"Tend My Sheep" Original Oil Painting
Artist: Kevin Pawlowski (Georgia US, 1968- )
Title: Tend My Sheep
Medium: Oil paint on plywood
Size: 14-1/2” x 22”
Date: 2023
This painting, “Tend My Sheep”, is an invitation to the leadership of the Roman Catholic Church and laity to reflect on whether or not we are welcoming and loving enough to LGBT+ Catholics, our brothers and sisters in Christ.
Kevin created this painting for "Art & Synodality 2023 Creative Cohorts"., an offshoot of the Synod on Synodality that is going on Churchwide. The idea is for artists to participate in the Synod through their artwork. They met monthly for 3-months, and then submitted art to be considered for display at the Ignatian Family Teach-in for Justice 2023. "Tend My Sheep" was accepted, and Kevin will be attending as a part of a panel of artists.
After the conference, “Tend My Sheep” exhibited at Holy Trinity parish in Washington DC, several other parishes in the area, and then on to Churches in Pennsylvania, Indiana, and Louisiana. If you purchase the painting while it is on exhibition, I’ll contact you to work through when it will be available to ship out. The painting is framed with an attached stand for tabletop display.
A signed letter of authenticity from the artist is provided to establish provenance.
…Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?”* He said to him, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Feed my lambs.”
He then said to him a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Tend my sheep.”
He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” Peter was distressed that he had said to him a third time, “Do you love me?” and he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” [Jesus] said to him, “Feed my sheep.
Amen, amen, I say to you, when you were younger, you used to dress yourself and go where you wanted; but when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.”
John 21:15-18
“What man among you having a hundred sheep and losing one of them would not leave the ninety-nine in the desert and go after the lost one until he finds it? And when he does find it, he sets it on his shoulders with great joy and, upon his arrival home, he calls together his friends and neighbors and says to them, ‘Rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep.’”
Luke 15: 4-6