Euaggelion
Artist Statement:
I often think about how common it is for a person to spend years attending church, listening to sermons, and professing faith without truly being changed. That was my story until the age of sixteen. When I was a child, my parents brought me to our local church weekly and I called myself a Christian because everyone else did. I could tell you about the teachings and miracles of Christ, recite passages of Scripture, and recount what I had learned about how to do the right thing. Yet, all of this was merely an outward display rather than a genuine, internal understanding of what truth and goodness really meant.
What I have begun to grasp in the years since my adolescence is what draws me to continue calling myself a follower of Jesus — though man's nature is broken and sinful, God gave His Son to walk among us, and He chose a criminal’s death to redeem us. This is the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and His resurrection signifies the defeat of sin and death itself; this is hope.
It is the compelling truth of what this Euaggelion (“good news”) means that moves me to visualize the grand narrative: creation of all things, fall of mankind, redemption through Christ, and restoration of man to God. The entirety of Scripture points to this storyline, and history affirms the life of Jesus; if He is who He proclaimed to be, then His sacrifice alone is what restores us to the Father. Nationality and ethnicity have no part in the equation, neither do works and appearances, gender and sexuality, societal class and worldly rank; all can be redeemed by Christ.
Growing up, I rarely saw people of color represented in artwork associated with Jesus and his followers. Despite the fact that the biblical canon takes place in the Middle East among Brown & Black folks, the majority of what was out there did not accurately reflect that. In an effort to counter this lack, Euaggelion aims to create space & provide visual aids for people of color to see themselves in the Gospel narrative. In a time when division overwhelms and hope seems far off, it feels crucial to proclaim that ethnic diversity is a reflection of God and His creativity, and the power of Jesus is alive to transform those who believe.
