Friday, April 22, 2011

Blue-Eyed Freckle'd religion....

Since it is Easter weekend, I thought that this post might be appropriate. Its a little religious which doesn't really go with the rest of the blog,  but since my religion is really part of my entire life, its no wonder that I eventually had a religious art make-over on here:) Anyway...

As a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, we have been counseled to have pictures of Christ in our homes, to remember our Savior and what he has done for us. We are also told that having pictures of the temple is a good reminder in our daily lives of how we should be living, and what we should be striving for (to go to the Temple you need to be living your life worthy to enter--very morally clean). I have never had pictures of either of these things in my home...oops.

Its not that I didn't want them, its just that I never liked any of the paintings of Christ (from an art standpoint)--except maybe some Byzantine pieces, or others that I would never be able to afford and I wanted a real one, not a print. As for the Temple, I wanted a picture of the Temple I was married in (Orlando) and there aren't any really cool photographs of that one out there either (other temples, yes, mine-no). So I decided a couple years ago that I would make my own of both (the Temple and Christ). But I also decided to only work on them during General conference (happens 2x/year) and so I finally got around to making them this year!!! Here they are:

THE BEFORE:
BEFORE: (I bought this at Goodwill and it was a little... eh... I don't know, not my thing)
AFTER: I just painted right on top of the existing painting, nothing amazing, but at least it fits in better with my decor...). The other one was varnished, but this one is much more matte. Except I left the varnished border (minus the bottom left corner, oops).
A painting of the Orlando Temple. I just looked at a photo online for this one. Again, nothing spectacular art-wise, but it is much more style.

4 comments:

Aim said...

I have struggled with this exact same thing. The pictures of Christ that most LDS families have in their houses are nice but I have a hard time with having the same decorations as every other house in the neighborhood. So we have 1 small 5x7 picture of Christ in the living room, that was given to us as a gift. I am still on my quest to find the one that I like and will fit with our home. I like your solution to the problem.

Tricia said...

I share similar sentiments around LDS artwork. I have some very strong opinions about what I like and don't like, and unfortunately it seems like my aesthetic differs quite a bit from the general LDS population (sorry Greg O, L.L.S., and Simon D, but your just not my thing). Anyhow, I think that we each have/should have a personal relationship with Christ, and so hopefully the artwork that we have that represents him, strikes an emotional chord with us as well (I'll pass on the hyper soft edges, and butterflies).

Thanks for sharing your feelings and your artwork!

Cristy said...

Love this post! So how I feel about religious art and how they tell us to have it in our homes. Is it bad that I don't like any pictures of Christ? It's just never right, or how I picture him to be. But I get the council and so have dutifully hung a few things up this year in places of the home I don't care as much about. Someday I'll figure out my solution. Love your pictures, what a great idea.

Scotty and Chels said...

This is a great post Katie! I know just what you mean! Most of our religious stuff is in Lucy's room, but it's hard to find anything that goes with the style of our house. I love this idea! They look really good!