Sandi Hester

December 9, 2008

Nativity

The Lord gave me the idea to do a nativity painting this Christmas and this is what He poured forth from my brush. He gave me the idea to add some very important Scripture to the bottom of the painting to be used as a devotional tool for families. The Scriptures are all prophecies (beginning with the very first prophecy about Jesus – Genesis 3:15) about Jesus’ birth, ministry, death, resurrection, and the final Scripture is a prophecy about His second coming (Revelation 21). My prayer is that this will be a tool for families to use throughout the month of December to get into the Word together. Sometimes the only place people know to turn to during this time of year are the gospels – which are a great place to read, don’t get me wrong – but there’s SOOOOOOO much more about Jesus and what He came to do throughout the WHOLE bible – especially in the Old Testament. So, please feel free to use this list of Scripture and sit down with your family this Christmas season and savor what was foretold about Jesus’ life and death LONG before He ever stepped on earth. The details of these prophecies are mind boggling. I pray you would find His Word to be sweeter than honey – maybe you’ll even “taste” some things you’ve never seen before in His precious Word! Merry Christmas!

Here are the Scriptures that are at the bottom of the painting:

Genesis 3:15
Micah 5:1-2
Isaiah 40:1-5
Isaiah 7:14
Isaiah 9:6-7
Zachariah 9:9
Isaiah 53
Isaiah 50:6
Psalm 22:14-18
Isaiah 11
Isaiah 61:1-3
Revelation 21:1-7

You can click on the picture to see a larger version of it.

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December 2, 2008

The Third Musketeer Is Here!

My sister Amanda had her 3rd baby today! To announce his birth I thought I’d share something I’ve done for each of my sister’s pregnancies. Each pregnancy I’ve nicknamed the baby before we knew if it was a boy or a girl, and I’ve made a jar that represents that nickname and baby to give to my sister. They are in order from oldest to newest: Aidan (Jelly Bean – very appropriate since he has a love affair with anything sugar); Hannah (Lima Bean); and the third runner up (3rd Mini Musketeer) Houston. Houston weighs 8 lbs and 20 and 1/4 inches long (not so “mini” after all). Houston and Amanda are doing great – Congratulations Jason and Amanda!!!

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November 10, 2008

Trinity – The Spirit

This is the third painting for my systematic theology paper. The third Person of the Trinity, the Spirit, was painted on the smallest envelope. I made the Spirit the smallest because He’s always in the background, it seems, in scripture and we know the least about the Spirit. I am placing the Spirit envelope inside the Son envelope (and the Son envelope inside the Father envelope) to symbolize how the Spirit submits to the Son and to the Father.

Instead of placing Scriptures about the Spirit on the background, as I did in the other two paintings, I decided to cut my pictures out of the Scripture that they symbolize to tie the different symbols of the Spirit together. The symbols I decided to use (I was limited because of space since this was the smallest envelope) are the dove (Luke 3:21-22 when the Spirit descended on Jesus like a dove), fruit (Galatians 5:22-23 for the fruit of the Spirit), and gifts (I Cor. 12:1-11 that lists the spiritual gifts of the Spirit). I photocopied these scriptures out of my bible, and for example, you can see that the gifts are made out of the paper that has the scripture from I Cor. 12:1-11 on it.

The names of the Spirit I used are Counselor, Spirit, Helper, and Comforter.

On the back I put two hymns – one to represent the Trinity and one that represents the Spirit. I also made a seal out of wax for this envelope because Scripture tells us that those who believe are marked with a seal that is the Holy Spirit. I made two different seals and couldn’t decide which one to use so I just put both of them on there – I worked forever on those things :). I also completely sealed this envelope – it cannot be opened – to further symbolize the sealing of the Spirit. I placed some important scriptures on the back about the Spirit: 2 Cor. 5:5; John 14:16-17, 26; Isaiah 11:2; Acts 2:4; 2 Cor. 1:21-22; Eph. 4:30.

Well that’s my project! It took MUCH longer than I thought it would – but it was a lot of fun. I hope you enjoyed it too!

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November 5, 2008

Trinity – The Son

This is the second painting for my systematic theology paper. The second Person of the Trinity, the Son, was painted on a smaller envelope than the Father to symbolize the submissive relationship the Son has to the Father (John 8:28-29; John 6:38; I Cor. 11:3). I will be placing the Son envelope inside the Father envelope to further symbolize this aspect of the Trinity.

The scriptures I placed in the background in gold are all prophecies of Jesus’ birth, ministry, death, resurrection, and His second coming (Gen. 3:15; Psalm 22:14-18; Isaiah 9:6-7; Isaiah 53; Zechariah 9:9; Isaiah 40:1-5; Psalm 16:10; Isaiah 7:14; Psalm 110:1; Isaiah 50:6; Micah 5:1-2; Isaiah 11; Isaiah 61:1-3; Revelation 21:1-7). These would be great to save and read during the Christmas season to reflect on Christ and what He did for us.

The names of Jesus I used were: Jesus, Savior, the Light, Lamb of God, Redeemer, Emmanuel, King of kings, and the Word. The picture I painted was the cross to represent what He came on this earth to do for us – die for our sins. I placed a red flower on the places where His wounds would have been on the cross to symbolize that it’s by His wounds we are healed.

On the back I put two hymns – one to represent the Trinity (Holy, Holy, Holy) and a hymn about Jesus that I just recently heard in class (we sing a hymn together at the beginning of each class) for the first time and I fell in love with it (Tell Me the Story of Jesus). I also added one of my all time favorite quotes – it’s by Oswald Chambers and says, “All heaven is interested in the cross of Christ, all hell terribly afraid of it, while men are the only beings who more or less ignore its meaning.”

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October 31, 2008

Trinity – The Father

“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.” Deuteronomy 6:4

“…so that all the peoples of the earth may know that the Lord is God and that there is no other.” I Kings 8:60

“For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus…” 1 Timothy 2:5

“You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that – and shudder.” James 2:19

This is the first painting for my systematic theology paper. As you can see, I didn’t paint on my normal watercolor paper. The way I’m symbolizing the 3 in 1 concept of the Trinity (there is one God in 3 Persons) is by painting each separate person (Father, Son, and Spirit) on a different size packing envelope – this is not the most ideal painting surface :). I’ll be placing the Spirit (which will be the smallest envelope) inside the Son (the middle size envelope), and the Son will be placed inside the Father envelope. So I’ll be able to hand-in “one” envelope/painting but there will be 3 envelopes and separate paintings. I’ll explain this a little more as I describe each painting, but even the size and placement of the envelopes represent characteristics about that Person – as you’ll see with the Father. I love that the Lord gave me this idea – it really captures the purpose of this paper.

This is my first envelope/painting – the Father. Each painting has scripture on it to describe that Person of the Trinity. The scriptures I have in gold on the backdrop are all about how He is one God and there is no other – I was surprised to find how many there are! Here are the scriptures in gold along with the ones at the top in bold that I placed in the background: Deut. 4:35, Is 45:5-6, Is 46:9, Jn 17:3, I Cor 8:4-6, Romans 3:30.

I am also placing names of each Person of the Trinity on their envelopes. For the 1st person of the Trinity I painted: Father, Sovereign Lord, and Creator to capture who the Father is and what He does. The painting of the earth and creation was meant to capture the role of the Father as Creator for He created and He sustains His creation. I also placed torn scripture around on the painting that talk about His work in creation (Genesis 1:1-2, Job 26:7-14, Is 48:13). The Father is the largest and main envelope because the Father is supreme in His position and authority among the Persons in the Trinity. It’s amazing that there is such order in the Godhead – a built in structure of authority and submission. In scripture we clearly see that the Son and Spirit are under the authority of the Father and they gladly submit to the Father – and yet, they are all God.

On the back of each envelope I’m putting 2 hymns – one that captures that individual Person of the Godhead and a hymn about the Trinity (I painted the Trinity symbol on this hymn). I hope you learn something new about the Trinity through this or at least are reminded of some sweet truths about our magnificent and mysterious God!

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October 26, 2008

Systematic Theology Paper

Well, once again the lack of posting has been due to my work on another paper for my systematic theology class. This paper, however, has not been an ordinary paper – I may have the coolest professor ever! He decided for this last paper to let those of us who have a creative bent use that creativity for this 3rd essay. The class has the option to write an essay (like normal), record a piece of music, paint, sculpt, or whatever else one can come up with to creatively explain the doctrine of the Trinity. How much fun is that??? I jumped all over this! The Lord gave me a creative way to express the Trinity for this project. I’ll be painting 3 different paintings to capture each Person of the Trinity, but I’ll be combining them in a creative way to express the 3 in 1 concept of the Trinity. I’ll be posting each painting as I complete them. So you’ll get a little art and a little doctrine all at the same time :). Below is a picture of Hannah (my niece) and me working hard on this essay (of course Hannah is just “play” painting).

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October 7, 2008

Pumpkins

Be patient, then, brothers, until the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop and how patient he is for the autumn and spring rains. James 5:7

Here’s a painting of some white pumpkins for fall – I love this time of year! There’s an artist who started a blog for artists – she posts a photograph each week and artist from all over paint their own version of that photo. I got brave twice and posted on there – the pumpkins painting was one I posted on her site.

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September 24, 2008

Envelopes From Africa

Declare His glory among the nations, His marvelous deeds among all peoples. I Chronicles 16:24

This is one of those “old into new” projects I talked about in a previous post. I took envelopes from letters that were sent to me from friends in Africa and glued and taped them together and painted this map of Africa on them. I love how you can see notes that were written to us on the envelopes, postage stamps from Africa, and the beautiful pink color of one of the envelopes – I think it adds some character to the painting and preserves some precious things to me in a very neat way. I added things on the map that are unique to Africa and to some of my friends that are there. You’ll see some of the creatures and critters (love and hated) from Africa, some of the people, houses, trees, air planes used to bring in supplies and people, and even a hospital that our friends worked at. If you click on the main picture you can see a larger version of it (after clicking on the large picture, if you’ll place your cursor at the bottom right hand corner a box will come up with arrows on it – click it and you can see it even larger – all the pictures on this blog should do that) and you can also click on the thumbnail pictures to see some details of the map.

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September 19, 2008

One Man’s Treasure

The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field. Matthew 13:44

“We measure the worth of a hidden treasure by what we will gladly sell to buy it. If we will sell all, then we measure the worth as supreme. If we will not, what we have is treasured more.” – John Piper commenting on the verse above

‘One Man’s Treasure’ is a cute little store in Hendersonville that is now selling my paintings. I’m excited to see how the Lord uses this – it’s certainly out of my comfort zone, but we’ll see what He does with it. I love the name of the store and it makes me think of the verse above. A man actually came into the store one day while I was there and said he came in to find the one man’s treasure. Hmmmm, how interesting. I wonder if he would find my Jesus to be a treasure worth all.

I hope you’ll stop in at One Man’s Treasure – I think you’ll find it worth stopping by. They are having an Open House Tuesday, September 23rd from 10am – 8pm. Their new location is 711 East Main Street, Suite 108 in Hendersonville. They are located in the same building as the Mexican restaurant Casa Vieja. I’ll be there most of the day painting, so stop in and say hi. You’ll also be able to register to win this original watercolor painted by me :).

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September 16, 2008

The Old Into New

…the old has gone, the new has come! 2 Corinthians 5:17

I haven’t posted lately because I’ve had my head in a paper for school, and because I’ve been working on two large paintings that have been taking FOREVER. One of them I’ll show you shortly (or whenever I finish it) and the other one you’ll have to wait until Christmas season. I’m really taking the above verse way out of context for this post, but I was just playing around with words when thinking of how to describe what I’ve been doing lately in my art. I’ve been taking some “old” things – like old paper, letters, envelopes, etc. that I’ve found at antique stores and that have been given to me – and painting on them, turning them into “new” art. Below is an example of a quick sketch of a dove I painted on an old check register. I love this old paper – it gives the painting some neat character. I can’t wait to show you the big painting I’ve been working on using this same technique! Hopefully I’ll have it to post soon!

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