Top 5 Blog Posts of 2012 - #1

(I apologize in advance for the fonts and the strange formatting. I am having technical difficulties with my blog.)

 

Akiane has been consistently the most viewed subject of any of my blogs. This former child prodigy is still going strong as a young adult. Her story is even more compelling because of the spiritual nature of her art and her childhood dreams and visions which inspired her. Read and look at her artwork and decide for yourself.

Akiane Kramarik - 2012

I've written a couple of articles about Akiane over the past couple of years. I find her art fascinating and her story interesting. Perhaps the most intriguing thing about Akiane is that she's very hard to put in a category.

Is she a Christian? Is she a "New Age Indigo Child?" One thing for sure - she's incredibly talented.

For those of you who aren't familiar with her back story, Akiane shocked her parents when, at age 3, she began to describe dreams and visions from God. Her mother encouraged her to write down what she saw and thus began an incredible artistic journey.

These visions and dreams eventually lead her entire family on an ongoing spiritual journey. I have written previously of my impression that the church didn't know what to do with Akiane and her visions, and a great many Christians "behaving badly" likely contributed to her not participating fully in the life of church. (These are my inferences from what I have read and heard.) She has been told hateful things like "Burn your paintings~ they are the works of the devil'' and ''You are Satan's daughter.'' Nice.

It's interesting to hear Akiane speak of her faith. She says of Jesus: “He is the only way to God — the only way to heaven and joy. My personal views on Jesus have only matured and deepened since age 4.  As I grow I see how vast and unlimited His love is.”

 
  “Jesus remains my highest authority, love, and God,” she adds. “I pray every day that people will one day follow Jesus, His teachings and feel His love.”

 
Because of her isolation - she admittedly has few friends outside of her own family - it's hard to pin down what she truly believes, and maybe that's part of her appeal. She continues, however, to make Jesus a regular subject in her art, he's been featured in 9-10 of her paintings. Below is a recent picture of Jesus she completed called "I Am."

One story that drew attention to Akiane's work was the story of Colton Burpo, the young boy who was the subject of the book "Heaven Is For Real." He identified her painting of Jesus as the image that most closely represented what he had seen when he had a dramatic experience on the operating table. The feature that both of them keyed on was the eyes. "All I remember were the eyes," Akiane says, "and they were like no other colors that were ever created. The closest color I can depict through paints is a sapphire hue." Colton identified the color of Jesus’ eyes as blue-green. I've included the painting below.

For all of her mystery, Akiane remains a prodigious talent, with some paintings selling in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Her gifting is obvious, and the source, she insists, is God Himself. I won't argue with that. I continue to watch her career with interest and hope that she can find a church, "the Body" of the Christ she loves so much, because God calls all of us to community.

Related Articles:
Akiane Kramarik
Drawing Heaven
Is Heaven For Real?
Akiane
Book Review - "Heaven Is For Real"