I don’t consider myself an extremely religious person. I was raised Catholic and grew up going to religion classes and church (on select holidays), but it hasn’t really been a huge part of my life. I have my own ways of inserting faith and spirituality into my life when I can and need it—like, when it comes to believing in good choices, doing the right thing or believing in something of higher significance.

Being involved in The Old and New Project has encouraged me to think deeper. The project is a design collaboration that visualizes passages of the Bible. Troy Deshano and Jim LePage curated a selection of artists who interpret passages in any way they see fit, and in any visual style direction they choose. They involve artists from all different faith backgrounds—from Evangelical to Atheist.

I participated in the Old and New project a while back, in their first round, in which I created “God Creates Woman for Man” (below). It’s obviously a passage I, and many others know of, but have not often thought about it in a visual sense. It forced me to read more, before and beyond the assigned passage (Genesis 2:18) to really get a deep understanding of what was written in the Bible. 

For this new list of contributors, there were eight of us that were asked back to be involved in a mini round, focused around Easter passages for Holy Week. I was assigned with the passage “Anointed for Burial”—Matthew 26:6-13 (image below). Basically, Jesus was doused with a very expensive perfume in preparation for his burial. This caused an uproar because this perfume could have been sold for a lot of money, to then be given to the poor. The significance was that this was performed to create a very admirable act that will be remembered forever. As seen below, it has been created with my own interpretation, and in my visual design style. 

This is such a wonderful project that Troy and Jim have put together. As much as it might open other peoples eyes in a visual sense or a new way of understanding, it has done the same for me. This is one of the many reasons I love my career—the opportunity to interpret what is around us, in new and different ways. Giving people a new experience to react and learn from. And also the ability to stay curious, to keep learning and making.

Take a look and enjoy the project with all the visual stories. And note—the prints are for sale, with all proceeds going to charity.