Interview: 2023

Read the full transcript below (edited for clarity):

Pastor Daniel: I just I wanted to say real quickly: I'm not sure about you, but I am fearful of blood and there's blood all over this. But, I also wanted to say you know blood is the lifeline you know blood is what gives us life and so what a neat thing to celebrate that because of the death of and the Bloodshed by one person. Right? There's no doubt for those who believe. So, I thought you could share a little bit about the art piece and say a little bit about your thoughts about design and concepts. And, again what you want to include in that art piece.

Bethany Stanley: I sort of shamelessly volunteered myself to do this because I saw an opportunity and I like to have a creative prompt. That's the kind of artist I am. So, what usually first inspires me is some sort of creative problem that gives me direction and motivation.

I was waiting a medical appointment and I was going to be waiting for a while. So, time to brainstorm for the art! So, I cracked open 1 John and started reading and read it in one sitting while I was like waiting for the doctor. What jumped out at me - I was just sort of doing a little mini study, I suppose - while I was reading it, what I noticed is contrast. Light, dark, so you're either with me or not which is kind of the big theme. I saw when I was reading the first letter especially, "you're either abiding in sin or you're abiding in me" is what the writer was communicating. I was like "okay, okay, that seems really strong". Then, when I got to the fifth chapter sort of [1 John] let's see verse 8 says,

"The spirit and the water and the blood and these three agree. If we receive the testimony of men, for this is the testimony of God that he has borne concerning his Son. Whoever believes in the Son of God has a testimony in himself. Whoever does not believe God has made him a liar..."

That's kind of almost summarizes the first book and also it's communicating that the testimony of Christ is within the spirit the water and the blood. So, those three images sparked my imagination and I immediately got this image in my head. I was like, "Oh, that was quick!" You know the word of God inspires, right? I immediately thought, Spirit, okay. Water. Here we have the dripping, like baptism, right? And, then, we have the blood coming from a wound in the side - you know that kind of thing - so that was the concept. This is like a communion cup, but it's also the world the globe or us. You could say - you know - he died,  Christ died for the world and also this testimony the spirit and the water and blood abides within us. So, that's why it's going inside of the cup and then also the cup is overflowing as well because that's kind of the evidence of Christ in us as well. So, I wanted the blood to be like very, very bright because like Pastor Danny said the blood, it's because of Christ's blood, because of sacrifice. I think sometimes modernly we sort of, the Gospel is sort of neutralized, you know? It's bloody. It's bloody and Christ gave up so much and so I wanted so I made it monochromatic all except for the blood. Basically, that's the general leading up to the the drawing of it and I have my little notebook here that I had all the brainstorming going on.

Pastor Daniel: Can you tell us a little bit about the medium?

Bethany Stanley: I know it's not your typical paintbrush. I'm kind of a product of my generation even though I'm technically a millennial I definitely favor the convenience of digital medium. I like to draw on my iPad. I'm using digital versions of the mediums. First, I sketched it with "pencil" not actual pencil and then I used what it calls a "tattoo inker". I really like the sort of almost watercolor-esque look of the tattooing. I'm very a big fan of watercolor, and then I use sort of water coloring washes to color in the blood and shading. Then, I did a little bit of this more three-dimensional, digital-only tool - that glow - to put a little halo around. I'm definitely like "If I don't have the convenience, it's probably not going to happen" especially with a little baby running around - or, crawling around. Those are the mediums: digital. I use an app called "Sketch" on my iPad, watercolor tattoo inker.

Pastor Daniel: It's pretty cool to think about the different ways we can do art. That we can even do it on our iPad. So, thank you so much Bethany. Thank you for the art piece.