"Not I, But Christ": Artist Statement

ARTIST STATEMENT

As I sat along with a few others in the dimly-lit living room of a friend's home for our regular church home group one Friday night, the elaborate and frequently revisited discussion on the lack of essential lighting in that particular room surfaced yet again. I scrutinized the plain walls around me with the goal of contributing my two cents about the situation. Instantly, I realized that the "paintings of Bible quotes" that I have longed to attempt for so long a time finally has a purpose to be created. I chimed in, "I have been meaning to paint some verses from the Bible anyway, how about I paint a couple of brighter ones for your living room?" My friend was surprised and grateful that I would even consider such a thing. But for me, I was just excited to have a reason to make time for this hobby I've wanted to venture into. I asked him what his favorite Bible verse was and requested that it was short (for the sake of my first attempt) and he quoted me this portion of Galatians 2:20, which is also inscribed in his college class ring.

The essence of this verse is captured by the shortened four-word phrase, "Not I, But Christ". "Not I" (or "No longer I" in the full verse), does not mean an exchanged life whereby Christ comes in and we go out because in the latter half of the verse it says, "I live". The "I" does not leave. Rather, as regenerated people, we have both the old "I", which has been crucified and corresponds to the phrase "Not I", and the new "I", which has God as life added to it and corresponds to "I live". The new "I" came into being when the old "I" was resurrected and God was added to it. So even though Paul, the writer of this verse says, "No longer I who live", he also said, "But it is Christ who lives in me." So it is Christ who lives, but it is in us that He lives. The two, Christ and us, have one life and one living.

As for style, tools, and materials, I wanted to make a two-canvas piece with figure-ground reversal. The style should be bright, clean, and contemporary to fit the olive green tone of his living room and the primary colors of the two canvases would be gold and white. The gold would signify divinity while the white background would be pure and clean to emphasize "Not I, But Christ and nothing else." Since it is fall season where dry leaves are abundant, I decided to go for the fall look which would compliment the gold background of the first canvas as well as the olive green room. Spray paint would be appropriate as it provides an even texture over the entire canvas compared to water color and paint brush. It also fills all the crevices between the stencils and the canvas to ensure clean edges for typography. Because this statement is rather bold, I wanted a bold typeface. It was difficult to find a particular typeface stencil that was cheap so I decided to be resourceful and cut my own with a Silhouette Cameo. For a first attempt, this is very successful and it has been an enjoyable and satisfying experience to see my vision come to life.

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Below is a before picture of how I used the stencils printed from Silhouette Cameo. The canvas on the right though I ended up peeling off the sticky part and sticking it directly onto the the canvas.