"Witness"

by Scott Zambelli

To create this picture, I was inspired by two different artists.  The first was a local artist named Paul Sterne.  We carry some of his art at our store, "Wearing the Faith".  One of his pieces is a carved piece of wood depicting and eye.  Within the eye is a reflection of the three crosses on calvary.  In ourt conversation, he challenged me to come up with something using my skills to get this art onto paper.

I was very inspired by his piece and felt some excitment at the challenge.

At first, I came up with a sketch that was similar to Paul's piece, but I have to say that I felt like was was only copying what was already done.  I decided that the eye was his inspiration and that I would need to seek my own.  With that said, I started to seek my own art with a "reflected" theme to it.

Once I decided to stay with the reflection theme, another artist came to mind.  His name is Christian Waggoner.  He is an amazing artist who uses reflections as the centerpiece of his art.  I recently learned of his work when he entered into the Star Wars universe with some officially licensed paintings that put a new spin on some famous scenes.

If you're interested in reading about Christian Waggoner, you can read his profile by going here.

Once I knew the direction I was going, I remember thinking, "...if only there were stormtroopers in the bible so I could use the lenses on their eyes to depict a scene."  Then I realized there were stormtroopers in the bible.  Well...kinda.  While there were no stormtroopers, there were Roman soldiers.

I did some research on the helmts they wore and I knew I had what I needed.  The only thing left is to decide what scene to depict.  Since the scene at calvary was already in my mind, the first thing I thought of was the soldier piercing the side of Jesus.  The specific scriptures I was referencing for my details came from Luke 23:47 and John 19:32-37

With my inspiration fueled and the vision in my mind's eye firmly established, I was able to get to work and create my piece.  The picture at the top of the page is my final pen and ink drawing I completed.

Here is my final full color version of "Witness".  You can see the reflected image of Christ in the soldier's helmet.

NOTE:  Due to a number of people informing me that I should have depicted the right side of Jesus being pierced, I feel it necessary to point out that a reflected image shows us a reverse image of reality.  When the right side is pierced in reality, it will appear as though the left side is being pierced in the reflection.