Please Note: All posts on this blog are intended for informational purposes only, not as an evaluation or endorsement of any artist, art form, organization or website.  If you have concerns about the accuracy of any information presented please contact the author at hmsarthistorian@gmail.com.

Mexican artist Zury Jennings has always been passionate about connecting her artwork to her Christian faith. She studied visual arts at undergraduate and graduate levels, as well as theology and counseling at Covenant Seminary, where she also served as Art Curator at the Francis Schaeffer Institute. She is currently a missionary living in West Africa with her beloved husband Collin, and enjoys exploring African elements in her artwork.

One of those artworks is the fabric collage above. She created it for her church in West Africa by putting together colorful, discarded scraps of African print fabric. It is a picture of Psalm 1, which says, "Blessed is the one. . . whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night. That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither—whatever they do prospers" (NIV).

This image features an open Bible at the foot of a giant Baobab tree, which grows in many parts of Africa. A life-sustaining stream runs across the bottom left corner next to the tree. The Baobab is revered for its extraordinary longevity and medicinal properties, and is therefore referred to as the "Tree of Life." Because of this positive (and biblical!) imagery, Zury decided to use it on the banner, which directly connects it to the study and application of God's Word. Because Baobab trees grow in the area around her church, and also because many local people wear clothes made of print fabrics, it is a beautiful and positive example of biblical contextualization, or the incorporation of something from the local "context" to better explain God's Word.

May more of God's churches around the world use their artists to create beautiful works like these out of the materials He has provided, in order to draw more people to Himself!

Indigenous artists win global recognition for Our Mob, God's Story

Please Note: All posts on this blog are intended for informational purposes only, not as an evaluation or endorsement of any artist, art form, organization or website.  If you have concerns about the accuracy of any information presented please contact the author at hmsarthistorian@gmail.com.

Please check out this recent article from ETERNITY NEWS concerning the Australian Aboriginal Christian art book, Our Mob, God’s Story.

One of the artworks in the award-winning book:

Tjulpun Tjulpunpa (desert wildflowers) by Imiyari Adamson

Book awarded for “most creative” Bible publication

REBECCA ABBOTT  |  APRIL 11TH, 2019 02:03 PM

Our Mob, God’s Story – the iconic art book by Bible Society Australia that won Christian Book of the Year in 2017 – was singled out at this year’s United Bible Societies (UBS) Publisher’s Convention.


The book picked up the Vallotton Award for new audience products at the convention, held last month in Nairobi, Kenya. The award, given out in honour of pioneering illustrator Annie Vallotton, recognises the most creative examples of Bible publishing among the UBS network – which includes Bible Societies in over 200 territories across the world.

[Continue reading the article here]

Please Note: All posts on this blog are intended for informational purposes only, not as an evaluation or endorsement of any artist, art form, organization or website.  If you have concerns about the accuracy of any information presented please contact the author at hmsarthistorian@gmail.com.

Once again it's that time of year to get new wall calendars! Although I won't be able to get one shipped to my current residence, here is at least one that you might be interested in:

Missio Art Calendar 2019 Ethiopia, available for 17,90 € or approximately $20 plus shipping to the U.S. (if available).

Here's the calendar description from the website (English translation by Chrome/Google Translate): 

Using the cycle of images created by Alem Getachew Worku for the missio art calendar, she takes inspiration from the color and design language of the Ethiopian-Christian painting tradition. 

Catchy and strong in color, the pictures give insights into the ancient Christian message of their homeland and convey what the artist herself is passionate about: to pass on the spirit of unity, of exchange and of sharing with her art. 

Alem Getachew, born in 1982 and confined to a wheelchair for 20 years by paraplegia, lives in Addis Ababa and has been working as an artist for 18 years. Very active and committed is above all the passing on of her abilities an important concern. In recent years, she has taught hundreds of people with and without disabilities art in her small gallery in Addis Ababa. 

Cover page and 17 four-color art prints, texts in four languages. 41 x 44.5 cm, with name tag leaf. Spiral binding, in a slipcase.

Unfortunately the calendar does not contain boxes for each day of the month, but rather shows one large art image with a horizontal line of dates in small print at the bottom. I was unable to determine if they ship to the U.S. or not.

Nigerian Madonna and Child

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© Michael Harrar

Michael Harrar, artist and member of Wycliffe Bible Translators, recently produced this delightfully colorful Nigerian Madonna and Child from his home in the U.S. Until earlier this year (2018) he and his wife Beverly had been living in Nigeria where he was able to personally research much of the imagery in this painting. You can see more of his (typically more realistic) paintings at his website Artist Works Around the Globe. Two other favorites of his is this one he did earlier in 2018 for the SIL Nigeria Retreat banner, and this one of female African musicians.

Here is the artist's description for Nigerian Madonna and Child:

Nigeria is a people full of color. Every Sunday men and women dress in their finest to celebrate their Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Traditional Jewish custom is also full of color and celebration. Using vibrant African fabrics, colored pencil and acrylics, the Madonna and Child is influenced by living among the Nigerian people. A combination of traditional and modern Nigerian designs and Jewish symbols bring the past and the present together. 

Christ is for all time; the focal point where the past, present and future meet. Join together in celebrating the Lord Jesus Christ this Christmas.

Australian Aboriginal Nativity Card

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I recently came across this beautiful Christmas card by Australian Aboriginal artist Raechel Saunders at her Etsy shop. Raechel is a painter, illustrator, and ceramic artist. Her abstract Aboriginal art style is heavily inspired by her artist/pastor/father's artwork and teaching. You can see even more of her work at her personal website.

Engelbert Mveng: Ugandan Martyrs Altar @ ArtWay

Please Note: All posts on this blog are intended for informational purposes only, not as an evaluation or endorsement of any artist, art form, organization or website.  If you have concerns about the accuracy of any information presented please contact the author at hmsarthistorian@gmail.com.

Check out the most recent post at ArtWay featuring Cameroonian artist/theologian Engelbert Mveng, and two of his large-scale murals.  For more on Mveng and his art, check out my 2012 post here.

Engelbert Mveng: Ugandan Martyrs Altar, Libermann College, Douala, Cameroon.

Engelbert Mveng: Resurrection, Hekima College, Nairobi, Kenya, 1962.

Indigenous Painting: Holy Spirit in This Land

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Holy Spirit in This Land by Lisa Buxton, Aboriginal Education Adviser, from the Catholic Education Office Sydney.  The painting was created to depict the theme of the inaugural Indigenous Mass at St Mary's Cathedral for Sydney's Catholic schools in 2013.  

The aim of the Mass is to show respect towards Australia's first people and to celebrate the indigenous culture and build bridges between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians.

African Madonna

Please Note: All posts on this blog are intended for informational purposes only, not as an evaluation or endorsement of any artist, art form, organization or website.  If you have concerns about the accuracy of any information presented please contact the author at hmsarthistorian@gmail.com.

A striking Madonna image from MUTI, a creative studio founded in 2011 and based in the city of Cape Town, South Africa.  Click on the image for a larger version.

The Image of God in an Image Driven Age

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Check out Victoria Emily Jones' review of The Image of God in an Image Driven Age: Explorations in Theological Anthropology (Downers Grove, Illinois: InterVarsity Press, 2016) at her blog, Art & Theology.  She writes that the book

delves into [the imago Dei] doctrine, examining its implications for relationships, ethics, sexuality, consumer visual culture, art making, dissemination of the gospel, and more. Comprising twelve essays that resulted from the 2015 Wheaton Theology Conference, the book explores what it means to be made in God’s image and issues a challenge: that we resist all the false images that try to topple the one true image in our lives.

Of special interest to readers of this blog would be her comments on Chapters 7 (“What Does It Mean to See Someone? Icons and Identity” by Ian A. McFarland), 10 ("The Sin of Racism: Racialization of the Image of God" by Soong-Chan Rah) and 12 (“The Storm of Images: The Image of God in Global Faith” by Philip Jenkins).

Painting of the Risen Christ in Nigeria

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Painting of the risen Christ in the parish of St. Peter in Benin City, Nigeria.  It was painted by the late Rev. Fr. Fernando Arizti SJ.  All of the following photos were taken by Huxley Benson Studios.

Left side

Right side.

Reconciliation by Lillian Fourmile

Please Note: All posts on this blog are intended for informational purposes only, not as an evaluation or endorsement of any artist, art form, organization or website.  If you have concerns about the accuracy of any information presented please contact the author at hmsarthistorian@gmail.com.

I love this painting by Aboriginal artist, Lillian Fourmile, which hangs in St Thomas’s Church in Mareeba, Australia.  It is titled, Reconciliation.  I wish I could see more detail, especially in the center.

The hand-printed cross above it was painted by an Arrernte woman from Santa Teresa Catholic Mission in Central Australia.

Have a blessed Easter!

The Times of India: Widow of artiste Angelo da Fonseca passes away

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From Sep 6, 2015:

Panaji: Ivy Muriel da Fonseca, widow of the late Indian Christian Cultural Renaissance artiste Angelo da Fonseca, passed away on Tuesday in Pune after a brief illness, said family sources. She was 87... Known to be an iron lady amongst friends, Fonseca Miss: as she was popularly known amongst her students, lived life on her terms. 

Read the rest of the article here.

One admirer of Ivy posted the painting above (of her I assume, by her husband).

Geek in Heels: If Jesus Had Been Korean

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Check out this beautiful collection of paintings by Korean artist Woonbo Kim Ki-chang at Geek in Heels.

Beautiful Jesus by Nigerien (Niger) Artist Mariama McCarthy

Please Note: All posts on this blog are intended for informational purposes only, not as an evaluation or endorsement of any artist, art form, organization or website.  If you have concerns about the accuracy of any information presented please contact the author at hmsarthistorian@gmail.com.

Beautiful Jesus, Mariama McCarthy

The introduction to a short interview with the artist, a Touareg artist from Niger who now lives in Maryland:

Mariama McCarthy is an inspirational artist whose works echo raw human emotion in beautiful and moving ways. A Touareg Frida Kahlo, some have said, but her art, as all art, transcends her identity, her own experience and her world reaching into the crevices of every human emotion no words could ever explain.

To read the rest of the interview, click here.

OM Arts Training: Incarnate 2016

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OM Arts Training:  Incarnate 2016
25 January - 16 May in Italy and Beyond

Intensive, holistic discipleship for artists —
in community with other accomplished artists gathered from around the world.  
Imagine together pursuing an integrated life of faith, creativity and cultural engagement.  

How would you be different?  What would this do for your art?  For the world?
Incarnate is a carefully honed program designed by artists for artists who are passionate about living well the Great Commission.

For applications and more info click here.

Patrick, Contextualizer of Christianity

Please Note: All posts on this blog are intended for informational purposes only, not as an evaluation or endorsement of any artist, art form, organization or website.  If you have concerns about the accuracy of any information presented please contact the author at hmsarthistorian@gmail.com.

A brief but well-deserved shout out to St. Patrick: The Missiology of St. Patrick by Jonathan Dodson at his blog, Church Planting Novice.  

Artist Safina Stewart Speaks About Australia Day

Please Note: All posts on this blog are intended for informational purposes only, not as an evaluation or endorsement of any artist, art form, organization or website.  If you have concerns about the accuracy of any information presented please contact the author at hmsarthistorian@gmail.com.

Today, January 26, is Australia Day down under.  Wikipedia writes that Australia Day

is the official national day of Australia... it marks the anniversary of the 1788 arrival of the First Fleet of British Ships at Port Jackson, New South Wales, and raising of the Flag of Great Britain at that site by Governor Arthur Phillip... With community festivals, concerts and citizenship ceremonies, the day is celebrated in large and small communities and cities around the nation. Australia Day has become the biggest annual civic event in Australia.

So, it's something like America's July 4th celebration.  In this video from 2014, artist Safina Stewart shares her perspective on the holiday as an Aboriginal Australian and Christian.  I think what she says here is very powerful and something that most white Christians (around the world) don't often hear.  Her sentiments are probably very applicable to Native Americans in the U.S. as well.  There certainly is a need all over the world for Christians of different cultural backgrounds to love and support one another.  Few of us do that well, myself included.  But we can be thinking and praying about it, and try to take small practical steps towards others in a spirit of kindness and friendship (like she mentions in the video).  To see and read about Safina and her art, visit her website Art by Safina.

Artist Fuses Mongolian and Native American Influences

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Artist J.Bayarjargal (2nd from right) with her final student art project.

Mongolian Christian artist J.Bayarjargal is a recent art school graduate from the Mongolian University of Arts and Culture in Ulaanbaatar.  For her final project she created a series of seven leather disks based on the days of creation (and the first Sabbath) found in Genesis.

Bayarjargal has been a follower of Christ since 2006.  For her final art project, she wanted to create something that was a testimony to her professors about her faith in God's Son.  She says, "There is only one inspiration for my artwork [and] that is God and His mighty work that He has done for us."  She chose leather as her medium because her brother, who is also an artist, had previously worked with leather.

The round shape of Bayarjargal's leather pieces represents God's omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence.  She reinforces the idea of God's unchanging nature through the use of three colors throughout the seven disks: red, yellow and blue.  These are also the colors of the Mongolian flag.  Bayarjargal writes that red represents strength, decisiveness and power; blue signifies the eternal blue sky, with the different shades of blue in the leather disks symbolizing "the limitlessness of God in all areas."  Yellow equals clarity and light.  Using the same palette throughout the seven discs indicates that "everything [is] connected [and] related to one another [because of] the way He created them."

Entire Collection of Smithsonian's Asian Art Museum Online January 1, 2015

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Debra Diamond, exhibition curator and Curator of South and Southeast Asian art,
gives a tour during a press preview of a 2013 exhibition at the Smithsonian's
Sackler Gallery in Washington, D.C.

From BLOUIN ARTINFO:

The 40,000-plus items in the Smithsonian’s DC museums of Asian art, the Freer Gallery of Art and the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, will be available online starting on January 1, 2015. The high-resolution images will be accessible to all, without copyright restrictions for non-commercial use, an act director Julian Raby deemed “part of the democratization of art.” Many of the works — approximately 78 percent according to the Washington Post, or 35,000 according to The Art Newspaper — have never been seen by the public. [WP, TAN]

A First Nations Retelling of the Christmas Story

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One final Christmas Day post!

I had begun writing a longer post about this earlier this month, but apparently lost it before saving it.  Anyway, I wanted to get this online during the Christmas season.  

The Birth of the Chosen One is a forty-four page paraphrase of the story of Jesus' birth taken from Matthew and Luke.  The text is taken from the First Nations Version Project (FNV) by Terry Wildman.  Terry is of Ojibwe (Chippewa) and Yaqui ancestry. He is a recording artist, songwriter, storyteller, speaker and published writer. Terry is also the "Chief" of Rain Ministries, a nonprofit organization based in Arizona. Since the year 2000 as "RainSong" he and his wife Darlene have invested their lives in sharing the message of Jesus with Native Americans. 

The book's child-like illustrations were created by artist Ramone Romero of Cherokee and Aztec ancestry.  To see more examples of his artwork for the FNV, click here.