Local artist: Depicting Jesus was stuff of dreams

On June 3, 2011, I had a dream that I will never forget: I was in the Vatican with my husband in a large crowd of people. 

A priest dressed as a cardinal came up to me, took me by the hand and said, “Come with me. We want you to paint something big.”

I said to him something to the effect that I wasn’t ready. He told me, “It’s time. Come now.” He took me by the hand and led me down a large hallway to make the arrangements to start the painting for the church.
 
When I woke up, I immediately started to write down the dream, but I couldn’t figure out who this cardinal was. He was so familiar to me that I started searching on the Internet. As soon as I saw an image of Pope John Paul II as a cardinal, I knew it was he.

The tears started flowing. I knew it was Pope John Paul II, but why was he dressed as a cardinal and not pope? My spiritual director told me to pray about what God wanted me to paint for the church, so I did.

As the years passed, I did many portraits that have definitely been led by God.

In 2015, I was asked to do a portrait of St. Charbel by a good friend of our family, Father Vic Messina. He gave me a book about St. Charbel because I like to know as much as possible about a subject before I begin his or her portrait.

Quick inspiration
I read the book in one day but wasn’t quite ready to start St. Charbel’s portrait until one Friday night. I felt sort of a push that I had to start the portrait right then. I didn’t prepare – I just sat down and started the portrait, and three days later it was finished.

This was amazing to me because I usually don’t have portraits come out exactly as I imagine without a lot of prior planning. I was so inspired that I could not wait to work on St. Charbel’s image each day, which is usually how I know it is from God.

When Father Vic’s friend, Father Miles Walsh, saw the portrait of St. Charbel, he asked Father Vic if I would be interested in doing a portrait of the Divine Mercy image for Sacred Heart Church in Baton Rouge, Father Walsh’s parish.

Amazingly, a couple of weeks before I was asked to do the Divine Mercy image, my oldest son had had a profound dream. Across the street from our house, in the sky, were the hands of God. At the end of the street was Jesus as the Divine Mercy image. I remember how vivid the dream was to my son and could not believe I was being asked to do a portrait of the Divine Mercy image just a few weeks later!

Future pope pushed cause
I met with Father Miles and started communicating daily with him about the image. I wanted it to be perfect. I told Father Miles about my dream from 2011, and how Pope John Paul II was dressed as a cardinal and not the pope. Father Miles suggested that the reason John Paul was not dressed as pope was because he was a cardinal when he was working for the cause of St. Faustina – the saint who instructed the painting of the original Divine Mercy image!

I was beyond inspired and could not wait to start. My original intent was to base the portrait on St. Faustina’s Divine Mercy image, per Father Miles’ request, but I felt strongly that the image should be unique to Sacred Heart Church.

I went to bed and asked Jesus, through the intercession of St. Faustina, if I could have a dream and see his face so I could attempt to capture his image. I am well aware that I am not worthy of seeing the face of Jesus, but I also didn’t want to disappoint St. Faustina. I figured it wouldn’t hurt to ask, right?

That night I had an incredible dream. It was so vivid, so real, like I was in a movie. Jesus was at the edge of a body of water with some of his disciples. I was a few feet away with some other people I didn’t know.

There was a small, rustic wooden boat that they were about to get into. The person next to me said, “Who is that?” I said, “That’s Jesus.” As I said that he turned to look at me. I could see his profile as he was turning around, and then I woke up – again, in tears.

I will never forget that dream. Jesus was very handsome, exuding a kind, loving presence in a very strong, masculine way. I wrote everything down including the date, in case it had some sort of significance. The night I asked for the dream was Oct. 5, which I had no idea was the feast day of St. Faustina! I couldn’t believe it!

I started sketching. I initially looked at images of the Shroud of Turin, because Father Miles had said that he liked them. I did use the Shroud to determine the basic placement of Christ’s features, but I really felt like I needed to put away all images of Jesus and let the Holy Spirit guide me. Jesus had given me this gift, he had given me these dreams, and he had inspired Father Miles to ask me to do this portrait, so I should also let him guide me to draw his face.

One black-and-white portrait of Jesus that I completed (pictured in this issue of the Clarion Herald, at the top of page 1) began as a sketch for the face of Jesus. It was going to be a sort of study to see what he would look like, but evolved into a portrait that I will always cherish. It is as close to the face of Jesus in my dream as I could get.

Time was worth it
It took one year, almost to the day, to complete the Divine Mercy image. I spent many hours in prayer throughout the process and truly enjoyed saying the Chaplet of Divine Mercy in front of the finished portrait before we delivered it to be framed. The portrait is a 70-by-40-inch pastel on pastel board. It was unveiled November 20, 2016, at Sacred Heart Church.

When the portrait was finished, I asked St. Faustina if she could somehow let me know if she was happy with the portrait. On Oct. 7, 2016, the anniversary of St. Faustina’s burial, the official U. S. copyright for the Divine Mercy image arrived.

As a convert to the Catholic faith, I believe God has given me this gift for a reason. I hope when someone looks at the images he has inspired me to create, they will be moved to prayer and feel the presence of Jesus.

Katherine Borgatti is a parishioner of Our Lady of the Lake Church in Mandeville. She can be reached at [email protected].