Prophetic art is a vibrant, limitless, and deeply reflective cadence that speaks every language. It carries deliverance authority as a chainbreaker. It's cathartic and inspiring. It stirs confirmation and conversation as much as it stirs hope and is a powerful catalyst to transformation. It gathers together people of all tongues, tribes, and nations, and it's as unique and powerful as our fingerprints. There's an urgency of healing and unity needed in our communities, and I'm seeing a beautiful wide open door for the prophetic to tear down misunderstanding to make room to build relationship and remind people of their perfect identity in Him without the conditions of our differences. There are tangible consequences if we don't ask to understand our calling and purpose in the Kingdom, and then say yes and step out into our prophetic assignments. We not only become even more stuck, delayed, and unrested inside of ourselves, but we also hide the goodness and power of the Lord when someone else needs it.
From my earliest memories, I've wanted to understand the heartbeat of God, and be a bridge of invitation for others to encounter their own creative story. I've pursued a varied palette of mediums over the years, but I predominantly and currently work in acrylic/mixed media, pencil, digital design, glass, encaustic, songwriting/music, jewelry, and poetry. The mileposts in my life have all been intentional with the goal of connection, because a good portion of my professional art life has focused around educating others on the importance of having places where prophetic art is accessible and a means of healing and restoration, as well as, helping others to take the leap into their own very special prophetic expression.
I believe God forges our DNA with our passions. Without knowing our identity in Christ - our DNA - everything we do is from a perspective lesser than how He sees us, and lesser than His plan for our lives. Without the revelation of who we were created to be for such a time as this, our art isn't in His fullness, our worship isn't in His fullness, our words aren't in His fullness, and even our connection with others isn't in His fullness. I went through a lot of struggles and abuses when I was younger, and my retaliation was to self-hate, and become a silent observer. It wasn't until my mid-20's that I caught the revelation of who I was in Christ, and decided to stop hiding. Most of my adult life has been working through a process of refining, and embracing the rest and wisdom that comes with the fourth man in the fire. I wouldn't trade what I've overcome for a road that was without failure and blemish, because He's always good and always faithful, and I very honestly wouldn't be whole if I didn't have the insight I've gained in getting back up when I'm down and trying again, and the release of prophetic art and soaking as the connective tissue of my intimate worship and relationship with my Heavenly Daddy.
My husband, Tripp, and I are both creatives with a purpose to be problem solvers. We are passionate about sound, art, technology, Constitutional politics and America's founding history, and humanitarian and evangelistic missions that revolve around the arts, history, and sciences. We are ordained pastors and part of the leadership team at New Day the Church at High Point, in Colfax, North Carolina. I also lead New Day's Visual Prophetic Arts ministry. I am a Commissioner in Wake Forest, serving on the Public Arts Commission, and also a member of the Wake Forest Artists' Guild and the Guild's Scholarship Committee. Tripp and I serve on the intercession and prophetic teams together, and he also serves in sound and technology.
Although I had been in several outreach bands and was very active on worship teams at church for decades, God began beckoning me around 2008 to the throne room threshing floor of prophetic soaking worship. Tripp and I are made for intimacy with Holy Spirit and encouraging the Body of Christ to engage the cultural mountains of influence to be a mighty and effective people transformed by the love of Jesus. We desire authentic relationships with those who have gone before us in laying down solid seed in good and fruitful ground, while being available and approachable ourselves to pass on our knowledge to others, especially new generations of sound engineers and artists who have the same heart to connect and draw nations to the heart of the Father.
Professionally, I've been a graphic artist since 1996, being drawn by that deep calling to the deep pull toward the arts and the intricacies of sound, color, and light since my childhood. My focus in college was pen & ink drawing, printmaking, and microbiology. After college I discovered a love for digital and print design, which eventually became my career. For many years I taught the art of collage and mixed media to teens within the public library system, and also prophetic painting workshops and prophetic art retreats for women within the Body of Christ. Tripp graduated from the School of Design at NCSU, with a degree in Environmental Design and Architecture, and a minor in Religion. He was trained on sound as a young teenager, and has been running sound for live worship events for almost 40 years, and engineering in a studio setting for over 25 years. Our family served at a large worship center for about a decade, from its launch until its closure. There I led prophetic soaking worship every week, and painted during worship for events and conferences. Tripp eventually took over as the Director of Technology, Sound, and Lighting.
We founded our design, development, and hosting company, Mindwatering, in 1996, followed by our recording studio, South Main Studios, in 1998, and our book publishing company, South Main Media, in 2014. We began with very little, but have worked hard and grown our client base to include local Mom & Pop business up to some of the largest Fortune 500 companies and brands in the world, on nearly every continent. Our focus has always been to be authentic and honest, and give our excellence while being an intentional thermostat in elevating the dialogue and ethical plumb line of the culture.
My first 2 worship albums were released in May of 2011. "Take Me Back To The River" was my first full solo soaking album, and "Faith Said Yes" was a free-flow, predominantly spontaneous prophetic worship project with the late songwriter and worship leader, Scott DePrefontaine. I'm currently in the studio recording my 3rd and 4th albums (an instrumental album and a worship anthem album, respectively) while also continuing to record individual songs and new worship sessons. Until an unfortunate fire this year, Desperately Seeking, my sketchbook containing both my artwork and prose, was available at the Brooklyn Art Library in New York City.
(All text, image, and audio content is copyrighted © 2008-2022 Nicki Black. Scripture verses are the public domain.)