We are humans and we don't have it all in our heads to know exactly what something will look in nature. And so I like to go right to God's creation and see it with my own eyes and respond to it rather than try to create it. I'm not the creator here. I kind of respond to the creation.
So that's what I do. And so I wanted to see what God had in store once again. And every painting goes in with prayer.
And so, you know, this painting had a lot of answered prayers as it went along. That's Morgan Weisling describing how God has gotten a hold of him, his talent for art, and how God's using that today in some pretty incredible ways. And Morgan is our guest today on Focus on the Family.
Your host is Focus President Jim Daly and I'm John Fuller. John, we're doing something a little unusual today. We're in a very different kind of studio. For our listeners, let me describe it. We're surrounded by paintings and easels and probably more paint brushes than I've ever seen in my life.
There's got to be 300 paint brushes over here. And all of this is to help you better understand an incredible story that we're going to talk about today. This is where Morgan creates his award-winning artwork, most often depicting scenes about early American life. The Pioneer Days, if we could call them that. Western scenes and lots of paintings about families and children doing all of the hard work they had to do to survive.
When you read those stories and think about families crossing the prairies. Our goal is to introduce you to Morgan and his passion for serving the Lord through art, his story. He's got an incredible story, a testimony of how God has equipped him and gifted him and called him into this wonderful world of art. And you can see this, of course, on YouTube, or hit our website where we're going to have a whole bunch of details about Morgan and the various paintings he's made, so many over the years. Morgan has been studying and doing artwork since he was old enough to hold a crayon, according to what he said. And unlike most of us who began that way, he just kept going, learning under some of the most famous and legendary illustrators and painters of the last century. For 14 years, Morgan was an illustrator in the Hollywood film industry, creating movie posters and collectible artwork related to that. And in 1998, he transitioned to the world of fine art.
Since then, he's become one of the premier painters in the world today. Morgan, that is quite a setup. Welcome to focus on the family.
Thank you. And this is not fair. You have scripts and I have nothing in front of me. No, we don't. We have guidance. We'll toss those aside. There they go.
They just went on the floor. Hey, what an incredible story. And for the folks that may be asking, okay, why are we doing this? I want to say for years at focus on the family, someone that you knew well, G. Harvey, he would do a painting for focus and allowed us to do a print. And of course, G. Harvey passed away a while back and what a wonderful family, Patty and the whole extended Jones family.
They've been so gracious to focus. But through the connection of Pep Jackson, we are moving ahead and we're so grateful for you to say, yes, let's do this together. And we want to talk about your story so our listeners will get to know you a bit better.
So that's what we're going to do. Let's start with your family and what kind of family you grew up in. I grew up in a very loving home and a very encouraging home and my mom and dad were the type of parents you could only hope for. And the thing that made them kind of unique, though, was that they did meet in art school.
So it really set an atmosphere to grow up, being encouraged to draw, encouraged to look at life the way an artist would look. I want to talk about your dad and his experience as a young man in World War Two, because it's so much a part of the story. What happened to him in World War Two? He was a prisoner of war in a German prison camp. And he was in the Army Air Corps and his plane was shot down on a bombing mission over Austria. And they landed in Germany.
And they parachuted out, were captured, put into a prison camp. And he spent a year there. And during that time, he did something really unusual. In fact, for the YouTube watchers, you have a sample here of what he created while in camp.
What was that? When he was a child, he wanted to become a comic strip artist. And so when he went into the Army Air Corps, that kind of put a hold on that thought. And then we got a prisoner of war, he had an opportunity to actually live out this dream, because he created a comic strip, a daily serial comic strip that would get passed around the whole barracks of the camp. It would keep the guy's morale up, because they had something to look forward to, because it was a lot of boredom in the prison camp. So my dad started this comic strip where he'd do one panel, and it'd get passed around the camp.
He'd finally get back to him, and he'd continue the story, on and on and on. And I grew up with that story, and I just wished he had brought home some of those drawings so that I could actually see with my eyes whether this story was true. Right, so you heard all about it.
I heard all about it. But then something happened where you got your hands on one of the originals. Years later, he had already passed away.
I got an email about 10 years ago, or seven years ago, and somebody had written me saying, I think I have some drawings of your father's that were in World War II. And I sobbed uncontrollably. It was more emotional than anything I could have experienced. I cried more about this than probably when he died. I was so emotional about it.
I know, but connect those dots. Why do you think that struck you? I mean, this is a powerful piece of your dad's history. The story put him as a hero in my eyes, because it was something he did to entertain the troops, as it were. And so it was one of those things where, as the years went on, and I had no evidence of it, you start to wonder if he embellished the story, or maybe it wasn't so big of a deal.
And then when that showed up, it was like getting my dad back again to tell me the story, only it was real. Okay, so you're 12 years old. You're getting an interest in art. It's firmly in your genetic coding, it sounds like, with both your parents going to art school, meeting in art school, that whole thing.
How did it progress from there as a 12-year-old boy? I was thinking football for myself. I don't know what you were thinking, John. Radio? No, I was thinking actually of art and photography, but it didn't happen.
Okay, here's two great differences, right? I often have parents ask me if possibly their child should be an artist, because they seem so interested in art. And I always tell them, every kid's interested in art, until about the age of 12 or 13. And if you're still seeing your kid do it at 13, 14, 15, there's a real good chance maybe they should be encouraged to be an artist.
That's a great rule of thumb right there. And I continued. I was just like anybody else. I would draw, draw, draw, but I've seen all my friends of my children's friends do the same way. But my mom was so great about... She was amazing. She would have the most amazing advice, like prophetic advice. And she was always that way. And she would say, I think we should go check out this art school.
Some little dinky school in Reseda. And we walked in there, and that changed the course of my career, because I got a teacher that was incredible. And it was all because my mom just saw a little ad. And she said, we should go check this out. And then all my life, she would give me these little, I think you should.
And I listened. Yeah, and that led to early jobs when you were still a teenager, where you were illustrating for Hollywood Pictures, right? You would do their movie posters. Again, my mom, God telling her, she said, I think you should go get a job at the art store. That'd be the right place to go. So I thought, okay, I'll go get a job there. And I worked there for seven months.
Nothing happened. I thought my mom was crazy. How old are you at this point?
17, 18, something like that. And that's why I was still in art school. And I kept my drawings under the table. And then this illustrator who I recognized his name, he came in.
It was the first time he had ever come in in the seven months I'd been working there. And I go, oh, can I show you my work? And I showed him some of my school drawings. He gave no reaction. He was very, you think you could do this? And I go, yeah, that's what I want to do.
I want to be an illustrator. And then he didn't say anything. No reaction. Then he left. And that was, I had actually given notice I was going to quit that same day. The next day I got a phone call from the art store saying, hey, they've been calling over here. Some agency wants to hire you to be a sketch artist. They, what? So I called the number and they said, hey, and that illustrator had completely recommended me to an agency and they hired me.
Just in 24 hours. But it was like a long history of sketching after that. So you're in that setting.
You're doing these movie posters and video jackets and all kinds of things. But it wasn't fulfilling. What was the Lord doing in your heart at this moment?
How was he? No, I was totally fulfilled. Oh, you were?
Okay. So this is all you needed was a lot of cash. All I wanted to do was be an artist. And I wanted to be famous. And I wanted to do well. And I was, everything was going great, you know, honestly. So you were having fun and it was fulfilling.
It was really fun. If you had come up to me and said, hey, you need Jesus or something in your life. I was like, hey, man, I got, my art is my God. That's what you would say. I would say, you know, I don't need a crutch. Jesus is a crutch. It's fine for you, but I don't need it.
I'm fine. But God had a different plan for you. I mean, you had your idea, but what was God doing around you? You met a woman, right? I met a beautiful girl who was at an art school and I only went there to meet her. And she, you know, she wore a little sweater that showed her midriff. I was like, okay, I'm going.
That worked, huh? You're a young man at this point. Visual artist. And, you know, so I had an opportunity to teach her class as a substitute teacher at the art school she was going to.
And I was already doing well as an illustrator, already well known. And she said that she was interested, but she was a Christian and that she would never get serious with anyone that wasn't a Christian. And I'm thinking, you know, I don't know what that really means, but she said, but if, you know, do you want to go to church with me? And I'm thinking, well, I'll go out with you.
If that's what I need to do, I'll go to church with you. You know, I mean, yeah, she's pretty beautiful. So I thought, yeah, you know, I'll do that.
And that's amazing. And so for about six months we dated and I would go to church sometimes with her, you know, and argue with her afterwards. You know, like, I really don't agree with anything this pastor is saying and it wasn't really hitting me.
It wasn't striking me, you know. And then one day, you know, he handed out blank pieces of paper. And of all things, God decided that the blank piece of paper was going to be the thing that he would hit me over the head with. No sermon did it.
Nothing. What did he say, though, when he handed it out? He handed out pieces of paper to the whole congregation. He said, if you've got a talent God's given you that you could use to help out at the church, put it down, put your phone number and send it back in. So I didn't have any intention, so I'm looking at the white piece of paper there and everyone else is writing down stuff around me and I'm just sitting there. And it was though my life was flashing before my eyes, one of those movie situations of the words of, if God's given you a talent, kind of started ringing in my ears because I always had kind of given myself the credit for having learned to draw and worked hard to do what I do. Art was your God. I was my God, but also I made it happen. And in the end, as this little movie was playing over in my head of my life, I realized, you know what, there's no way I could take credit for a lot of the things that I've been able to see in my own growing up, seeing what I can do. I obviously was given a talent outside of myself that I didn't create it. And then all in this little moment, it was like God was hitting me on the side of the head with a hammer and He said, are you using that talent the way I probably would have intended for you to use it? So you really felt that that was what God was... And at that moment, I'm working on posters, movie posters for B-movies for things that are like, you know, where you wouldn't say I was really utilizing the talent that I had been given in the best way that God would want me to. So really, it's like a conviction at this point.
I mean, God's convicting. Yeah, now I'm sort of like recognizing, and this is all going on. My girlfriend has no idea this is going on. She thinks I'm ignoring this because I'm not writing anything down. And I realized, you know what, God seems to have given me something and I'm not using it right. And at that very moment, I decided, well, God, if you're real, and this is all real, I want to give it back. I know I'm supposed to offer what I can do and maybe there's something I can do.
You know, everyone else has things they're writing down. So at that time they gave a kind of an altar call. I responded only because I figured that's probably what I need to do to give my life to say, okay, God, what do you want me to do with this? So Morgan, here's this moment of truth.
Not everybody listening has had that moment. And I'm sensitive to that because this is what it means to become a Christian. The Lord was pursuing you. And for you to go from art is your God to God, let me give you my talent and use it for your good.
In the meantime, in the background, you're, you know, doing these really bad movie posters, things that slasher movies and horror movies and things like that. That was kind of weighing on your heart that you were helping feed darkness, right? Yeah, at that moment, all of a sudden, I felt it.
I honestly didn't feel any conviction up until that moment. Right, it just banged. It all happened.
It lined up. So what was your next step? You put out a fleece and you kind of said, Lord, if I'm to move in your direction. So I do the altar call. And I couldn't even tell you exactly what I prayed, other than in my heart, as I was saying the words they told me to say, I was also saying I just want to give my life over.
It was a surrender of sorts. And so then I went home and I prayed, you know, okay, I'm ready. Like, you know, what's going to happen next? I don't know, you know, it was it was a childlike faith of, is something really going to happen? If this is real, maybe something will happen.
And so after having prayed, what do you want me to do? I got a phone call, literally the next day, from an art director. And what was interesting was, he danced around the project a little bit for a while. And I'm thinking to myself, this is normal.
I get phone calls of art directors all the time. And this is the next day after this event at the church. So in my mind, I'm really kind of still thinking about, I wonder what God will do someday, you know, like the Hughes me, if this is real. And this guy's jabber jabbering about some video series for kids, you know, and I'm thinking, oh, that sounds like not even like, you know, close to what I'm, you know, interested in at the moment right now, you know, because I'm wondering what God will do. And then he convinced me to say yes to this series, because I need to do work. And he goes, before we go, I've got to be honest with you, because we are a Christian company. And right away, I'm like, what?
Okay, now he's got your attention. And he goes, and we're doing a video series with Christian values. And we have decided that we can't really find any Christian artists that are of the quality that we want this to be, that really give the effect. So we went, gone to a movie poster artist who's, you know, in the world of this stuff, and decided that we don't have to have him be a Christian. And I was just there going, what?
You know, are you kidding me? I prayed yesterday. I've never been called by a Christian company in my life, and for a job. And all of a sudden, the day after I prayed, that God would use me, this Focus, and he goes, this is a company called Focus on the Family. That is great.
And we're doing this thing called McGee and Me, and we need to do covers for it. And so I was in such shock that God, the Creator, cared about just this little person, you know, in this little apartment, getting this phone call, of like, wow, you know, you really listened to my prayer, and this is real? It's an amazing story. It was one of those things that nobody can ever take away from me.
Right. You also, the other thing within your story that was so gripping for me is, like when most people commit to the Lord, they just become a sponge. You want to learn. That happened to me in college. I just stopped reading my textbooks and started reading Scripture. I mean, I'd sit for four or five hours a day in my dorm room and read through the New Testament. You just, you have this appetite that the Holy Spirit puts in you to learn. You had that same experience, but you also augmented that appetite with Focus broadcast cassettes, right? Yeah, I did. Well, as I was getting more and more involved with Focus, and one of the art directors who I told my story to privately, and I said, I just want you to know, I just became a Christian.
You're not going to believe this. He was so excited, and when I came out to Pomona, where Focus was, he introduced me to everybody, and they said, hey, you know, knowing I was a new Christian, if you want to just grab any of the tapes, at the time you had a huge wall full of audio tapes, right? I remember that wall in Pomona. So if you want to grab any, I was like, yeah. And they gave me a bag, and I just started grabbing them. And so, I have them right here.
There's just a few of them, you know. So a box full of cassette tapes that broadcast were recorded on. I have hours to spend by myself listening to whatever I want. In the studio, right here.
Right here. And so I was listening to Focus on the Family broadcast, learning what it meant to be a Christian through people's testimonies. Because so many of these that I had grabbed were like people who were telling their stories as missionaries, and people that were extraordinary stories of what God did in their lives. And you know, it was done in such a way where it was so compelling, and still is, this whole broadcast. And it was interesting to learn about the character of God through these tapes, you know. It wasn't like listening to sermons.
It was literally real people telling their stories, and it was just blowing my mind, you know, tape after tape. And my wife... Who was your girlfriend. You didn't finish that part of the story. Well, I married a girl. You married the girl. We got married. What a good guy. And she was great. That was neat that she put the hammer down and said, listen, I'm a Christian.
I know you're not supposed to do it that way. You know, they call that missionary dating and everything. But she was very, very upfront. This is not going to be a serious thing. We'll just go and see movies or whatever, you know, kind of thing, unless you were to become... It's not like she twisted my arm to be a Christian, and she could see I wasn't going to be.
I was doing nothing but argue. So you can imagine her shock when all this was going on. Absolutely. Well, that's certainly a great introduction to who Morgan Weisling is and his heart. And we're so excited he's partnering with Focus on the Family once again to create another fine art painting for us to offer to you. At Morgan is the amazing artist who's been working with Focus for several years now, creating powerful paintings with a wonderful family and faith message. His newest painting, I think, is the best by far. Not that I'm sure for artists, you know, you're saying, Oh, which of my children are the most beautiful? But we'll ask him that in a minute.
But it is so awesome. It's called Kissed by God. And before we close today's show, we wanted to spend a few minutes talking with our good friend Morgan about this new painting. Hey, Morgan, are you there? I'm here. Hi, Jim. Hey, Morgan, it's great to connect with you, at least by phone. And I'm here in Colorado Springs along with John.
Of course, you're out there in Southern California. But what a great painting this is. I love this Kissed by God theme.
What happened? How'd you come up with this? Well, um, as you know, I have been known to do some biblical paintings in my career.
And I would call this definitely one of those. And it's, it's not an Old West painting, you know, no, describe it. So the view the listeners actually, this is radio, of course, and and but what does it look like to you? Well, the way it looks to me, gee, I never really looked at it. No, it's, um, it's actually a painting that's set, as I said, not in the Old West, but it's set 2000 years ago in Israel.
And specifically, it's the humble dwelling outside in Nazareth home. And what I painted here is a young boy about four years old, who's standing and facing his mother. And she's sitting on a stoop outside, holding a basket with some new pieces of bread in it. And what I have is the boy is gently holding her face in a loving way. And he's bending down and kissing her on the head. Just as a any child might do with their parent.
And she's bending her head down a bit with a smile on her face. And it's just a very tender scene between a mother and a son. Only thing is, is that's Jesus that's kissing her.
You know, that that's that makes the thing a little bit different than a normal between a mother and a son, but it's still to her, this is a mother with her son. It does catch it the kiss by God title because that man that that's capturing that we don't think of Jesus as a four year old boy typically, and the engagement he must have had with Mary and Joseph too, obviously. But that so captivates that picture of the Son of God being a four year old boy showing affection toward his mom.
It's beautiful. You know, I never thought about it, you know, in terms of Jesus growing and becoming more reciprocal with his love towards Mary, and then reaching out and kissing his mother, like any child does at some point in their growing up. A parent understands that moment when it isn't all one-sided, you know. And it made me think about that, like with my last daughter, that I remember the moment specifically when she just turned and hugged me and kissed me spontaneously. And so I thought about all of that, how Mary must have felt at that time, you know, when he was at that age.
So four years old is where I picked. Well, it's such an inspiring painting. Again, I want to recognize your heart for the mission of Focus on the Family, that you give this to Focus. We then make it available to the donor community. They provide, you know, a check to help us, and it all goes back right into ministry. So I want to say thank you so much for your heart in that regard, and for you and your wife to do this for Focus.
It's raising hundreds of thousands of dollars to help families, to save a baby's life, to give that baby the chance to hold its mother's face someday at four, five, six years old. So it really is coming through. And Morgan, we just so deeply appreciate it. Thank you. And I look forward to it's an honor. It's an honor. Well, we look forward to working with you. And again, please give your dear family a big hug from all of us.
And let me make sure you hear from me. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for what you're doing for families through your art. I don't understand the creative mind. You guys are wonderful.
I love the idea. You can just see something and go, wow, I see the painting in my mind. I don't have that gift. So I think it's beautiful. And thank you for pursuing it your entire life. Oh, thank you.
I cherish our relationship we've got going here. And it's just it's an ongoing part of my testimony. So thank you so much.
Well, it's awesome. So thank you. Goodbye. God bless. And we'll see you soon. All right. Bye bye. Thank you. Well, blessings on Morgan Weisling for all he does for the kingdom. And you can see this beautiful print today. We've got the link in the show notes. Of course, you can always give us a call.
Our number is 800 the letter A and the word family and john, let me just press it again. I would really encourage our listeners to get their own print. This is I think the best one he's ever done. And it's such a beautiful portrayal of Jesus as a four year old, kissing Mary and holding her face in his little hands.
I mean, it's awesome. And I can't do any better than that. And all the proceeds go right back into ministry. So it's a great way to do this together. And once again, the details are in the show notes or give us a call. Well, coming up Monday, British author Catherine Hill explains why and how we can all overcome busyness.
What could it mean for me to keep company with Jesus, but to walk freely and lightly not on a desert island, not in a monastery miles away from anywhere but right in the busyness of our everyday lives in the workplace in our churches in our families. On behalf of the entire team. Thanks for listening to Focus on the Family with Jim Daly.
I'm john fuller inviting you back as we once again help you and your family thrive in Christ. Your kids are unique and so are you. You have your strengths as a parent and areas of growth to find out what they are by taking the seven traits of effective parenting assessment from Focus on the Family. Find out how you're doing on traits like gratitude, grace and other research backed traits.
When you're done, we'll give you a detailed PDF with several pages of content on how to use your unique strengths and how to work on your areas of growth. This simple framework shows you how to be an effective mom or dad in daily family life, a parent who recognizes your imperfections and finds ways to thrive. You'll also get access to other resources from Focus on the Family to help you keep growing into the best parent for your kids. It only takes a few minutes to boost your parenting. Take the seven traits of effective parenting assessment at parentingtraits.com. That's parentingtraits.com.
