The Meaning
“Place of the Skull” was inspired by one of the first revelations and profound spiritual experiences I had as an adolescent. I envisioned the top left part of the painting inside a church sanctuary with a very large stained-glass window which always mesmerized me.
I never actually went into the sanctuary; I always stayed out in the foyer, looking at it through the inside glass windows and doors. The reason I did not go in was because I got kicked out of the last church by a priest who was angry at me and my friends for being too loud, rambunctious, and disruptive. This experience was very impactful to me because I was labeled a “bad kid” who God did not accept or love since I always got into trouble, so I saw myself as being under the contempt and judgment of most clergy I knew, or had interactions with, at that time in my life.
This adolescent experience is described in more detail in my book, “The Secret That Kills/Spirit That Saves,” where it narrates many different mysterious spiritual experiences I had, with a God that I did not know or understand, until I reached early adulthood.
Wounded Feet
On the left upper part of “Place of the Skull” there are the wounded feet of Christ walking on the clouds between two palm trees with a crystal blue river flowing down around Him. The river transforms into a dove symbolizing the flow of His Spirit to the inside of me, which I first experienced while looking at this stained-glass window.
Crying Clouds
The embryo below the dove denotes the new life in Christ that He offered to me, but I did not understand it at the time. The clouds with the crying eyes, which fade into the background, express the sympathy which I experienced, and I also see it for the many broken and rejected people that still inhabit the earth.
Golgotha the place of the skull
His sacrifice, represented by the cross (with the jagged blood rings around it), penetrates the skull on the bottom which symbolizes inevitable death for all humans on the earth but also the sacrificial death of Christ for us all. Golgotha, which means “place of the skull,” is where Jesus was crucified. The hellfire inside the skull expresses the presence of the old dead nature inside our human souls.
The Curtain was Ripped
The large black section on the right side of the painting (with the red jagged flesh separating it), was inspired by the scripture in Matthew 27:51 which says, “At that moment, the curtain of the temple was torn in two.” (NIV) When I first read this passage in adulthood, I was brought back to the teenage spiritual experience with God while looking at the beautiful stained-glass art piece in the church building. I could now better understand my relationship to the place of the skull.
The Process
Before sketching the design of “Place of the Skull,” I was studying the stained-glass mosaic works of Marc Chagall and had again been inspired by him to capture the spiritual experience I had in adolescence while looking at a gigantic stained-glass mural.
The clouds in the background were done by applying blue paint on the canvas and then wiped off with a flat brush dipped in mineral spirits, just like my “From the Wilderness” piece I had done a few years earlier. I used the same technique on the purple background behind the clouds with fire on top of them. I finished the piece by putting crystal-like stars on top of the river with almost dry white paint.
The piece was finished off with a varnish called Galkyd, which I applied with a larger brush using vertical strokes, starting from the top of the canvas to the bottom.