September 7, 2024
ALBANY, Ga. -- For artist Courtenay Puckett, worship is by no means confined to church sanctuaries. She uses her talent to bring worship into homes, offices and, most recently, into one of Albany's premier art venues.
The Albany Area Arts Council’s first in-person art show since the start of the global COVID pandemic features Puckett’s work in an exhibit entitled Journeys, which focuses on Christian themes.
“She joyfully paints the message of the gospel into each piece and humbly explains that inspiration to everyone,” said exhibit attendee Cody Clements. “Courtenay shared with all the patrons, Christian and non-Christian, the gospel as the underlying reason she paints.”
The canvas artwork that has now been viewed by hundreds invites curiosity. Puckett’s pieces present intricate and intentional visual elements that beckon for the explanation that she eagerly provides.
“Well, it’s really Jesus,” Puckett often begins as she shares about the deeper meaning of each piece. The details and messages nearly always give way to the gospel that prompted them in the first place.
“Every time she speaks about her art it is with an apparent joy given by God alone,” said Ashley Denby, an alumna of Georgia Southwestern State University’s Baptist Collegiate Ministry who has been mentored by Puckett for years. ”She expresses the honest struggle as well as the only solution. ... I watched her faithfully share the gospel through her finished works with each person who walked through."
Puckett's heart for evangelism through artwork has also been an impactful example to April Rustin, who is a friend and longtime supporter of Puckett’s work.
“She has used it as a way to teach me that our abilities and desires to create come directly from God and should be used for His glory,” she said. To her, creative expression is “the perfect avenue to fulfill the desires He has given us but also to teach and encourage others in the Lord.”
Puckett, a Georgia Baptist, said her art reflects her relationship with the Lord.
"It’s the way I process and worship,” she said.
Puckett uses the creative model she sees practiced in the Psalms as her own: be still, observe, thank and record.
“This is my process of recording," she said. "These are my prayer journals, my visual processing of my internal relating with the Lord.”
Puckett said she feels a need to create art that opens doors for evanelism, that creates "an opportunity for the people to come and hear about Jesus."
For Puckett, picking up the paintbrush and wielding it for the glory of God leads to the great joy of that sweet moment when she gets to explain to another soul, “Well, it’s really Jesus.”
