People who see Diane Renis’s work frequently feel that God has spoken directly to them. Children recovering from surgery, New Age artists on Gallery Row, and strangers struggling with life decisions-all have told the 34-year-old, Virginia-based artist that her art has touched them profoundly at a spiritual level.
In the pediatric intensive care unit of Children’s Hospital of the King’s Daughters in Norfolk, Virginia, images of exotic birds of paradise, a little girl with a teddy bear in a hot-air balloon collecting stars, heavenly castles, and dancing princesses fill the vision of recuperating children. The explosion of color and the inherent mirth and hope of Renis’s four-foot-square acrylic canvas suspended from the ceiling moves many to tears.
The artist’s stylized and whimsical illustrations and lithographs are carried by secular frame shops and galleries in three Virginia cities and in Washington, D.C. She has received letters from those moved positively by her art, although others, who don’t share her faith, have responded differently. An artist with New Age beliefs told her, “I respect your art, but I’m the total opposite of everything you stand for. I’m your enemy.”
HELPING PEOPLE RELATE TO GOD
The most unusual aspect of Renis’s work are the personalized “prophetic” watercolor paintings she creates for individuals. Through prayer and what she knows about the person the piece is commissioned for, she then uses specific symbolism for that person. “I get frequent calls from people for whom I did these paintings telling me of how the message in the painting came true for them,” she says. In one painting commissioned by a mother for her daughter, Renis—knowing nothing about the girl’s spiritual journey—showed the daughter receiving new garments, which the painter believed symbolized the girl’s new identity in Christ. In the three weeks that Renis worked on the painting, the girl became a Christian.
“I try to paint God’s heart toward people—words of hope, encouragement, and purpose,” she says.
Renis is cautious about the “prophetic” label. “Prophecy is not really about predictions but is meant for exhortation, to build up someone, particularly in that person’s relationship with God.” She says her paintings help people realize they have a choice to make in how they relate to God. “I might get a leading from God about what might be going on with particular persons, but after I capture it symbolically in my art, it is up to them to decide which way they are going to go.” She believes the prophetic symbolism could prod people in the right direction.
MANY OPPORTUNITIES
Renis believes that churches will begin to re-experience the age-old link between revelation and the arts. “In the Old Testament, it was actually a day job to stand before the tabernacle playing an instrument and singing prophecies,” she explains. “But today, on Sunday mornings, the very people we hope to reach with the gospel are walking past our places of worship on their way to museums,” she says. So Renis is taking her art to people outside the churches-through secular galleries, the children’s hospital, and most recently through Always Faithful, a picture-postcard book published by Zondervan. “I find my art is a great way to get other artists to ask to hear the gospel, because that’s where my ideas come from,” she says.
In the same way that pioneers to California often brought along artists to draw pictures of plants, animals, and landscapes so people back east could know what California was like, Renis believes that “artists who are Christians are, in essence, called to paint spiritual realities that can’t be captured otherwise.” So, she says, “good always triumphs over evil, and peace surpasses all understanding” in her watercolors that are mostly of biblical scenes. This hopeful vision was so compelling at one secular gallery that the operators asked for handouts explaining how her faith relates to her art.
Renis is energized by current social trends, which she believes will open up many opportunities for Christian artists. With secular prophets John Naisbitt and Patricia Aburdene predicting that arts will replace sports as the primary leisure activity in the United States around the year 2000, she believes the church is in a key position to reach people with the gospel through art. But Renis wonders if the church will be a major player and tap into this hunger for spirituality and art or sit on the sidelines. “Paintings of Jesus on black velvet and glow-in-the-dark, crown-of-thorns key rings will not fill the void,” she says. “Several of the nation’s top animators and illustrators are Christians. How do we get them to paint less of the Lion King and more of the Lion of Judah?”
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