By Rachel Veal Craven

Celestial Lights was part of a study for a ceiling mural I worked in this summer. The mural was meant to be a nebula with imagined constellations across the surface like a map of mythical stars. The goal of the nebula was to portray a sense of light as well as beginning and ending and the motion and movement of that light. In Celestial Lights the varied shades and tones of blue themselves give this idea of light and dark, appearing to regress and surfacing, while the white and gold spaces actually reflect light. Like stars against a vast, dark space, the menagerie of colors mimic this glowing wonder of starlight and gases. (Celestial Lights  is 11” x 20” on canvas//acrylic)

During a trip to the Georgia Aquarium with some students several years ago, I found I was as fascinated by their wonder and the way the glowing tanks seemed to highlight that as I was by the beauty of the ocean life itself. The tanks were almost like treasures filled with brilliant fish, radiant plants, and light trickling through the water like whispering, golden scales. The silhouettes of the children leaning against the tanks seemed stronger and more fantastical in their contrasting shadows. I painted this shortly after the visit as a way to capture this moment of illuminated awe as a reminder to look at all the world around us through the light of the One whose glory shines on it. (Aquarium Glow is 11”x20” on Masonite// oil)