The Annunciation-Luke 1:26-38, imagining the Annunciation in Present Day.  From time to time I ask the youth I work with questions to help them engage- one such question is “what would the prophet Elijah look like if he walked the earth today?  what would he wear, where would he go… etc”.  And I have for some time wanted to do a religious project that brought those questions to life.  The Annunciation has always been a powerful encounter to me and has shaped my faith in meaningful ways. So for this part of the project (recreating famous paintings of the Annunciation comes tomorrow) I tried to incorporate religious symbolism (Mary’s dress is blue- her color, her lilies that symbolize purity, and Gabriel’s hand blessing her with the traditional posture that stands for the three persons of the Trinity and the two natures of Christ), but I also wanted it to be in the present day world.  Traditional religious art is for the most part otherworldly, or it is very identifiably religious.  I had very mixed feelings about the end results, with part of me appreciating what we had done, and another part longing for it to look a bit more otherworldly and religious.  I hope you are able to enjoy it and get something from it.

A Second series with harsh shadows and light with heavy color grading

In this project we also paid homage to two famous painting of the Annunciation, one painted by Sandro Botticelli