What happens when art meets wild imagination?

"Where Am I?" (excerpt) by Greg Simkins

What does "Christian" art look like? Ask 30 people and you're likely to get as many answers. After 2000 years we're not close to a consensus about what art or even Christianity is – at least in absolutes.

Art from the European Renaissance comes nearest to being an ideal for Western religious art. Fruitful and daring for its times, the Renaissance marks the high tide of Christian aesthetics in the minds of most people. Produced during an era of unparalleled cooperation between church and state, a butcher's taxes could literally end up end supporting the shins of Michelangelo's "David." Vast sums invested in religious art rivaled military spending. It also mirrored the beliefs of the majority of common men; or at least no one was complaining about it much.

Italians from the 16th century didn't create a monopoly on paint virtuosity, though. They just had a more appreciative audience, which included kings and millions of pious churchgoers. So where have all our Renaissance-type geniuses gone?

They're still around, but they aren't getting nearly the attention they once did. And from the artists in that category, Christians are some of the most neglected. They can also be the hardest to recognize, now that we're past the era of obligatory Madonnas and nimbus-crowned holy men. Artists who don't use clear Bible imagery may only be recognized as Christian by their statements, a biography or gossip.

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Greg "Craola" Simkins is one of these chameleons. Well known in several art communities, none of them are particularly religious. In fact his ready confession of Christian faith comes as a shock to many interviewers, reviewers and fans.

"Where am I?" by Greg "Craola" Simkins

Captivated or dismayed by Simkins' fantasy world of morphing beast-fauna hybrids and flying tea cups and such, viewers can hardly know what he is thinking. Still, his work is extraordinarily popular, especially with a younger crowd. It appears in tattoos, skateboards, apparel, album covers and museums.

At 40, Simkins has a distinguished career as an artist with many twists and corridors. As a child he loved cartooning, and that blossomed into tagging and street art in the early 1990s. Residual calligraphy and blocky or balloon script are in many of his pieces today. He owes his moniker "Craola" to that period of his life, and a crayon turns up in unexpected places. One of them is his painting "Where am I?"

A tour de force of elegant acrylic fantasy on a 92-inch panel, "Where am I?" revels in High Renaissance technical proficiency. Feathers, pearls and bubbles – a motley assortment of creatures both real and fantasy are cobbled together in an undertaking or journey. In this case, most creature/objects spring from this world; but Simkins has a parallel world of his own that shoves its face up here and there.

Rabbit-eared, sword wielding and multi-armed Pinocchio appears in several paintings with his Elizabethan collar. Simkins doesn't give explanations, and that works best for his clients, who imagine in whatever they like. There is clearly a tale here, though, and the question "Where am I?" has existential and theological implications.

He reveled his thought behind the dizzying imagery in an excellent interview with Sion Smith in 2014. "It's pondering ideas of time, eternity, infinity, minds, souls and the basic question of 'why are we here' that has me battling back and forth daily," he said.

A top-hatted frog riding a parrot (all beautifully rendered) holds a clue to his maker's faith. His froggy hands clutch a tiny book with three golden crosses entwined with an anchor. Birds are almost all angelic, often carrying the weight of many other beings. There are many more obscure references to the Bible, Christian faith, childhood, natural science and other allusions. He was so taken with science and animals that he considered being a veterinarian at one time.

Simkims clarified his world view for fans in 2014. "I am a Christ follower, I would say I am Christian."

He may find this necessary because many of his images are dark. Simkins' imagery can be disturbing and bizarre – realities of life relayed via the unlikely denizens of cartoon and children's stories.

"As far as the majority of my work goes however, I don't approach it theologically [or] attempt to put messages in most pieces," Simkins makes clear. Still, he insists he is ruminating on Judeo-Christian thought all the time and that his worldview inevitably bleeds into his work as well as his life.

Specifically Simkins lauds a diverse group of Christian writers, scientists, thinkers and artists. Homicide detective/apologist J. Warner Wallace is among them. C.S. Lewis is evident in the fantasy, epic-adventure themes glimpsed in some paintings. But as quirky as his art may be, Simkins is inspired by the most orthodox theology and reputable proponents such as R. C. Sproul, John Lennox and advocate for intelligent design, Stephen C. Meyer.

Debates by William Lane Craig and Lawrence Krauss lend toward the odd creatures populating Simkins' canvases. The artist claims this type of discussion inspires ideas for his own imaginary worlds. "What would be going on in another universe separate from our own?" he asks. "What would we see there?"

"Prey" by Greg Simkins 2014

"Prey" is one of his few paintings with unmistakably Biblical imagery. "It is loosely based on Matthew 7:15," he tells us. "The Lamb is representational of unblemished purity boldly walking into a horrible fate by those He knows to be liars and murderers."

"Good Knight" hero made his advent recently. The knight strives for "ultimate good in an otherwise dark and scary world," we learn from Simkins. Once again a glorious blue jay is saddled up (and because of the scale of these paintings, his birds can be six feet across). Elements from "Alice in Wonderland" attend the knight while a tiny caged princess flies aloft. This is one of his attempts to explore the "depths of creativity that we have all been given in the likeness of a vastly imaginative Creator."

Simkins may paint a looming Mickey Mouse, but he does it as if he were Botticell, with cleanness, balanced composition and almost perfect simulation of any surface or texture on earth. Gems, brocades, wooden panels, claws or scales – this is where Simkin and masterly painting best meet. He mentions his admiration for artists such as Caravaggio, with his dramatic lighting.

Elements of surrealism, pop art, sci-fi and graffiti meet in Simkins' art, as well as elements of the grotesque (à la Hieronymus Bosch). All is presented with an unexpected elegance and beauty, a disturbing contrast to some viewers. Together these elements prove impossible to constrain into a genre or style. That is a good thing, or "Christian art" would be copyrighted by now.

Simkins is refreshingly humble about his talent and success. Noting he isn't "performing surgeries or anything like," he flatly denies art is going to save the world, placing the needs of his family and other obligations first. Contrast this with German artist Gerhard Richter who said (among other things) "Now there are no priests or philosophers left, artists are the most important people in the world."

It isn't easy to decipher Simkins' art, but the mystery is something his fans love about it. It's like a high-art Rubik's cube. When all the planes and faces line up, we see a number of things. One of them is a successful young artist selling his visions stirred by the Bible (New American Standard is his favorite) to secular Americans.

Sources

• Greg Simpkins' website
• An interview with Greg Craola Simkins
• Juxtapoz