Akiane Kramarik (/?'ki:?n?/; born on July 9, 1994), referred to mononymously as Akiane, is an American poet and artist. She was known as a child prodigy for making a concrete image of Jesus and had begun drawing at the age of four. Kramarik's best-known painting is Prince of Peace, which was completed at the age of eight.
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Background
Akiane Kramarik was born on July 9, 1994, in Mount Morris, Illinois to a Lithuanian mother and an American father. Her education began at a public school but she was later homeschooled.
She is a self-taught painter. She states that God spoke to her when she was four years old, encouraging her to draw and paint her visions. Her parents were atheists at the time (they later converted to Christianity because of Kramarik's paintings and visions). She began to draw at the age of four, advanced to painting at six, and began to write poetry at seven. Her first completed self-portrait sold for US$10,000. Kramarik donates a portion of the revenue from art sales to charities.
Her paintings are often allegorical as well as spiritual, involving likenesses of Jesus, children, and animals, as well as self-portraits. She often draws inspiration from magazine pictures. However, according to Kramarik, her main inspiration comes from her visions of heaven and her personal connection with God.
At the age of 10, she appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show; at the age of 12, on CNN. Additional appearances include The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson (Episode: 1x68, April 25, 2005) and The Katie Couric Show (Episode: 1x21, October 8, 2012).
By age 12, she had completed sixty large paintings. Some of her works have been purchased by the US Embassy in Singapore. Overall, she has completed over 200 artworks and 800 literary works and has published two best-selling books.
Prince of Peace
In the spring of 2003, Akiane painted her first portrait of Jesus, entitled Prince of Peace. John Roth, a carpenter from Sandpoint, Idaho, was asked by Akiane to model for the painting representing Jesus. Colton Burpo, a near-death survivor at age four, had been identifying deceased family members from photographs, and the family had been searching for images that matched the boy's description of Jesus. It was not until Kramarik's Prince of Peace, a portrait of Jesus, was shown many years later on Glenn Beck's The Blaze, that Burpo confirmed that "they finally got one right." Burpo's story is told in the New York Times number-one, best-selling book, Heaven Is for Real (2010) and its film adaptation (2014). Kramarik is referenced in the film as the "young Lithuanian girl" and is shown with her painting at the beginning and the end of the movie.
Bibliography
- Akiane Kramarik, (2006). Akiane: Her Life, Her Art, Her Poetry. Nashville: W Publishing Group. ISBN 0-8499-0044-1.
- Akiane Kramarik, (2006). Akiane My Dream is Bigger Than I: Memories of Tomorrow. Artakiane.llc. ISBN 0-9778697-0-9.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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