I wrote a short story about “2021 A.D.” and what it means. It is now for sale on Amazon in eBook and paperback formats. You can also see parts of this piece in my book: The Secret That Kills/Spirit That Saves. If you want to know more about the story, please check out the short story that I published on Amazon.

The Meaning

I heard a song called Dead Butterflies by Architects. I was so moved by the song and lyrics I started to envision bloody butterflies coming out of a coffin. Then I began to think about the many bad experiences I had as a child and how alone I had felt with no hope or love inside me. To express these experiences, I began to see a tree of sorrow with all the different faces of pain and sorrow I could remember having with haunting ghosts, ghouls, and demons underneath it.

Underneath the coffin, the falling debris symbolizes losing the old life passing away while living on the earth. In contrast, the butterflies represent new life as the child begins to see Christ in eternity through the hole in the coffin.

I made my first Instagram Reel using this painting and the “Dead Butterflies” song.

The Process

This piece continued to unfold under the sole idea of dead butterflies, which I took as a metaphoric expression of the terrible memories from my childhood. It was amazing to me that this whole painting could be developed from a heavy metal song, from which, typically, I don’t derive artistic inspiration.

Dead Butterflies

The first thing that I did was sketch out the structure of the coffin shack in the middle of the canvas. Then I looked at many different images of butterflies to decide what I wanted them to look like coming out of the coffin. After sketching the real-life motion of butterflies flying upward.

Christ and the Cloud of Witnesses

I began to sketch Christ and the cloud formation around Him. After I finished this section, I realized Mary was behind Christ without intentionally placing her there because she was like the mother of the winged children behind her. The warrior angels to the right of the children were intentionally placed there as their protectors.

The Tree of Fear

On the bottom left, I began to sketch the dead-looking tree of fear with the faces on it to express what I experienced in childhood and adolescence. Then I began to sketch a vision of hell with demons and human bodies sinking into the lake of fire underneath the tree. The graveyard was developed last and the larger tombstone with “2021 A.D.” engraved on it was how I came up with the title of the piece.

The Tree of Redemption

This tree was sketched after the tree of fear and Christ. The leaves were not sketched in advance, and I used a round brush to create the motion effect of the leaves, as they go back and forth around each other.

Spiral Background

The spiral background was one of the last two elements I sketched. First, I used a flat brush to apply the black paint around the outside edge of the spiral, then I blended the green paint in with the black and, lastly, I finished it off with the yellow hue. I enjoy blending dark to light colors. This is one of my favorite techniques to create a vibrant contrasting effect.

Fire

The fire at the bottom of the image was sketched to create a motion effect, which goes back and forth. I started by painting the tips with a red hue and pulled the paint down. I used a yellow hue to meet the red halfway down the flames.

Clouds

The clouds were done last, without sketching, using a wiping technique I used over the last decade.