Jody Stephenson

Jody Stephenson

Welcome to my world. I have been an artist for about forty years. I decided to become an artist when I first saw a Van Gogh painting in a book in the school library. His work communicated to me as if he were standing right beside me. All these years later, his work continues to move me at a deeper level than any other painter in history. In my opinion, he was a much better missionary to the world as an artist than he was as an actual missionary. He was a genius at translating emotion into paint. He invented his own language of strokes and colors that has touched the world with beauty. He gave us a great gift. I believe he is still speaking today. That kind of communication is awesome. It is soulful. I want to be a part of that world where a person can speak without words, without time, and without barriers.

My goal is to learn to paint a state of mind like Van Gogh could, not in the same way he did, but to find my own way. He could paint a picture of an old pair of boots that conveyed the essence of the person they belonged to. Every stroke of paint says something, communicating spiritual reality that is beyond words. In my struggle to learn to paint, I appreciate Van Gogh more all the time. To turn bits of paint into communication is an amazing challenge.

What has continued to fascinate me throughout the years is that each bit of paint becomes a character in the unique alphabet of a painter's visual language. After years of painting an artist learns to read their own language and begins to understand their relationship to the world. I think the profound need to communicate the inner world is the basic motivation to create art.

I think that an artist's mission is to find the essential truth in each subject. I believe that God created all things, and we discover something about His nature in every created thing. I am alway searching to know more about Him through every painting. If I was going to try and say what it means to be an artist, I would say that, first and foremost--an artist loves art. So much so that you get up every morning and go in the studio and work, even if you don't make money at it or get any recognition for it. You do it for its own sake. You would rather do art than anything else.

Why do I walk the artist's path? Because I must. Because it allows me to communicate what's in my heart: my own personal vision of the Truth. It is my way of chronicling my life, of making my life count, and my way of fighting time. As I change, my work changes. So far, I have sustained the necessary courage to remain an artist. I know that any day of the week, I can choose to live an ordinary life.