When painting I often ask myself, “how much can I bend the reality of nature?” As a Christian artist, I take pride and comfort in my belief that God created all good things to be beautiful and nourishing. Yet with a wondrous mind, I love creating work that is filled with sparkles and beams of light dancing through a scene with uncanny nature. With all that in mind, I realize that God’s power is not only good, but sometimes hard to understand. He gives us things that we can’t fathom with our mortal minds, so I wanted to create a piece that upholds His and the beauty of nature through the lens of an unworldly ambience. This 2024 painting is a refined version of my first one back in 2023, this time being in a rectangle composition. What we see is a lone tree sprouting from the ocean under the calm light of the moon. At first glance, that seems like a natural setting you’d see before. Yet when looking closely, questions arise. First, how is the tree standing without an island for a bed? It has its roots in the water, but is the ocean too much? If it is, then how is it staying alive? With all these questions, it is also important to note the nature of the moon. It’s glowing as it should, but it seems to provide a source of energy for the tree as if it’s the sun. So while the scene seems normal, it has hidden anomalies that makes it more intriguing. All these elements come together to symbolize the ever flowing yet incomprehensible spirit of God. Every element shows a sign of him: The moon being His light, the tree being His connection, and the water being His purity. The tree poses like the burning bush Moses talks to, almost emitting the same light as the flames. It’s strange how everything comes together, but it still brings peace. God’s power is something we’ll never understand, but it will always nourish us. Like the tree, we will never be destroyed by it.

Nourish II