Acts

Based on the theme of reconciliation in the book of Acts of the Apostles, this painting begins at the upper left corner with the greeting “Most excellent Theophilus” and ends with Acts’ author’s signature in the lower right.  This theme is visually reinforced by the heavy stitching joining two halves of the canvas together. A listing of reconciled entities on a red background, representing the Blood of Christ, begins with the entry “God to Man” and ends with “Man to Himself.” 

The painting’s background is a map of the Holy Land and Paul’s missionary journeys. Feathers of the Holy Spirit become orange tongues of fire (chapter 2: 3).

The middle ground is filled with images of racial reconciliation, redemption (renovation of hardened hearts) and a small rendition of the tower of Babel. Some Bible scholars say that the multiplication and confusion of tongues at Babel was symbolically reversed in Acts by the miracle of Pentecost when “Jews from every nation under heaven...heard [the Galileans] declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!” (Chapter 2)  

In the foreground an image of a nun (women who are take an oath of marriage to Christ) symbolizes the Church which the Book of Acts teaches us is the Bride of Christ. She holds red roses and the Cross which symbolize Jesus’ sacrifice and she is made up of faces from every racial group on earth.

This mélange of images is bracketed at the bottom by the spread legs of Paul who was just struck from his horse (chapter 9: 3-4) and at the top by the ascending feet of Jesus being “taken up to heaven (chapter 1: 2).”  In Acts Paul was dramatically chosen by God to figuratively “birth” Jesus into the world of the Gentiles.