1.30.2013

McNaughton Hates People of Color Because Jesus is Not White?



I often receive comments from people offended that I did not paint Jesus with darker skin, different colored eyes or the hair not the way they envision.  Here is an interesting conversation and my answer to Susan.


Susan said:  You do realize that Jesus was a Jew from the middle east and could not possibly have looked anthing like this painting, right?

McNaughton said:  The painting has an important message.  I don’t think it is the color of his skin.

Susan said:  I see…sounds like the message is I hate people of color.  I get it. 

Here is a link Susan shared from Popular Mechanics to show me the real way Jesus looked:

McNaughton response:  

How Do You Paint the Face of Christ?

When I first began to paint the Savior I felt completely inadequate for the task.  Many artists say that it is the most difficult subject to paint.  How do you paint someone who we believe is the God of the Universe and the most humble, loving, perfect man who ever lived?  There are many millions of people in this world that love the man they call Jesus.  They all have their own personal image of how they think He should look.

Where is an artist to start?  I decided I would begin by looking at all the different artist’s renditions since early Christianity until today.  His image has gone through much metamorphosis.  I read different historians talk about how Christ would have looked.  Each was convinced of their own conclusions.  Some people today claim to have had a personal witness, that they saw Him in a vision or dream and know exactly how He looks.  All these things were very remarkable and I would seriously consider each account.  It was interesting to me how each group of people would often paint Christ in a way that most resembled themselves.  Their comfort zone if you will.  Many people have come into my gallery and with absolute certainty say that He has brown eyes or blue eyes, dark skin or light skin, long hair or short hair.  Now I see why this is such a difficult subject to paint.

At this point I thought to myself, “OK, what does He really look like?”  So I started reading different studies from an anthropological point of view.  National Geographic had that interesting article about what Jesus really looked like.  Not too handsome, kind of gruff.  Perhaps He did look like that? 

One night I had a dream.  It was in the distant future.  I was at a great conference and all the artists who have ever lived who painted Jesus Christ were gathered together in one place.  Many of the well known masters were there.  I saw Michelangelo, Da Vinci, Rembrandt as well as many modern painters of Christ.  I was there with all these great artists as we anticipated the arrival of the guest speaker.  It would be Jesus Himself and all attending expected Him to acknowledge who the truest artist was.  All were wondering who had painted Him with the most perfection and accuracy?  Who would be named by Christ Himself as the greatest of all?

As I sat in my chair a hush came over the room as someone entered and moved toward the podium.  I saw a man in white, but I could not see His face.  He stood at the podium and began to speak in a soft, loving voice that seemed to pierce my heart to the very core.  He said that there were many talented artists who were here and that He knew many were wondering in their hearts who was the greatest among us.  He then said, “The greatest among you is he whose art did most to save souls in the Kingdom of my Father.”

When I woke up I was thrilled with the dream and curious about the answer.  In my mind I felt the meaning of the dream was that it was not as important to Him how He looks in the painting as how it affects the viewer.  If it helps them to draw closer to Him, to strengthen their faith and come unto Christ-- it is a masterpiece.  As an artist I feel that it is more important to paint a face that evokes emotion and familiarity than it is to paint an anthropological version that would be difficult for the average person to recognize. 

Some day I hope to see Him and to look into His eyes.  I don’t care what color they will be or how long His hair is.  I will recognize Him by that overwhelming feeling of love and joy that can only come from standing in the presence of my Savior.



35 comments:

  1. A beautiful response to an impossible statement, thank you!

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  2. I agree with your final statement. Why does it matter what Jesus facial feature were? I often wonder why some people chose to nit pic questions as if it was life altering that we all agree with them.

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  3. I always wondered why no one ever painted Jesus when he was happy. I've only come across one picture ever that showed my Jesus with a smile and inviting look. That is my Jesus and He is different for everyone. People who get hung up on such ridiculousness are missing the entire point of Christ and why He died for our sins. I feel sorry for those people.

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    1. I've seen paintings of Jesus smiling and happy. Maybe I'll remember to look up the artists and get back to this website with the information. I'll try!

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  4. Popular Mechanics, yeah, they would know for sure. seems legit. not. I like your rendering better. it used imagination, not popular mechanics.

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  6. If we were all made in the image of Christ, doesn't it stand to reason that we would all see him differently?

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    1. That is my response as well. We each see our image as a possible reflection of Christ.

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  7. I like your answer the best.
    But looking at pictures of people of Jewish decent I sure see a lot of light skinned people, so who's to say that the image in Popular Mechanics is more accurate then any one else's

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  8. Beautiful reply! Realistically, as you said, he was a Jew, a descendent of Abraham, of the house of David. Sorry, folks, but that is what he was. He can't physically look like every race, but only what he was. However, he is the Savior of the world, the Savior of everyone! My favorite depictions of him show that. Adults, children, men, women from all walks of life, all races, all ages. Love ascends above and beyond all the physical limitations and differences. It doesn't care about the physical. It looks into the soul, where we are all the same.

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  9. John, people who "sweat" this stuff NEED to be saved, and quickly !

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  10. Very well said, I also believe I will recognise the Savior regardless of what he may look like to countless others....

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  11. Nice response, Jon. I am reminded of an episode in Babylon 5, in which an alien came out of his armored encounter suit looking like an angel of light and various alien races saw that alien as angelic saviors of their worlds differently. People of different ethnic backgrounds would see Jesus as an ethnical representation of their people (for examples, the Japanese would see a Japanese Jesus, the Ethiopians would see an Ethiopian Jesus, or the Sioux Indians would see a Sioux Indian version of Jesus, and so on...). To each their own.

    It is important that we focus on Jesus' teachings rather than worry ourselves about what Jesus looked like when he was alive.

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    1. Rob, I also thought of that episode of B5.

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  13. Great message Jon. Maybe someday there will be a large portrait or statue of Jesus. The face will simply be a reflective material so that whoever looks into the face will see their own.. and whatever they bring with them.. Love or Hate, Joy or Sorrow...

    I would hope what is most important is what he will see when he looks into our face ...

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  14. We are all to resemble Christ so that when others look at us they see Him... and it is not the physical appearance that evokes that.. Very well said, it is His love for us that I see in your paintings.. not his physical attributes.. Imagine if we took a variety of head shots of Christ and and asked people to identify who it was.. I am not sure most people would be certain who it was.. but if you showed them the entire scene of the photo (the big picture) my guess is that most would know it was Christ that was being portrayed.. God is doing great works through you.. Glory be Him..

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  15. A harsh comment spurred your great answer. As I see it the color of his eyes is compassion, his hair is truth. The color of his skin is love. Her arguing over the rendition misses the point of Jesus.

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  16. Well said. Sometimes those who spew the most hate are those who feel hate themselves and have no subject and so must fabricate one.

    I rather like your rendering, and while I've still not seen a painting that speaks to me in every detail, I love many of them for different reasons. (Walter Rane comes closest) I do believe the 'best' (for each viewer) is the one that turns the viewer's heart to the subject (Our Savior) with the most depth.

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  17. Your paintings are a God given talent.I am so taken back by them.Your response to the lady was perfect.You really don't owe an explanation.You are awesome.Really does it matter? I know you feel compelled to give an explanation,but come on.You can't make everyone happy.People need to learn to pick their battles.This shouldn't be one of them.

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  18. We should all pray for Susan to be able to let the negativity in her life go and to see the beauty in all good things. Our Savior loves each one of us and wants us to love each other.

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  19. A beautiful response, and a beautiful piece of art!

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  21. Your response touched my heart. Its not how He looks, its the very gift of seeing Him.

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  22. Jon,
    I enjoy your paintings a great deal. The dream you describe really hits the nail on the head and points up what a disciple of Christ should be doing as long as he is here drawing breath. That having been said, The actual truth of the matter regarding what Christ looked like while he walked the earth is really a pretty straight forward issue that can be relatively easy to work through with biblical and some historical reference. His genealogy is listed in the Bible and traces back directly to "Ha Adam" or "The Adam" formed by God and placed in the garden to tend it. "The Adam" was a "Ruddy" complected man as is clearly detailed in the Hebrew language in Genesis. All that having been said, the truth of the matter is that Christ was an Adamic (what you would catagorize today as a "Caucasian" man) of this there is no doubt. And from there you can pretty much invision his general features, most likely Red or Auburn hair, Blue or Green eyes etc.

    Keep up the good work.

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  23. thank you. This answer a question I had about something else. What matters is what we do bring people closer to Christ. As you said, we will recognize him by what we feel with our hearts.

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  24. I looked at the Popular Mechanics picture of what they thought Christ may look like and I can completely imagine that He could look like that. What a great face! Does it really matter what He looks like? I heard a song from years back that had this excerpt, "He's black, brown, he's yellow and he's red and he's white..... every man's the same in the Good Lord's sight......"

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  25. Amazing how little importance people put on the genealogical component of scripture. Do people think there is no reason for it? just filler? I tell you, there is a reason and purpose for every Jot in the bible.

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  26. The Bible is pretty specific about his appearance and his lineage. While I can appreciate artistic license, and understand your viewpoint, I still think there's a question of how proper it is to pass off an image as 'Jesus' if it probably looked nothing like him.

    The thing that bugs me the most, honestly, in that day it was very improper for a man's hair to touch his collar. They all kept their hair trimmed to just a couple inches, like most males today. During the Renaissance, when it became popular to have long flowing hair, people started painting Jesus that way, and it stuck. Jesus as a man would never have let his hair grow out like that; the only ones in that culture who did that were those who took a Nazerite vow, like Sampson.

    But, again, artistic license. I can appreciate great work and skill, even if I don't agree with it.

    Amazing work, keep it up!

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  27. Joe,

    Jesus has hair to his shoulders or longer. He was a Nazarene and they let their hair grow long, as it was of custom.

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  28. It doesn't matter what Christ looked like. At that matters is His teachings and that we follow Him.

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  29. I want to know how you paint the face of Jesus but for a different reason. How do you dare paint the face of Jesus when your political paintings are full of so much hate. Jesus taught love everyone and your paintings are unchristian, unamerican and just pure evil and the fact that you sell religious paintings in the same store just sickens me. It's people like you that make me sad for America's future when we should be united as a Country and supportive of our country.

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  30. Critical people will deliberately miss the point of this particular painting because they want to keep themselves apart from Him any way they can. Ideological biased comments on your other paintings are an attempt to create more divisions among people by crying false declarations of 'unAmerican' and 'unChristian'. This is their intention for they know not what they say. Geo. Washington and the leaders that created this country under our US Constitution, Bill of Rights, etc. spoke out against Britian at rallies, in print, and in their local meetings because of the king's desire to enslave the people of the New World using such bad policies as taxation without representation, no freedom to worship, and extend his rule over a people who left England to govern themselves with less government involvement---no kingship. Looking out my back door I see more local, state, and federal government control spreading with more legislation every day. I say for these "critics" to get their heads out of the sand! Look and see the messages and THINK on them. It is illogical for Americans to support unAmerican policies---those that don't line up with the mission of The US Constitution. One more thing, the Supreme Court only gives "opinions"; they are not laws. Only Congress can pass laws.

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