''Painting The Impossible'' by Akiane Kramarik

[Music] [Music] in the year 1994 my family was living in a tiny Shack there was constantly flooded [Music] our home was settled at the edge of a cornfield not too far away from a huge nuclear power plant in northern Illinois my father came from the ghettos of Chicago and my mother an immigrant from Lithuania who against all odds escaped the Soviet regime she delivered me at home by herself that assistance from midwives nor any doctors just like my two older brothers [Music] I was named ah Kiana we slapped and played and moldy floors there was no kitchen barely any furniture and we made our own toys and games and we build our own school as kids he would often walk through a remote village with mom in hopes of finding friends but one door after another was shut in front of us outside of the house we felt no safety one neighbor was murdered another tried shooting our dog yet another threatened us because we did not attend a church the next-door neighbor purposely burned trash close to her Shack causing fires we were forced to extinguish when our drinking water was poisoned my father fell deathly ill and we had no money for doctors while my mother looked for different ways to support her family my older brothers watched over me and took care of me [Music] day and night we walked in two feet high snow to different towns selling food door-to-door [Music] within a year the business grew and so did I [Music] my dad's health slowly began improving and my mother's business became so successful we moved into a new home in Missouri a massive 10,000 square foot Frank Lloyd Wright mansion my best memories came from living there for the first time we rode bicycles we fished in our lake swam in her indoor pool from morning tonight created her own music we prepared our own meals there was no TV or radio in the house since I had no relatives or friends nearby my older brothers were my best friends and mentors and my parents my real role models around age 4 I started experiencing intense dreams and visions of heaven my mother was an atheist that she was the only one who listened to me for hours on end and believed what I was describing were my real experiences I'd never been drawn to read but I sketched everything I remembered for my dreams and visions including two celestial beings who are especially close to me adjure one of them my angel but each time I tried sketching the second face from memory it kept fading away as soon as my dad's health improved my mother surprised everyone by suddenly quitting the business in putting her house on the market [Music] she wanted to spend more time with us especially me because she started believing that the heaven I had seen was real one spring day when I was around five years old something unexplainable happened I disappeared hundreds of vehicles in our small town or stop for inspection but nobody could find me It was as if I dropped off the radar somehow undetectable my photo was dispatched throughout all local agencies after many long hours of searching I reappeared in the midst of numerous eyewitnesses neither the officers nor my family could comprehend what had really happened [Music] but I did the place I had been was not here on earth [Music] after them mysterious incident I couldn't stop drawing in color pastels and would sometimes stay awake throughout the night sketchy [Music] during the day I would feel very tired and weak occasionally I participated in art fairs and public art competitions but I only felt discouraged I even briefly attended a public school nearby one of the teachers was constantly angry with me because I kept correcting all the lines in the coloring books I thought the lines were all wrong around the same time my visions disappeared I lost inspiration to do art all together when my third brother Eli was born at home my family was on the brink of bankruptcy and we had to move again on September 11th 2001 we found a small house to rent in Colorado there was not a day living in those Rocky Mountains without some sort of accident or life-threatening sickness in our family [Music] I tried to get back into art but I just couldn't it was writing poetry that became my main focus soon our whole family decided to move again because my dad got a job in Idaho at age eight I began homeschooling myself and it was a decision my family supported my vivid visions suddenly returned and so did my passion for art [Music] I fell in love with oils and acrylics and every day I would wake up at 4:00 in the morning to paint and learn from my own mistakes one of my earliest visions kept on returning to my mind but I knew it was impossible for me to paint it I wanted to try anyway [Music] for many months I searched everywhere looking for the right face I somehow knew I could not find it on my own so one morning I decided to pray the whole day that a model would be brought right to our front door the very next day at noon the doorbell rang one of our acquaintances stopped by to introduce her friend to me she thought that maybe I would find his features suitable for my art standing almost seven feet tall stranger not only closely resembled one of my recurrent memories of Jesus but he was a real carpenter I was speechless and humbled after 40 hours of painting I couldn't move a finger 40 hours to felt like 40 years there was still so much left to paint but I was too drained to go on and I had to stop we shipped the original to one art agent for an exhibition but he decided to steal the portrait unexpectedly Jesus became a hostage painting was later sold for virtually nothing I was never able to see my original prints apiece again only the photographs and reproductions [Music] outside of my family circle no one seemed to care about my art some even suggested burning all my paintings and writings it was after many months of a malicious reactions from skeptics and critics and an expense of separation from my agent than my story reached media at age nine I received an invitation to be a guest on The Oprah Winfrey Show in a flash my world changed [Music] thanks to hundreds of television and radio interviews and appearances and art shows by age 10 my first book unexpectedly became a best-seller my painted messages had reached millions of people around the globe and had raised funds for charities [Music] over the years I painted different periods in Jesus's life [Music] but to my grief over the loss of my favorite portrait never lessened for the next 12 years God took me on an extraordinary journey around the world to paint true life stories [Music] not too long after my fourth brother Elias was born while we were living in Australia unexpectedly I discovered the location of the original principies painting it had been hidden out of sight all wrapped up and locked away in a vault for the past twelve years the owner was not willing to reveal it or sell it to anyone [Music] when I turned 22 and moved to a small farm in the countryside close to Chicago Illinois the founder of one of the top coin minting companies in the world flew out to see me his invitation to collaborate on the Prince of Peace image they'll be minted on a gold coin it was an awkward assignment but I agreed in preparation for the complicated minting process I was asked to outline the face I'd painted at age eight as I was accentuating the lines of the new sketch it became more and more frustrated because a sketch for minting a coin was supposed to be very simple oddly the more I press the pencil down the more details revealed themselves and the more I saw the more uncomfortable I felt I actually started wondering why I was seeing so many details and why I was hearing a new message so I prayed about what to do next [Music] and was blown away by the unexpected answer despite all of my doubts but took out a linen canvas and started painting my vision I knew it was going to be an enormous challenge because all I could see was half of the image I had no idea when the complete face would be revealed or how long the fine details would remain in my sight [Music] [Music] on Christmas Eve I woke up from a nightmare that my portrait got completely destroyed I rushed to my studio and what I noticed alarmed me the shadow side was lifeless It was as if there was a mysterious veil covering half of the face stopping me from painting any further no matter how much it tried removing the veil or painting over it I just couldn't do it [Music] many weeks passed by but there was still no life from the shadow I was devastated I couldn't eat or sleep I could not even talk with anyone for a month all my efforts to finish the painting were futile I had given everything I had to this painting but it still wasn't enough I was painting the impossible [Music] I was losing hope and I was about to abandon the divine Commission after a thousand hours of this relentless battle one morning something miraculous happened for a very brief time I got to see the full vision I began working around the clock until finally the veil disappear and the portrait came to life [Music] all these years God was waiting for me to grow so I could fully understand and paint the most powerful message to mankind the message of unwavering faith unconditional love and eternal [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music]

Channel: Akiane Kramarik

Views: 1,501,770

Rating: 4.8525214 out of 5

Keywords: Jesus, Christ, heaven, God, painting, impossible, christian, biography, artist, timelapse, motivation, inspiration, carpentor, model, oils, sketches, painter, vision, dreams, prodigy, genius, gifted, faith, angels, paints, mentor, atheist, supernatural, learning, sketch, memories, celestial, angel, disapperance, business, pastels, pencils, art shows, art fairs, competition, teachers, bible, scriptures, bankrupcy, passion, dedication, pray, prayer, prayers

Id: Wm9BGxpf0hU

Length: 24min 57sec (1497 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 09 2017