TITLE:  JESUS PUT on a FAT SUIT in order to DEFLECT THE MOCKING AWAY FROM the FAT GIRL ...(details shown above for sake of clarity)

As of today, SEVEN out of ELEVEN people found this guide helpful. great! because.in my opinion---This is IMPORTANT stuff, scholarly, research...(not fluffy Thomas Kincaid jazz, or pet rocks, or "Jesus is my Rock" garbage written on a dern rock!!!!)

First of all, I implore you to hang with my humor and my double entendres.  The 40 and over crowd often falsely ASSUMES -that my images are derogatory of Christ's image. Nothing could be farther from the TRUTH. PLEASE READ ON.

This is CUTTING EDGE, PERTINENT information.  Elitist Literature for the past several decades has encouraged the degradation of the human form. WHY? Simply because Artists determine a culture's SELF IMAGE to a larger extent than we can possibly imagine.

  This painting of mine shows Jesus entering stage left, eating a bag of pork rinds, with a pillow stuffed under His robe. He is acting as a decoy as he walks past two yuppie girls who are laughing and pointing at a fat girl who is standing alone outside the School of Beauty Culture. This painting is a modern day parable which illustrates Jesus' scalding words to the Pharisees. "It is not that which goes IN to a man's mouth that defiles him (food, drink, pork rinds in this case), but that which comes OUT of him that defiles . There is anger, malice and judgment coming out of the two yuppie girls mouths. These things things truly soil and corrupt a man (or woman). I think this painting is important in several ways. It shows Jesus actively involved in contemporary culture. It pictures Him in an unconventional way.

   Some people are offended by my work. One church going woman lashed out at me saying, "Jesus wouldn't eat PORK RINDS! Jesus was a Jew!" I believe she missed the point.

   It is important for artists to take chances and portray Jesus in ways which are authentic to their experience. Our culture is becoming increasingly antagonistic to Christians. One reason is because many Christians have escaped in to a safe and cozy sub culture. They speak the Christian lingo, go to Christian bookstores and hang out with other Christians. There is nothing inherently wrong with this unless the motive is judgment and condemnation of the other people in the world. Granted, there is often a fine line between being in this world and of it.

   As a Christian artist for over thirty years, I have grappled and pondered over the question of how to represent Jesus with my work. My point is that Christian art is like any other art. If it authentically represents the artist it is valid. If it is syrupy, sentimental, and simply parrots the acceptable Christian jargon of the day - then it is not valid.

   I am devoted to sticking my neck out and asking some of the tough questions. Such as: how do we represent all the aspects of Christ? How do we show His interaction in our daily lives? Who is He to us? How do we communicate that in our art work?

   These are important questions because images of Christ not only reflect personal attitudes toward the Lord Jesus Christ, but define perimeters for people to experience and reflect on His being.

   During the time of the reformation, the risk of painting Christ was enormous. If patrons disliked the scriptural bias of an artist's work that artist would quickly go broke. Most painters resorted to painting portraits and landscapes for this very reason. Rembrandt was one of the only renowned artists of his generation who had the guts to continue to paint Christ. More recently, during the twentieth century, only two or three well known artists dared to tackle the subject of Christ.

   I am hoping to inspire artists to paint Him, and give themselves permission to experiment. Don't you think that Christ looks on the heart and accepts artists who sincerely want to represent His person?

   I think the danger lies in religious thought policing on this topic. That is why most Christian art work looks the same. Jesus on the cross, Jesus baptized by John the Baptist...Jesus as the Great Shepherd. OK. that's fine. What about a rock with the words "Jesus is The Rock" painted on it? Is that safe enough? THINK ABOUT IT!!!! A ROCK? with a saying painted on it? Mass marketed through Christian book stores? ROCKS? Something is WRONG with this picture? But what?

   Many people are not aware that the stoic, non-emotional Jesus who appears in artwork throughout the past twenty centuries is not based on the canon of the Bible. The passive, stoic and emotionally removed Jesus we typically see dates back to the Classical ideals of the divine. The Greeks and Romans looked to their Classic authors such as Plato to describe the gods. They were explained by Plato as aloof and other-worldly. They were shown as stoic and removed. Sound like any pictures of Christ you have seen lately?

  During my three years as a Master of Fine Arts student , I sought a way to portray Jesus which was culturally relevant and resonated with my experience of Christ. I do not have a new age bias, as some uninformed viewers of my artwork might initially assume. My work is, however postmodern, and emotive. My thesis research led me to understand that few people feel comfortable envisioning Jesus as an emotional being. This is curious since the Bible clearly states that He wept at Lazarus' grave. The problem is that our culture considers emotions to be diametrically opposed to sound thinking and logic. This is not accurate. Emotions are never devoid of intellectual processes and cultural context. Emotions are  being studied scientifically and it is recently understood that they involve complex higher thought processes. Machines do not have emotions. Jesus used wit and satire in his arsenal against the hypocritical, judgmental Pharisees. I believe that these two forms of speech require both intellect and emotion.

  My paintings are modern day parables which reveal Jesus' interaction in the lives of 21st century Americans like myself. They show him responding and reacting to His friends. This is how I envision Jesus, (as the One who is not ashamed to call us brethren.) I also envision Him as a Savior who is creative enough and ingenious enough to transform societies, lives and cultures without breaching an individuals free will.

   Please see my work, and consider for yourself. How do you ENVISION Jesus Christ?

         Sincerely, Kata Billups