PROMISES:
To provide scriptural images for today’s world:
Biblical art and illustration that reflect racial and cultural diversity, gender equality, youth and elder empowerment, urban environments, and a social-action orientation.
To support modern people in living out the teachings of the Bible:
Using art to illustrate and celebrate what we are doing already and to offer a vision of more that can be done.
A SPECIAL PROMISE and PROJECT:
To encourage people of faith around the world in their quest for gender equality: To provide a Women’s Illustrated Bible, with pictures focusing on women’s important roles throughout the scriptures.
Visible Kingdom Studios wants to make a difference in the world, for peace and for the poor. Its inspirational and educational art focuses on the Bible as God’s word, encouraging and supporting the building of God’s kingdom on earth as it is in heaven.
Visible Kingdom images are for Christian believers of all races, colors, cultures, and ages who are international in their outlook, open in their thinking, and young in years or at heart. What we share is a faith in Jesus and a belief that understanding of the story of Christ and practice of his teachings can and will change the world for the better.
The name “Visible Kingdom” focuses on our task of making visible and actual God’s kingdom in our world, seeking to do God’s will as Jesus taught us “on earth as it is in heaven.” As a company, Visible Kingdom tries to further God’s kingdom through artistic and educational images that illustrate the kingdom and its implications for our modern world. The company also seeks to embody kingdom principles through partnerships with urban youth, elders, and the homeless.
Artist Anne Brink creates all our artwork and designs our images. Her depictions of Jesus and his disciples as well as other characters from scripture are of modern people in modern dress from many different races, colors, and cultures. Not only does she believe that Jesus lives and moves among us today, but also that Jesus’ kingdom message is for all kinds of people the world over and resonates with all sorts of modern people.
Anne says, "Though I am White, a majority of the characters in my scripture-based paintings are people of color. I believe the historical Jesus, his disciples, and most of his other followers were people of color. Definitely they were the disinherited, disenfranchised, and excluded people of his time and place. In my art, I strive to lift up Jesus and his followers and to show what I believe to be their 'true colors' as servant leaders and s/heroes of color.
"It is very empowering for me to paint some of the people Western civilization has most revered and long depicted as White in what I believe are their truer colors. I try in this small way to educate people as to who these figures were historically and to help restore them to the positions of respect and power that they deserve. My prayer is that this work will not be viewed as only about Biblical times; but that as we follow a living, contemporary Jesus and as we struggle to dismantle racism in the 21st century, others today may also find this artwork empowering and inspiring for our times."
By joining together in understanding of Jesus’ life and practice of his teachings, we will be able to turn around the destruction and defilement of the earth and its people that is taking place everywhere on this planet. Let’s really follow God’s word, practice what Jesus preached, and make visible the kingdom of God in our homes and workplaces, our cities and nations, in every corner of our world.
Image at top of this page is "A Fresh Anointing":
..I am anointed with fresh oil.
Psalms 92:10 (ABPS version)