The Meaning

“Temple Over my Head” illustrates Jesus building His temple, which was inspired by First Corinthians 3:16 that says, “Don’t you realize that all of you together are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God lives in you?” (NLT)

This painting was also inspired by a song called, “Over My Head” by King’s X. The album’s concept “Gretchen Goes to Nebraska” was inspired by the book “Out of the Silent Planet” by C. S. Lewis.

This piece was my attempt to understand how the people of the Spirit of God get put together or who they truly are. The more I attended religious or church organizations, the more confused I became over time. After spending years inside them, and trying to relate to leadership and members, I had never experienced the reality of this scripture coming true inside of many of them and certainly never experienced being a part of it. This was especially true after attempting to share where I came from and the struggles of experiencing broken family relationships. This painting was hung at the last church I went to and it was not well received, especially by the “worship and arts” pastor.

So, I tried to illustrate how Christ would really build his church without human leadership behind it and this is how it came out.

Heaven Above

There are many types of people with different ethnic backgrounds floating on clouds which go to heaven up above.

Cloud of Witnesses

I used some real people floating on the clouds above Christ. For example, T.D. Jakes is on the left of His head and King David is on His right. On the upper right of T.D. is Teressa of Avila and above her is John Wimber.

George and Bono

To the right of John is George Washington, and all the way to the right middle is Bono from U2.

Earth is My Footstool

There are angels worshiping Christ underneath and His feet are on the earth (Isaiah 66:1) which was inspired by the scripture which says, “Heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool, could you build me a temple as good as that?” (NLT) I translate this to mean, “Why do you attempt to build a church that only I alone can build?”

Below is the fall of Satan underneath the authority of the Son on the earth.

The Process

This was one of the most challenging pieces I have ever done! Sketching all the different characters from different cultures was difficult and just attempting to illustrate the concept of how Christ might build His church that’s headed for heaven was way over my head, but I did it anyway.

This painting, along with “Angels And Demons“, “From The Wilderness“, and “Jacob’s Ladder,” hung in a congregation for a time but they were not well received.