Scott Erickson's Artist | Make Your Mark submission grips with the honest beauty of forgiveness and it's mark on this world:

"i'm not sure what kind of mark i will make as an artist in my life. you actually never get to choose what your best work will be. it is chosen by the world around you. and setting out to "make a mark" can usually lead to something canned or cheesy. trust me, i know from experience. so for me, i think the best thing i can do is to try to make something as honestly as i can. in my absolute honesty, there is where a larger audience finds they can relate to what it is you are depicting.

"forgive thy brother" is a very autobiographical painting for me. in the last few years, my brother has done some very awful things to my parents and has distanced himself from my family. i can't tell you the number of times i have seen my parents cry over the strained relationship with their son... and as another son, it's the worst experience. in the last few months, they have slowly worked on their relationship and things are getting a little better.

i have tried to stay out of it cause i don't want to ruin the fragile reconciliation going on. this forces me to live with all the anger and pain of the situation. what's worse i have found myself in a place where i no longer respect my brother... or even like him for that matter. this sucks cause i know this is not to be my stance.  i didn't start any of this, but now i'm the one with the character flaw who needs to forgive and move on. but how does one do this?

i'm summarizing a long and difficult journey. lately i have been contemplating what it really means to be a christ follower. really, if i could define it in a sentence, we are people who do what jesus says. make sense right? jesus says a lot about forgiveness. the craziest one is that if i'm not able to forgive that God the father is incapable of forgiving me.  what? the God who can do anything is limited to forgiving me in direct correlation to my capacity for forgiveness.

whoa. that's heavy.

this leads me to think of the enormity of forgiveness. at the root of how we shall live together with God again is this need to be forgiving with one another. if we can't do it, then the plan of God cannot work out. forgiveness is the key to living together.

so i'm making steps to forgiving my brother. i had to visualize it first. that's where this painting came from. i guess i needed to see the pain that i felt but also see the stance i needed to take.

if we are to make any mark in the world.... it starts with forgiving."

To catch a glimpse of Scott Erickson's work and recent projects, check-out The Transpire Project & his personal blog, Transpire life.  We trust you'll be inspired!