Though Easter 2020 was one for the record books (raise your hand if you had to Google “how do I live stream?”), we so enjoyed working with Calvary Englewood on their artwork for the weekend.
Balancing brightness and blurriness led us to this vibrant blend/smashup of photography by Josep Martins (the wall art), and Scott Webb (the palm branches).
Trinity’s Romans series puts the world in context of the rule of God, demonstrating that His order and rule is its good, bringing chaos into peace.
Read about the individual parts to the series below:
Romans presents us with a chaotic world of man’s rebellion and a promise of glorious, peaceful order in the good reign of Christ. To illustrate this, we composited two images: (1) the ceiling of a cathedral that shows a lot of the narrative (the photo is of Cathedral Basilica of St. John in Hungary, taken by Viktor Forgacs), and (2) a slightly-blurry and over-exposed picture of stars (taken by Fonsi Fernández). Lastly, thin and almost imperceptible lines cross the piece every which way.
In short, three rhetorical layers: man’s perception of the story (the classical basilica painting), God’s incalculable universal dominion under which we find ourselves (the stars), and the perfection of his structure and order therein, visible to those who seek it (the lines). Taken together, we hope to hint at the cosmic scope of this story and the grandeur and contrast of God’s ordered world.
Picking up where Pt I left off, we now see the focus shift to Christ in Pt II. The basilica (now Gustaf Vasa in Sweeden, taken by Liuns Mimietz) depicts the Transfiguration of Christ, where it’s made explicitly clear that the Law and the Prophets bear witness to Christ—He is their fulfillment. In the Pt 1 image, the ceiling and outer ring around the painting were darker, but now the sun is coming in and clarity is being added to man’s perception of the story. The color has warmed from blue to gold, and the stars have intensified; the plan is becoming more visible (photo by Juskteez Vu). A clear, brightest star is seen streaking across the sky, pictured in the artwork next to Jesus and parallel with one of the lines that represent God’ perfect order.
Seen as one, we hope to illustrate how Jesus connects the dots, bringing resolution and searing hope into the narrative. The narrative is for Him and about Him; He is the bringer of God’s good order in that He fulfills God’s plan, and in Him we can see this plan and marvelously find ourselves in it with Him at the bright center.
Every summer at Park Church since 2012, 10–12 weeks are spent in the Psalms. They’ve gone Psalm-by-Psalm, week-by-week, and this summer (2020) will see week 100 of the series, that is, Psalm 100.
In all 100 weeks of this series, there have been only three artwork projects that have represented Christ in the Psalms through what has been two years’ worth of Sundays. This has been an intentional rhythm: coming back each year to the same artwork and the same rhythm, seeing the same mini-liturgy for Ordinary Time. When Park decided to retire the beautiful, simple Meagan Tidwell calligraphy that represented 2014–2018, it felt like a really big deal. We knew that the new artwork could be displayed for as many as 50 Sundays.
I’m no small fan of Jacob Boyles. You may know him from the diverse and ongoing artwork initiatives of Elevation Worship, but he’s left his mark as far as Denver, where the immortal Steuben’s restaurant even has a logo of his. In particular, his album artwork for Hallelujah, Here Below is a mind-blowing monoline piece that pulls from several places in Scripture and challenges the eyes with pleasing riddles. It’s a dreamboat of an art piece.
We reached out to Jacob for Christ in the Psalms, and directing this project alongside his work was truly a career highlight for us:
We started in a conference room in Denver with a gargantuan list of images from the Psalms that represent or illustrate Jesus. After deliberation, several failed attempts at categorization, and no small amount of reading, we gave Jacob a list of 15 images, from which to choose 10 to illustrate for the main piece (see above).
From there, Jacob also illustrated two large banners, one for Psalm 1, and another for Psalm 150. These bookend banners hang along the sides of the front of the sanctuary, framing the stage all summer. They illustrate both the grand arc of the Psalms and the grand arc of Scripture itself:
Illustration by Christian Robinson.
In 2018, we worked with Christian Robinson for Park Church’s Genesis series. The response was such that deciding to work with him for the follow-up series, Exodus, was easy.
The two main pieces symbolize two of the main narrative arcs of Exodus: Part I depicts man-made mountains (the pyramids), stalks of wheat (representing Israel’s brick-making slavery), an eagle flying overhead (Ra, or the perceived dominion of Egypt’s gods), and the road out. Part II depict the mountain of God which He Himself made (Sinai), the glory coming down on the mountain, and Mosts holding the tablets and his staff.
Part III depicts the crossing of the red sea, and serves as a “bridge” between parts I and II, illustrating the climax of the story and the penultimate moment of Israel’s rescue by Yahweh.
To display the artwork, we printed Parts I and II on 4×8 foot sheets of birch to hang in the Park Church sanctuary (see photos below). We also printed Part III on a 6×4 foot birch panel to be displayed in the lobby.
A periodic publication with interviews, artists, and really nerdy things we find absolutely relevant to you.