Light of the World (Black and White)
Brent Borup
"For my whole life, the one painting that I wanted to create the most above anything else was a portrait of Jesus Christ. I worked on many different portraits of Christ through the years, but I was never quite satisfied with any of them until I painted "Light of the World". I have since based many paintings off of this one image. You may find it interesting that I painted this portrait during a very low point in my life. I had been really struggling to see any success as an artist, and after a few weeks of particularly trying circumstances, I was very close to making some major "career choice" changes. I believe that my Father in Heaven wanted me to stay the course. When I decided to use some new reference material to alter a previous similar looking portrait that just wasn't quite right, everything seemed to fall into place. I do believe that I had Divine help that day, because this was one of the easiest paintings that I have ever created. I feel that what sets this painting apart from any of my previous work, is the fact that I wasn't trying to paint what Christ looks like, but I was trying to paint what He feels like, because although I have never seen Him, I have felt Him, and I believe if you can somehow capture that feeling into a work of art, then you can't go wrong. This is my way of sharing my testimony of Christ with others. He is real. He loves you. I want people to look at this painting and know it." - Brent Borup
