My Brother’s Keeper

By: Richard III

Medium: Acrylic on Canvas Panel

Dimensions: 16in x 20in

Year: 2018

Status: Private Collection / Available

My Brother’s Keeper : Brotherhood

In the shadows of this canvas lies an exploration of the first sin: murder. But the act of murder does not begin with a blow; it begins in the heart. To have a "heart of murder" is to decide that another soul is no longer worthy of your protection—it is the moment you choose to sever the sacred cord of guardianship that binds us to all of mankind.

When Cain asked, "Am I my brother’s keeper?" he was attempting to rationalize the darkness already established in his spirit. This painting serves as a stark answer to that evasion. To "keep" your brother is to understand that every soul—the lost, the found, the broken, and the whole—is your responsibility. Mankind is not a collection of strangers; it is a singular brotherhood.

To be a keeper is an active mandate. It is the commitment to keep our brothers safe and to stand between them and harm’s way. When we refuse to love, when we withhold compassion, or when we look upon the vulnerable with judgment, we are committing murder in the heart. We are effectively dragging the dignity of our brother through the forest of our own apathy. The gruesome nature of this image is meant to hit with the force of a conviction: this is the reality of a world where we have stopped being our brother’s keeper. We must move from the hands that slay to the hands that safeguard.

"Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him." — 1 John 3:15

"But whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?" — 1 John 3:17