The Second Decade of "Remembering Christina Grimmie"

Last month completed a decade of remembering the late, legendary Christina Grimmie by her frands worldwide. July 10th marks the first month of the second decade (i.e. ten years and one month) of our ongoing appreciation of the courageous young singer, songwriter, and musician, her gift of herself, and her legacy.

I have participated in the enduring phenomenon of "Team Grimmie" over that period, both through writing and various artistic projects generating memes and/or digital artistic images (mostly portraits) based on photographs of "still shots" from her many videos. Her remarkable face has led me to appreciate the delicate art of portraiture (in what ever medium it is pursued) as a way of "searching for the human face" in its unique expressiveness.

Over these past ten years, my attempts at portraiture are, at best, "incomplete," but nearly all of them fail to express the human visage — at once familiar and mysterious — with concrete precision or even in successfully evocative caricature. Christina has not been my only subject. I have accumulated a huge digital file which serves as something between a virtual wastepaper basket and a place to store partial efforts that I believe might still have some potential.

So-called tools of "artificial intelligence" have, in my experience, expedited a few technical matters but have engendered many more problems, as their "algorithmic prejudices" frustrate the intent of my particular artistic sensibility. I am not interested in generating images from descriptive words, but rather in molding the image in its "digital plasticity" which is a "hands on" work of practical design that ranges from photographic enhancement to a kind of two-dimensional digital "sculpture." I also form "natural scenes" based on my own photographs.

I'm moved by the human face, but I'm also in search of how all these new (and constantly changing) technologies might be gathered together as "materials" for a new form of genuine art. Art springs from the human urge to "make" something beautiful and the human "intuition" that guides and governs (with an often unyielding sternness) the creative process. Ultimately, the artist him-or-her-self must must be contented with the completion of the work. No technical "tricks" or shortcuts can substitute for the discrete prompting that leads the artist to construct a work of art as a personal expression.

When it first appeared more than a century ago, photography was spurned by "real artists," and it took generations for the photographic medium to become widely used and  recognized as a crafted image of personal expression and communication. Digital programs and AI will certainly improve their capacity to "generate pictures." But an artist remains frustrated insofar as an “independent process” replaces his or her own personal involvement — the "work" of bringing forth something beautiful from "within" but also "incarnated" through an engagement with external materials. An algorithmic fabrication of a picture — even a good picture — is something essentially different from an artistic work in which I have in some significant manner invested myself. It may seem that AI can do “everything” to make a great picture, but the artist feels no connection to these pictures, and becomes frustrated and bored. I still believe the artist can gather these technological materials and make something “different,” some that is — in a certain sense — “original,” even if the artist is the only one who “sees” it. Eventually, vivid new forms may be recognized more generally, and others will be able to distinguish genuine personal artistic expressions of beauty from AI’s mass-collated-data “imitations.”

Christina Grimmie wrote music, which I also did in my youth and may yet return to. But for now, she inspires me to wrestle with a brave new world of pictorial art, seeking human faces as I have "seen" them — which remains more difficult than it might seem, but remains an artistic task that I find worth discovering and cultivating.

Ten YEARS Later, Christina Grimmie Still Shines Brightly

Ten years ago, Christina Grimmie was unexpectedly called home to be with the Lord. 

She was only 22 years old on the night of June 10, 2016, when she was gunned down by a deranged man during a meet-and-greet after her concert in Orlando, Florida. Her final gesture in this world was to open her arms to welcome this person she didn't know as he approached her from the line. He shot her three times in the head and chest at point blank range before shooting himself.

What an incomprehensible tragedy! We miss her so much. Yet the light of her witness has remained with us and grown stronger over the past decade, even as the world has grown more violent, chaotic, confused, and alienating.

And today, when we worry about whether new technologies might overwhelm our humanity, Christina Grimmie continues to show us the way forward. 

Christina was a pioneering YouTuber who shared her astonishing musical talents and herself, offering love and gratitude to people all over the world, not only through social media but also in and after her concerts. With faith in the One who LOVED her, she found the courage to communicate her love, to use technology and her "celebrity statue" to encounter human persons, to build a "communion of persons," to love unconditionally. 

She knew that love is always a risk. Life is a risk. Being human is a risk. Using new technologies to connect with people is a risk. Christina did not shy away from that risk. Love moved her forward to make music and connect with people, to "risk herself" every day.  And she touched the hearts of vast numbers of people because she was so full of life, so real, so rich with that magnificent humanity that the Lord gave her.

This is why we remember and honor Christina Grimmie today.

In February of 2014, people all over the USA watched and heard on national television Christina Grimmie’s astonishing, jaw-dropping, “four-chair-turning” blind audition for Season 6 of The Voice. (It is frequently ranked among the greatest auditions in the history of this talent contest show or other similar shows.) Shortly after the program aired, she posted the accompanying text on Twitter. At other times she also expressed her intention to live everything in her life for Jesus Christ, “for His glory.” Christina was never “preachy” — rather, she expressed simply and when the occasion presented itself her determined and persistent desire to live her whole young, enthusiastic, funny, musically amazing, great-hearted, and very human life “for Him.”

Christina Grimmie's "Media Revolution" Lives On

Yesterday marked nine years and eleven months since the phenomenal young singer, songwriter, and musician Christina Grimmie was murdered by a deranged man after a concert in Orlando, Florida. He then turned his gun on himself, leaving behind no clear indication of a motive or anything to suggest the tortured thought process that led him to the concert that night armed with two Glock 9mm semiautomatic pistols, two rounds of replacement ammunition, and a hunting knife. He had more than enough to carry out a mass shooting, but Christina was, apparently, his primary target. The evil in this tragedy is clouded in obscurity. Several TV "true crime" shows have tried to speculate on the details based on hearsay (regarding his internet-based obsession with Christina Grimmie) and the theories of psychiatrists about stalkers and shooters and the dangers of being a "celebrity." Marcus Grimmie, Christina's brother and guitarist, said they had never seen the man before. Nor was there any evidence of (or warning signs from) anyone treating Christina strangely or harassing or threatening her through comments or interactions on the internet. From the point of view of the shooter, very little is really known of his dark and sad story.

Yet the darkness of this lethal aggression was inches away from the shining light of a gratuitous love. Christina was shot once in the head and twice in the chest at point blank range. In the end, this violence needed no clever strategy to find its target. She came forward with arms wide open, ready to offer a welcoming hug at her meet-and-greet to an approaching man who seemed troubled and shy. It was clear that she didn't know him, but there were always new people at her concerts who had watched and heard her sing on YouTube and on television in the Spring 2014 season of The Voice. They had experienced the warmth and encouragement and personal affirmation that Christina offered through her presence on the internet.

Christina wanted to meet all of these people. Her meet-and-greets were not reserved for VIPs and they didn't cost money. She and Marcus would stay at the venue until she met everyone who wanted to meet her, and she took time to listen to their stories and encourage them one-on-one, face-to-face. She called her fans "frands" (friend-fans) which might sound naive, overly sentimental or even false if someone else did it, but — for some reason — it was totally authentic and real coming from Christina. Her capacity to "connect with" young people all over the world through YouTube and her other social media platforms was (and still is) utterly unique.

She had a gift for making “virtual” communication into something real. Her music stood out, of course. Nevertheless, what she did went beyond the expression of her own musical talent. But her wider “influence” is hard to explain. Christina's personal approach in videos and livestreams had nothing flashy or obviously special about it. She was a normal kid and then a young adult — goofy, funny, sometimes awkward (but with a wonderful sense of humor about herself), passionate about her music, boy-crazy, chocolate-loving, full of life — but there was nothing about her that would strike a casual watcher as extraordinary. She had no "influencer tricks," no weird cultish "charisma," no emotionally manipulative techniques. Yet she gained an enormous YouTube following long before the "influencer culture" took off. Her channel exceeded three million subscribers and her videos were viewed by tens of millions of people all over the world. (Today, the most prominent “Team Grimmie” Facebook Group has members from 99 different countries!) 

Christina never endorsed or sold corporate products in her videos (no one did in those days). She promoted her concerts and her recorded music on iTunes, but in her own inimitable way. She wanted to share her music, so she let people know what was available or happening. She certainly had an earnest enthusiasm for her live shows and recorded music, but when she promoted them she usually mixed in some goofy humor, self-parody, and funny or ironic facial expressions. Then she would have a good laugh at herself, with the awareness that she was “laughing with” the hundreds of thousands (sometimes millions) of people “watching” on the other side of the screen. She was, after all, someone who gave away for free so much of her incredible musical talent through her weekly videos posted to her YouTube channel. She also asked her frands to vote for her in contests, and was effusive with gratitude when she won many of those contests. She drew the people who supported her music into a kind of “collaboration” with her in her efforts to build her music career. And she shared her success as if it belonged to everyone in “Team Grimmie.” She saw them as playing an essential part in a common musical and media endeavor, even though her amazing voice was uniquely her own, pouring out from her overflowing heart.

I can't explain the deep humanity of her media presence. It doesn't necessarily strike one immediately, and indeed it is easy to miss it if one isn't paying attention. It penetrates the flow of adolescent (and later young adult) chatter, with all its jokes and “free association” — the kind of talk that older adults tend to ignore. But this powerful humanity is real. There is a gentle, unobtrusive but profoundly attractive goodness that pervades her conversation, her gestures, her gaze, and the whole way she “carries herself.”

At some point in the course of watching her videos, one begins to realize that, for Christina, the person on the other side of the screen matters more to her than her own ego. She has a strong personality, but it always expresses itself as giving and as receiving-with-gratitude. Christina’s YouTube videos are a treasure the likes of which will never be repeated; they are an important part of her own legacy, and also a piece of the history of media from which we still have much to learn even as the current technology continues to develop. Christina employed media in pioneering ways in the 2010s, but without losing the sense of her own human personhood or of the human persons she sought to engage. Her media presence "opened up a space" where young people (including lonely, troubled young people, and also people of all ages from all over the world) felt welcomed, engaged, and appreciated.

There are a few notable consistencies: Christina never spoke badly about anyone. She never used coarse language. Occasionally — with utter sincerity and without any agenda — she would make reference to the fact that she lived her whole life for Jesus Christ, that she loved Him, that everything was for Jesus. No sermons. When she said it, she was making reference to a fact and to a Someone who was as real to her as her mother or father. She didn't talk much about Jesus (and never artificially) but her relationship with Him was evident by the way she treated everyone else.

Christina loved her frands. Of course, every performer says that about their fans (usually sincerely). But Christina was singularly and ardently devoted to her frands. She poured herself out for them, to inspire them, mentor them, affirm their dignity, encourage them to live generously. She gave her time and attention (online and in person) to those who reached out to her. But there was nothing emotionally unbalanced about her efforts to care for her frands. She wasn't seeking self-validation by trying to get young people to feel like they needed her. Rather she was a wellspring of attentiveness and gratitude for everyone, even while she had her own focus on the work of developing and sharing her special musical talent. She was full of freshness and a sense of wonder, as if she were on an adventure toward something greater than herself and she wanted to bring everyone with her. The only way I can think of to express this is to say that she was living her life as a vocation. People enjoyed the amazing music, the fun, the youthful vitality, the goofiness, and her unique integration of wise innocence and badassery that made her compassionate toward people and bold in front of every challenge she faced. And while she never "pushed religion," she made no secret of the One she loved and sought in her singing, her relationships, her aspirations, her frands... in everything.

I have been studying communications media technology for nearly 20 years. I have watched more videos than I can remember and pondered extensively the philosophical implications of how media technology facilitates and/or hinders human interaction; and — more fundamentally — I have tried to understand what kinds of encounters take place through media, especially two-way audiovisual communications media. I have written a few tentative pieces on the subject, but it's all changing so quickly that it's difficult to "stay current" with the particulars of rapid and ongoing technological expansion.

One thing hasn't changed: I have still never seen anything like Christina Grimmie.

Part of that, of course, is that she had what was arguably the greatest singing voice of her generation, combined with a remarkable musical creativity. But it was more than that. It was this mysterious love, giving herself with a persistence that "mastered" the medium and shaped it to her message, which was that every person is unique, precious, and worthy of love. And she risked her love — on the screen, on stage, and in meeting people. Every person was welcomed, even — finally — the terribly disturbed young man who (unknown to her) was hiding two guns under his jacket.

Over the past ten years, many people have continued to discover her through the legacy of her videos and her music. These "gifts of herself" remain, and they continue to astonish us, inspire us, make us laugh, and weep. She still moves our hearts and reminds us what it means to be human. She still helps us to keep going. And now — ten years later — she inspires us to dare to believe with a stronger confidence and conviction that there is something greater than the "sting" of death.

Celebrating Easter With Christina Grimmie

This Friday of Easter Week moves me to recall the late Christina Grimmie. In two months we will mark the 10th anniversary of her tragic passing from this life. I wonder if all my portraits of her look the same, but I don’t mind working on them. Christina loved Easter, and proclaimed the resurrection of Jesus each year on her social media accounts.

She lived her love for Him every day of her brief bright beautiful life.

Happy Birthday Christina Grimmie!

Today would have been Christina Grimmie's 32nd birthday. Although it's nearly ten years since she was shot and killed by a "stranger" as she welcomed him with open arms at a meet-and-greet after a concert, she still inspires #TeamGrimmie and all of us as we remember her heart full of love and gratitude.💚

Christina Grimmie: Love is a Risk Worth Taking

Remembering Christina Grimmie: Nine years and eight months since she was taken from this world. Yet now — more than ever — we need to be inspired by her great life, her amazing music, and her openness, kindness, and respect for every human person she encountered. 

Christina generated an atmosphere of welcome and encouragement around herself that touched millions of people all over the world through her pioneering YouTube videos and her live performances, after which she greeted everyone who wanted to meet her with an open heart and open arms. 

Today, in a world dominated more and more by fear and danger, we remember how Christina lived "with love." She knew that love is a risk, that it inevitably renders us vulnerable in front of the "other," but she believed it was a risk worth taking because she lived within the embrace of a Love who had given everything for her. Within that embrace, she found the strength to love her family, her friends, her "frands," and those she was meeting for the first time. She welcomed strangers with open arms right up until the last moment of her life. 

We need to seek some measure of Christina's courage — her attention to the beauty and inherent dignity of every human person created in the image of God — as the deep clouds of obscurity, darkness, and violence grow more ominous all around us. When we remember Christina, hope is stirred within us that even the most terrible violence cannot be the "last word" in human existence. Love is stronger. Love will not be swallowed by forgetfulness. Love endures forever.

Christina Grimmie Gave Us Great Music, and So Much More

Saturday was the Feast of Saint Cecilia🎶, and I expressed gratitude for all the musicians who have accompanied me on my life's journey. But I have one more thing to say. I want to single out in particular the amazing young woman whose voice and luminous compassion still bring healing and consolation to my soul even now, nearly ten years after her utterly tragic death.

I mean, of course, Christina Grimmie.

She was a singer of astonishing power, precision, range, and depth of feeling. She played the piano beautifully and wrote her own songs as well as composing her own wonderful arrangements of covers from the early 2010s. Christina gave us great music. But she also gave us so much more.

Her pioneering work with YouTube and her overall-social-media-engagement had a profound impact on her own peers and people of all ages who “followed” her. Years before the internet was flooded by “influencers,” Christina certainly had a real influence on the lives of thousands of people all over the world (among her three million YouTube subscribers). She has convinced me that contemporary communications technologies can be used to mediate the loving "presence" of a person and a true "encounter" that awakens something new in the human hearts of those who "meet her" through the screen. It’s not easy, but clearly it’s possible because Christina did it — without tricks, without egoism, with a joyful, honest, humble presentation of her magnificent music that was seemingly organically integrated with the whole of her gentle-yet-magnanimous person. I think she had a gift — a rare gift — for giving herself in this way, through media.

It's easy to miss this unique quality she had, but I think that in her life it was a vocation sustained by God's grace. Whether it was on YouTube, live streaming, Twitter, in her recorded music, in her own concerts, or in the amazing live television performances in 2014 on "The Voice," Christina "shook" people with her music, but also with her simple but profound humanity, with her extraordinary-ordinary way of living in accord with reality, with her openness and readiness to give her great talent and herself. She not only "broke the fourth wall" (as they say in audiovisual media), she made it disappear. Then, after her own live concerts, she wanted to meet everyone face-to-face, to greet them with a hug and an open ear to listen to their troubles and aspirations. Christina was deeply committed to open meet-and-greets after her shows and was willing to take as much time as was necessary to attend to every person.

Of course, this made her extremely vulnerable, but ultimately she chose to take that risk, knowing that love sometimes provokes rejection, hatred, and violence. But she offered herself with love, to "frands" all over the world who came to her concerts, to new people, to troubled souls, to children — and, finally, to a person who was hiding two fully loaded Glock 9mm pistols under his jacket. She was so full of music and song and a "great love" that gave itself away to the end, who died doing what she had done so many times after her concerts: welcoming a stranger with open arms.... 

In this she was truly heroic — and though most of us are not called to take these particular risks, we do recognize in her a humanity that resonates with our own experience, but also a humanity that is "different" — a humanity that overcomes fear, that breaks down limits, that goes beyond itself. Because of this, her death was more than a tragedy; rather it continues to witness to the fact that death does not have "the last word." Love has the last word. And Christina’s heroism continues to strike our hearts, moving us to grow, to desire more, to persevere in difficulties, and to become — slowly but steadily — a little less afraid. 

I am uniquely grateful for the life and witness of Christina Victoria Grimmie (1994-2016).💚🎶 She sang, she loved greatly, and she didn't hide the reason why she did it all, the One to whom she belonged.

Christina Grimmie and the Radical Gift of Self

Christina Grimmie's soulful voice and joyful visage remain sources of healing and hope for many people who live in the fragmented, threatening, isolating social milieu of today's world.

The image below is "Christina Grimmie pictured as a Cartoon Hero." But she was not just a “cartoon hero” — she was a real hero. In a world where people are constantly taking one another down, Christina inspired people to work and aspire to greatness in developing their talents, and to give themselves and love one another every day. In a world where people more and more want to take other peoples' lives away, she gave her life. In at world where we are becoming more and more afraid of people different from us, and more and more afraid of each other, Christina embraced everyone unconditionally, and — in the end — opened her arms wide to “welcome the stranger”… 

That end came nine years and five months ago. 

Today, November 10, 2025 — in a world that has become even more frightening, a world that seems to be spiraling down into darkness — we need to remember Christina Grimmie, who loved greatly through all her life right up her final moment in this world.💚

Nine YEARS of Remembering Christina Grimmie

It’s astonishing to think that today marks the ninth anniversary of Christina Grimmie’s passing from this world. Her music and pioneering contributions to audiovisual media remain very much with us. I still reflect often upon her almost singular vocation in mainstream popular music — a vocation invested with such a rich humanity. In an environment that can so easily become inhuman, superficial, and conflict-driven, Christina was persistently human. She was full of passion for her own singing, songwriting, and musical composition, while simultaneously giving herself in friendship and encouragement to her fellow artists.

I have done lots of reflecting about Christina on this Blog. For many years I have followed the paths of music and the expansion of media as well as the needs of humanity, the witness of faith, and the gift of love. Not only as matters of study, but above all as factors of my own life and the growth of my own family.

Open this LINK to see and read all the posts I have devoted to Christina Grimmie — text and images — over the course of the past nine years. There is enough for a book! Although it seems that I keep repeating the same themes about her beautiful life, and her offering-of-herself to Jesus and her “frands” right up until the final moment, when she opened her arms on that night and her gratuitous, defenseless love was met with incomprehensible hatred and bullets.

Nine years later, it seems like the violence of this world has grown and grown, like a monstrous whirlwind that threatens to sweep us all up. But can we not say that love has also grown? Christina's legacy continues to grow. Her frands (like my own used-to-be-teenagers) have become adults now. It won't be long before they take positions of responsibility in their own communities. They will make their contribution to the shape of their societies and the dispositions of their nations (the “Team Grimmie” page on Facebook has members from 99 different countries). I think they will contribute to making this world a better place because Christina has taught them and witnessed to them about the greatness of God's love.

I still see her in this way, with her arms open, ever welcoming, creating spaces of beauty and humanity — spaces of encounter where she could meet people and people could meet one another, spaces of inspiration and encouragement, spaces of peace.

May these spaces of peace and friendship continue to grow.

Christina Grimmie Encourages Us in Life

Remembering Christina Grimmie after eight years and eleven months. She continues to encourage us not to be afraid, not to worry.💚

Christina Grimmie is a Sign of Hope in the Resurrection

It’s not Easter 2025 yet, but it is the 10th of April, and so I share these Easter greetings Christina Grimmie posted long ago as I remember and honor her legacy 8 years and 10 months after her death. 

Holy Week and Easter are approaching, and Christina lived her life, loved with great love, and died in the hope of the Resurrection. Her witness and example continue to shine for us, pointing to the glory and beauty of Jesus Christ that wins the victory over death and even the most incomprehensible violence.

Happy Birthday Christina Grimmie! (2025)

Today would have been Christina Grimmie’s 31st Birthday.💚🎶 

We remember with gratitude this astonishing young woman, her joy, her great humanity, and the wonderful gift of her voice.⭐️

Christina Grimmie Seems So Long Ago...

Eight years and eight months ago, Christina Grimmie passed away. Once again, this day, I remember her and honor her legacy.

We live in strange times. The particular and peculiar characteristics of our world in one sense don't appear so different now than they did on that awful summer night in June 2016. In other senses, however, the previous decade seems very long ago indeed. Many things appear to be changing rapidly, and we analyze and struggle and fight with one another over what these changes mean. We are overloaded with conflicting narratives, alleged information, and relentless images and sounds, but we don't seem to be growing in wisdom and understanding. Do we intend to push forward recklessly into every technological possibility, driven by our urge for ever-greater power (and ever-greater profits)? Do we think we won’t be held accountable for the oppression and suffering of all the human persons we push aside as we plow over the world pursuing our inflamed ambitions?

We will never be able to make by our own hands any thing that can love us in the way each one of us so desperately needs to be loved. We have been created as persons, to love and to be loved. We are given to ourselves and to one another, children of the Mystery who is Love, who has loved us, and who has made us brothers and sisters. Whatever we do, whatever we make from our own work and cleverness has value insofar as it expresses our free response of gratitude and love to the One who in this very moment gives us our existence and our ineradicable dignity. Now and always, to live is to remember, rejoice, and grow in this gift of love.

Such was (and remains) the vitality of the brief beautiful life of Christina Grimmie. So I have once again endeavored (with technological tools and much “work”) to craft a portrait of her unforgettable face. Having reached the limits of my own energy and weakness, I can only share my work (above) with love and gratitude to God for Christina and for all of you who see and read the poor fruits of my efforts.

Last month I wrote about the “new ways” of portraiture. There are many digital tricks that seem amazing, but they are mostly superficial. The capacities of AI keep multiplying, but I only find it more and more frustrating and complicated to work photographs into worthwhile artistic expressions. Media tools that are supposed to increase accessibility can just as easily lead to bewilderment. Maybe for me this is just part of growing old.

Still, my efforts are on a very basic scale. I can't imagine what implications the new technologies will have on the processes and organization of governments, though it appears that nations are plunging headlong into the vast experiment. We think we see where we are going, but are we blind to our own blindness? God have mercy on us all!

Christina Grimmie's risks in music and media took her in directions she never could have imagined, to earthly successes and to the unexpected circumstances that resulted in the tragic and violent end of her earthly life. But her efforts were shaped by the boldness of love for the One who created her, redeemed her, and called her to Himself. 

She is a sign of what ultimately matters, what gives meaning to successes and failures, to strength and powerlessness, to hope for all of life that cries out for eternity.

“Remembering Christina Grimmie” in Digital Portraits

This date marks eight years and seven months since the tragic (and, in my opinion, heroic) death of Christina Grimmie. These four portraits are “works in progress,” I suppose. They have their origin in screenshots I took from Christina’s YouTube channel, but they have been imaginatively reconceived in many ways (using various tools of digital media).

Graphics media continue to explode with dizzying new possibilities (too many!). I have been working with crafting photographs into “digital art” since 2013. I don’t understand the technological manipulations that make this work possible (anymore than I understand the science behind photography). The introduction and increase of so-called “artificial intelligence” into graphics widens the scope of what can be done with existing images, but still in the manner of a blunt hammer that opens up paths to pursue but also creates new problems. I have little use for the currently trendy “word-to-image” gimmicks, which don’t work for my purposes except insofar as they facilitate some small corrections.

My experience remains that of an photographic artist, who works with new tools that expand the plasticity of photo images so that they can be “sculpted” in ways that correspond to the inspiration and “intuition” that guides what I’m trying to do. Digital tools offer powerful “preset physical alterations" than can contribute further material for this creative inspiration and suggest wider paths for the artist's work. But these same tools (so "easy" to apply) can often deflect the artist's attention away from the personal trajectory of his or her properly aesthetic inspiration, and “take over” the unfolding of the work—distracting the creative process and resulting in a sculpted image that is not only mediocre but also dissatisfying and frustrating to the artist.

The digital world is hyper-saturated with images, and with tools that promise to produce more images quickly and easily. Lots of this involves simple image-making for illustrative or functional purposes (and there's nothing wrong with that). Too many "creative images," however, are pretentious, strange, flippant, inconsiderately fantastic-for-its-own-sake, cheap and homogenized, ugly, or violent. I have made more than my share of cheap stuff. Nevertheless I'm betting that a new art form may be emerging from all this chaotic visual experimentation. In time it will find its own aesthetic measure. Perhaps this art form is a kind of extension of photography, which was struggling to find its own proper creative possibilities a century ago. Later on, cinema and television would develop and fight for recognition in analogous ways under the condescending and skeptical eyes of dramatic artists who used “traditional [stage] media.” Improvisational music also struggled—first as the misunderstood marvel of jazz, and then with the addition of electronic amplification and tonal manipulation, the “popular music” that is heard everywhere today, most of which is banal and forgettable, but which occasionally is borne up to astonishing heights of beauty (analogously) by extraordinary, gifted, and hard-working musical artists.

Christina Grimmie was one of those artists (and many other things too, which I have discussed at considerable length on this blog over the past eight years).

Critics raise legitimate and important points, but they must be not simply dismissive but also attentive. The realm of beauty is as extensive and analogous as the realm of being itself. Artistic creativity is a human activity, which requires more than just the happy accidents of algorithmic associations. It requires a person who uses these resources to craft an object that “incarnates” a real creative intuition of the luminosity of being (and digital bytes are material, for all their complexity, so they can ultimately be crafted into a material thing under the vision and intention of the artist).

I may never rise above the level of mediocrity, but I am trying. I have spent many hours, much laborious attention, and a decisive amount of “hands-on” work on my digital landscapes (from my own photographs) and—more recently—on portraiture that concentrates on a handful of frequently photographed and interesting faces of celebrities that I have some sort of connection with (because portraiture that arises from insight into the beauty of a person has a higher and more sustaining “aim” for the artist). 

Sometimes, a portrait veers off the features of the original model and becomes a “different face” and I think that can be very interesting too. But I begin with a few familiar faces. I have worked on Lionel Messi’s odd-shaped, funny, generous face. He remains my favorite soccer player, and my second-favorite famous Argentinian person. (Ha, ha!) I was so glad that Messi finally won the World Cup. He has proven that great personal athletic talent and ardent teamwork are two sides of the same coin. He is intense and spontaneous, and also has huge ears that add “color” to his expressions of determination and joy. Then, of course, there’s the inimitable Avril Lavigne, with twenty three years of faces from ages 17-40 — Avril’s millennium generational “iconic” face, an exquisite face full of a multitude of often hilarious expressions, volumes of hair in various colors, and always the “overdone” black eyeliner. Efforts to do portraits of her are quite challenging (and rarely successful), but as I’ve expressed elsewhere on this blog, I have reason to care about her—her Lyme disease odyssey, her big (albeit wild) heart, and the touch of greatness in that magnificent first album and in some of her subsequent work. Avril can be crazy but she’s also shown lots of resilience in facing illness and other difficulties. I appreciate her and I pray for her. I also work on Ed Sheeran, who has the big, open, endearingly “ugly” face of an English pub bloke, topped off with various funky hairstyles. Nothing about his face suggests that he has been at or near the top of the charts for over a decade. He is super-talented, of course. I’m not particularly a fan of his music, but I know that—with all the fame—he’s had a hard road, and he’s very open about his struggles to develop his musical craft. I pray for him too. Another face is that of Norwegian singer-songwriter Sigrid Raabe (“Sigrid”), who makes great Scandipop music, has lots of informal pics and videos on her social media, usually wears very little makeup, and has a classic cheerful Norwegian face with fair skin and a big smile with an endearingly distinctive slightly-crooked front tooth. She’s has a natural bearing and seems like a lovely, unpretentious yet confident person. And, like most Scandinavian pop artists, Sigrid is classically trained on the piano and has serious musicals chops that undergird her well-crafted electronic pop songs.

There are some others "models" too, as well as a few “original” faces that I have developed over the years, and—of course—my own goofy mug as the subject of the most outrageous experiments in self-portraiture and caricature. Anyway, you get the idea. My portrait efforts focus on human heads and faces, which are inexhaustibly fascinating if one pays attention to them. Usually they include shoulders and some of the upper body simply attired with something like a tee shirt, so that the emphasis remains on faces and facial expressions, ears and hair. I have literally thousands of "drafts" that I keep in my "digital notebooks," some of which I revisit from time to time. They represent my efforts to work up visual ideas within a wildly expanding medium. They are the fruit of experiments and repetitions that may eventually lead to something I regard as finished, but more often are practical exercises engaged in for learning purposes. Very occasionally, I share on this blog a portrait I consider to be "finished," if particular circumstances warrant it. But I post my "best effort" portraits of Christina more frequently as part of my endeavor to remember her unique history and ongoing legacy every month (I think Christina would encourage me to risk a limited viewing of the artistic process that she has inspired me to take up, especially with respect to her own face that is no longer seen alive in this world). 

I realize the delicacy and particular responsibility this work entails (notwithstanding the fact that faces seem to mean nothing the more they are ubiquitously represented in the multimedia world). These faces I work with are the faces of persons, and their inner qualities—the more-than-meets-the-eye facets of personality revealed in their faces—stir up my vision and motivation to “present them” afresh, even if it's only a kind of "practice" for myself in this new emerging craft.

I’ve already written so much about why the late great Christina Grimmie is my chief inspiration and “muse” in this artistic adventure. She had a strength and beauty of soul, a light that shined from the inside outwards to generate a welcoming environment for others. In her art and in her life, she was courageous, willing to take risks not recklessly but boldly in the service of love. She shed light on the path of how to live in the world of today, how to surrender one’s self to the will of Christ in everything—including her presence in the Hollywood celebrity world—and how to die ...with arms wide open, in utter vulnerability, welcoming a stranger at an open meet-and-greet (because Christina wanted to meet everyone).

I have much to learn from her example. Meanwhile, I’m not afraid to risk pushing forward a little in the uncharted territory of digital art. That’s what she would want me to do. I may never get it “right,” but I will struggle to do my best.

Christina Grimmie Still “Shines Her Light” at Christmas Time

Christina Grimmie never made a “Christmas Album” but she did stream two (originally “live”) Christmas concerts on a platform called Stageit. Both are preserved in recorded form on YouTube. There is also her astonishing rendition of “O Holy Night” from December 2011.

In 2015, Christina recorded an a-cappella rendition of the traditional Advent hymn “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” which is also still on YouTube. I just stumbled on a selection of it on an Instagram Reel, and it gave me a fresh reminder of how much Christina Grimmie’s image and voice have marked these holy seasons for me and for so many other people, even today—8 years and 6 months since she was gunned down by a deranged concertgoer at an open meet-and-greet after a show in Orlando, Florida on June 10, 2016.

Christina loved Christmas, and never hesitated to share the reason why: her deep faith and love for Jesus Christ. Her faith still bears fruit today and her love still touches people’s lives through videos, which—even when she sang secular pop songs (which was most of the time)—were crafted with her great desire to give of herself and use her phenomenal vocal and musical talent to reach out and make the Internet a more human place, a place of encouragement and friendship. 

This LINK will take you to that Instagram Reel I shared. The full song (nearly three beautiful minutes long) is available on YouTube at this LINK2. For a post I wrote in 2017 about “A Christina Grimmie Christmas,” open this LINK3.

As we prepare for the coming of Christ in days to come, many people (including me) will find encouragement once again in the joyful soul of Christina Victoria Grimmie (March 12, 1994 — June 10, 2016).

My Latest Portrait in Honor of Christina Grimmie

Remembering the astonishing, magnificent, heroic Christina Grimmie after eight years and four months.

Christina Grimmie: Instrument of Christ's Love

[The Christina Grimmie Foundation and the people of “Team Grimmie” all over the world have been celebrating Christina Grimmie’s life and legacy in a special way during this month of June. On the last day of June, I thought it would be fitting to finish these reflections on Christina’s faith, which we all know was fundamental to her identity. I know that many Team Grimmie frands are not Christians, but I hope they will recognize this essay as my own effort—as a Catholic Christian—to appreciate the significance of her faith in Christ in light of my own faith. For my friends who aren’t Christian, this text represents my effort in an ongoing dialogue in which we can all grow in a greater mutual understanding of what we have learned about life from a multitude of diverse traditions, our own seeking of life’s meaning, and the ways in which Christina’s bright brief beautiful life has inspired our humanity. I am a man of many words, but I am also a good listener, and I have learned much from all of you. I offer these words humbly and with great esteem for each one of you. And, of course, above all “with love.” ~JJ ]

"Jesus loves you so so much!... As do I" (Christina Grimmie).

Christina still helps us to remember that Jesus loves us... Her witness was not only in words but also in her own love, her own embrace of others, her own willingness-to-give-herself in love to persons near and far. She saw herself as His instrument (as, for example, when she said in 2014 that her voice “belonged to Jesus,” and that she intended to use it “for His glory”).

Christina didn’t put on a big show of “being religious,” but her faith in Jesus Christ was central to everything she did. She once said on a YouNow livestream, “my faith is not just a part of my life; my faith is my life.” Thus, her faith—her commitment to Jesus, her trust in Jesus, her “belonging to Jesus”—was organically united to her way of experiencing life, and especially to her giving and receiving love. Jesus was “within” all her relationships, and He empowered her to look at each person particularly, to listen to and encourage and affirm the dignity of every person. Christina wanted to be an instrument of the “glory” of Jesus. His “glory” is His infinite love, His total giving-of-Himself to redeem, heal, and transform every person and bring them to live forever in God’s love. Jesus is the only One whose love saves us, and Christina knew that. As His disciple, she saw her particular vocation not as preaching with words, but—as a musician—to witness to His love through the gift of her music and the relationships with others that emerged from it in various ways.

Of course, her particular commitment to Jesus did not guarantee that she would always act in complete coherence with her vocation. She undoubtedly had her share of misjudgments, mistakes, fatigue, distraction, and sins such as we all commit even as we seek to follow the Lord. It takes time to grow in conformity to Christ’s love. Everything that we know, however, seems to indicate that Christina consistently returned from failures and continued to grow in the scope and depth of her gift-of-herself to Christ. She grew in her capacity to witness to and communicate His love as He filled her life, and made her service more spontaneous —which in a personal sense means not more “automatic” but more free.

Christina let Jesus work through her by the gifts He had entrusted to her as an “instrument” of “His glory (Love).” Thus, His love could become, in a profound sense, "present" to people through their experiencing her love: "Jesus loves you, AS DO I" —thus she witnessed to His love by giving herself... right up to the last gesture of the last moment of her life. 

Christina did not walk around with that kind of “dour face” that some people who regard themselves as “religious” seem to have all the time. She was openly, ardently Christian, but there was something different about her—she had a kind of freedom which definitely did not neglect her Christian morals, but also didn’t seem “constrained” by them. On the contrary, her fidelity to Jesus seemed to “open her up” more radically to the fundamental goodness of reality as redeemed by Him. She lived that exhortation of Saint Paul: “All things are yours, and you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s” (1 Corinthians 3:22-23). 

Christina was not afraid of life. On the contrary, she plunged into life with gusto, always seeking the good—great goods, certainly, but also the “ordinary goods” that are a daily part of life for the average 21st century teenager or young adult. She was very much a regular kid—someone her peers could relate to—who had crushes and boyfriends and heartbreak, who liked to have fun, play video games, eat pizza and ice cream, joke around with her friends, laugh a lot, watch movies and television, text and goof around on social media, and listen to many kinds of contemporary music. Yet she didn’t “lose herself” in her adolescent enthusiasms, but engaged these interests within the context of “something greater” that grounded her sense of self-worth (as a teen, she once described her three main interests—in a tongue-in-cheek but ultimately serious way—as “food, music, and video games… all united and raised up in Jesus.”  

From the very beginning of her career on YouTube, she made it clear in her description of herself that “Jesus is my Savior and I love Him and sing for Him.” But her love for Jesus was not ponderous or constraining, nor was it an extrinsic “agenda” of prosylitism artificially shaping her activities. Rather, her love for Jesus pervaded her life in a way that was sustaining and liberating, like a flame that illuminated her whole humanity—that made her more relatable, more “familiar,” more genuine, more human—but also “different,” like something breaking through her whole personality that was “new” and attractive, striking and unpredictable, surprising and wonderful. Christina generated an environment through her presence on YouTube that was welcoming, gentle, and congenial, while at the same time stirring, fascinating, and challenging. She shared therein her amazing voice and her passionate dedication to her music. This was enough to attract a following, but at a certain point, Christina’s growing YouTube fan base found themselves drawn to more than just the great music. They (we) were inspired and drawn by her extraordinary passion for life.

It was not an easy life. Christina didn’t hide the immense difficulties and struggles that she and her family faced. Her mother battled cancer for over two decades, and her family had many trials. She loved her mother, was inspired by her mother’s own faith and tenacity, and shared the awful vulnerability of the recurring cancer—“co-suffering” with her mother, crying out “why?” to God without ceasing to trust God, and learning from her mother how to “become strong, little by little.” Christina and her family were very close. Her parents and her brother moved with her from New Jersey to California in 2012. They supported her in her music career and her mission to give glory to Christ and love people through music and the great openness to those she called her “frands” (friend-fans), who were drawn to the space generated by her unique “hospitality.” 

People all over the world—people from diverse cultures, traditions, religions, and ways of thinking—were drawn together into “Team Grimmie,” a group that was, and continues to be, so much more than an ordinary “fandom.” Christina gave her love, and—with her awareness and desire to recognize the good in others—she rejoiced in the gifts and aspirations of her frands, their encouragement, their love for her. She recognized the presence of Christ in these dedicated people who appreciated and supported her from near and far. She communicated with as many as she could through her online platforms, and she loved to meet them face-to-face and spend time with them on her live concert tours in the U.S.A., Europe, and East Asia. Her “meet-and-greets” after her shows were free, open to anyone, and lasted as long as possible. She cherished meeting with her “frands.” She saw them as “entrusted to her by God,” and she was always ready to hug them, encourage them, or console them. She also had a real, unaffected, grateful appreciation of their love for her, and of the goodness she saw in them. They gave her strength. She experienced the closeness of the humanity of Jesus through them. Through their goodness and love, Jesus loved and sustained her with His Heart that encompasses every human heart.

Christina also sought out the good in people and places that are “on the margins”—complicated people, sick people, misunderstood people, confused people, troubled people. They all knew that she was a Christian—and many of them weren’t, but they never felt “condemned” by her. They knew she loved them, unconditionally, but not in a vague fuzzy merely sentimental way. She loved them in a way that “moved them,” provoked them, woke something up inside of them. Experiencing her love made them (and all of us) want to go forward on the journey of our lives, to take the “next step” that was calling us—notwithstanding the risk it entailed—to act to go deeper into the goodness of reality that was in front of us, to say “yes” with confidence to the challenges that we faced. Adam Levine (from Maroon 5), who was her coach on The Voice, said, “when I’m with Christina, I want to be a better person.”

She gave us courage. She still does.

Christina lived “in the world” with a heart full of the love of Christ, and therefore a love of every person in whatever difficulties or afflictions, a love for actual persons, a love for the person who was in front of her at any moment... without conditions. She belonged to Jesus, and this was her greatness. 

This was her heroism. 

I don’t think she was naive or careless. She knew the risks of love, and through Christ she willingly embraced them. She lived her life for Him, believing in Him, trusting Him. Empowered by His Spirit, her whole life became a great embrace, offered through her heart, that excluded no one. Such a love is not merely superficial and sentimental; it bears within itself the readiness to face opposition and danger, and even to take the ultimate risk. Her faith in Jesus made it possible for her to live this way, to risk being human in front of every person, in all the circumstances in life. 

I think that in her heart she had offered her life for Christ, to be an instrument of His love, long before the night of June 10, 2016. On that night, she stretched out her arms to make a space of love for one more person. She was following her Lord, as she had made a habit of doing in her life—living and growing in faith, no doubt making mistakes, sometimes getting tired or distracted, but moving forward, seeking forgiveness, growing ever closer to Him. She knew the path that her Savior walked, with love, for her redemption and the redemption of the world. She knew that He died with His arms stretched open with love for everyone. She also knew that this love conquered death. Love won the victory over death. 

It still seems incomprehensible to us. It still brings sadness and questioning. But let us live in hope. Someday we will see and understand how Christina offered her life for Christ, and the mysterious ways that He prepared her to share in His victory.

This is why people "still feel that she loves them"—even people who only discover her after her death. Her love continues to shine, to be personal even now, to inspire us and help us, because she lives now in the glory of Jesus Christ. In union with God through Christ, she has not forgotten any of us and she knows and loves the "newer frands" too, the ones who continue to discover her on YouTube, to hear her voice for the first time, to encounter her person and her unique form of witness even now, eight years later.

"Jesus loves you... as do I" —she witnessed to His love with her own love, with her whole life, all the way to her last moment on this earth, opening her arms to "welcome a stranger." I thank God for empowering Christina to give herself with such great love, a gift that has touched our lives in ways deeper than we know.

In Loving Memory of Christina Grimmie, After Eight Years

On June 10, 2024, eight years later:

Christina Grimmie: “People Grow Stronger, Little by Little”

“People aren’t born strong. People grow stronger little by little, encountering difficult situations, learning not to run from them” (Christina Grimmie).

I designed and posted this “meme” seven YEARS ago, according to Facebook. The impact of this young person on my life only grows with time.💚 And I know that I am far from alone in saying this.

Christina Grimmie and "the Band"

“What is my favorite memory of a Christina Grimmie concert?” —Question-of-the-day for Team Grimmie Frands all over the world as we continue to celebrate the “thirty days” before Easter in this month of March, in honor of Christina’s 30th birthday.

I never attended a live concert or performance of Christina, but I do have my favorites. Thanks to the Internet, I have some connection with the live show experience through the large audiovisual archive of countless recordings made by concertgoers, mostly by using their phones from ten years ago.

I really want to thank everyone who made videos (whole or in part) of Christina’s concerts, especially—and these are my favorites—the concerts of the 2015 European Tour. I have watched this footage over and over... Christina and THE BAND (Marcus, Jonathan, Bobby) — I love these concerts, especially, because I'm "old school" and I love when there is a real guitar, a real bass, and real drums on stage. 

And Christina had the stuff to be a "front woman"—her voice, of course, was great, and the chemistry with the band was great. The interaction with the people in these small, intimate venues all over Europe was beautiful and had some very moving moments.

Let's never lose those precious videos. 

Christina had a terrific stage presence: she was awesome, she was a princess, a rock star — she was passionate, innocent, wise, sweet, and badass all at the same time. I’ve never seen or heard anyone like her in over 50 years of listening to (and playing) every kind of music on many stages at many venues.

Watching the videos is my "concert experience," but I wish I could have seen "Christina and the Band" live. It was a beautiful tour!

Here are some images of Christina in concert: (credit to original owners of any of the foundational photos or videos, which have been modified and presented solely for personal and educational purposes on this blog.)