Art from 2009 Workshops 

Justice Carmon is an artist, writer and web designer.

© 2009 Justice Carmon. Used with permission.

...

I've entitled the piece “The Christ-Conquered Clown” and thank you for letting me share what it is about.

As you remember, you asked us to create a collage with the materials on hand, but let the Lord guide us in all our choices. It was to be a communion of creativity with the Lord Jesus to allow Him to speak into our hearts. I found myself being very aware of this process as I grabbed one piece after another and placed them on the paper, gluing them into place, never to be moved again.

I started with the red fabric with fine striping; it seemed very regal to me, and I wanted to use something like it to represent the precious blood of Christ. The trouble was it was in irregular scraps, so I had to work to piece it together to form a solid background. It occurred to me that the story of redemption is one section at a time, not a simple cloth.

The second piece was the pre-printed paper you had with a clown on it. I love faces and something about this seemed right. I cut a section off – ‘just so much,’ said the Lord in my heart ‘and let it remain apart.’ That made it look as if the clown was being “opened” like a plastic package which had been cut by scissors.

Then I found a blue fuzzy for the nose and black fuzzy ball to cut in half and shred, along with some black fabric with several holes in it.

I started to get excited as I saw this as sin and darkness – and it would be flowing out of the clown with his happy facade. “Oh – I'm liking this, Daddy.” (You'll see why in a moment.)

Then I grabbed a piece of orange cloth to signify the joy that now was in my life, covering over the sin and become the center of my life – I cut a "WOW" out and slapped it down: this represented my discovery of Christ in a head-on collision – and how HE LOVED ME!

This joy in discovering the grace of God that covers all my sin turned into a period of rapid growth for me – and thus the green growing shoot that blossoms into a full tree and then recursively comes back to START more joy; this all represented my living my faith out radically and seeing it change not only my life but others.

Lastly the cross of Christ had to be inserted. I picked up the gray fabric with its 'chain-mail-like' pattern and felt it to be a good fit. It had to be cut into a point to fit inside the first 'W' of the "WOW" and then it became three things at once: a sword, a stake and a syringe. All represent different aspects of Christ to me: a King who conquers by love, a Rock who cannot be moved and a Great Physician who heals the wounded, the broken-hearted.

Lastly, God showed me not only who I was – His beloved son – but in this case who I WAS, and thus how far I had come.

You see, I acted happy and played the role often of the clown, the comedian, but the truth is that was not the real me. It was a facade that Christ wanted to conquer, a mask that needed to go.

Thus, I am the “Christ–Conquered Clown” – no longer hiding behind a false face seeking to please men, to entertain and win approval from others, but rather expressing joy and life as He empowers me. Like Pinocchio, I have become a real boy.

I was very touched that the Lord used my art in this fashion to speak to me. Truly, He sees us and ‘knows our thoughts from afar.’

Thank you, Lynn... The Holy Spirit surely guided you in leading us that morning!

Justice

© 2009 Justice Carmon. Used with permission.

Go back to:
Art from Workshops

......