Here’s How Disney Painter Captured Christ’s Baptism
By Movieguide® Contributor
Artist Heather Edwards shared Jesus at the San Diego Comic Con earlier this summer.
In an exclusive interview with Movieguide®, the painter shared her heart behind the painting she created of Jesus being baptized.
“I’ve always been a very spiritual, religious person growing up, all through my adulthood,” she began. “So it’s an important story to my culture and a part of who I am. But this was actually a commissioned piece, and they said, ‘We would just like to have the baptism of Christ. and you can imagine it how however you would like.’”
The gorgeous piece shows Jesus standing in the Jordan River, John the Baptist at his side. Light shines from behind them capturing the holy moment.
Edwards continued by sharing how painting this image reminded her of her own baptism.
“What I remembered was my own baptism, what that was like…You know, I’m not claiming to be anywhere near who Christ is, but I imagine His experience was unique to Him, and for me, that was a very special experience. And I was 8 years old when I was baptized, and it was a full immersion baptism,” she recalled. “I remember when I came out of the water, how the lights in the chandelier above the font were just, everything glowed.”
She remembered how in that special moment, everything else seemed to fade away. She wanted to portray that same feeling in her painting of Christ’s baptism.
“I wanted something that then became very intimate for Christ in His experience being baptized by John the Baptist and that the light is literally just right over him and all around him. And all the rest of everything kind of fades,” she said. “That was what I wanted to portray.”
Previously, Edwards painted wildlife and fantasy and is also a licensed artist for Disney. She explained how she, at first, was nervous to share her faith, but now she is excited.
“I love to hear people, their expressions of surprise when they see it,” Edwards explained. “Yet at the same time, they’re excited to see it, and I love to have that be in a place where you wouldn’t expect it.”
Check out the rest of Movieguide®’s interview with Edwards here:
“My faith strongly influences the work I do. My hope in sharing my faith is to share a part of who I am; not for conversion or preaching. Instead it is to share that we are all brothers and sisters, all on the same side, all worthy of love, understanding and becoming,” she posted on Instagram, accompanied by a beautiful sketch titled “Christ.”
“I don’t necessarily want the viewer to have the same response to my painting as I have,” she said of her work. “Instead, my hope is that the expression I paint on the board through hours of observation and execution of detail will speak to them in a way that ignites thoughts and feelings unique to them.
Her Instagram highlights her wide range of reimagined images from some of Disney’s most iconic stories and stories from the Bible.
