According to Brent

B rent Borup has always wanted to be an artist, but he doesn't want to paint just another pretty picture.  Brent wishes to share his testimony of Jesus Christ through his artwork. He hopes that his paintings will have a positive impact on other people's lives. Read, in the artist's own words, his thoughts and feelings about 16 of his inspirational portraits of Jesus Christ. "The Light of the World" For my whole life, the one painting that I wanted to create the most above anything else was a portrait of Jesus Christ. I worked on many different portraits of Christ through the years, but I was never quite satisfied with any of them until I painted "Light of the World". I have since based many paintings off of this one image. You may find it interesting that I painted this portrait during a very low point in my life. I had been really struggling to see any success as an artist, and after a few weeks of particularly trying circumstances, I was ver...

A lot has happened the past few months. First, I lost my job. To fill you in, I had been painting pictures full time for a publisher out of Boise. They decided to do some major restructuring, which meant some major downsizing, which means that I no longer have a steady source of income. That is a very scary thing for a husband and father, sole provider of my family. What is even scarier is what we have decided to do about it. Nothing. Well, not nothing, but not finding another job either. We decided to take this 'setback' as an opportunity, and pursue my dream of becoming a full time, self employed artist. My wife and I have wrestled with this decision for many months, and we still wrestle with the outcomes (or lack thereof) that we are seeing daily, because frankly, I'm not sure just how we are going to make it, but I'm sure we are ... Why? because this is what we felt we should do. I believe in prayer. I believe in personal revelation. I believe that God is mind...

Click Here to Share on Facebook I realized a while back that although I love my job , I wasn't entirely satisfied... I wanted more. I wanted to do more. I wanted to BE more. As I wrote in my very first blog post "Why I'm an artist" , I have always been able to see the big picture of my future life, just not all of the details that may get me there. One thing that I have always known for sure, is that I want to matter. I want to help people. I want to lift them up and make a difference in their lives. That is why I focus my artwork on two things: Pictures of Jesus Christ, and pictures of LDS Temples. I do this because I know that by focusing on those two things (which is really just one thing, the Temple is a tool that God uses to help us become more Christlike), our lives can become greater than we ever thought it could be. I knew that there were great things in store for me, I felt like I was just on the edge of something wonderful, but just what did I ne...

Click Here to Share on Facebook I must admit that I have been pretty stressed out lately.  A little background information: Most artists don’t survive on just their own art sales. Some do, it’s possible, but most don’t. Most artists I know figure out a way to make it work. For the past few years, I have been employed full time by a company based out of Boise, Idaho. I think that I have had it pretty good, I worked 40 hours a week painting pictures of LDS Temples for them. They paid me a steady paycheck. In return, they own the copyrights to the paintings that I created for them. Many of my artist friends thought that I was selling my soul, but no, just my copyrights. It worked out good for me... It kept my family fed, and kept me doing what I love. In the back of my mind, I knew that I needed to be working on some sort of exit strategy. I knew I needed a plan to be able to break out on my own so that I could grow in both my career and my income, but that was a bit in the...

Click Here to Share on Facebook     There are two types of men in this world.... Those who carry pocketknives, and those who don't.  I would generally classify myself as a pocketknife type of guy, except for one thing... I never had one with me (I know that doesn't make a whole lot of sense). One day I was at a junk yard with my brother-in-law. I saw a really cool dome light that I wanted to take out of an old car, except I wasn't actually planning on salvaging anything, so I didn't bring any tools with me. Out comes my brother-in-law's pocketknife. Wow! That was so handy! Why don't I have one of those? Well... I do, I have several, but I just wasn't in the habit of always taking them with me. I decided right then and there that I wanted to change. I wanted to form a new good habit. I wanted to be a "Pocketknife Guy". I went home and looked at my collection of pocketknives. I love my "Old Timer", but really just for whittling. M...

Click Here to Share on Facebook     Have you heard one phrase or sentence, that, upon hearing it, you knew your life will be changed forever? Well I have. It was a simple idea introduced to me by a blogger named Al Carraway.  You can read the full story in a previous blog post about why I decided to become an artist >HERE< ,  but for now it will suffice to say that she encouraged me to #spreadspirit and #usetheinternetforgood. It's amazing how powerfully those simple words encouragement hit me that day. The Holy Spirit took hold of those words that Al blogged and pounded them into my soul so that I would wake up and pay attention to them. Now that I have, my life, and other's lives, have been extremely blessed because of it. Because of this fact, when I heard that Al Carraway's publisher was looking for a few people to review her new book More than the Tattooed Mormon , I jumped at the chance. Let me start by saying this book is an easy read. Althoug...

Click Here to Share on Facebook     Quite a few years ago, when my now teenage children were just babies, I was diagnosed with cancer.     Actually, at first I was just self diagnosed. One day I was over at my parents house, and I happened to be flipping through an issue of "Prevention" magazine (don't ask me why, I don't typically flip through magazines, especially ones that sound as boring as "Prevention"). This particular issue had an article about self diagnosing cancer. So I did. I realized that day that I had cancer. I remember going home that day and telling my wife "So... Um... I think I have cancer".  I did it with with a smile on my face! I was a bit nervous, but at the same time, I felt a different kind of anxiety, a positive feeling. Was it excitement? No. Definitely not, but I did in fact feel a sense of confidence that I hadn't felt before. The Borups - 2001     As I went to the doctor I took the news rather ...