Art and faith guided by the Holy Spirit

Painting and prayer are inseparable for Kristian Joy Tangso. The accomplished artist has only been painting for about seven years—a development that came with a simultaneous growth in her faith.

Kristian Joy is a ‘cradle Catholic’, born in the Philippines and raised in Melbourne. She spent years pursuing a career in pharmaceutical science, earning a PhD and working as a post-doctoral researcher. But a move to Norway for work in 2017 upended her life, as she experienced heartbreak and professional disillusionment. But the support of a Filipino charismatic Catholic community led Kristian Joy to a revival of her faith.

I fell in love with Jesus.

‘Being around the community there, they had this joy in serving the Lord, which inspired me,’ she says. ‘Yes, I received the sacraments as a child, but I didn’t really have a prayer life or much of a relationship with God before moving to Norway. That’s where I found God.’

She explains that she has always had health struggles, but in Norway she began struggling with depression and questioning her purpose in life, especially in relation to the career she no longer wanted to pursue. It was during Lent in 2018 that she first felt a nudge towards creativity. Inspired by a podcast suggesting daily prayer for others, she began making small watercolour prayer cards—simple creations featuring the names of people she was praying for and virtues she admired in them.

‘God helped me discover my calling as an artist,’ Kristian Joy says. ‘I started off just with pencils, watercolour pencils, the basics, because I didn’t really have any formal training in drawing.’ At the same time, she was discerning a call to religious life, ‘because in my time in Norway, I fell in love with Jesus, and was really, really open to considering life as a religious.’

She continued this discernment back home in Melbourne while she took time to heal from a bout of illness she had experienced in Norway. Her artistic growth continued too. At a ‘paint-and-sip’ event for her sister-in-law’s bachelorette party, Kristian Joy tried painting on canvas for the first time. She says she was too full of self-doubt to be able to finish the piece that night, but she brought it home and, a year later, felt compelled to complete it.

‘I think that was a pivotal moment. I bought my own paints for the first time and it transformed from what it was in the beginning. Then I added Scripture verses on it, and it was so beautiful. I realised this was a gift and God wanted me to share it.’

Kristian Joy describes her creative process as a collaboration with the Holy Spirit, beginning in contemplation, or Scripture, or encounters with other people. But it always starts in prayer. ‘I always ask the Holy Spirit to guide me, especially when I’m scared or stuck,’ she says. Sometimes, images come to her unexpectedly—like the peacock and iris in a painting she has titled Hope, symbols of eternal life she discovered while researching Christian iconography.

I just painted, and the Holy Spirit guided it.

Last year, she exhibited some of her work in public for the first time, at the Beholding Beauty Catholic art exhibition, an initiative of the Truth Goodness Beauty Project.

‘In my heart, I knew this is what God wants for me, but it was also a bit scary to be known to people now as an artist,’ Kristian Joy says. ‘I love sharing my story; anything that helps others to know my journey with Jesus and helps them with their own journey ... I don’t really want to be so known as an artist, but if I am, it’s more so that I can lead people to God.’

One of the paintings on display, which later became the promotional image for last year’s Advent and Christmas services at St Patrick’s Cathedral, is titled One Family. Kristian Joy says it began in 2020 as an experiment after her first canvas painting. ‘I didn’t have a plan,’ she admits. ‘I just painted, and the Holy Spirit guided it.’

The inspirations were coming more and more often, so Kristan Joy decided it was time to undertake some formal training, heading to Florence in 2022 to study sacred art. ‘I had limited resources for that, but I thought it was worth it, as a “yes” to God. And also, I wanted affirmation this is the path ahead.’

Studying art theory and history, and incorporating new techniques has changed her artistic style. Where One Family, for example, was a sweeping, abstract depiction of the Nativity, the work she produced in Italy was more three-dimensional. One art school project was a portrait of St Titus Brandsma, a Dutch Carmelite priest martyred in a Nazi concentration camp, which she produced using a friend as a model and a single old newspaper photo of his face.

In 2022, Kristan Joy was able to attend the canonisation of the saint as a representative pf the lay Carmelites of Australia, New Zealand. ‘I didn’t really know I was going to paint him, but learning his story, how he lived his life—he really promoted the Gospel through sacred images and visuals—I think he had a huge part in me coming to Italy.’

In the meantime, she continued to discern religious life, but after visiting Carmelite and Dominican communities, she realised her health made cloistered life impossible. Instead, she has found her place as a lay Carmelite, a vocation that blends contemplation with life in the world. ‘It’s a calling to holiness, just like priests or sisters,’ she explains. The Carmelite charism of silence and prayer now infuses her art, which she sees as an extension of her relationship with God.

Her health struggles have deepened her reliance on God but disrupted her ability to paint. ‘The will is strong, but the flesh is weak,’ she says, explaining that she needs a lot of time to finish her work. There are psychological barriers too. Her Divine Mercy piece, for example, sat unfinished for a year because she was afraid to inscribe ‘Jesus, I trust in You’—a phrase she wanted to include but didn’t feel ready to claim. It wasn’t until her grandmother’s death that she found the courage to complete it. ‘That wasn’t wholly my decision,’ she says. ‘The Holy Spirit was painting with me.’

Now, Kristian Joy dreams of creating sacred art for churches, through commissions. She has also found pleasure in smaller projects, like painting candles for sacraments. She is open about her battle with depression, and how it instils fear and limits her creative output.

‘I hope to overcome that fear,’ she says. ‘I really want to be able to express my emotions in my painting. At the moment, they haven’t been united. This year, with therapy, I’m learning to really listen to my feelings, so that it’ll be interesting to see how it unfolds. I’m excited. I think that’s what God wants for me.’