Joan of Arc is a 48” by 30” by 1.5” oil painting created in 2025. This year I started working for a Catholic School with young children, and Joan of Arc is a venerated French Saint. She was born a peasant girl, and she helped the French win against the British, after being divinely guided to go lead in battle. She was divinely guided by Archangel Michael it is said.
Going into this painting, I was very much inspired by the notion of the woman warrior. Photographs of women in armor and with a sword really captured my attention. I am very interested in the concept of the inner warrior and the outer warrior, and I believe that they go hand in hand.
This painting I find perhaps is the capturing of the most profound illumination that I have ever painted, with the exception of perhaps my 2021 painting of Jesus.
A friend from school during my university days was a painter, and she said that every portrait and painting an artist makes is a self portrait. I resonate with the words deeply, and thereby my own journey cannot be separated from this Joan of Arc painting. When one looks at her face, one can see a surrender through a breaking and it has been this very breaking that has opened her to the light. This has very much been true in my own journey with a personal trauma that I have been living with since age sixteen. The notion that one’s trials/ traumas/ pain can be portals for growth and divine illumination has been constantly revealed to me in recent years.
Joan of Arc is a 48” by 30” by 1.5” oil painting created in 2025. This year I started working for a Catholic School with young children, and Joan of Arc is a venerated French Saint. She was born a peasant girl, and she helped the French win against the British, after being divinely guided to go lead in battle. She was divinely guided by Archangel Michael it is said.
Going into this painting, I was very much inspired by the notion of the woman warrior. Photographs of women in armor and with a sword really captured my attention. I am very interested in the concept of the inner warrior and the outer warrior, and I believe that they go hand in hand.
This painting I find perhaps is the capturing of the most profound illumination that I have ever painted, with the exception of perhaps my 2021 painting of Jesus.
A friend from school during my university days was a painter, and she said that every portrait and painting an artist makes is a self portrait. I resonate with the words deeply, and thereby my own journey cannot be separated from this Joan of Arc painting. When one looks at her face, one can see a surrender through a breaking and it has been this very breaking that has opened her to the light. This has very much been true in my own journey with a personal trauma that I have been living with since age sixteen. The notion that one’s trials/ traumas/ pain can be portals for growth and divine illumination has been constantly revealed to me in recent years.
It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business.
Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world.
