About the ArtistsWhy Advent100 | The Artists | Board of Directors | Who We Are
Advent100 has an open policy to use any artist that meets the high standard of excellence required to paint Biblical and theological themes. We encourage the submission of portfolios that showcase an artist's skills and knowledge but remind all applicants that we are looking the exceptional painter with world-class skills in composition, creative expression, and a fanatical adherence to accuracy, artists whose work reaches the threshold of being timeless classics.
Currently Advent100 has commissioned 5 illustrations by GoodSalt artists Lars Justinen and Steve Creitz, but we do not anticipate that these artists will create all 100 paintings in this collection. However, GoodSalt will be providing the creative direction and support that will ensure the artistic excellence, continuity, and theological accuracy of the collection.
Every new painting project will begin with earnest prayer by the entire Advent100 staff, asking that we be given a double portion of wisdom that will result in a painting that is singular in its ability to transmit truth and knowledge. The old adage "a picture paints a thousand works" must only be a starting place. The artwork must not only paint more than a thousand words, those words must be a riveting and towering statement of truth, imagery that resonates with the spoken or written words of Adventist in their evangelistic efforts.
Lars Justinen's earliest art influences came from his mother, who was an amateur painter, and the paintings of Adventist artists like the great Harry Anderson whose artwork filled the books and magazines his father sold door to door as an Adventist colporteur. In his teens the family lived to the coast of British Columbia and the influence of nature became a major influence on the artist who made pocket money painting wildlife and landscapes for neighbors and friends. When he enrolled at Walla Walla College as a pre-med student, he chose their fine arts program "as a way to have fun while in college" having no confidence he could ever make a living as a professional artist. But by his 3rd year Justinen couldn't deny his passion for his art classes.
He relates how conflicted he was. "I'd wanted to be a medical missionary for many years, but it became impossible to deny that God had given me abilities in art."
At WWC, he learned the fundamentals of design and composition from talented professors, including the famous watercolorist Vernon Nye and artist Thomas Emerson.
From 1979 to 1985, Lars work as a gallery artist in Vancouver and Victoria, British Columbia, exhibiting in numerous group and one man shows. Then in 1985 an event changed the course of his career when he accepted an invitation to work at Pacific Press as a full time illustrator. From 1985 to 1991 he painted hundreds of magazine illustrations and book covers. During this time he won several national and international awards for this illustrations and was approached by, and joined, a New York illustration agency, Jerry Leff and Associates, doing freelance assignments for national publishers like McGraw Hill, Scholastic Books, and Thomas Nelson. In 1991, with his wife, Kim, who is also an illustrator, Lars opened a studio in Nampa, Idaho, Justinen Creative Group. Together they continued to illustrate the Adult Bible Study Guide Quarterlies and the children's magazines Our Little Friend and Primary Treasure, respectively.
In 2000 Lars and his wife Kim launched GoodSalt.com, the first online image stock company focused exclusively on Christian and religious artwork.
Over the years Lars has been the creative director for dozens of major projects, rebranding the recruitment materials of a major Christian university, the creation of online animated training courses for coaches and referees of The American Youth Soccer Organization (ayso.org), to a project creating over 100 major paintings for the Association of Baptists for World Evangelism aimed specifically at bringing the Gospel to the Muslim and Hindu cultures.
He and his wife live in British Columbia, Canada and continue to run their Idaho companies remotely from there.