Brittany Scott sobbed when she saw the painting “Agony in the Garden” by Frans Schwartz.
Scott was visiting Brigham Young University’s Museum of Art to see its “Sacred Gifts” exhibition in 2014. As soon as she walked in, she was greeted by an oil painting depicting Christ kneeling in the Garden of Gethsemane and being embraced by an angel. Scott, a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, remembers being brought to tears standing in front of the canvas.
For the past 20 years, Scott had been in search of how to create art that emotionally moved her viewers. The “Agony in the Garden” painting provided her an answer of how to create the kind of art that she was striving for.
“I wanted to create art that mattered and that people could feel. I looked and looked and I couldn’t figure out how to do it, and no one was talking about it and nobody had any answers,” Scott said. “There was an emotion in the painting that isn’t typically in art that I had experienced.”
After that day at the exhibit, Scott felt motivated to embark on a journey to learn how to bring emotion into her artwork and teach others how to do the same.
Scott had been painting snowscapes and the mountainous views of Utah before moving to a home in Keller with her husband and kids in 2017. Throughout her life, Scott felt a divine calling to create work that was meaningful to the viewer and herself, she said.
After coming to Tarrant County, Scott decided to listen to it.
“I felt this throughout the last two decades. But very profoundly when I moved here,” Scott said. “I felt called to create sacred art.”
She started by recreating the “Agony in the Garden” painting she saw during the university’s exhibition. In 2018, Scott was working on the piece when an image of doubting Thomas, an Apostle in the Bible, and Jesus Christ popped into her mind.
Within a couple of minutes, Scott translated the image onto paper. Once she finished, she was left with a rough sketch depicting Thomas collapsing. As his knees are about to hit the floor, Jesus Christ catches him.
“My depiction is of the moment when they touch … and I believe that it was like this electric, powerful interaction where he finally knows the windows of heaven are open to him,” Scott said.
For five years, Scott worked on the painting. She studied scripture, photographed friends and family modeling the various sketches she made, and took on the 44-by-70-inch canvas piece by piece. During this time period, she also worked on other paintings, cared for her five children and co-founded an art nonprofit.
In 2021 Scott and her husband created Inspired Arts League, an organization that provides artists training and workshops on how to bring more emotion into their work through the use of different artistic elements, and how the use of metaphors and symbolism can be used to tell a story.
The organization is made up of artists across the U.S. from a variety of religious backgrounds such as Hindu, different branches of Christianity, and Judaism, which was intentional, Scott said.
“Art is a powerful vehicle. It’s the one language that we have that transcends space and time, and culture, and religion, and language,” Scott said.
Adrienne Stein was an initial member of the Inspired Arts League and identifies as Christian. Through the organization, Stein has found a sense of community.
“The wonderful thing is everyone in our group kind of comes from a different faith tradition or spirituality,” Stein said. “I love that Brittany has branched out and chosen these people who come from all these different backgrounds, and (we) have kind of found the commonality between all of us.”
After forming the Inspired Arts League, Scott completed her doubting Thomas painting in 2023. It’s currently on display at White’s Chapel Methodist Church in Southlake along with all of the trace paper sketching and other process work leading up to the final piece.
The free exhibit called “The Invitation” is open to the public and will run through January 2024, according to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in North Texas.
The five-year journey Scott experienced from first seeing Schwartz’s “Agony in the Garden,” has brought her closer to her faith.
“All my paintings are not going to take five years. But … God allowed this experience to teach me, and he guided me through the whole thing,” Scott said. “If we can help the artists understand that their responsibility is so much greater than they realize, to be more thoughtful, and what they’re creating — before they put it out into the world — it can actually restore hope in the world in a really powerful way.”
Marissa Greene is a Report for America corps member, covering faith for the Fort Worth Report. You can contact her at marissa.greene@fortworthreport.org or on Twitter @marissaygreene.
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