Take Heart and Be Strong All Who Suffer

Artist

Julisa Voinche

Artist bio

I live in the San Francisco Bay Area. I have been living with very challenging chronic pain for 12 years now and it interrupted my earlier profession as an ice-dancer. It has been a very hard life to live but making art and helping others navigate their journey with pain is now my life's work and calling. My faith is the anchor of all that I do and I am so grateful for my interest in art as I find it heals! I work with dozens of people living with pain at Stanford as well as teach and present on behalf of NAMI (National Alliance for Mental Illness). I serve on a Technical Expert Panel at the NIH regarding the management of pain. I lead an artists group, Bay Area Creatives based out of Menlo Park, CA and curate and hang an annual show of 40 works based on a Christian theme.

Visual Arts 2020 Contest

Title

Take Heart and Be Strong All Who Suffer

Medium/Genre

Other

Artist Statement

This piece is only the second stained glass work I've created. It was very challenging to realize but satisfying. I work in other media but had wanted to move beyond glass mosaics and fused glass and enameling to cutting and assembling glass with a theme in mind. Ephesians 6:10-20 gave me such a focus.

How it fits into contest

Often times I feel I need to personalize what I read in scripture. In this case I acknowledge I'm not actually out there in a battle as we might depict it in our imaginal space based on OT scripture, so I made a mirror segment where my face (or anyone gazing into the works face) would be mirrored. The constant is the shield and the sword and the form of a woman. I imagine Joan of Arc or some other warrior going into spiritual battle depicted by imagery - preparing for a physical battle as referred in Ephesians 6:10-20.