading… it couldn’t have been planned, so in our humble praise we simply stepped back and said: “That just happened!”.

Raise Your Sail. Acrylic and gold/silver on panel. 12x36”. 03.17.2019. Bryn Gillette

"In Tune"

“In Tune”. Painted live at Walnut Hill Community Church, Bethel, CT to the opening sermon series “Find Your Groove” by lead pastor Adam DePasquale. December 30, 2018. 32 x 19.75”. Acrylic on wooden Panel.

We all know what it feels like to be in dissonance with the Lord, walking “out of tune” with God’s Spirit in our daily lives. On the other hand, we hopefully have all experienced moments of deep resonance with the Lord- when everything feels like it is in harmony with God’s plan. This painting was created to remind Walnut Hill Community Church to “Find Your Groove”, and be aware that in each season of our ever-changing lives, we need to perpetually, pliably, and prayerfully tune our hearts to the divine frequency of God’s will. Bryn Gillette painted this image live during the opening message of the series at the Bethel campus during the preaching of lead pastor Adam DePasquale. The tuning keys of the bass guitar at the top are a metaphor of our need to adjust our hearts to stay in tune. Waves of sound frequency, color spectrum, and the “Find Your Groove” pulsing graphic visualize the changing melodies of life's seasons. The atomic sphere captures a prayerful revelation that took place between Bryn and guest speaker Jameson Parker: May God’s frequency so permeate our lives through prayer that we vibrate with His very purposes in every pore, every cell of our body, every atomic particle in tune with the divine resonance.

Tim and Phanuelle Pillsbury

Acrylic on panel. 48x30”. Finished live at the wedding & reception September 29, 2018.

To speak of this painting is to tell the story of my dear brother in the Lord Tim (and his journey to meet and marry Phanuelle). Tim and I began working as teachers at Trinity Pawling School the same year together in 2010. Tim had been brought up in a strong spiritual heritage of Christ and had deep roots, but 4 years of Hamilton College had stretch and torn him, and he was earnestly seeking to become the man God had called him to become. It was a pleasure to walk beside him for the next 7 years as we started a Thursday morning Bible study at Dunkin Donuts, visited Haiti twice together, and prayed over one another as we ministered to our colleagues and students at the school day by day. Tim was “in the trenches” as he lived on campus, working 70+ hours a week, and his desire to become a husband and father seemed far out of reach. I watched my brother refined and healed by the Lord over these years, and it was a privilege to walk beside him through the ups and downs of self discovery, longing, heartache, and hope.

“Lausanne Pillar 2- A Christ-Centered Church for every Community (on earth)”. Acrylic on panel. 20x32”. 2017.

Our final year together at Trinity-Pawling in 2016 began with both of us knowing we would leave, Tim to Wellspring Church in NH and me to what I would come to discover was to be Charlotte, NC. We met even more regularly to build one another up as we knew our regular time together was drawing to a close, and the Lord deepened our bond as brothers and the sweetness of our fellowship as its time was limited. We prayed earnestly that God would fulfill Tim’s longing for a wife and family in the future, and during one of our final gatherings, I had a vision of the Lord holding up a veil, hiding behind it a stunning bride for Tim, and the Father beaming at him from His vantage as if to say “This is going to be SO wonderful Tim - just you wait!”. I caught a glimpse of the bride at the very end, her back turned to me and looking over her shoulder. The above image of “Lausanne Pillar 2” was based on that revelation, the “Bride” as the Bride of Christ- the Global/eternal Church, holding the light of the gospel which is going out into all the world. Little did I know that the specifics of this image would play out in Tim shortly thereafter meeting Phanuelle, his soon-to-be Haitian bride.

I was honored to be commissioned by Tim and Phanuelle to craft an image of blessing for them as a couple to tell God’s story of their partnership, and we prayerfully designed a new hybrid of my practices to include a combination of commission studio painting ahead of time mixed with live painting during the wedding weekend. In the above photo, you see the work as it was prepared before my journey north with my wife Kirsten for the wedding. Here I am in my groomsman’s tuxedo painting (that’s a first) prophetic images given during the rehearsal dinner: Phanuelle as a bird in her freedom and as a wellspring of life for Tim. Later, when we went to the reception and multiple fountains surrounded us in the ponds next to our venue, I could feel the Spirit winking at us.

Scripture compares the global Church to a Bride and Christ like the perfect Groom eagerly awaiting marriage. In the last few hours leading up to the Tim and Phanuelle’s marriage, emotions reached fever pitch (as all of us who have experienced this can remember- brides and grooms can seldom sleep the night before). It felt like a waking dream to be with Tim in the final moments before the wedding ceremony after so many years of prayer and longing, and I posed Tim as though he were lifting his bride’s veil, and painted him into the image during our final moments of the wait.

The ceremony was magical… and during the reading of an original poem, it struck me that the marriage of these two people was metaphorically embodying the reconciliation of races, the healing of America’s broken history of racism, and a parallel of Christ returning for his perfected Bride. In tribute to so many African Americans who were denied the right to legally marry until 1967, the newly married couple “jumped the stick” and leapt over a broomstick to proclaim their allegiance and solidarity to those in their heritage who had fought to make this day possible. With Phanuelle’s calling to go into law and public service, this was especially poignant. I took a twig from the broom, and embedded it onto the service of the painting under the feet of the couple, painting the broom into the final painting.

During the reception I had Tim and Phanuelle pose to complete Tim raising her veil. Between photos, drinks, conversations, and festivities, I snuck away to the patio to paint in the broom and Phanuelle as the Bride having her veil lifted… a tribute to the original revelation I had praying for Tim at Trinity Pawling- the image of Lausanne Pillar 2. As my gift that afternoon, I gave a print of Lausanne Pillar 2 to the couple. The day ended with me having the incredible privilege to conclude the speeches with a meditation on and description of the painting. As I brought the attendants through the painting, I was able, layer by layer, to tell the miraculous story of God’s goodness to this new couple, to awaken us to the prophetic elements we were experience in real time of God’s interaction with us through the wedding ceremony, and of the future hopes and desires for their life. This was a moment of sheer joy, as I am most fully alive when my creativity allows me to synthesize how this particular moment fits into God’s Metanarrative (eternity past to eternity future of God’s Story), and I knew it was the story Tim and Phanuelle most wanted to share that day. What a thrill to be a conduit of that story! What a joy to know that this will hang in their home as a permanent monument to God’s goodness; a catalyst of conversation and retelling of their story!

For those interested, here are a few more of the elements we chose to include in the painting as part of their story:

• Tim has Mt. Washington of NH behind him, his New England heritage.

• Phanuelle has a image of storm tossed Haitian palm trees behind her, the Caribbean queen that she is. These specific trees came from a painting I did live with Tim in watercolor while he and I sat on a roof watching an approaching rain storm in Port Au Prince, Haiti during our summer trip in 2016; a painting he owns and is already hanging in his home.

• There are scenes from a construction zone in tribute to Tim’s proposal to Phanuelle in a construction zone where he pulled the car over to obey a prompt by the Holy Spirit that “Now” is the time and place to propose. Radical obedience as well as a wonderful symbol that the couple feels like their lives are wonderfully in flux and “under construction”.

• Blueprints- as the Lord is architect of their life together and that their three central principles of “Love, Serve, and Give” be built into everything they do. The blueprints culminate in a castle- the coming Kingdom, and a reference to Tim’s great love: Tolkien and the white citadel of Gondor!

• The Bird of Phanuelle’s free spirit and the well, a metaphor given by her father’s blessing during the rehearsal dinner.

• The couple have their arms spread wide for their expansive and growing “Family”, and in red you can just make out silhouettes of the LARGE wedding party/ friends/ family members… “Family” of their wide arms of love.

My Art students swept the Patriotic Art competition

I am so proud of the investment my students made this year in their patriotic artwork in response to the prompt ‘honor above all’. Their work was profound, personal, beautiful, and honoring to those who serve our country. See their images in the link below.

https://www.charlottechristian.com/cf_news/view.cfm?newsid=1459

Mr. Quincy Collins, COL USAF (Ret), founder of Carolina Freedom Foundation, poses with this year's student winners of the annual art competition. L-R Sam Goldstein, Emily Ketron, Abbey Barefoot, Colonel Quincy Collins, Mr. Bryn Gillette, Andrew Knotts and Nathan Brannon.