Thank God for C.S. Lewis’s imagination! My own imagination has been incandescently illuminated by his writings. Sharing a deep love for Lewis has allowed for the rise of my joyous friendship with Corey. Much like Lewis and all the friends he shared in his life: Warnie, Tolkein, Charles, etc., Corey encourages me to take delight in our Magnificent God.

One of the most interesting ideas from Lewis’ writings is the imaginative rendering of Henri Bergson's concept of time, which is to say that there is only ever a ~present~ moment: a perpetual “now.” I was excited to capture the many “now” moments of Lewis’ imagination into a singular image, a stationary image that could somehow contain both Heaven and Hell, which means, even “now,” we are inhabiting one or the other, and the respective bliss or agony is already here in the moment, even as it is still coming.
 
While I was able to capture much of Lewis’ imaginary worlds in my typical illustrative style, my quest for realism in Lewis’ figure was motivated by two things: the fact that he is someone who lived in the age of the photograph is essential to why Lewis is so beloved—while the rest of world lurched forward to embrace intellectual modernity, Lewis reached back to Dante and Boethius to nourish the imagination and he used classical logic-based arguments to defend his reason for hope. The second reason I pursued realism here comes from Lewis’ own sermon ‘The Weight of Glory’ where he exhorts the listener to remember that aside from the Sacrament, the most holy thing we can ever encounter is our Neighbor—image bearers of the Triune God.
 
I wanted this drawing to remember Lewis’s own holiness, simply in his being human. Also: this is my favorite image of Lewis: a brilliant man relaxing in an armchair, reading from a massive tome, with laughter still fresh on his lips—as if he were being surprised by his joy.
 
A comission piece for Corey Latta.