Underwater Faith

By Mikella, aged 14 from Southend High School for Girls

My piece is about the spiritual feeling of baptism and what I believe truly happens under the water. In my art, I try to make sure that every stroke and colour has a reason, a meaning behind it. When being baptised, I like to believe that alongside the priest, God is holding that person up, bringing them into His arms and cleansing their sins with His own hands – I tried to show this through the golden, glowing figure holding the girl’s head in my drawing.

In this piece, I portrayed God as a golden silhouette, emphasising the different interpretations of God in both artistic depictions and the Bible itself. I made sure to keep the girl’s eyes closed to represent both her complete faith in God and how she trusts Him even underwater – where you’re holding your breath, eyes closed and unaware of your surroundings – but also to represent the fact that Christians don’t see God with their own eyes. Through His omnibenevolence and omnipresence, Christians worship Him, finding comfort in knowing He’s everywhere and wherever they need Him to be, and that He will always love them.

I used Theme 3 for my piece – Open Verse. The verse I chose was Galatians 3:26-27 (NIV) – “So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptised into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ”. Personally, I have never been baptised before. Yet, I chose to use this verse as inspiration for my piece because it signifies a change in identity: an acceptance of one’s identity with oneself and with Christ alone. The verse says that through baptism, all believers are united under God.

What I like best about my piece is the colour palette I used. My background is blue to show the underwater aspect of my piece through shadows and lighting. However, I decided to go with a bold contrast using yellow and gold to add vibrancy to my piece. In doing this, I hoped to bring more attention to the eye-catching part of my work. I drew it digitally on the software Procreate. This project has made me think deeply about many things, including my approach to art and religion. Religion, throughout history, has been given life and form through art, going back millennia to when beliefs were etched into cave walls. And I hope that the connection between belief and artistry never dies out.