4. Pilate tries Jesus. John 18:33-37

33 Pilate then went back inside the palace, summoned Jesus and asked him, "Are you the king of the Jews?" 34 "Is that your own idea," Jesus asked, "or did others talk to you about me?" 35 "Am I a Jew?" Pilate replied. "Your own people and chief priests handed you over to me. What is it you have done?" 36 Jesus said, "My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place." 37 "You are a king, then!" said Pilate. Jesus answered, "You say that I am a king. In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me."

“you say I am”

Digital painting and video 

Sage Hanna Betts  

This is a digital painting of John 18:37. My hope was to create something in contrast of my watercolor of the “crown of thorns” from 2021. I wanted to show the digital painting process of a more graphic, graffiti look to the verse in which Jesus says, “YOU say that I am a king”.  You notice I create the thorn of crowns but then remove them. The crown of a King sits just at his head but never upon him. I try several versions of the type to make sure it fits the space and the passage comes across with purpose. Splatters of paint represent the blood and pain that soon follow. Digital art can be really similar to performance art in that the viewer gets an inside look at the artist process and I am loving the idea of sharing that. 

—Sage Hanna Betts