“It’s a precious image, an image of something sacred, and I merged it with the opposing force at the same time,” said Mitic.
That opposing force is gunfire. Mitic used bullets to contrast the Prince of Peace with the violence so prevalent in society.
“The message is that both sides exist in today’s society,” he said. “There is a huge obsession with guns and violence, as much as there is with celebrity.”
The idea behind the Bullet Proof collection was simplicity. Mitic would paint flat images with minimum colours in acrylic on canvas and outline the paintings with bullet holes.
He admits that depicting Jesus in this way has brought negative reaction, but for the most part he said reaction has been positive — especially from people who practise their faith.
“Churchgoers, they actually love this stuff because they kind of get the idea of what I’m trying to say,” said Mitic, who first publicly unveiled the work at Toronto’s St. James Anglican Cathedral. “My message is positive. This shouldn’t be interpreted as something that is desecrating the image of Christ at all.”
He said painting the pieces was relatively easy but shooting the canvas proved more difficult than he had imagined.
“The most complicated part was actually getting it shot and finding a place where I could do it,” said Mitic. “I had to find a place, which would be a gun range, that would be okay with a religious icon being brought into the range and me taking firearms at it.”
After being denied at several GTA gun ranges, Mitic went south.
“I had to take it to Buffalo, New York, and wait until just past midnight when everyone left,” said Mitic. “I did this on my own.”
He used a semi-automatic rifle and carefully fired round after round at his depiction of the Son of God to create a connect-the-dot look to his work.
Having not fired a gun since his teens, the only thing that left Mitic more nervous than ruining his painting was putting Christ in the crosshairs.
“I was totally nervous,” he said. “You worry when you are crossing lines or walking those lines.”
But it was seeing that line being crossed that originally inspired Mitic to produce a collection of bullet-ridden paintings back in 2008. After watching videos on YouTube of Afghan and Kosovar soldiers destroying religious structures with their weapons, a realization washed over Mitic.
“It lives on and many have tried destroying it and they couldn’t do it,” he said. “That’s more or less how I started getting the idea to combine those two opposing forces.”
Although the Bullet Proof collection may suggest otherwise, Mitic is not a gun enthusiast. In fact, despite firing an estimated two million rounds of ammunition over the past five years, he’s the farthest thing from it.
“I’m totally against guns, like I think they shouldn’t really exist,” said the father of two. “You pull the trigger, the thing comes out and it never comes back. There are consequences of that and people should be more aware of that.”
Despite this personal opinion, activism never was, and still isn’t, the purpose of the Bullet Proof collection.
“I’m an artist, I’m not an activist,” said Mitic. “I’m not here to say this is right and this is wrong. I’m kind of reflecting on what is going on right now.”
His collection has grown to include 10 other religious inspired works including images of the Last Supper, the Virgin Mary and the crucifixion of Christ.
Mitic’s Bullet Proof: Jesus painting can be seen at The Peach Gallery, 722 College St., in Toronto until May 4.