We, The Chapel Creatives, are pleased to open an offering to the Lord— expanded and accessible spaces for the worship arts—a visual arts gallery and a virtual stage for singer songwriters. We hope these new spaces will inspire more authentic worship and creative energy for the glory of Christ. Our prayer for the future is that art will be displayed in calendared shows and concerts sometimes highlighting the vision of artists in and around our faith community, sometimes complementing a sermon series and sometimes focusing on a challenge or blessing in our current experiences. We’ll be learning along the way and welcome feedback. If you’d like to learn more about why we were inspired to start this project, click here.

May the creative God we serve lead us in our arts as worship and our worship as an art.

“Angels & Their Jobs”

The Chapel Creatives would like to start this introduction with a disclaimer— angels do God’s work and are never the objects of worship. In the Bible, when we humans make this mistake, we are corrected. Angels are merely messengers and beings when God is doing amazing things, especially at critical junctures when we feeble humans need help, explanations, direction, encouragement, protection, strengthening, etc. Some of their work is behind the scenes—see Daniel 10-12. They also appear for all too ee when unseen spiritual realities seem to collide with our daily, mundane material world. They are functionaries who move forward God’s incredible redemptive plans in history. Since they are such amazing servants of God, they are examples to us who know God and wish to serve him well. That said, as created beings they merely echo and foreshadow the infinite and perfect servant nature of the second person of the Trinity— Jesus Christ

Philippians 2:9-11
Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Emphasis ours)

We and they (angels) look to Jesus. He is the focus of our praise and worship both now and for eternity.

Revelation 5:11-12
Then I looked, and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!”

If you are interested in speaking to an artist about their art or about commissions and/or purchases, email the curator, Mike Lane, at haoyisi2@gmail.com for contacting information.

"A Challenging Job: The Annunciation”

Mike Lane

An engaged couple in Israel are visited by then angel, Gabriel, who has been given a challenging assignment. he must notify the man and his wife to be that they are pregnant by the Holy Spirit—a first! He must then explain the significance of this amazing fact in the context of Old Testament prophecy to this relatively “uneducated” couple and reveal that their coming child is the long-awaited Messiah. He has to do this in such a way that does not send them into shock or unwarranted negative reactions. Miraculously, they respond with faith and cooperate with God’s plan. I am thankful for their decisions to serve the Lord’s purposes and for Gabriel who did his job well.

Matthew 1:18-23

Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet. “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his hame Immanuel.” (Which means, God with us.)

Luke 1:26-33

In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary. And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!”” But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, of you found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.

"The Angel’s Message to Hagar”

Mike Lane

Hagar did not know that the God who spared her son, Ishmael, so he could become many nations, would be the same God who should not spare his own son Jesus, but sacrifice him for the salvation of all nations by dying o the cross and resurrecting triumphantly!

And the child grew and was weaned. And Abraham made a great feast on the day the Isaac was weaned. But Sarah saw the son of Hagar, the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, laughing. So she said to Abraham, “Cast out this slave woman with her son, for the son of this slave woman shall not be heir with my son Isaac.”
And the thing was very displeasing to Abraham on account of his son. But God said to Abraham, “Be not displeased because of the boy and because of your slave woman. Whatever Sarah says to you, do as tells you, for through Isaac shall your offspring be named. And I will make a nation of the son of the slave woman also, because he is your offspring.” So Abraham rose early in the morning and took bread and a skin of water and gave it to Hagar, putting it on her shoulder, along with the child, and sent her away. And she departed and wandered in the wilderness of Beersheba.
When the water in the skin was gone, she put child undergone of the bushes. Then she went and sat down opposite him a good way off, about the distance of a bowshot, for she said, “Let me not look on the death of the child.” And as she sat opposite him, she lifted up her voice and wept. And God heard the voice of the boy, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, “What troubles you, Hagar? Fear not, for God has heard the voice of the boy where he is. Up! lift up the boy, and hold him last with your hand, for I will make him into a great nation.” Then God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water. And she went and filled the skin with water and gave the boy a drink. And God was with the boy, and he grew up. He lived in the wilderness and became an expert with the bow. He lived in the wilderness of Paran, and his mother took a wife for him from the land of Egypt.

"Angel Harmony”

Mike Lane

The Subject matter of this painting is traditional— common shepherds (lower class for) rubbing their sleepy eyes and taking in an incredible announcement; sheep, smelly sheep; a multitude of angels communicating a message in harmonious unity— making music; a miraculous star indicating Jesus’s birthplace, lots and lots of light (that didn’t come from the moon, stars, or sun)— in the middle of the night. An amazing scene.

And yet, the words of Luke 2 also highlight the simple job of angels—to do the bidding of Jehovah, bring his message, serve Him and his redemptive purposes, impact mankind with his Word, and all the while worship and praise Him.

I decided to have some fun in this painting. There’s a Farsidesque “lost” sheep in the right foreground, an angel playing a Fender guitar and another playing a Horner 500 (a “Beatle bass”), one with a sax…and so on. As I have meditated more on these playful artistic choices, they seem right to me personally because playfulness is the human mental posture that is open to what is unexpected and seemingly unimaginable. It is full of vulnerable joyfulness. (i’ve learned this recently from playing with my grandkids.) And in this historical scene, angels draw back the curtain and let people, regular people, know of God’s incredibly good and wise plan to renew and redeem all that is wrong and broken in their world. This plan has a name—Jesus Christ.

Note: The coarse paper framing this painting was handmade by the Chapel'‘s adopted people group—the Bell, I thought this appropriate because the remote village life of this mountain people is rough and rutty.

"Someone To Watch Over Me”

Jeanette Thorpe

My collage assemblage is really exploring blended materials. The angel is made from Citra solvent applied on National Geographic magazine pages, which manipulates colors and texture and that blended page represented an angle to me. I think we can all identify with the feeling of wanting angels to watch over us! It brings to mind the Amy Grant song of the same name— "Angels Watching Over Me”

"Rejoicing Angel”

Claudia Finn

Angels hold their harps given to them by God and they sing songs of praise

Revelation 15:2-3

And I saw what appeared to be a sea of glass mingled with fire—and also those who had conquered the beast and its image and the number of its name, standing beside the sea of glass with harps of God in their hands. And they sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, “Great and amazing are your deeds, O Lord God the Almighty! Just as true are your ways, O King of the nations!

"Angel Statuary”

Jeanette Thorpe

Last Christmas I watched quite a few nativity movies and was so intrigued with angels in those movies. My artistic goal this year has been to seek out angels! So that is how I ended up taking photos of amazing angel statuary.

The photos were taken at Elmwood Cemetery in Norfolk—a Victorian Era Cemetery. The Victorians saw death as a long sleep and even set up their cemetery plots to look like beds. So having an angel watch over you as you sleep was a popular statuary choice.
The artistic aim undoubtedly is the meditation on the reality and perfection of heaven, These perfect servants of God inhabit that wonderful place, and they remind us of God’s faithful involvement on earth as well. In these ways, angels win graveyards represent the hope of those who have passed as well as comfort to loved ones who miss their deceased loved ones

"Ezekiel’s Cherub”

Size 30x40 inches

Medium: Acrylic with mixed media

Chris Heidt

This painting is based on one of the prophet Ezekiel’s encounters with a cherub, a type of angel. This unusual creature is described in great detail in Ezekiel 10:17—

“When he cherubim stood still, the wheels also stood still, and when they ascended, the wheels ascended with them, for the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels.”

The last phrase “the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels” is repeated several times in the first chapter of Ezekiel as well as in chapter 10. The fact that it’s repeated indicates its importance. it seems like Ezekiel is trying to describe something indescribable. Ezekiel’s “cherub” is, in my view, the Bible’s most mysterious heavenly being, which is why I couldn’t resist painting it.