Christopher Powers is a full-time Christian artist who creates visual and audio media to promote the Gospel and reflect scripture.
SCV WARNING
At TheoNerds we are aware that there are different views on the second commandment. If you are sensitive to this issue, we want to inform you that Christopher Powers’ artwork contains depictions of Jesus Christ. These depictions lack facial features.
Christopher explains his view on the second commandment with scripture in the second part of this interview series.
Interviewing Christopher Powers of Full of Eyes
In this three-part series, Christopher Powers:
- Gives us a behind the scenes look into his creative thinking
- Justifies his use of depictions of Jesus
- Advises other Christian artists
Here at TheoNerds, we love directing you towards Christian creatives who are giving their all for the glory of God. I hope this spurs you to go out and similarly use your giftings and abilities.
Enjoy the interview!
“Full Of Eyes”, I understand this is a description of Cherubim in the scriptures, but can you tell us how you landed on this name?
Well, yes, the cherubic wheels in Ezekiel 1 are described as being “full of eyes,” however, by naming the ministry “Full of Eyes,” I am specifically referencing the four living creatures of Revelation 4 (the descriptions of which are, in turn, alluding back to Ezekiel). In Revelation 4:6-8 we see these four angelic beings who seem to exist for the sole purpose of beholding (in that they are, in fact, “full of eyes.”), and these beholding-beings are in orbit around the throne of God, constantly drinking in the unfiltered radiance of His splendor through their myriad eyes. But they don’t simply behold God, rather, their beholding constantly (day and night without ceasing) erupts into praise of the One whom they have beheld.
This praise is not forced, it is not as though God has commanded the four creatures to worship and so they do it out of dutiful obedience–not at all! Rather, their ceaseless eruption of worship is the spontaneous overflow of their ever-deepening sight of God’s inexhaustible glory and their ever-new wonder at the fresh depths of beauty unfolding before them. In other words, these beings exist solely to: 1) ever more clearly SEE God’s beauty, 2) ever more profoundly SAVOR that beauty, and 3) ever more fully SING that beauty.
So, I named the ministry “Full of Eyes” because I believe that what these four beings are doing is exactly what humans are designed to do … we exist to see, savor, and sing the beauty of the One True God. And where do we see that beauty? Well, ultimately, we see it just where the four living creatures see it: around the throne of His glory. However, we realize (with the Apostle John) that the throne of His glory is, in fact, the cross of Calvary. It is from the face of the crucified Christ–as He is illumined by the light of the risen Christ–that the radiance of the glory of the Only True God shines with definitive clarity into all the world (Heb.1:3, 2 Cor.4:6, John 8:28, 17:5). Would we stand with the angels before God as He is “high and lifted up” on the throne of His glory (Isaiah 6:1-3)? Then let us stand with the Beloved Disciple before the Suffering Servant as He is “high and lifted up” on the cross of His love (Is.52:13, John 8:28).
All this to say, my hope for Full of Eyes (and the reason I named it as I did) is that it would, first–be an expression of my own “singing” of the beauty of God in the crucified and risen Christ which I am “seeing” and “savoring,” and secondly–that it would be a means by which others might be helped to see, savor, and sing–in whatever ways they are designed to sing–that same beauty. This seeing, savoring, and singing of God as He is known at the cross is–I would argue–the purpose, goal, and joy of human existence, and, indeed, of all reality.
With seeing, savouring and singing in mind, is there any single piece of your work that stands out to you the most when you look back over your portfolio?
There are a few that I am really grateful for. See, pretty much all of my work comes directly from very personal lessons / struggles / seasons etc. with or from the Lord and I consider them to be gifts of grace to me from Him … Gifts that visualize (and so remind me of) His beauty as I am coming to know Him, and gifts intended for the building up of the Body (as all gifts are). So a lot of the animations strike really deep cords in my own heart. They are, more or less, kinetic iconographic glimpses into my own life with Christ (not always as simply as “the main character represents me,” but still all coming from the same personal place, if that makes sense).
That being said, it’s difficult to pick out a single piece that stands out above the rest … however, if I absolutely had to, I think I’d say Everlasting Arms.
For one thing, that one is completely “in house,” in the sense that my brother and friend put together the music, the script is just Scripture, slightly re-tooled to make it a dialogue between Christ and His Bride, and Shia and Blair Linne did the vocals (as a gift!) … So, there was no working with someone else’s music or lyrics etc. for that one. Secondly, it encompasses the story of redemption from “before the foundations of the world,” to the wedding supper of the Lamb. Thirdly, it has at its very center the one thing I try to say in everything I do, namely, that the utterly unique identity (the Beauty) of the One True God (which all things exist in order to see, savor, and sing) is revealed with decisive, definitive, and saving finality in the crucified Christ when He is perceived through the eyes of faith (which is to say, from the vantage of the resurrection). Fourthly, this animation continues beyond the moment of the cross and shows how the crucified and risen Lord carries and bears us through the Night of this life into the Morning of His presence.
I could go on, but that’s probably enough for now.
