Autobiography of Morris Allen McCain

    Welcome to Arts Works Plus! My name is Morris McCain and I stand ready to help you with your art projects. Your interest may be the promotion of your business. It may be art to enhance your Christian faith or your place of worship. Much of my art features scenes from the life of Christ. One of my specialties is painting baptisteries. God has blessed me with the joy of doing many paintings of Jesus being baptized by John the Baptist in the Jordan River. Allow me to share with you how my love for art developed.
    My work comes out of my faith in Jesus Christ. While I may not be as poised a spokesperson for God as I would like to be, I do feel my work is a testimony to his love and grace. He has given me artistic gifts which I can use to honor and glorify him. I trust my work is beneficial and pleasing to others.
    I grew up loving to draw. Though I have not had any formal training, God has blessed me with abilities. I put my heart in my work. God has enabled me to learn by doing. He inspires me. My satisfaction comes from seeing work done well. Featured below is a work called The Child The Man, The Savior. This was the painting I did on a grand scale, it was displayed in what is now the old Sears Mall on South Gloster here in Tupelo, Mississippi.
    Jesus is central. The scene follows his glorious resurrection. He has been with his disciples for forty days and is now ascending into heaven. Scenes from his life and ministry surround him. Imagine a painting twelve feet high and fifteen feet wide and you can grasp the scope of this work. The imagery of the clouds may have come out of my childhood experiences of cloud watching and seeing all kinds of objects, but I choose to think God gave me the inspiration from his word. This painting displays many events out of the life of Christ.
    Some individuals see different things in the picture, things that I did not intentionally place in the picture originally. For example some see angels in the picture. I planned none. Others see Jesus in the tomb. I did not paint that scene into the picture. Individuals may see what they are led to see. Indeed as one does while looking into the clouds. I want you to browse the works on this site. Please feel free to contact me about any project you may have in mind for your business, home or church. Again, I feel this is my calling, to design, construct and paint works of art. The project may be a mural that covers a wall that is a city block long. It may be a baptistry painting. Whatever your need, you feel free to contact me.  With all humility, I do feel God has given me this wonderful gift.When everything is said and done I am a simple man to whom God has given a passionate love for art. When you and I agree on a project, it comes with my guarantee for the very best in workmanship. Consider the workmanship of The Child, The Man, The Savior.
    In the summer of 1990 I was commissioned to do a mural on a wall behind the pulpit of a newly remodeled church. The mural would be behind the choir. I knew that here was a perfect opportunity to do something I had been wanting to do for sometime, the life of Christ. Little did I realize the effect this project was going to have on my life. It was long into the painting stages, however, that I did realize that without the Lord to guide me, the project was going nowhere. I began to pray about the mural, what aspects of Jesus life to use, and, what situations in his life would be of the greatest importance. 0f course there were the obvious ones. With the Lord's guidance the initial sketches were formed and I was ready to begin the actual work on canvas. But where?
    The mural was to be twelve feet high and fifteen feet long, I lived in a one bedroom upstairs apartment with eight foot ceilings. But when God had a hand in the work, he will provide a way, and so he did. I had a friend who had opened a costume shop a couple of years earlier and she graciously offered a space on the selling floor of her little shop for me to do this work. So there among the gorillas, and fairy princesses I began the mural. It was in late June or early July when I actually started putting paint to canvas. It was then that the pastor of the church that had commissioned the mural informed me that the congregation had changed their mind and that the mural would not be needed. At this time I asked the advice of my father, who was in the hospital. He passed away on July 10, 1990. He said, "Finish it Son" then he added, "God will bless it and you when it is finished." So I continue the painting with nowhere to put it. I had no buyer.
   Sometime during the early stages of the mural I made a commitment to my friend who was working in the shop every day that I would like to portray Jesus in the tomb. I was not really sure that I could do it even though I'd asked the Lord to be with me and to guide my hand, place his hand on mine if you will, with every brush stroke. I had never mentioned this desire in my prayer. As the weeks passed, I continued painting, always asking God's guidance. While I was working on the mural during my friends business hours, her customers would see the work and make positive comments. They would come back in a few days to see how the work was progressing. This is the first of many examples of how God himself took control, by sending in a customer who admired the mural, made his purchase and left. Soon after a reporter from the local newspaper showed up to do a story on the work.
   There are numerous examples that I could relate about how God made his influence known in the mural, but one stands out. You will be able to see it for yourself here on your screen. Though I never gave another thought to the idea of portraying Jesus in the tomb, I eventually finished the mural, had it photographed and then made large prints. I sold some of the prints. Shortly after giving a print to the pastor of the church for which the mural was originally planned, he came to me with the print. He had a tracing. He asked, Morris did you know you painted Jesus in the tomb? When I replied that I had wanted to but didn't think I could so I decided not to try, he first asked me to try to find it in the print. When I could not, be showed me the tracing he had made. To my surprise and God's glory, it was true. The tracing did appear to be that of Jesus in the tomb lying on his right side with a shroud draped over him.
    As you have the opportunity to find Jesus in the tomb yourself, you will be able to watch as the tracing moves in over the area where Jesus is in the tomb. There are other things in the picture as well. Some are more obvious than others, but are spirtually related. You can see angel wings, a lions head and an angle overhead just under the edge of the red curtain. There is a Baby Jesus just under the legs of Jesus in the tomb.
The mural finally found a home in the Church of God of prophecy in Verona, Mississippi. There is no doubt in my mind that God intended it to be there even as the work began in 1990. True to my dad's words, God has continually blessed me since then. I am very careful to give God the praise and glory.

Sincerely            
Morris McCain