The book of Judges is one of the most violent books of the Bible. These ancient leaders of Israel stood between God’s people and the raiders and plunderers of rival nations. Of all the Judges, Samson was the strongest, and he used raw strength and brute force against the Philistines in bloody and violent fashion. Alone, he slaughtered 1,000 Philistine soldiers with only the jawbone of a donkey he found freshly rotting on the ground. The imagery of this painting depicts Samson actively swinging the jawbone during the brawl. In this moment in time, he grips the jawbone in his right hand and winds up to take another powerful swing in a backhand movement. Samson’s long hair is matted with the blood of fallen men, his face covered in the bloody carnage that he’s already unleashed. See his face? No? it’s covered in blood, but also hidden behind the jawbone from this angle in this pose in this moment in time.The jawbone aligns with Samson’s own jaw in the imagery. It’s something that I had hoped would only be evident after thorough viewing of this piece. It not Samson only swinging a jawbone, but it’s as if he, Samson himself, is the jawbone. He is the tool put to use. Although it was Samson who used a crude, blunt instrument to slay the soldiers in front of him, God himself used his own crude, blunt tool to defeat enemies of Israel in the same fight. I’ve painted a depiction of Samson and the jawbone before, but not during the fight. The past painting could be viewed a Samson right before the fight, or after it, but not during. For this current piece I was challenged to depict this story and also use blue as the primary color. The finished original painting would hang in a house with a baby as well, so a bloody depiction could traumatize. After struggling with the imagery that depicted this brawl, was not overly bloody or violent, and … blue, I realized that the blue tones were the solution and not the challenge. Instead of blood being the highly noticeable red, the blue tones mask the blood on Samson’s body, face, and hair. The lighting is very direct on Samson as well with darkness all around him. Parts of his body as shrouded in the darkness and blend in to the background until only complete darkness is painted instead of the death all around.