grace.

The story of a battle beneath the surface:

Grace is a healing agent that refuses to capitalize on our vulnerability to tell the story about our identity. Grace sees the potential in the healing process including the beauty in the scars.

Layer upon layer forms a textured story of dreams, hopes and plans, brokenness, foiled plans, and ashes painted underneath, symbolizing the textured vulnerable story of our soul as we battle for truth. Battles won and battles lost and how we truly treat these times in our lives if we are completely honest. The last battle is to receive grace.

Lavish coats of white paint have been poured over this piece to symbolize how grace handles the broken places in us much differently than we would ever expect. Grace is so lavish we can't help to feel "I don't deserve this" until we are truly able to surrender to the process...then grace begins to tell our battle story from a different perspective...with such love and kindness, with power that profoundly changes us. Yet with gentleness that brings about greatness with humility.

I think it’s important to feel deeply and hold on to hope and extend it to others as we battle for truth in our mind. To allow ourselves and others to feel the reality of devastation and be sad but not stay there, to feel angry but recognize anger is only fuel for putting our passion into action that brings healing...to feel the injustice of abuse and prejudice and be moved with conviction to participate in solutions that heal and create a better future. To feel disappointment when we fail to be who we know we want to be and truly are at the core, to acknowledge the failure and then honor our belief system so we can fail forward, learn, struggle, and grow in grace. When we treat ourselves & others with kindness and grace that's when we see true, lasting, & healing change come into existence.

True grace doesn't lie or cover that there's a story to tell, a battle below the surface. Grace speaks with clean gentle authority as it begins to create something beautiful from the things we see as ashes, trash, and brokenness in our lives. The process whispers truth into the deepest part of our soul until we believe it, "You are not broken. You are a masterpiece in the making. You have character, texture, and layers, but that's what makes you beautiful when you invite me in."
Just like the process of pouring white paint over these textured pieces takes long days and nights to dry and settle into every crack leaving no place untouched. The battle and storied texture fully covered in white paint doesn’t quite tell the story until the simple word is written and you see the whole piece from a different perspective. One profound word changes the whole story doesn’t it?

Art tells a beautiful story when told with grace.

This whole piece is one very vulnerable prayer through serious battles of the mind, body, soul, and spirit. "Prayers of all kinds"...my prayer was voiced through art on behalf of myself and many others to the one that speaks just ONE WORD that heals our hearts.

Words from friends, students that I taught how to create this piece, and past youth students. My husband, Chris Armfield, built the base (wood canvas).

Original: $7,000
(other smaller pieces have been created like this; however, this is the first large piece of it's kind)
Christine Armfield
cja@fieldart.org

I welcome commissioned art pieces.
I've done classes so students can learn the message behind the piece and create their own personal "grace." piece. I've been commissioned to create smaller ones as gifts, custom size for a psychologist's office, and for living spaces.
email:cja@fieldart.org