The Meaning
The Seven Spirits was inspired by another one of John’s visions in Revelation 4 verse 5, “From the throne came flashes of lightning and the rumble of thunder. And in front of the throne were seven torches with burning flames. This is the sevenfold Spirit of God.” (NLT)
To me this was about the spiritual perception of God through the eyes of the Son and how He sees each and every individual person on this earth in a personal and human way.
How He Relates to Us
I express Christ (in the outside larger eyes) in many different positions and having many different reactions to the world around Him. I’m trying to understand how He can relate to my many different personal issues and also those of others around me during our brief time on earth.
Towards Death
Down from the Savior and the world, there are skulls and bones inside the black eyes revealing the direction towards death that I have experienced. I’ve seen this direction in the past and even sometimes in the present when it manifests in my life.
Broken Hearted Relationships
The next set of eyes down from that is my broken heart which I had experienced soon after receiving a greater revelation of His life. I knew most of my relationships had broken down and I doubted many times if I could ever have a good relationship with God or anyone else after failing so many times.
Transformation by His Efforts
One set of eyes down from that is the fire inside the pupils of the eyes that denotes spiritual transformation and a change inside me. This had nothing to do with the failure of my own works or efforts in relationships, but that His efforts do.
Begin to See
Down from that is eyes that have glowing candles in them which signifies that I begin to see the reality through the eyes of His death, which eventually brought me to the other side of life in an eternal relationship which is, surprisingly, still with me today.
Seven Spirits
Right before the very middle of the painting, there are seven torches, representing the seven spirits of God redeeming human souls on the earth. Their flames burn brighter and brighter to the outer edges of the canvas. To me this expresses the presence of the living souls from His Spirit that reaches out to the far ends of the earth to spread His message of His love and friendship.
The Process
The experience of creating this piece had quite a steep learning curve for me, but this was how I learned to develop my own style. Still figuring out how to create depth perception and blending the right colors together, I realized I had to experiment with new concepts and techniques, one step at a time.
I also needed to make sure I took my time with sketching the details of the piece before I began to apply the acrylic medium. I did not sketch the insides of all of the eyes before I painted them, and it showed. But I knew I needed to continue to try new freestyle techniques if I wanted to continue to progress in my creativity and skill level.
As I continued to study the many different master’s like El Greco, Leonardo Davinci, and Michelangelo it was tough to figure out which direction I wanted to take my work at this time. I had to continue to just let myself settle into what I knew and what I did not know and try not to get too discouraged.
This painting, done on canvas, was inspired by two other of my pieces, “Master of the Universe” and “In the Belly,” which were done on poster board.