The votes have been tallied, and we are pleased to announce the winners of the Swedenborg Foundation Fan Art Contest!
First place went to “Earthly Knowledge and Heavenly Light,” a pencil drawing by Patricia Lamb. Tricia is a full-time nurse from Tempe, Arizona who also enjoys playing the dulcimer. She says that she usually has a sketch pad handy and spends a lot of her spare time drawing; she was inspired by the videos on our offTheLeftEye channel to create cartoons about God, Jesus, the Bible, or any other spiritual topic that inspires her. In this case, she says, the cartoon represents “the reason I study Swedenborg.”
Second place went to South African Bridget Clutten for her mixed-media piece “Angels Surround Us.” The imagery was inspired by Swedenborg’s descriptions of angels guiding us and providing love and support at all times.
Bridget has been drawing and painting from an early age. “All art contributes to the state of the world,” she says. “If an artwork makes someone smile and feel happy, joyful, or inspired, or comforted in some way, even if it is only the artist, then it is of benefit to society. The power that art has, in all its many forms, should never be underestimated.” You can see more of Bridget’s art at on her Facebook page, on Saatchi art, or on Instagram at @bridget.clutten.artist.
The first-ever Swedenborg Foundation Fan Art Contest was inspired by some of the amazing artwork that fans from all over the world have sent us. We had nearly fifty entries, and after the difficult job of narrowing them down to a field of ten semifinalists, we opened the vote to our online audience. We had a wonderful response–eight hundred people voted online during the one-week voting period.
The winning designs are available in our Redbubble store, where you can buy them on everything from mugs, T-shirts, and tote bags to prints that you can hang on your wall. And although the voting is closed, if you want to take one last look at all of the finalists, you can see them here.
