KELLY KRUSE / CONTEMPORARY ILLUMINATION / ARTIST & MUSICIAN
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selected WORKS

selected commissions and other standalone work, 2019 - 2025


I have the distinct honor of making work to serve incredible organizations and individuals. Below are some selections of the work I've been honored to create during the span of my studio practice.

New Birth / Beautiful in its time

Acrylic ink, mulberry paper, marble dust, acrylic, mica powder, and gold foil on canvas
60x60”
private commission, 2022
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This work was created as an in memoriam work for a private collector in honor of a family member who passed away in a tragic and sudden manner. All names are abbreviated to preserve anonymity.

The collector was very inspired by nebulae and the birth and death of stars, and so that was the primary visual inspiration for this work.

***

He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.

-
Ecclesiastes 3:11


I think it is impossible to find the words to express the honor that I have felt getting to work on this project for you over the last nine months. I didn’t know C, and yet, I feel like I have grown to know small parts of her beauty as it shines through the memories you carry of her. I’m certain it shines through [names omitted] in ways that are indescribable. I’m praying that there are small ways that this painting might encourage them, too. 

I have been spending a lot of time reading the book “The Wild Edge of Sorrow,” by Francis Weller. In it, he describes five gates of grief that we encounter throughout our life and muses on the spiritual breaking, healing, and beauty of the grieving process. The first gate is called, “everything we love we will one day lose.” I was talking to my counselor about the first gate in my last session, and she asked me, “where is your faith located within that reality?” The question surprised me a little bit. I told her that the pain of the losses I’ve endured in my life is very real, and that I know there are more losses ahead. But the pain is indicative of the value of who and what I’ve lost. I have been given so much that is beautiful in this life, and I honor it when it is lost if I willingly walk through that first gate and grieve it. And I have hope not only in the fact that there is rich meaning and beauty everywhere (especially in what is broken),  but also in the reality that the cosmos is being transformed – there is resurrection everywhere, including the birth and death of stars. Yes, loss is gutting, frustrating, and confounding. I struggle. But I can keep going because I have hope. 

In the little time I have known you, I have seen your reaction to this loss in your family as an intentional  grief that honors what is lost. I see your wrestling, your desire to make something new out of what has been broken down, to hope for that new thing with the fullness of who you are, and to have an imagination for what is not yet seen. It has been very encouraging to witness, and I am deeply humbled to have had a small part in the process, to get to create an artifact that captures the echoes of your words and our conversations. 

The secondary title comes from Ecclesiastes not just because that is my favorite verse from that book – and it is my extended meditation on it that connected us to one another – I also picked it because out of all of the scripture that is in my body and memory and heart, this one continually came before me as I meditated and prayed my way through this painting. It comes right after the famous poem on time: 

For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:
a time to be born, and a time to die;
a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;
a time to kill, and a time to heal;
a time to break down, and a time to build up;
a time to weep, and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
a time to seek, and a time to lose;
a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
a time to tear, and a time to sew;
a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
a time to love, and a time to hate;
a time for war, and a time for peace.


My impulse in the face of suffering is to wrestle with the question of “Why?” I want to understand, to use reason to get at the root of why such inconceivable losses happen. Obviously it is impossible to use reason in this case, but still I wrestle. The fact that the line “he has made everything beautiful in its time” follows the poem above reveals to me that I don’t have the wisdom to fully understand the grandest cosmic picture of space and time. Job wants to know whether God is actually just, because he knows that he didn’t do anything to bring on these losses. Though it isn’t a part of the drama, I can hear Job asking, “Where were you, God, when my family was killed and everything was taken from me?” In Job 38-41 God begins his answer with his own question, “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?” God never defends himself. When God answers Job, in his deepest loss and suffering, with vibrant poetry about the fierce beauty of the cosmos and creation, I don’t see a reprimand or God putting Job in his tiny place. Those things might be implied, but they aren’t explicit in my view.  What I do see is a panorama of mystery, beauty, and possibility. If God can make these things out of pure chaos, what can he do with our suffering? What can he do with the things that are lost to us? 

This is exactly what you did when you wrote your essay, when you invited me to participate in a new creation. In response to suffering, you have honored what is lost, and allowed your tears to be converted into something that is beautiful, a new creation. 


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The riddles of God / Eternity in man's heart

Kozo relief sculpture, marble dust, acrylic, ink, gold foil and silver foil on canvas
88”x55”
private commission, 2025
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 He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man's heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.
―Ecclesiastes 3:11

The riddles of God are more satisfying than the solutions of man. 
― G.K. Chesterton, Introduction to the Book of Job

***
This commission was created in 2024 & 2025 for a private collector who loves music. This collector shared a list of his favorite albums with me and shared all the reasons music has been so impactful in his life and faith, and I made a work of art exploring some of those ideas. Below is the note I wrote to him on completion of the work.

​***

If I had to use just a few words to describe the experience of listening to and witnessing music being made, it would be something like this: “transcendent, mysterious, a glimpse of the unseen world that cannot be grasped through image alone.”

I was really struck when you described music as communal, raw and unfiltered, and something that helps you to unify both your emotional and physical state, and then eventually your spirituality and faith as well. It seems that music is an important part of your identity that has also intersected with your identity as a Christ follower. How beautiful that is! 

This painting represents community—not just between people, but between the Godhead, and between God and mankind. Music itself is a community; while all it takes is one intentionally organized sound or note to make “music” we all know the satisfaction of complex, multilayered music, unexpected harmonies or instrumentation, and especially the joy of music that takes many musicians to perform. And the experience of being in a room with a crowd, witnessing, grooving, dancing, and experiencing the transcendent joy of those many complicated and intersecting lines—it’s a beautiful allegory for life itself; we all are our own complicated set of emotions and experiences, and in that moment something of our souls intersect as we experience it together. 

And it makes me imagine eternity, the masses worshipping the Lamb who was Slain, all of us bowing down, the sound of that music rising like incense, many voices together in worship. Can you imagine?

But more than any of that, I am struck by the fact that Jesus didn’t shy away from the darkness of human experience. I will never stop being struck by that. God draws us in all our complexity, from every dark corner, up and out of ourselves and into him. He doesn’t ask us to change before he accepts us; he doesn’t as us to pretty ourselves up or put on a mask—he reaches for us right where we are and draws us into the holiness of his presence. And that is only possible because Christ was willing to enter into the reality of our messy, complex existence, even though for a time he had to pass through death itself.

He is the still point on which all the universe rests, the vortex into which we are drawn, the thing that the eternity that is set in our hearts, making us long and long for something beyond ourselves until we ache, points to. We cannot unravel all the mysteries of the universe, but we can bring every cell of who we are, even the parts of ourselves we don’t know (Psalm 139) into his presence, and that is eternity, and it is available now in him.
​

Some behind the scenes view of the process...

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A steward of many / A fold for the shepherd

Acrylic ink, kozo, marble dust, acrylic, mica powder, and gold foil on canvas
48” x 67 ½”
GuideStone commission​, 2025
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So he shepherded them according to the integrity of his heart, And guided them with his skillful hands.
—Psalm 78:72

His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!

—Matthew 25: 21

​***

This work was created for GuideStone and based on the above scriptures that are central to their mission. Below is what I wrote to them on completion of the work.

Through meditation on these two verses, the Holy Spirit brought the image of a sheepfold into my mind’s eye. The ancient sheepfold during biblical times would have had an opening for the sheep to enter unhindered, and the shepherd would lay his own body across the entrance to protect his sheep from thieves and predators. While many Christians are familiar with this image and the way Jesus so beautifully fulfills it, we may not be as apt to consider the way ministry workers who act as the hands and feet of Jesus in this world fulfill it as well. Many who are called into ministry dedicate their lives to shepherding, guiding, and caring for God’s flock with gentleness, skill, and sacrifice.

It is my hope that the spirit of GuideStone’s mission permeates this work. I am deeply inspired by the way this organization cares for these shepherds, their families, and their churches, seeking to help them finish their good work on earth. With their stewardship, they partner with God to create a kind of protective fold for the shepherds of the sheep, and inside of that fold is life, living water, and flourishing—protection from the chaos of the world. There is also an abundance of God’s presence and beauty within the fold (represented by the gold) that flows out into the world. 

It is my hope this painting will serve as a reminder—much like an Ebenezer stone—of God’s faithfulness and ability to accomplish his purposes in and through us. He always provides enough for our needs, both corporate and individual, and He wants us to be a part of what He is doing. We need only look to Him and remember what He has done.

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The invitation / Take and eat

Acrylic ink kozo, acrylic, and gold foil on canvas
36" x 36"

private commission​, 2024
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He brought me out into a broad place; he rescued me, because he delighted in me.
-Psalm 18:19

This painting was commissioned by a lovely family, and the imagery and themes came out of discussions I had with the commissioner, to which I refer in this meditation: 

The labyrinth came up so immediately in our conversations, and so it was an idea I wanted to stick with. The labyrinth as a physical symbol is man-made, and there's only one path to walk from beginning to the center. I thought a lot about the evolution of the concept of God as being so limited and boxed into a particular theology. If our faith walk exists only within a man-made labyrinth of faith or theology, it can feel constricting and even harmful. Don't get me wrong, I think theology is very important, and I embrace tradition. But it is no only institutions that protect us or lay our paths (in fact, on their own, they can be harmful). It is God who protects and shelters us, and yes, Jesus said the only way to the father is through him. There may only be one way, but he is the way. And he is vast, mysterious, and he can only be known in part by limited human beings.
This tree can serve as a symbol, reminding you of the beginning and the end, an eternal circle, where the tree of life stands in the center of the garden. I love Bonhoeffer's ‘Creation and Fall,’ where he explains that the Cross of Christ is (and always has been) the Tree of Life! We are invited into God's eternal and expansive presence through the cross, through the communion table.  there is a security to a labyrinth when it is God's path that we walk. Though there is one way, it is through him, into his presence, into his expansiveness, into his redemption. 
In Revelation, it says that the leaves of the Tree of Life are for the healing of the nations. In this painting, the leaves and branches are gold, filled with a kind of holy, glistening beauty that is meant to evoke the overwhelming glory of God's presence and healing in our lives.
My prayer for you and your family is that you regularly eat the fruit of this tree, seeking forever to be on his path that he's laid out for you. And I pray that you will feel the expanse of joy and mystery, wonder and awe of what it means to be his children. May the fruit of the Cross satisfy you for all of your days, transforming you into the fullest expressions of your individual and precious humanity, preparing you to one day be shrouded in glory and worshiping him in eternity.

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Under your wings / Light in the darkness

Acrylic, marble dust, acrylic ink, mica powder, gold foil, crushed metal and pyrite on canvas
48x72”
private commission, ​2023

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For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ.

But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may also be revealed in our mortal body. So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.

It is written: “I believed; therefore I have spoken.” Since we have that same spirit of faith, we also believe and therefore speak, because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you to himself. All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God.
​

-2 Corinthians 4:6-15
***

This work was created for a couple who has experienced recurrent miscarriage after adopting embryos that were left from another couple's IVF journey. To preserve their identity, I write to them as N and R in this note, but they display this painting proudly in a central part of their home so they can share their story with their family and friends as evidence of the faithfulness of God even in the midst of wilderness seasons.

​***

Sometimes God gives me powerful images or snippets when I hear people’s stories, and early on when R first shared the story of the eight beautiful souls you brought into your family, I received a powerful image of God as a mother bird sheltering her young: 

He will cover you with his feathers,
and under his wings you will find refuge…
-Psalm 91:4

God as a mother bird is a companion image to that of God hovering/fluttering over the chaos waters of Genesis, poised to bring light and order out of chaos and darkness. God is protector, shelterer, and maker of new life. This isn’t dissimilar to the creation of families and the stewardship of children. While you are both stewards of the children God has brought into your life, he is the ultimate protector, shelterer, and the one who holds their lives in his hands.

As his image-bearers, I think that the two of you have reflected and embodied these images of God (and continue to do so) in particular ways. I am amazed at how you’ve allowed your desire for a family to be shaped by God in both the sorrows and the joys. Though the road has been long and winding and none of it has been easy, I can sense (and see) the truth that God has shined through the vessels of your bodies, making you a light to those around you. You’ve offered your protection to the most vulnerable, even at great cost to yourselves.

Obviously I understand that you, R, in a particular way, received the gift of their souls in your body. You carried the pain of their loss in your very flesh. But I will talk about the two of you from now on as one body, because even though N's nerves do not extend into your womb, he has carried the loss and the change in his own body, too, in mysterious and unknowable ways, and the two of you of have borne both the suffering and beauty of this story together as one flesh. 

Because you surrendered your bodies and desires to the will of God, [names omitted for privacy] were able to have a chance at life under the sun. They received all of the shelter and protection that could be offered to them, and because of you, they were able to return to God in his timing. I have read this passage of 2 Corinthians for years picturing the personal treasure of the gospel in the heart of an individual soul that indwells a fragile body, but after hearing your story and making this painting, I will never see it quite the same way. 

There is no artifact on earth, no created thing, that is more precious and mysterious than a human soul. Your choice to adopt these children and care for them at great sacrifice to yourselves is a beautiful realization of the life of Jesus being revealed in your mortal body. Because we know that death is not the end. And in a way, your story, when shared, reveals that to everyone. You honor the loss and also the hope in unbelievably beautiful ways. 

You are vessels for life in so many ways, even if you are broken, formed from the dust. Because of your testimony that God is faithful and good in the midst of your greatest losses, delayed hopes, and bodily suffering, his light shines out of you as a beacon from a hill for all to see. You were not only a shelter on earth for these souls, but you are a shelter in the storm for those who are looking for hope. Your suffering has meaning not just because you are able to point others to your hope in the midst of it, but because it is clear that it has brought you closer to God in faith. 

This is the beauty of suffering and weakness, because it allows us to share in the sorrows of Christ. It makes no sense to the world, but it makes sense to the believer. I included a quote from Meditation XVII by John Donne because I always think of his analogy when I consider my own suffering: your suffering is like gold, heavy, and not spendable currency in this world. But it will be converted one day when we see God face to face, and then it will be the greatest treasure we ever carried, because it brought us closer to him, and in that day, he will give us beauty for ashes. 

There are so many things to see in this painting. Figures, vessels, shelter, release, comfort, protection, light and darkness, and the very presence of God entering finite human flesh. Because God dwells in your bodies, these souls even in their embryonic form were brought into the presence of God in a particular way that they would not have been had you not obeyed God’s call. God is writing your story, and it doesn’t have to be slick and perfect. I’ve allowed the textures of the canvas to show through in places on this painting to remind you that your current understanding of the beauty of this story is limited and finite. There is no way to capture all of its details and it is just a tiny shadow of the beauty that awaits you in God’s unmediated eternal presence.

Finally, I thank God that you believed they deserved a chance at life and you gave them all that you had to offer, and that is beautiful in ways that make the things in this world that pass away pale by comparison. You are still doing this, offering self-sacrificing love and tender care to vulnerable souls, even now. This has given me hope in my own story, to remind me that what God works out through our bodies is for his glory, and that he is presently redeeming all things even in ways we cannot see or do not expect. In that way, you are a beacon of light fending back the darkness of chaos.

***

…Affliction is a treasure, and scarce any man hath enough of it.  No man hath affliction enough, that is not matured and ripened by it, and made fit for God by that affliction.  If a man carry treasure in bullion or in a wedge of gold, and have none coined into current moneys, his treasure will not defray him as he travels.  Tribulation is treasure in the nature of it, but it is not current money in the use of it, except we get nearer and nearer our home, heaven, by it.  Another may be sick too, and sick to death, and this affliction may lie in his bowels, as gold in a mine, and be of no use to him; but this bell that tells me of his affliction, digs out, and applies that gold to me: if by this consideration of another's danger, I take mine own into contemplation, and so secure myself, by making my recourse to my God, who is our only security.
-John Donne, Meditation XVII from Devotions upon Emergent Occasions

***
To learn more about embryo adoption, visit nightlight.org.

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You are my shelter

Acrylic ink, acrylic, marble dust, gold foil, crushed metal, and silver foil on canvas
48"x36"
private commission​, 2023
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This work was created for a couple's home, inspired by previous works of mine they liked, as well as a song that was meaningful to them from their wedding.

Let your light shine before mankind / A Light that Heals

Acrylic ink, marble dust, acrylic, mica powder, gold foil, and silver foil on canvas
47.25" x 64"
private commission, 2022
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...let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.
-Matthew 5:16

​The images of water, trees, and light are all interwoven throughout scripture. Light is something by which we see, and to be a light that shines before men means that God uses us in such a way that we can be the miraculous mirrors of his glory. We are creatures that reflect the light, and by that light others can see. The image of the tree is present throughout scripture, often referencing the tension between a tree that is good and one that is not good. The Bible Project introduced me to the powerful idea that people are like trees to one another, either life-giving trees of good or death and temptation-bringing trees of bad. We get the choice, just like Adam and Eve, which tree we will eat from. Our choice to live in the light and to allow God’s glory to shine through us can be something that gives life to others. Water, too, in scripture has a dual image—water represents chaos and disorder throughout the Old Testament, but it is also a vital source of life. Jesus brings all three of these images together—he is the Light of the World, the light by which we see all things. He is the Living Water, and when we drink what he offers we will never thirst again. And he is the Tree of Life, the one from whom we eat to gain eternal life, the one who has always been at the center of all things.
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To Serve is to Remember what He has done / The Exodus​

Acrylic ink, marble dust, acrylic, mica powder, gold foil, and silver foil on canvas\
61x47.5"
private commission​, 2022
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If it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve: whether the gods which your fathers served which were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” The people answered and said, “Far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods; for the Lord our God is He who brought us and our fathers up out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage, and who did these great signs in our sight and preserved us through all the way in which we went and among all the peoples through whose midst we passed. The Lord drove out from before us all the peoples, even the Amorites who lived in the land. We also will serve the Lord, for He is our God.”
​
—Joshua 24:15-18

Our lives are a continual Exodus, a traversal from where we were, through a wilderness, and toward the land that has been set apart for us. When Joshua made this commitment, I wonder if he thought about the way that such a commitment would have to be renewed again, generation after generation. And now, even after God dwelt among us in flesh, we still have to go through this cyclical promise to God, a dedication that we often break in our creatureliness. We are ever in need of an Exodus, of God’s pillars of cloud and fire to remind us that we are not alone. If we remember him and proclaim what he is doing and has done, then we will serve the Lord.
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Paths of joy / Our beautiful inheritance, 2021

Acrylic, marble dust, acrylic ink, gold foil, and mica powder on canvas
36"x32"
Corporate commission, 2021
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You will make known to me the path of life;
In Your presence is fullness of joy;
In Your right hand there are pleasures forever.
-Psalm 16:11

***

This work was created as a gift for investors for a private company in 2021. It is one complete painting, but split into many panels, to remind each investor that they are a vital part of the company's mission. Below is what I wrote to accompany the finished work.
​


Life under the sun is filled with twists and turns, and sometimes it can feel like it is hard to see the path so that we can take steps forward. The feeling that nothing is certain is pervasive in our current moment. Sometimes it feels like there is nothing we can rely upon, and that the future isn’t certain.

In Psalm 16, David’s words reveal a clear path upon which we can rely. Not only is there security, safety, and sustenance in God, there is the fullest possible joy and pleasure in his presence. Throughout scripture and in his person, our triune God shows us that we can experience deep refuge in him through our pursuit of community with one another. Our journey in faith wasn’t meant to be a solitary one. The partnership at the commissioning organization of this work demonstrates a convergence of paths, or a conscious choice to walk alongside one another in faith as a prayer, like Moses, for God to establish the work of your hands.

This painting was created as a united work, with its own convergence of many lines that flow throughout each panel to create one path. No part of the path is simple, few lines are perfectly straight, and each is only a part of the larger picture. Each person will see something different in their panel. I encourage you all to be open to the working of the Holy Spirit as you live with your panel. There is no wrong way to interpret art. You simply look and take it in.

I chose complex, deep blues as an anchor for the palette. Blue is in many ways a color we associate with water and with baptism. There is also a consistent image in scripture of God making a path for us through the chaos waters, creating a space where we can pass through on dry ground so that he can lead us into a flourishing promised land. God accompanies us on every step of this journey, just like he did with the Israelites in the wilderness. I’ve also included greens and golds—these colors for me represent the idea of flourishing, generativity, and the treasure of God’s presence. Purple has long been a color reserved for royalty, as it is one of the rarest natural dyes. This precious color symbolizes the beautiful inheritance of Psalm 16:6. Not every color stands out on each panel, and some are more subtle than others. The fullest picture is in the unity of the whole piece, but each part of the path has its own significance and beauty.
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Beautiful Savior

Acrylic ink, acrylic, marble dust, gold foil, and crushed metal on canvas
Two 36" x 48" panels
private commission​, 2019
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This commission for a private home was based on the last two verses of the couple's favorite hymn, 'Beautiful Savior.' 
​

Beautiful Savior, King of creation,
Son of God and Son of Man!
Truly I'd love Thee, truly I'd serve thee,
Light of my soul, my Joy, my Crown.

Fair are the meadows, Fair are the woodlands,
Robed in flow'rs of blooming spring;
Jesus is fairer, Jesus is purer;
He makes our sorr'wing spirit sing.

Fair is the sunshine, Fair is the moonlight,
Bright the sparkling stars on high;
Jesus shines brighter, Jesus shines purer
Than all the angels in the sky.

Beautiful Savior, Lord of the nations,
Son of God and Son of Man!
Glory and honor, Praise, adoration,
Now and forevermore be Thine!
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Bound together in love

Acrylic ink, marble dust, acrylic, gold foil, and metal shards on canvas
30"x40"
private commission​, 2019
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This work was conceived around the idea of loving others with tenderness and self sacrifice. The central composition of the painting includes two large swaths coming together. Though it can be interpreted in several ways, I did think a lot about deep expressions of love, particularly Christ's sacrificial love. This sort of love, which we call grace, is the power that enables us to love one another. In the painting, this area of embrace of love stands against darkness and on the other side of it is light. In other words, a sort of transformation happens through it. I was thinking about the dual enfolding of love from our brothers and sisters and then the love of God. With both we are surrounded, engulfed in mercy. The recipient of this commission is an instrument of God's mercy as they love others well.

I read a lot of commentary on Colossians 3:14 and spent time considering the metaphors and images. I love that Paul urges us to 'put on love like a garment.' One commentator called love "the livery (garments) of Christ's Redeemed." I gave shape in the textures a sort of soft sweep, like clothing. We are also, through Christ's love, clothed with the robe of righteousness, another radical act of love.
All artwork, photographs, and text on this site are copyright © Kelly Kruse, 2014-2026. No images, artwork, or content may be used without express permission from the artist. All rights reserved.
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