JULIE ANN STEVENS

As I unrolled the last four feet of canvas from the cardboard cylinder and tacked it on the wall, I knew the name of this painting. It was the last word that came to me in an earlier stream of consciousness exercise about the presence I feel in my work.

Moving. Alive. Powerful. Expansive. Intimate.

Invincible.

I immediately connected this new work to a collection I created in 2017 from my shed turned studio on the Western Minnesota Prairie. Inspired by my limitless horizon and the expression “you can’t crucify the sky,” I painted seven landscapes under the theme of Deathless Beauty. This collection and its reflections are the foundation of my 2018 workbook Into Your Heart.

Eight years later, in a warehouse turned studio on the Westside of St. Paul, I paint to express an incandescent quality I equate with the transfiguration (Luke 9:28-36).

For me, right now, “Invincible” is symbolic of the much needed experience of something beyond this world breaking through in this world, and inviting us into full participation in its love.

My hope is that your gaze within this artwork connects you to a breakthrough of your own invincible and beloved identity in Christ.