This piece was digitally drawn using Adobe Photoshop. Much of my inspiration came from the works of Michaelangelo and other Renaissance artist's paintings. I wanted the piece to present how this era of art represented a huge line of spiritual paintings, and tried to embody that same power in my own piece. I had first planned to do this piece multimedia, including both photography and digital drawing, but decided to just stick with digital drawing overall so everything had continuity and flew better. For the main girl, one of my friends, Megan Lawrence modeled so I could capture the effect and lighting I wanted to be attributed in the artwork."

This work took me on a long and personal journey the last month as I tried to decipher the best way these verses connect with me. I had at first planned to make the piece much more complicated as there were so many specifics in Ephesians 6:10-20, stating every piece of the armor, from the helm, the belt, the chest plate, and others. I decided to take the armor in a figurative manner, and not actually placing on real armor on the model. I felt the need to do this so it would bring the understanding that the armor of God is something more powerful than just a suit of armor. For a time I struggled to find the right way to represent my piece, so I decided to do research, reading other verses that represent the armor of God. One of these verses struck me, and I had a clearer understanding of what the armor of God represents.

"The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light." Romans 13:12

In this same section, after highlighting the armor of light, verse 14 mentions not to place the armor on, but wear Jesus Christ. This section opened a whole understanding for the verses in Ephesians. God doesn't want us to wear any armor, but to wear the Christlikeness of Jesus on our shoulders wherever we may go. Even while there are dark and evil forces all around us and people try to push us into deep depths, wearing God, the armor of light, everywhere we go not only brings us the stability we need but also lets us guide others to follow with the armor as well.

To model this in the piece, the woman who is floating in the wearying sky is wearing the armor of light amongst her, looking up to the light (God). While others (bottom right) try to bring her down with them, she continues to stay sturdy, not being forced down, but helping the others slowly up.

Casey Kula- Artist
Megan Lawrence- Model