Learn more about Christ in the Psalms weekly artwork and see previous pieces here.

Person: James Stukenberg

James Stukenberg is a photographer based in Denver. Since relocating to Colorado from Wisconsin in 2018 he has freelanced, photographing editorial and commercial assignments. He and his wife, Anne, have a daughter, Henrietta, and are expecting another child in December.

Piece: Photography

Upon first look, Psalm 119 may simply read as a straightforward declaration of the beauty and truth of the Word of God—an unwavering devotion from someone brimming with confidence in their Creator. But these praises aren’t offered lightly by someone who has been handed a life of ease. The psalmist is enveloped in struggle—struggle with his own brokenness and struggle with the brokenness of the world that surrounds him. He senses the threat of succumbing to these forces.

I’m drawn to the tension between the psalmist’s firm belief in God’s goodness towards him and his broken-life experience that causes him to approach God in vulnerability, crying out “Do not utterly forsake me!” I identify with the position of the psalmist as I wade through my own season of struggle—questioning my purpose and identity, feeling isolated and unknown, longing for a sense of home and wholeness. Engaging with the corresponding darker emotions with a raw honesty towards self and God is the first step toward hope and healing.

The process of making these photos was reflective and instinctive—as I read and considered Psalm 119, I let it inform my thinking and seeing, intuitively making images that resonate with this emotional state shared with the psalmist. This short series overlaps with a larger ongoing body of work, visible at the link below.

See complete series

Learn more about Christ in the Psalms weekly artwork and see previous pieces here.

Person: Tamara Carey

I am a wife and mama learning with my husband and our children about God and the world He made. I am privileged to walk alongside others as we together seek to know and love Him more, ever aware that we are all sheep in need of our Good Shepherd.

Piece: Mixed Media

Imagine a shepherd beginning to write this song as he watches his sheep, writing the Hebrew alphabet and capturing his love for God’s words, panting for the Word and earnestly desiring to walk in it. His sheep are close by and even wandering across this piece after he sets it down to seek after a lost lamb.

Psalm 119 is beautiful. It is daunting. We see an author’s absolute love for the Word of God and his to walk in God’s commandments with his whole heart,.Yet we also see a keen awareness of his inclination not to do so, requiring complete reliance on his Shepherd.

I wanted to do a rough, raw piece, helping us imagine the potential roots of this psalm.

Learn more about Christ in the Psalms weekly artwork and see previous pieces here.

Person: John Forney

I am a graphic designer and musician from the East Coast. I came out to Colorado 20 years ago and have been here ever since. My wife, Veronica, and I can often be found riding trains throughout Colorado with our 10-year old, Grayson. I’m a self-taught black and white photographer shooting with old school 8×10 large-format and medium-format cameras.

Piece: Photography

The longest chapter in the Bible is continuously focused on the Word of God. His Word is our light. It’s full of promise. It’s our path. It preserves us. It’s our delight. The Word of God is precious. It brings hope. It’s sweeter than honey.

This image was taken on a hot summer afternoon during a tornado warning. It reminds me that at all times, and especially in dark stormy times, His Word is our light and hope.

Learn more about Christ in the Psalms weekly artwork and see previous pieces here.

Person: Danielle Damrell

Hello! I’m Danielle Damrell, a local artist and creative motivator based out of Aurora, Colorado. Creating has always played a key role in guiding me through processing both trauma and pain as well as joy and freedom. God has recently been guiding me through a journey of discovering how I can share the messages and tools He has taught me over the past many years. I hold a B.A. degree from Colorado Christian University in Communication focused specifically in public speaking because I have felt a calling to use my voice to point others towards His freedom since I was young. In June I launched a podcast called Created Worthy where I provide a platform for women to share their stories. Together we discover the threads of creative processing that already exist in all of our lives. This is an exciting part of this journey God has ordained. He has used it to merge my passion and business of creating with my calling of connecting and sharing testimonies of God’s grace, forgiveness, and redemption. There is NOTHING God cannot redeem, and I pray that my life serves as evidence of this truth.

Piece: Mixed Media

Psalm 118 is a beautiful Psalm that reminds me of the comfort and peace that God alone can provide. When I began to process Psalm 118 to create this piece, I just felt like the image that came to mind was that of darkness closing in around us, specifically as believers. This world is constantly filled with messages and distractions that may look tempting and beautiful but only lead to places of destruction.

All the nations surrounded me; in the name of the Lord, I cut them off!They surrounded me, surrounded me on every side; in the name of the Lord I cut them off!I was pushed hard, so that I was falling, but the Lord helped me.The Lord is my strength and my song; He has become my salvation.” (vv10–11; 13–14)

My plan for this piece was actually to paint a much more detailed scene but I felt the Lord saying: “STOP—My message for my people is simple. This is my world, but darkness lives within it. I am at the center, however, and when you choose me, you experience protection that no darkness can infiltrate. As long as I am the King of your heart, you will be strong enough to withstand everything you go through in this life. Do you understand that it’s my steadfast love that endures FOREVER? I am with you. FOREVER.”

The gold around the edges of the piece represent His presence that is everywhere; this is HIS world.

The blue “blobs” represent the darkness and pain that each one of experience throughout life. Sometimes is gets really hard and hits extremely close to our hearts. Sometimes it looks dynamic, light, and beautiful, but it’s those temptations that take us the furthest from our center—King Jesus. The gold chain heart represents our hearts when we choose Jesus. The gold crown in the middle represents Jesus, our stability, strength, and our song.

This is a mixed media piece made up of acrylic paint, metal chain, clay, and gold leafing. The process of creating this piece was an incredible blessing to my life. I painted this on Mother’s Day, a day that is typically very painful for me. I set the scene to do some intentional creative processing on this day—My incredible husband and daughter gave me the house to my self and I channeled all the darkness and pain in my heart into each brush stroke. Slowly but surely the pain turned to joy and the darkness turned to light. I sat with my Bible open to Psalm 118 and turned worship music on as loud as possible. My singing became louder and louder as I began to experience the freedom found in seeking Jesus while simultaneously creating space for my trauma to surface and release. This painting represents so much more than I could ever put into words, but the message of His steadfast love enduring forever became more clear than ever before. I “give thanks to the Lord, for HE IS GOOD; for his STEADFAST LOVE ENDURES FOREVER!” (v29)

Learn more about Christ in the Psalms weekly artwork and see previous pieces here.

Person: Bruce Butler

I am a graphic designer and musician from the East Coast. In 2012, I moved to Denver from Buffalo, New York to be closer to family and began designing for WorldVenture, a missions organization. Now I am a barista at Sweet Bloom Coffee Roasters, I design brands and digital artwork as a freelancer, and I play guitar for Our Violet Room, Ivory Circle, and a few other bands in Denver. In my free time, I enjoy spending time with my fiancé, Jamie, as well as my nieces and nephew, attending shows, and cooking with friends. You can see more of my work on Instagram at @madebybruce or by visiting madebybruce.com.

Piece: Mixed Media

Tasked with the shortest Psalm, I decided to keep it very simple. The sphere represents the earth and all of its nations. The resounding praise of His people is represented by the concentric circles emanating from the center outward. The three undulating lines converging on earth symbolize God’s great love toward us, reaching not one specific point, but all nations.

For the execution of this mixed media piece, I designed the line-art in Adobe Illustrator as a vector. After staining the panel a dark brown, Yellowdog Printing was able to print directly onto the panel in white.

Learn more about Christ in the Psalms weekly artwork and see previous pieces here.

Person: Steve Vanderheide

Hey there, I’m Steve. I’m a video producer, and an amateur photographer.

Piece: Photography

This piece came out of Project 101010—a art intensive I really enjoyed being a part of through Park Church—where we went through Psalms 110-119. When Psalm 116 came along, I was struck by the line in Verses three and four:

“The cords of death entangled me, the anguish of the grave came over me;I was overcome by distress and sorrow.Then I called on the name of the Lord: “Lord, save me!” (NIV)

When I read that, I pictured waking up in the middle of the night, lacking sleep, and being overcome by the thought of death. This is something I have been wrestling with for a few years now. What does life look like after death? What does it mean to be with God? Unfortunately, over these years, often the concept of death has filled me with fear and anxiety rather than looking forward expectantly to being with Jesus. Losing a longtime friend in 2019 has only made these question bubble up more often.

The window on the left is my bedroom window, filled with the pale light of a morning far too early to be awake in. The graininess and darkness is both what I see literally, as well as what it feels like—difficult to focus on anything in particular, and a heaviness on my heart. Verse 7 is a reminder to me:

“Return to your rest, my soul,for the Lord has been good to you.” (NIV)

God has been so good to me. He provides over and over and over again, and in abundance. He is close when I need him. He gives my soul rest. This verse tells me that even in death, he will provide for me. He will not abandon me. If he can give my soul rest, he can give my mind and body rest. Verse 8 and 9 are something to look forward to:

“For you, Lord, have delivered me from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling,that I may walk before the Lord in the land of the living.” (NIV)

Again, he will provide, even in death. He will deliver me from it. But not just that, he will keep my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling, and allow me the delight of walking before the Lord in the land of the living. The Psalmist may have intended it for the here and now, but I also see this as what is to come. I paired this with a photo from a backpacking trip to the Grand Tetons with 3 close friends. It helps me out to picture what truly being in the presence of the Lord will be like by picturing what being with good friends on a journey is like. There is no loneliness. There is anticipation, purpose, a path, a goal, laughter, and adventure.

This Psalm helps to pull me out of the darkness, transitions me through a lost forest of thought, and into the land of the living.

I started out by photographing my room in the evening just after the sun set, so that there was enough light coming through the window to actually mimic pale light coming through in early morning. I merged this with my photo from the 2018 Grand Teton trip in Photoshop, and then used various layers of trees, filled with black, to mask the transition between the two photos. I then added grain and the verses on top. I intentionally tried to make the verses more blurry and translucent on the left, becoming more crisp as it moves to the right.

The biggest challenge of this was that the original piece was created in a super-wide aspect ratio (see above!), with lots and lots of stark blackness in the middle. The square version for this artwork series has been modified to fit your television.

Learn more about Christ in the Psalms weekly artwork and see previous pieces here.

Person: Beth Dreyer

I am Beth Dreyer, a Chicago-raised transplant living in Denver for almost eight years. I graduated with a B.F.A. in Studio Art with an art education endorsement and have been teaching elementary art in the public school system for 10 years. I am a wife to Adam and a mom to two—Ramona and Nolan. As an art teacher, I am constantly experimenting with different art mediums and techniques which, especially during the pandemic, have helped me see the beauty and mystery in the world around me.

Piece: Mixed Media

While reading Psalm 115, I felt two distinctive things: the conviction of idolatry and its contrast with the sovereignty, steadfastness, and trustworthiness of the Lord. As someone who often struggles with shame, verses 4–8 stood out to me first, addressing the idols we often build.

Through idols built by our own hands, we try to make our own way separate from God, thinking we know ourselves better than He knows us. I do this all the time. This idolatry is symbolized by the gold rock/gemstone raised from the panel, representing our attempt to build and construct our own lives separate from Him. But, by the grace of God, HE is steadfast and faithful and is the true God. The whimsical gold and white background represents the Lord’s sovereignty and faithfulness. His refinement, like actual gold, is at work in us. Even though we make our own idols and try to separate ourselves from Him, He clings to His people and frees us to rest in Him and trust in Him alone. Like verses 9–11 tell us, God is the one true God, our help and our shield. My prayer is that this rests on our hearts and transforms us.

This piece is a mixed media artwork: ink, watercolor, pastel, and spray paint. I have worked a lot with ink, watercolor, and pastel, but this was my first time working with spray paint. For the gemstone, I purposefully wanted to use mediums I could use to add more detail with—like the ink and watercolor and pastel. I wanted those mediums to represent the intense efforts we often go to to build the idols to which we desperately cling. However, for the background panel, the representation of the sovereignty of God, I wanted to use a material more mysterious—free flowing—but with the same color palette. I created the background using a technique called hydro dipping: spraying spray paint on top of water and dipping your surface in to create layers. This technique reminded me of the whimsical beauty of God and the everflowing trust in Him by His people.

Learn more about Christ in the Psalms weekly artwork and see previous pieces here.

Person: Anna Armstrong

My name is Anna Armstrong. I feel most like myself when exploring God’s beautiful creation and when those rare moments of “flow” happen with an artistic exploration. I work for a health care start-up, and painting and photography have always served as a balancing outlet for me. It was an honor to get to create something for the Psalms series again this year!

Piece: Acrylic Painting

My piece, based on Psalm 114, is an abstract acrylic paint depiction of the metaphoric waters in motion as described in the Psalm. The emphasis of the painting is the dramatic water that could be interpreted either as the Red Sea or as the River Jordan, each that “ran off” at God’s command. In the background is a land element that has a glow to imply that it is a holy place. This painting is my humble attempt to create a tangible illustration of the Lord’s beauty and strength.

This was a fun piece, it came together pretty quickly for me which is always a gift! The biggest challenge I found along the way was how much emphasis to put on the water vs. land elements of the painting. I did several iterations of the mountains/land, and ended up emphasizing the dramatic nature of the water, while keeping the land element simple. I’m grateful for the inspiration of the Psalm and excited for others to interpret the piece as they see it.