Art Saved by Man Running Into Church and Taking It
Twin brothers Alan (left) and Aaron Hicks, restored the landscape within Antioch Missionary Baptist Church in 2008. The prototype of Jesus tin be seen through a cleaved window (middle) in the church, which was destroyed by an April xv fire. The landscape cannot exist saved, but the artist brothers will create something for the rebuilt church.
Pat Nabong/Sun-Times
When Englewood'due south Antioch Missionary Baptist Church caught burn earlier this month, the community was left grieving. But for brothers Alan and Aaron Hicks, the fire was more than a loss for the customs. It was a loss of their piece of work, as well.
Alan and Aaron Hicks, both 60, go by Twin Hicks, specializing in portraits and murals. Some evidence the faces of visionaries, such as Malcolm Ten. Others, like "Play Time," represent everyday life. Many more are inspired past their religion.
In 2008, their religion and art came together when the church asked them to restore its mural of Jesus ascending to heaven.
But the brothers' beloved of fine art began long before and so — at 4, watching their uncle, Warren Hicks, draw.
"We started mimicking what he was doing," Alan Hicks said. "He went on to play the guitar and become involved in music, but we kept going in the art field."
In loftier school, Aaron Hicks said, an art instructor encouraged them. So they went to the University of Illinois, where both studied biocommunications and medical illustrations.
After graduating in 1985, they worked with multiple companies. In the late 1990s, they started freelancing. The twins' work was sold online and promoted through word of oral fissure. They created murals, portraits, even magazine covers. By 2001, they had their own business organisation. They are now known as Twin Hicks on social media and have a website, twinhicks.com.
"We have been able to reach out worldwide with our talent and the painting that we have done," Aaron Hicks said. "We were in Jamaica about a month ago, and I saw some of my artwork out there. It'southward a wonderful feeling and a gratefulness that God has given u.s. this talent that nosotros can display not just for us to capeesh simply for others to capeesh. That's the beauty of artwork. It's universal."
The brothers' faith is seen in many of their paintings: a man in a pew, clutching a Bible; Moses and the burning bush-league; a trivial girl praying.
Aaron Hicks said "it was a blessing" when Antioch Missionary Baptist Church asked them in 2008 to refurbish its sanctuary artwork. The project included reworking scenes of a baptism and of disciples surrounding Jesus as he ascended. It took nearly a calendar month and a half to finish, working up to half dozen hours a day.
"We did the whole entire thing all again," Aaron Hicks said. "We gave it a fresh coat, in terms of the blue sky, in terms of the disciples and the angels — pretty much everything in the foreground and background landscapes."
Before and later photos of Twin Hicks mural at Englewood's Antioch Missionary Baptist Church.
Provided
Church members would come and go as the brothers stood on their scaffolds.
As they repainted the landscape, they also had information technology reverberate those church members.
Starting with the disciples, and so moving to the angels and Jesus, Twin Hicks painted the figures Black instead of the original artist'due south white.
"The parishioners, church members and pastors can identify with the images," Aaron Hicks said. "That's important to me, that nosotros have something that we tin can identify with, something that's positive. I don't even think it's a racial thing equally much as being able to identify with who Jesus was, to know who the disciples represent."
This isn't unusual for Alan and Aaron Hicks. Their works consistently feature Black figures, including their painting of The Last Supper.
The twins were on a business call when Alan Hicks saw the church fire on TV.
They were shocked to see their painting survived the blaze — and the smaller fires that reignited later. And though the mural could not be saved, the fact that the fire spared it was, the brothers believe, a sign from a higher power.
The mural painted by Twin Hicks at Antioch Missionary Baptist Church was left generally untouched by a fire that destroyed the edifice, but the wall — and the mural — could not exist saved.
Chicago Fire Department
Aaron Hicks called information technology a "phenomenon."
For his twin, information technology was an allegory of Christ's crucifixion and resurrection. "He did not accept his old body with him, but he had a glorified body. ... He was different from when they first saw him. So even though that mural can't be saved, we tin can practice a new 1, nosotros tin make it better and accept more of an impact than what this mural had."
Also, Alan Hicks said that, if not for the fire, many probably never would have seen their mural.
"Information technology took those walls to come downward for the whole world to see that prototype of Christ going into heaven," he said.
After the fire, a parishioner, and later the pastor, Rev. Gerald M. Dew, contacted Alan Hicks to meet whether the brothers would consider creating something when the church building is rebuilt.
The twins don't have any ideas notwithstanding for the new landscape but expect it to once again be Afrocentric.
"We're only kind of waiting to encounter what the pastor and church building officials accept in listen," Alan Hicks said. "It'southward just good to know that we are considered to be the ones that will do the next mural."
Twin brothers Alan (left) and Aaron Hicks, restored the mural inside Antioch Missionary Baptist Church in 2008. It survived a recent blaze that gutted the church; the image of Jesus can be seen through a broken window (middle). The mural cannot be saved, but the artist brothers will create something for the rebuilt church building.
Pat Nabong/Dominicus-Times
Interactive map: Click on icons below for a selection of Chicago-area murals
Source: https://chicago.suntimes.com/news/2022/5/2/23045285/twin-hicks-brothers-antioch-missionary-baptist-church-mural-englewood-fire-religion
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