Christian-Homosexual Artist Jonathan Kent Adams Uses Talent to Impact Mississippi Norms
Brush bristles sweep across a canvas draped in hews of blue, ripe reds; bright greens and happy yellows to create paintings of sweet simplicity. However, his sweet and simplistic art pieces are rooted with deeper meanings. Jonathan Kent Adams is an artist with a variety of passions that fuel his talent. Adams is a believer, a lover, a worshiper of Christ, and an activist to the LGBT community. Through his passion for art, he is able to express not only who he is as a person, but also what he wishes to see in other people all over the world. Mississippi is his starting point.
“Art has the ability to penetrate your conscious, start dialogue and hopefully lead to change,” Adams says. “My art is not always about activism, but I do hope that in some way it makes people stop and think, which leads to change.”
A lot of his work focuses on his sexuality. Kent is happily in a relationship with boyfriend, Blake Summers, who has inspired much of his paintings over the years. Even though Kent grew up with strong Christian values, he is a firm believer that God loves him regardless of his homosexual being.
“That’s one of the reasons I look up to Nathan. It is not necessarily easy for him, or anyone for that matter, to come out as gay in the Christian community he was raised in,” says Summers. “I love seeing that come through in his art.”
Six years ago and shortly after Adams graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in painting from the University of Mississippi, he has been using art as a personal outlet. For Adams, art is not just a hobby or a talent. To him it is a form of prayer and a way to connect to the higher, Christian power he believes in, even though homosexuality is not suggested in the Bible.
“Growing up there was a lot of people telling me, you know, you can’t be both a Christian and a lover to a man”, Adams says. “Whether it’s people or institutions like the Church, I was always hearing things like that so I think a lot of times that comes out in my art.”
While the subjects of his art vary, he mainly uses oil paint to create his pieces. A lot of his work is paintings of people, specifically portraits or full body images with abstract surroundings. One series, however, strays from that and hones in on common, everyday objects that people see day to day. The still life series titled “The Gay Lifestyle” is a play on how people view the paintings as they look at decorative objects around their homes.
“I really don’t care for the term ‘gay lifestyle’, but I wanted to speak about that and how ordinary it really feels,” Adams says.
Some of his other art installations focus on activism for the LGBT community. His work was featured in an art show in Columbus, Mississippi that represented minorities in the state. Members of the LGBT community that experience God was the theme of his series.
“I tried to make the space seem sacred,” says Adams. “The central piece of the installation was a painting that was suspended in the air of the crucifix.”
To most Bible believers, homosexuality and practicing the Christian faith is a conflict. That is one aspect of the religion that Adams doesn’t believe as he experiences love from God and what it is to be gay himself. Even though Adams experienced darkness at certain points in his life, art has allowed him to create a positive light for not only himself, but also others who deal or have dealt with the same conflict. What’s more, he hopes that his work will change the way people view those who love differently and yet have religious beliefs that say otherwise. In his next show, he is doing an in-public painting where he will paint hateful words on a canvas and then cover over the words with an anatomical heart.
“The public gets to see the process of this piece in real time, which is really cool,” says Adams. “I try not to limit what I am willing to do and I don’t have any favorite pieces I guess, but I would say being present while creating is my favorite.”
Another thing about art that he favors is its magical ability to heal. After the devastating Pulse nightclub shooting this past summer in Orlando, Florida, he was completely shocked and shaken by the tragedy. He knew he had to respond by creating something, but he didn’t know that it would earn the outstanding attention and praise that it did. The day right after the attack, Adams decided he would paint all 49 portraits of those who lost their lives in the gay nightclub that evening and learn as much about each of them as he could.
“The series was really my way to visit these people’s pain and try to release healing to the world,” Adams says.
And his work did just that. He used social media to share the portraits with others and many people responded very well to the series. Family members and friends reached out to say thank you and even some celebrities, like “One Tree Hill” star Sophia Bush, reposted his work on her own Instagram, which gave the series a lot of exposure.
“People told me that they were changed by it,” says Adams. “It was personally emotional to me while making each piece and having to revisit the pain, but when they were all hung together it was so healing.”
Art in general is healing to Adams, but for him that’s not enough. He wants his art to reach people in ways they haven’t been reached before, whether it heals them from personal struggles or opens their eyes to new ways and beliefs.
“On the surface art is eye-opening no matter what it is, but I hope that my art can be more than what simply meets the eye,” says Adams. “I want it to be opening to the soul.”
