Lazarene, 36" x 36", June 2005, Acrylic on Canvas, Not for sale

The greatest miracle Jesus performed was the raising of Lazarus. It is a story which has always fascinated me, being so full of potency and the power that exists in the giving of life itself. To raise someone from the dead is an extraordinary revelation of divine attributes and which would likely have sealed Jesus' fate in the eyes of the priests. There is nothing we fear more than death not even pain as it is a threshold we must cross absolutely alone.

I am fascinated by the talents of Renaissance painters of whom there is no one comparable today. One painter stands out in front of all others, even over da Vinci, in the depiction of the Christian story and that must be Caravaggio. Click here to see how Caravaggio depicts the raising of Lazarus.

Centuries before the invention of the box camera, there were human beings able to depict the range of Human experience from the most base and vulgar to the most glorious depiction of The Divine. It takes more than an unmade bed or a pickled cow and calf to be an 'artist'. Being able to hold a paintbrush and a pencil are a good start. We are nothing if we do not lift our heads to look at the stars and the profane Caravaggio, an artist who drank prodigiously, fought and brawled - even murdered - knew more of the Sacred than a clutch of of conmen who stand as pygmies among the giants of the Renaissance.

In painting Lazarene, I was not looking for the public miracle but that quiet moment when the born again ask themselves if it can be true, if it truly can be more than a dream. The 'Lazarene' is naked because we are naked before God and before the person we truly are. Nothing is hidden.