Easter: the End of Lion Messenger

Easter's arrival means the end of this Lenten project I've so lovingly, sometimes painfully, worked on. I'm feeling pretty good about it! Honestly, it feels surreal.

I've long thought of what will happen by the end of these 40+ days. Will this piece even be good? Can I even consider it a new media piece? How will I change? Will my viewers change? Some of these questions I'm still simmering on. I knew that whatever changes came my way would only be good (because it has to be). I just never could have guessed the details. I'm in a much healthier place than I was at the start: physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. I genuinely feel hope and joy again. I identified (re-identified) false truths about myself. I'm in a posture of saying yes and pushing myself again. Perhaps most importantly, I got over whatever fears I had about incorporating deeply personal things into my artwork. Seriously: if this project accomplished any one thing, it's that I've finally felt that I shouldn't hold back in any of my art practice. Art seeks and speaks the truth after all, and what greater truth is there than seeking God?

What's left to do then? Only a few things. First, I need to decide if and how I want to preserve the timeline of release for future readers. Do I force the messages to only show after you read previous ones? Do I honor the time and keep this project as a pure history of messages? I'm not sure yet! Second, I'd like to think of a better way to show all 60+ messages. Adding new ones has been easy. But when you look at everything at once, it can be a bit overwhelming. Lastly, now that this journey is complete, I get to re-do the artist statement. I'm sure there are other small QOL things I could add, too.

So, that's a wrap! While the conversations won't stop, they won't be animated and shared in this way anymore. Thank you to everyone who has made the time to read some or all of this work. It's truly been life-changing. Happy Easter y'all.