So, the question I put to myself was: what if Jesus was born in my time and my place?
That place is the Olympic Peninsula in the Pacific Northwest. Port Angeles, to be specific. When I was young, it was an industrious area built on logging, fishing, mills, and people making things. Now, it feels more like a dump. The economy relies heavily on tax-funded medical services for people who have no money and those who have gone a bit bonkers. They want it to be a tourist town, but really, it’s just limping along on a bloated, broken system of revolving-door medical stuff they like to call healthcare.
But if Jesus were born in my time and place, he’d likely still have been a carpenter, and maybe he would have done some seasonal fishing. Why not? Fish and Christianity go hand in hand. Early Christians even used a fish symbol up through around 500 AD to quietly identify meeting places, tombs, and fellow believers during times of Roman persecution. We all know that Simon Peter, Andrew, James, and John were commercial fishermen on the Sea of Galilee. Remember the call? “Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.” Then we have Luke 5, John 21, the story of the coin in the fish’s mouth in Matthew, and obviously, most famously, the Feeding of the Multitudes.
Keeping with the vibe of Pacific Northwest Salt Of The Earth types, I decided to get folky with it. Folk art vibes that is. Still, I wanted some pop surrealist and graphic vibes… blending it all together is the hard part, keeping the flow of all the styles. I love blending styles and techniques.
You can watch a Timelapse of it being painted from start to finish on YouTube HERE. You’ll also get a bit more of the story.
Why the title: a gal saw this, and she called it Pike Place Jesus. I really dug the humor, so we cracked some more jokes, and I decided to go with it.
So… Pike Place Jesus it is. (Sketch Version)
This is just the sketch, or study version, measuring 11 inches wide by 14 inches high. Often, I’ll paint the final idea right over a sketched study version. I’ll just cover it with white gesso and start fresh on the same canvas. In this instance, I’m keeping it.
I’m going to do a more refined version of this. I’m thinking Pop-ish and graphic novel type look, maybe give him some super hero vibes, but a Pacific Northwest 70s/80s type superhero groove. If Jesus isn’t a superhero, nobody is.
“Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.”
You probably need an amazingly awesome art print on canvas made a by a real life human artist. You are in luck, because I’m one of those! ( https://aarronlaidig.com/ ) That is the link to click to find some of my stuff.