Golden underwater photography

Akiane kramarik is a famous American fairy tale character. People call her a child prodigy: when she was four or five years old, she sketched people's faces. In addition to her smooth brushstrokes, she also captured instantaneous expressions, whether naive, melancholy, lonely, surprised or thoughtful. When I was six years old, I drew crayons, which showed my undoubted talent in composition, color and rhythm. At the age of seven, she turned to oil painting because she thought crayons were not exquisite enough. Since then, she has painted a series of exquisite and atmospheric paintings with mature styles year after year. That year, she also began to write poems, which are real poems-what she walks through in poems is a kind of beauty full of aura. At the age of ten, she appeared on Oprah, the most popular TV host in America. So far, American national TV programs and international TV programs have featured her dozens of times. Twenty-five magazines, including Time magazine, have written articles for her. Since the age of nine, Achiana has held solo poetry exhibitions in ten states, including Idaho, North Carolina, Iowa, California, Washington and Virginia. Ten-year-old and eleven-year-old children held a solo poetry exhibition at the Iowa Museum of Religious Arts. Her website has an annual hit rate of over 65.438+0.5 billion times. She was selected as one of the 20 most accomplished visual artists by art institutions in London and the United States. This internationally renowned 13-year-old child is considered to be the only amphibious gifted child in history. What's even more amazing is that Achyana is self-taught in painting and poetry creation, and has not been guided by any famous teacher. Because the education of public or private schools made her unable to concentrate on her creation, she and her four brothers simply went to school at home and let her write poems and draw pictures every day.

She is really a child prodigy. But the reason why we call this child who likes jumping on the grass, playing by the river and living with nature, beauty and poetry every day is because there are some things in her life and art that are invisible to ordinary people's eyes, her usual mind is unreasonable and her utilitarian scale cannot be measured; It is precisely because of the strange news and call conveyed by her paintings that her poems reveal much more agility and wisdom than her age; It is because from childhood to adolescence, for ten years, she kept recording her yearning and experience of God and the kingdom of heaven, as well as her observation and understanding of man and nature with palette, brush, canvas, tongue, pen and paper.

There is something unique about Akiana. Her paintings and poems are often inspired by her dreams and second vision. The purest beauty and glory attracted her and fascinated her deeply. She often draws a lot of sketches until she reproduces the visions that God gave her, and then paints them into oil paintings. "When I wake up in the morning, I will think of many dreams I have had. I prayed, saw those visions, and then explained to my mother which one I would draw. " At the age of seven, Akiana painted the oil painting Eagle. She recalled: "In my second vision, I saw an eagle flying over a big city full of skyscrapers, announcing the secret of the future. But when I draw, I can't remember its words. " Once, she saw her mother's favorite flower-clematis in the garden. The strange flowers and vines seemed to float in the air, which left a deep impression on her. The next morning, she had a dream about clematis. Her brother slipped on the petals. She picked up the letter from her late grandfather ... After waking up, Akiana began to paint "Dream of Clematis" (eight years old, see No.28 of this magazine). It was a long time before she realized that the clematis in her dream showed love and trust. She realized that "love made is for creation." In the painting Silence (nine years old), there is an eagle soaring under a clear sky, overlooking the valley between two mountains. Living water flows down from the distant snow-capped mountains, where it gathers into lakes, pours into waterfalls and turns into winding streams downstream. The terrain becomes gentle, and the green grass is dotted with sheep. Achyana said, "There, you can hear the sounds of nature, the living silence of heaven …" She devoted great joy and love to two oil paintings of Jesus Christ, Children of Peace (eight years old, see last issue) and Father, forgive them! "(nine years old, see the cover of the second issue of this issue), all by the vision she saw.

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1One day in July, 994, Akiana was born in the bath at home and gave birth underwater. The warm water in the pool is like amniotic fluid in the fetus. The newborn who left his mother opened his eyes, a pair of eyes as blue as the sky, and looked curiously at the outside world. Her father's hand held her gently. Her tiny fingers occasionally catch the slightly beating umbilical cord, her long hair floats in the water, and the clear water ripples because of the waving of her hands and feet. Her parents smiled and gave her a resounding name: Akiane, a Russian word meaning "ocean".

When Akiana was less than a month old, she received a strange phone call from Europe, saying that a woman named Victoria in Armenia told many people that a girl named Akiana had a bright future. After a while, the woman named Victoria called herself. She has a strong Russian accent. She described the exciting things that Akiana will experience with great efforts and enthusiasm. Qiuyena's mother thanked her politely. The whole family had never seen this woman in the Caucasus mountains of Asia Minor. Victoria said she was a Christian, while Qiu Qiuna's parents didn't believe in God. Everyone turned around and forgot what she said.

Autumn leaves grow up gradually. She has a sunny nature and likes to giggle. But she is also very sensitive, sensitive, shy and doesn't talk much. More often, she just observes. When she was a toddler, Akiana often took some stones, shells, leaves and flowers home. She loves to touch the texture of clothes and skin. She likes to feed small animals and is fascinated by their life phenomena. She has amazing intuition about the people around her and can see their true colors through the thick mask of laughter. She never likes such unreal things as fairy tales and fantasies.

Akiana is the third child in the family, with two brothers in front and two younger brothers behind. The family is not rich, there is almost no social interaction, and the children entertain themselves. My mother grew up in Lithuania on the Baltic Sea in northern Europe. She was educated in the former Soviet Union and didn't understand God. Mother manages the family wholeheartedly. My father is an American and a professional chef. I don't watch TV at home, don't talk about religion, don't pray, don't go to church, and even never use the word "God".

But when I was four years old, one morning, Akiana whispered to her mother, "Today, I met God." This is the first time that Akiana has seen the Lord Jesus. She will always remember what he said to her: "You must do it, and I will help you, so that you can help others." . "How loving, peaceful and beautiful the voice of the Lord is! She replied, "Yes, I do! "She experienced how wonderful life is with God. At that time, the mother didn't know the situation, but gradually, the mother realized that the dreams and visions shared by her daughter were real experiences for her. That year, all the Achias believed in the Lord. Although the family is still poor, this family has tasted unspeakable joy, harmony and peace for the first time.

Singing of pigments

When the illusion in the dream appeared, Akiana became keen on painting. Walls, windows, furniture, pages, wherever she can touch, even her legs and hands are covered with hundreds of portraits and characters. Sometimes she paints with her eyes closed; Sometimes, I bite my teeth or draw with a pencil between my toes; Sometimes, draw with charcoal in the furnace; Sometimes, fruits and vegetables are picked from the garden and painted on the wall. She seemed a little quieter when she was scolded, and later found that she painted on the back of the table. Children over the age of four love to draw portraits, and she won't stop until they draw them vividly. She told her mother, "instead of God, he taught me to draw." She also painted the residence of light, "The aperture is full of apertures, endless circles, where God lives." She said: "There, when I walk and talk, plants will move and sing as if they could think. It's good there, I listen, everyone there listens, and God is there. "

At the age of six, Akiana began to paint with oil pastels, and her family realized that she really had a unique talent. At the age of 7, Achyana began to paint directly with oil paints. If she paints the whole character, she likes to paint portraits with acrylic resin, so she uses oil paints. At four o'clock every morning, she gets up and works five or six days a week. She paints in the studio first, and then writes poems and aphorisms. Her poems are often conceived by whole poems. Work four to five hours a day. Before painting oil paints, she often draws many sketches until she is satisfied. She devoted herself to painting every painting, one at a time, until the final draft was finalized. On average, each oil painting or acrylic painting takes her 100 to 200 hours. Since then, she has maintained an annual output of eight to twenty paintings.

When she was four years old, she drew a picture of a girl with a pencil and showed it to her mother: "This is her-my guardian angel. Her teeth are white and her eyes can talk. " At the age of ten, she painted an angel again, this time with acrylic resin, or her guardian angel, wearing a white robe and a veil of holiness and strength from head to toe. Her wings are invisible to human eyes, and her arms stretch forward and hold her to perform tasks. (Angel) At the age of eleven, Akiana drew the same angel sitting posture and the same costume. She leaned down and looked up intently. Akiana described: "Her hair is golden, and her face is pure and beautiful, full of heroic spirit. She is concerned with something of eternal significance. What is eternity has not been revealed to me. " (Angel's Love)

Among Achiana's paintings, the most precious and famous are two oil paintings of Jesus Christ. The kindness of the resurrected Lord Jesus appeared in her dreams and visions many times, which made Akiana unforgettable all her life. She said, "I always think of the Lord Jesus, and I always talk about the Lord Jesus." She decided to draw the Lord Jesus. In the past two years, she stood in supermarkets, shopping malls, parking lots and city streets, watching thousands of faces pass by, trying to find a model with the face of Jesus seen in her dream, but she couldn't find it. Finally, Akiana asked the whole family to pray for this matter and asked God to send the most suitable person. Akiana also asked for confirmation that he should come in through the front door.

The next afternoon, the doorbell of the front door rang and Akiana saw a tall young man standing at the door. He has a warm smile and strong hands. Modest and poised. He has curly hair and a sharp, shallow beard. This is very similar to the Lord Jesus she saw in her dream. He came in and said he was a carpenter. His voice is deep and calm. Carpenter! The occupation before the Lord Jesus came out to preach! She whispered to her mother, "That's him! Models! "

Akiana refused to delay for a moment. She immediately ran back to her room and drew dozens of sketches from all angles. She found that the eyes of the Lord Jesus looked at her from all angles, and in a world full of suffering, the light of heaven shone down. A great force is spinning in her veins. She poured great joy and love into it and described the image of the resurrected Christ that had been vividly portrayed in her mind. She is always meticulous. In order to draw eyelashes, she even cut a pinch of hair and made it into a fine brush. In just forty hours, the creation was completed. This is the oil painting "Son of Peace" (eight years old). Then Achyana created another portrait of Christ, "Father, forgive them!" " (nine years old) is also a record of visions in dreams.

On the way to growing up

Like all confident painters, Akiana likes to paint self-portraits. However, painting for herself was the most difficult and frustrating day she had ever experienced. Because her family is poor, she can't afford a big mirror for painting. She can only hold a palm-sized mirror and capture all kinds of fleeting expressions with a brush while taking pictures. In order to draw the tone of the skin, she mixed the pigments together, then dipped a little with a brush and applied it to the tip of the nose to see if it matched her skin color. When all this was done, she added the colors, shapes and backgrounds of other parts of the painting according to her own imagination. It is more difficult for her to draw a self-portrait than others, but although Akiana is young, she shows that she has the ability to make higher demands in difficulties and hardships and achieve her goals better. This ability depends to some extent on her intention to create a self-portrait, which is obviously different, making her self-portrait a higher witness. She said, "My self-portrait expresses my relationship with God."

At the age of six, Akiana painted a self-portrait "Growing Up": a determined look, wearing a wonderful flower with golden stamens and blue petals on her chest, and a cross-shaped star in the blue night sky, with the snowy mountain top and light blue water as the background. Later, she accompanied this painting with a meaningful poem "Many Lonely Paths": "White Rose of Hope/Meeting in the Orchard of Youth. /I fled the winding path straight,/I left home for the truth. /.../I don't know how many times I came back from the dead,/How many times salt and tears met,/Whenever my eyes covered my quiet eyes,/I don't remember how the pearl slipped. /God's love perfected time,/The cross-shaped cold star bathed on the shore,/When he called me back, Gogo's swan trembled at my door. " What makes us feel is that when children similar to Akiana's age just entered school, the exploration of truth has become the purpose of Akiana's life.

A year later, Akiana painted a self-portrait entitled "My sight can't wait". Her expression has matured a lot, and her gaze has been thoughtful. She wrote a poem of the same name to match this painting, in which she proudly declared: "Follow in the footsteps of God, follow in his footsteps. /No one has heard what I saw. " Her eyes looked up slightly, and the background of the painting was a deep red sky, and layers of white nebulae poured out.

Achyana's most proud self-portrait is a creative collaborator. She painted this when she was just 1 1 years old. She stood in the dark starry sky, her posture blended with the vast starry sky, holding several brushes in her left hand and a brush in her right hand to light a shining star. Achyana said: "I want to express the joy of creating workers and the awe of God's great love and wisdom. My palette is the universe, and my brush is dipped in the color of the stars. " It is not enough to see Achyana's skills and talents, because there are some more meaningful and valuable things in her paintings and poems. Perhaps it is more accurate to say that Achyana's self-portrait is a record of her mental journey of meeting God.

It is impossible for people to meet God by themselves. Only God can meet people on his own initiative, and only God can meet people on his path of truth. In this Tao, God speaks to people, and only those who are in it can hear God's words, and only they can solemnly respond to God's holy words. I listened, and they came.

Achyana has been painting and writing poems for many years, and every work is devoted, but for her, this is by no means the whole or even the main motivation. She gradually realized that the author was not the owner of the work. Those good works, even before creation, have their own personality and life. The success or failure of the work depends on whether they respect this life. A real work is a gift. At the age of 9, Akiana described her experience like this: "I taught them and they walked away; I listen, they are coming; My strength lies in my silence. "

Oil painting under the lamp is an allegorical work created by Akiana when she was nine years old. The picture shows a huge stream flowing from far away, facing the valley. There are five groups of bears arranged in perspective, one or two groups, which are covered by big light respectively. The photographer who came to interview saw this newly completed painting and asked, "What do you want to express by painting these bears?" At that time, the title of the painting had not yet been decided. Akiana, who was resting barefoot in a chair stained with oil, replied, "These bears show that five people have different reactions to God. God's presence looked at them, and only three groups felt the light: a bear wanted to escape from the light and stepped into the darkness. The other was angered by the light and screamed at the sky. The third group (located in the upper right corner) is a pair of mother and son bears. They looked up, full of awe, longing and joy. Among the five groups of bears, this pair of mother and son bears is the only one with a reflection in the stream. Achyana means that only those who know God can truly know themselves. The other two groups don't realize the existence of light at all: they are gladiators or fighters, fighting with their own kind for their own self-interest, or busy taking their own things. The moral of this painting is: don't run away from the light, don't hate the light, don't fight for selfish desires or only care about yourself. Those who do this will definitely lose the truth completely. Look up to the truth and live, and you will find peace and joy. "

This painting was signed by Akiana twice: the first time was in the lower right corner of the painting, when the painting was completed; After that, Akiana accidentally cut her finger. She had a brainwave, dipped in the blood oozing from her fingers and signed her name on the trout held in her mouth by the bear. This is a nine-year-old girl's love of light, her observation of the current situation of human beings, and she positioned herself as a small victim.

In her painting "The Hourglass" when she was ten years old, Akiana painted light again, using the light from the bottom of the sea to show the eternity of the past and the future.

Akiana always prays first and then writes. She has a deep understanding of prayer. When Achyana was ten years old, she painted an oil painting called "The Power of Prayer" and dedicated it to all devout prayers. On the screen, flocks of birds fly on the river of life, some focus on their own goals, some are carefree, some are absent-minded, and some return in vain. Achyana said: "The ability to pray lies in direction, humility, sincerity and self-confidence. Prayer is like a soaring bird. Only by listening to the whispers of God can we pursue God. The fastest and most focused prayer can melt the snow on the mountain peak. The more you pray, the greater your ability. "

Achyana longs for the word of God and pursues the sacred truth. She said: "Diamonds come from deep mines and can be recognized by their flash."

In the painting "Mother's Love" (eleven years old), Akiana painted the Virgin Mary holding the baby Jesus. With her unique tender love, this hug gesture surrounds the savior Jesus Christ, from the newborn baby, the crucified king to the resurrected Lord. So Achyana painted Maria's hand in the shadow to witness the suffering, and painted her hand in the light to witness the birth and resurrection of the Lord.

Akiana said: "May my art guide people to pay attention to God, and may my poetry guard people's attention to God."

I am very lucky.

When Achyana was four years old, my grandmother came from Lithuania to visit the Achyana family and lived with them for a month. This is the first and last time that Akiana saw her grandmother. Grandma experienced war, death, hunger and disease all her life, but she never complained. She is an extremely strong woman. Akiana even dreamed that her grandmother stood smiling and died. Akiana always remembers what her grandmother whispered to herself: "I have believed in God all my life, but in Lithuania, I am afraid to share my faith with my family and friends. Qiuyena, don't repeat my mistake. Share your faith with others! The life of you and others will be blessed. Never give up! "Grandma's spirit influenced Qiu Qiuna's creation. For example, in "Moonlight", the egret was first painted as a sad expression with its neck drooping, and later it was painted as a majestic gesture of holding its head high to face life.

Akiana wants people to find hope in her paintings. Each of her paintings has the same purpose: to inspire others and become a gift to God. Because Achyana's greatest hope is that everyone loves God and others as themselves. She wants to share her love for God and people with her whole life.

Since seeing God for the first time at the age of four, what Akiana wants to do most now is to serve the children in need in the world with her unique talent. Akiana has a dream, which she thinks is God's will: "I really want to help children in need in Africa and other places, especially Lithuania. Lithuania has so-called "garbage children". They live in garbage dumps, and children aged two or three are often killed for food. They need food, medicine and free hospitals. I want to build a free hospital for them. "

Achyana donated most of the money for selling paintings and books. She will also launch a global fundraising campaign for the AIDS crisis in Africa. When talking about her daughter's upcoming work, Akiana's mother said, "We don't know why this happened, but we really thank God!" In this regard, Akiana seems to have an answer: "I am a person blessed by God. There is only one reason why I am blessed, and that is to help others. "

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There is a handsome young man Yue Se in Genesis, whose life is inextricably linked with dreams. Yue Se learned from his dream that God had made a noble plan for him. Even though he was sold to Egypt as a slave and wrongly imprisoned, he still feared God and kept his virtue. In the end, he became an official because of the wisdom of solving old dreams, which made the Israeli nation survive the seven-year famine. Now, where will Achyana's dreams and hallucinations take this 14-year-old child?

People's ability to speak, write and create does not come out of thin air. This ability is a strange gift, and it is a part of God's realization according to his own mind when he created everyone in his own image. God chose some hearing ears, so that there was living water in their mouths; It is not only a miracle to choose a pure heart as a palette, let his light analyze there and put them on colorful exercises! God chose a child who had not been carved by a craftsman, gave her a dream of truth, goodness and beauty, gave her a grand vision, and gave her a piano named after a constellation, so that she could speak with her breath and describe it skillfully. This is not just a miracle! In this age of ancient people and materialistic desires, God has given us a child who paints dreams, a child who longs for the Lord Jesus, listens and carries out what she hears. What does he want us to see from it? Look, God's wonderful work, all the glory and praise belong to the root of all blessings-our creator, manager and redeemer!

Then, as a gracious person, we should make good use of God's resources and use them more and more, just like a pipeline that flows to all those in need. God has given some people special gifts, which make them comparable to ordinary people in some ways, just as the plateau is to Pingchuan. God's original intention is not to make Gao Mai look down on humility, but to make mountains and rivers nourish Yuan Ye and let more people benefit to serve others. .

The child who paints dreams will always remember the sentence she heard from a height: "You must do it, and I will help you, so that you can help others."